2023-12-31-accounts - The East Yorkshire Family History Society

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EAST YORKSHIRE FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY

Minutes of the 47[th] Annual General Meeting

Held at the Carnegie Heritage Centre, Anlaby Road, Hull

On 16[th] March 2024

Present – 22 members

The meeting was opened by the President, Tom Bangs at 2pm.

1. President`s Opening Remarks (Tom Bangs)

This will be my last report as President as I am resigning after this AGM for various reasons, not least of which is my health, as you can see, I am not as mobile as I was. Also, technology is overtaking me.

I would like to welcome all those who are here and it is nice to see a few more faces than in the previous AGMs.

I will make this report brief as most of the comments I want to make will be covered in this meeting.

Membership is approximately the same as last year. Of course, it would be nice to have a lot more members, but it is a sign of the times that younger people are no longer joining family history societies.

Financially, the Society is sound. During the year we had a donation of £18,100 from the Hull Peoples Memorial which was closing. I would like our thanks and appreciation to be formally recorded. The income from subscriptions and gift aid does not cover our core expenditure of Banyan Tree publication and Carnegie rent. However, we have a large reserve. Income from our publication sales, covers the cost of new books.

Regrettably we have had to discontinue our meeting in Scarborough. Tricia (who is in her 80`s) was not well and nobody else was willing to take over.

In Hull, we have changed the format of our meetings to a quarterly meeting on a Sunday afternoon. This seems to be working.

The Editor and Webmaster continue to work hard producing the excellent Banyan Tree and updating the website. Edwina`s accident was more serious than originally thought, but she has continued to produce the magazine.

Monumental Inscription transcribing has continued, though Dave and his team will soon run out of graveyards!

Publication sales have continued steadily as in the past. I have, however, noticed that this year (2024) postal orders have tripled in the first two months.

What the Society needs is new younger blood, everybody is getting older, and no one is joining at the bottom. I do not know what the answer is! We have the financial reserves and our unique series of Monumental Inscription Books – I think they are vastly superior to any produced by other Societies.

I will continue to support the Society.

Finally, I would like to thank the Committee and all others who work hard on behalf of the members. I will not single anyone out as I will probably miss someone.

2. Apologies for Absence.

Judi Bangs, Hannah Stamp

3. Minutes of the 46[th] Annual General Meeting held on 18[th] March 2023

There were no amendments, and the minutes were passed unanimously.

4. Matters arising from these minutes.

There were no matters arising.

5. Chairman`s report (Pete Lowden)

Welcome to this year`s AGM of the East Yorkshire Family History Society.

Im following on from last years resolution to start the report with the negatives and end on the positives.

To begin with I must mention that although the Scarborough branch of the Society still meets it is no longer part of the Society. This isn`t a result of some bitter feud. No, this is simply because the few remaining members in that branch do not feel able to hold regular meetings or talks and as such want to continue on an ad hoc basis without the constraints that being a branch of the Society would entail. This is sad news but quite understandable in the circumstances. This development means that Hull is now the only active branch of the Society left at this time.

Whilst on that subject the Societys committee is made up of volunteers, so in essence all the work to maintain the functioning of the Society falls upon those individuals. Sadly, and I include myself in this, we are all getting older and there will come a time when health, family commitments or just simply aging itself will see some of us fall by the wayside. Despite several attempts to recruit other members to take on some support roles, that message appears to have fallen on barren ground. It is self-evident that the Society is not guaranteed to continue if the membership does not support it for the present committee are not immortal. The remedy to this problem lies in the memberships hands.

Following on from that, the Editor of the Banyan informs me that contributions to the Society`s magazine have dried up and she is relying upon the goodwill of her regular contributors to keep the magazine afloat. Once, again this is a membership issue. The Banyan relies upon the membership contributing articles, photographs, postcards etc which the Editor can use for the magazine. If the membership does not send this material in to her then, The Banyan has nothing to print. Once again, the remedy to this is in the hands of the membership. It is your magazine in every sense of that phrase, so please keep it that way and contribute to it.

Please remember as well that you, and only you, are the expert on your family history. You know that story better than anyone else in the world. No one can say you are wrong if you write it up for The Banyan for you are the expert. And perhaps writing about it for The Banyan might elicit some response from some long lost relative of yours. Or at the very least your effort could encourage some other members to contribute.

Remember as well, that you may opt to have The Banyan in a digital format rather than a paper one and this change would be reflected in a reduction to your subscription.

