Minutes of the RAMSF  AGM 12.07.2022

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Present – Mark Ames, Les Basham, Mervyn Evans, Sue Garrod, John Raffel and Dennis Tattoo.

 

Apologies – Tom Ames, Simon Browne, Graham Card, Steve Cooper, Mark Emsley, Grahame Fish, Nick Hammond, John Handley and Paul O’keefe.

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Minutes of Previous Meeting and Matters Arising Not Covered on this Agenda

These were accepted as a true record of the meeting and there were no matters arising that are not covered elsewhere in the agenda.

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Election of Officers

All officers were prepared to stand again in their positions

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Chair’s Report

Although in many ways the Covid-19 pandemic has continued to shape the lives and times of people throughout the country, the small charity established in 2019 to celebrate the life, times, and leadership of our extraordinary friend Ron Ames, has continued to support young people in the Stowmarket area.  

Highlights since our June 2021 AGM include:  

• The awarding of bursaries to three sports clubs 

• The presentation of bursaries and RAMSF certificates to individual tennis and   volleyball players  

• A generous donation from Gardiner and Theobold   

• The receipt of various personal donations  

• A full page spread in the East Anglian Daily Times reporting the award to Joe Warner 

• The third RAMSF golf day 

 

Our funds have been dented this year, so it is important we organise two or three fundraising events in the next 12 months. As well as Tom’s open water swimming and a fourth golf day in August, there are tentative plans for a trail walk/run, and another Ride with Ron cycle ride.   

 

I would like to record sincere thanks to the trustees who have continued to work hard in support of the fund. Special thanks go to the officers who have given up time to meet on several occasions and to Paul (O’Keefe) who was instrumental in facilitating the award from Theobold and Gardiner. I would like to extend sincere thanks to Steve (Cooper) and John (Raffel) who have both continued to help with various tasks.  

 

Finally, I would like to congratulate again all the various recipients of bursaries and wish them well for the future.  

 

Dennis Tattoo 

Chair RAMSF 

 

Financial Report

A financial spreadsheet is attached to these minutes*, but in addition Les shared the following information

Income overall  since the charity was set up -  a few pounds shy of £7000.

Total Outgoings (expenses, bursaries etc.) £4392.80

We have  £2533.30 pounds left in the bank.

In 2022  we have had just  £610 income, whike outgoings have £1012. So we are in obvious need of raising more funds.

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* The spreadsheet record was presented at the AGM, but is not reproduced here.

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Secretary’s Report

Merv stated that other than forwarding agenda from Dennis, disseminating minutes of meetings, and forwarding the occasional grant request, his main role has been in publicity for the charity and various events.

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Great coverage for the golf day – not just because that was ‘his baby’ but that he had all of the info at his fingertips. Photographs and lengthy articles in both ‘In Touch’ and the ‘BFP’. Coverage of the volleyball bursary to Joe Warner resulted in a journalist from the EADT doing a piece which turned out to be a full page spread. Joe did his ‘bit’ by making sure it was not just about him but also the charity. Press releases had also been sent out for the presentation of the tennis girls bursaries and mentions of the bike ride, fun run/walk, open water swimming was made in more generic reports. Merv asked for any info, plus photos, to be sent to him if any friends were organising events that could be publicised.

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He also made mention of the ‘second time round’ requests and just wondered if we need to come up with a protocol for such events (even third time requests?). Dennis thought that there ws some reference to this matter in the constitution, but he would check.

Merv finished the report with a mention of the golf day and the need for more teams to enter.

 

Plans for 2022-23

27.08.22 Golf Day

Dennis going to get in touch with Nick Hammond to confirm re. the cycle ride which he is happy to organise again.

Tom is already underway with the open water swimming. It happens every other week with participants donating £2 a session to the charity.

Trail run from the Finborough Chestnut Horse on Wednesday, 31.08.22. This event will have a shorter walk for those not running but also a longer course for those who would like to run. It is a ‘Strider’s night’ and the running club have very kindly donated the £2 entrance fee to the charity.

Dennis thought that it was good to keep our ‘regular events’ underway and that we should use the extra activities (quiz etc) as Sue or others saw fit.

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A.O.B.

Les would like somebody to check the accounts for the sake of transparency. John kindly agreed to take a look.

 

There was no further AOB and the meeting finished at 20:10