This is a crucial meeting where the future of W&BA will be considered.
Thank you to those who responded to my recent appeal for help. All 20 of the members who replied spoke warmly of what W&BA has done over the years. And there were some generous offers and good ideas for future events. However, W&BA’s capacity to organise and manage these is still missing. Nobody has been able to step up to plug the crucial gaps of website management, administration of membership, accountancy and two area representatives.
So we regret to say that the recommendation from the management committee is to dissolve Waveney & Blyth Arts. You will appreciate how painful this is for us, what a difficult decision it was to have to make. We’re certainly proud of what we have achieved over the years and grateful for the hundreds of people who have been members and participants.
You will see in the AGM 2021 AGENDA and below that we have made formal proposals arising from our recommendation to dissolve. As a membership organisation we are relying on you at this point. The W&BA Constitution spells out in section 8 what has to happen in order for us to close. We need 10% of the membership to attend the agm and of these, three-quarters or more to vote in favour of our proposal in order for it to be agreed.
If our proposal is accepted, we will then need to decide what to do to disburse the funds we have in our reserves and how to deal with all the associated closure requirements. The constitution gives us a starting point for this process, and we will be consulting the membership about the details.
If our proposal fails, then we hope those present at the agm will make an alternative proposal, which would need to be agreed, possibly by the full membership.
You will appreciate that it is more than usually important for you to attend if you can.
We hope that as many of you as possible will come to the agm, not only because of the decisions that we have to make but also because it may well be the last chance for us to come together as a creative and networking community. We will be displaying our archive of publicity brochures, CDs, postcards, etc as a reminder of the many enjoyable events which we have organised across our 11 years of being W&BA.
Thank you
Ann Follows, Chair
AGENDA
Annual general meeting 2021
1 Minutes of 2020 AGM AGM 2020 MINUTES
2 Financial statements and Chair’s report 2020/21 W&BA Financial Statements 2020-21
For approval
3 Report from the Recovery sub-committee
4 The future of W&BA
Proposals from the management committee:
1 That W&BA is wound up and its assets after settling outstanding liabilities, dispersed as set out in the W&BA Constitution
2 That the membership be consulted about the dispersal of any remaining assets
3 That the processes required to wind up W&BA be handled by a small group comprising Ann Follows, Brian Guthrie and Jade Nice
5 Any other business
Ann Follows
11 November 2021