On to more pleasant topics now. The change in scheduling of the Society`s talks appear to be successful. People appear to be happier about attending a talk on a Sunday than they did about attending a weeknight meeting. The Committee will keep monitoring this but overall, we are glad to see so many people wanting to know more about aspects of local history.

Charlie Cradocks Family History Courses are also well attended, and he can surely be blamed for propelling people into the never-ending but strangely satisfying search for long lost ancestors. The help desks which take place throughout the area continue to attract people, not necessarily members, who want help with family history issues. As I mentioned in last years report, this is something that the large multinational such as Ancestry and Find my Past cannot do: that is to provide help on this personal level locally. It`s nice to know that we are not completely irrelevant in this digital age.

6. Secretary`s Report (Barbara Watkinson)

Since that last AGM held in March 2023, we have had four committee meetings when the minutes have been recorded as true.

Any correspondence or emails that have been sent to the secretary have been forwarded to the relevant committee member or discussed at a meeting.

I would like to thank Janet Bielby for booking some excellent and interesting speakers for our quarterly talks. These have attracted a lot of support, and numbers of visitors has increased.

Again, I hope that with the support of our members, the society will continue well into the future.

7. Treasurer`s Report (Peter Glover)

Hello all. You have a copy of the 2023 accountants report. As you can see, we have made a healthy net surplus this year owing to a very welcome and generous donation from The Hull Peoples Memorial, when they closed. So, if there are any questions, I will try and answer them.

No questions were asked, and Janet Bielby proposed the accounts should be accepted, seconded by John Ferguson.

8. Other Reports

Membership Report (Janet Shaw)

Membership Report for 2023

Membership was down from 558 in 2022 to 495 in 2023 – a decrease of 11.3%.

New members were down from 33 in 2022 to 26 in 2023 – a decrease of 21.2%.

Member distribution was as follows:

(23.3% in 2022)
HU postcode 130 which is 26.26 %
YO postcode 68 which is 13.74%
YO postcode 68 which is 13.74% (14.7% in 2022)
• Rest of UK 255 which is 51.52 % (52.5% in 2022)
Overseas 42 which is 8.48%
(9.5% in 2022)

New Members distribution:

HU postcode 7 (26.92%)
YO postcode 3 (11.54%)
Rest of UK 11 (42.31%)
Overseas 5 (19.23%)

(15.2% in 2022) (9.1% in 2022) (54.5% in 2022) (21.2% in 2022)

Comparison Tables for the last six years

	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
Members	699	636	589	584	558	495
Inc/Decrease	-53	-63	-47	-5	-26	-63
% Change	-7.1%	-9.0%	-7.4%	-0.8%	-4.5%	-11.3%
	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
New Members	65	29	36	40	33	26
Inc/Decrease	+23	-36	+7	+4	-7	-7
% Inc/Decrease	+54.8%	-55.4%	+24.1%	+11.1%	-17.5%	-21.2%

Gift Aid claim for 2023 was £974.63.

A digital subscription was introduced for 2023 and 89 members (18%) opted for this. Of these 89 members, 69 (15.2% of UK membership) were UK and 20 (47.6% of overseas membership) were overseas.

Publications Report (In the absence of Judi Bangs read by Tom Bangs)

Since last year`s AGM we have published – Eastern Cemetery part 11, Western Cemetery part 11, and Chanterlands Crematorium parts 1,2,3, & 4.

There will be a 7[th] part to Hull General Cemetery which is nearing completion, so we have nearly completed all our monumental inscriptions. Not sure what Dave will have in store for us this year!

The Society held a second handbook sale at the beginning of the year, and we have continued to see second handbooks through the year.

The Society attended the York Family History Fair in June and the Book Fair at Hull Minster in September.

Postal orders for our books are down in number again, I sent out 102 orders, but we do sell quite a few books through Carnegie, especially with the courses being held her.

Monumental Inscriptions (Dave Mount)

Last year we completed and finished the Memorial plaques around the Chanterlands Crematorium. This is to be published into five booklets.

This year we have permission to records stones and memorials at the new burial site on Priory Road and the memorials at the Willerby Crematorium. There are about 300 to 400 stones at Priory Road and about 600 to 700 memorials at Willerby. So, we will probably complete both these cemeteries this year. So, the following year we will be looking for other cemeteries to record. I am open to suggestions where we are to record next.

We have also recorded and are in the process of publishing inscriptions of stones at the Hull General Cemetery that were missed. Unfortunately, these stones no longer exist.

Unfortunately, the toilets at both Priory and Willerby Cemetery are closed during the week, so perhaps we might think of recording mid-week rather than our usual Saturday. That is an issue that we perhaps need to put to the recording team.

