Richard West (Chairman)

Janet Lucas
Ed Juon

Parish Council Partnership Evening
Chris Hall plans to attend the Parish Council Partnership event this year.

Bank Account Signatures

Steve Brown’s name was never added due to his resignation as Trading Secretary.
On line banking is now in place and working well.

This is the end of my sixth and last year as Chairman of OBAGS.

After the AGM last year a committee member raised the issue of the account deficit with me and requested that it be investigated further. This was carried out by the treasurer and myself. We found some issues with the stock take value (which was not done until after November trading). We also took into account the true trading income for November shop opening. This made things look a lot better than the figures presented at the AGM and in fact showed a small profit. The Minutes of the AGM were appended with the new account figures.

We were not informed in time to attend the Allotment inspection this year. We have made a complaint to the council about this and they will endeavour to let us know in time next year.

I have had regular communication with the Council Clerk on matters related to the allotments.

I would as usual like to thank all volunteers who helped in the shop and for all who helped with the shed tidy weekend in April.

We must thank all who donated plants and helped with the plant sale this year. The plant sale was held on the Sunday afternoon. Although this makes it easier to set up the attendance was poor and the income quite reduced to other years.

Unfortunately, I was travelling a lot in the summer for holidays and could not arrange the picnic in July this year. It was not possible to plan an alternative day later in the year either.

Thanks to all committee members who have worked together to keep the society and the shop running so smoothly again this year.

Unfortunately, our Trading Secretary resigned mid-year. Tony Hall recently volunteered to take on this role.

The annual shop helpers’ dinner was held in late October. Eight of us had a very pleasant evening at the Barton’s Mill restaurant.

Richard West
OBAGS Chairman

A total of 58 members joined or renewed for the 2017 season, a decrease of 3 from the 2016 membership and 22 since the peak in 2014. However, four of our stalwart volunteers managed to carry out their shop duties this year without actually renewing their membership! Undoubtedly an oversight, so, ‘no names, no pack drill’.

The 58 members included 6 who took advantage of our special deal and joined or renewed during September – December 2016. (One new member has joined so far for the 2018 season since September 2017). Reconciliation between the number of application forms filled in or updated and the number of membership cards issued, showed 2 discrepancies – 70 were printed, and 10 remained at the end of the season. It is possible that this accounts for two of the volunteers mentioned in the first paragraph.

Once again can I emphasise that shop volunteers need to remain vigilant in ensuring that customers hold a current membership card before finalising sales if we are to improve on our current membership levels.

There is a new code for the Suttons discount for 2018, and the toilet code will be changed during the week before our first 2018 opening, which is the 14th of January. Both of these codes will be divulged on joining or renewal. I will send out a global email to existing members informing them of this in early January.

Tony Hall has only just taken over as Trading Secretary and there was little to report so far.  Tony requested that sales sheets be copied to him in order to keep a track of sales.

The seed order scheme has now been replaced by the Suttons discount scheme.

Plant Sale   13 May
Social Sunday   24 July
Harvest Home Dinner  26 October

The meeting finished at 12:00 with refreshments & cakes. Thanks to Chris Hall for the superb cakes and Janet Cloke for the tea and coffee.

None.

None.

Chris Hall agreed to be Secretary.
Janet Cloke agreed to stay on as Treasurer.
Tony Stoney will continue as Publicity Officer.
Chris Hall will continue as Membership Sec.
Tony Hall will continue as Trading Sec.
Tony Terry will continue as Asst. Trading Secretary
Tony Hall will stay on as WebMaster.
Chris Hall agreed to be our Council representative.
Maurice Bates

Firstly, I would like to explain that the accounts produced for last year, 2015/2016 were altered because concerns were raised over these figure after the AGM, November 2016. I was given three different stock take figures, why I cannot explain except to clarify that I personally had no participation in the stock take and I could only produce accounts using the figures that I was given. Kindly also note that Mr S Brown also advised a wrong amount in a receipt, this has also been adjusted.
This was investigated by me and Mr R West, Chairman. The total amount of stock held by the Society was found to be different and under-accounted for by £382.73 by those performing the stock take in October 2016. These figures have now been rectified and are attached together with 2016/2017.

I would also like to thank Mr A Hall and Mr A Terry in helping with the stock take in October 2017 especially the heavy lifting.

This last year has been up and down and slow. Sunday’s revenue at the huts has been a little erratic the plant sale was poor compared to other years especially the raffle, only £19, and this is reflected in the total of just £164.55.
The six pallets of mushroom compost,240 bags in all, purchased with a good discount proved popular and some members are already requesting more for 2017/2018. To be discussed.

Sutton’s Seeds, ordered individually by members and whilst having the advantage of 30% discount for purchases the Society also enjoys a source of income for doing ‘nothing’ apart from facilitating the Sutton’s Society individual code when renewing/joining OBAGS.

Regarding Barclay’s Bank, paying in money is sometimes a headache because of Basingstoke branch cutbacks, interest is now 0% on the business savings account.
The most positive is the availability of paying debts, e.g. Suppliers, by debit card or bank transfer. This saves me time and postage cost to the Society.

Although 2016/2017 was not great, 2017/2018 started fantastic with good income for November’s opening.

Janet Cloke
OBAGS Treasurer

Accounts summary:

Tony Stoney has again had great success getting copy into both the Basinga and Chineham Chat every month.

There were no contributions to the website by the membership during the year.
The information pages such as shop opening, price lists and volunteer rota have been kept up to date. Messages sent via the global email facility to members have been reinforced with entries on the Home Page or News Page as appropriate.

Only two members did not provide an email address this year, demonstrating the importance of the global lists as a means of disseminating information. It is important, therefore, to ensure that we hold members’ current email addresses.

The Membership Procedure 2018 has been changed to request that a renewing member be asked to state their email address at renewal rather than simply asking if it has changed. This is particularly important during 2018 now that Virgin Media has come to town.

Stock Take
Plant sale
Suttons commission
Subscriptions

AGM Notes for 2007 & 2008

AGM Notes for 2009

AGM Minutes for 2010

AGM Minutes for 2011

AGM Minutes for 2012

AGM Minutes for 2013

AGM Minutes for 2016

AGM Minutes for 2015

AGM Minutes for 2014

AGM Minutes for 2017