In closing, I would like to thank all who have taken part this last year in recording of the stones and other projects pertaining to the Monumental Inscriptions.

9. Election of Officers

Peter Lowden was nominated as Chairman by Chris Brigham and seconded by Charlie Cradock. This was put to the vote and was passed unanimously.

Barbara Watkinson was nominated as Secretary by Margaret Oliver and seconded by Pete Glover. This was put to the vote and was passed unanimously.

Peter Glover was nominated as Treasurer by Janet Bielby and seconded by John Ferguson. This was put to the vote and was passed unanimously.

10. Election of Committee

The following stood for election –

Chris Brigham, John Ferguson, Dave Mount, Janet Shaw, Charles Cradock, Judith Bangs, Janet Bielby, Margaret Oliver, Sandra Cradock and Hannah Stamp. Pete Lowden proposed that they all to be elected and was seconded by Tom Bangs.

This was put to the vote, and they were all duly elected unanimously.

11. Election/Appointment of Examiner of Accounts

Janet Bielby proposed the continued appointment of Nigel Coyle & Co. This was seconded by Chris Brigham.

This was put to the vote which was passed unanimously.

12. Previously Notified Business

There were no previously notified items.

13. Any Other Business

Peter Glover asked for an amendment to be added to the EYFHS constitution.

Ii – Each Branch shall be identified as “East Yorkshire Family History Society, (identifier) Branch”. Its meetings shall be open to all members of the Society and the general public.

Either by attending in person, and the meeting can be electronically transmitted to away members by sending invitation and participating code to enable all to participate in the said meeting.

(Electronically can mean Zoom or any other recommended/suitable medium etc).

This was proposed by Janet Bielby and seconded by John Ferguson. This was put to the vote and was passed unanimously.

The meeting closed at 2.30pm

EAST YORKSHIRE FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY Registered Charity No. 519743 Year ended 31 December 2023 COUNTANTS, REPORT We have prepared, without carying out an audiL the attached income and expenditure account from the books. records and vouchers produced and the inforniation and explanations given. NIGEL COYLE & CO Chartered Accountants Office F12 Beverley Enfrrprise Centre Beck Vtew Road Beverley HU17 orr 28 February 2024 TREASURER'S REPORT I approve these accounts on behalf of th¢ Society and Conf that I hav¢ mad¢ availabl¢ all rel¢vant records and infonnation for their preparation. . Mr. P. L Glover (Treasurer) March 2024

EAST YORKSHIRE FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY Registered Charity No. 519743 INCOME AND EXPEIYDITURE ACCOUNT for the ear ended 31 December 2023 2023 2022 Incoffle Membership Tax Relief on Gift Aid EYFHS Paper Publication Sales Donations Bank Interest 7,998 1.002 2,037 18,328 704 8,891 1,287 2,392 200 15 30.069 12.785 enses Banyan Tree Printing EYFHS Publication Printing Publication Postage 5,475 778 448 5,810 1,562 465 Add: Opening Stock of Publications 6.701 11.834 7,837 11,535 Less.. Closing Stock of Publications 18,535 11,506 19.372 11.834 7,029 7.538 Hull Venue Expenses Scarborough Meeting Expenses Carnegie Centre Rent Outside Events Secretary's Expenses Membership Expenses Retirement Gifts FFHS Subs and Insurdnce Computer Ink and Cartridges Postages and Stationery Publications Purchased Miscellaneous Expenses Accountancy Depreciation Website PaypaUEbay Commission and Bank Charges Editorrrreasurer Subscriptions 200 loo 3.543 348 222 3,375 60 120 294 1.006 715 17 57 660 438 148 169 298 50 630 225 197 37 14290 13,522 Net Surplus (Deficit) 15.779 (737)

EAST YORKSHIRE FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY Registered Charity No. 519743 BALANCE SHEET As at 31 De¢¢mber 2023 2023 2022 Fixed Assets 876 Current Assets CD Stock Publication Stock Maps Stock 250 10.838 418 255 11,126 453 11,506 11,834 Lloyds TSB Treasurers Account Lloyds TSB Call Account Lloyd5 TSB Fixed Terni Deposit Account Cash in Hand Paypal Account Prepayments.. Insurance and FFHS Subs Prepaid Fairs l¥epaid Websifr Support 1,286 2,802 42,040 400 464 568 6,053 24,131 500 77 208 loo 216 47208 31,637 59,590 43,471 Current Liabilities Advanced Subscriptions (next year) Advanced Subscriptions (2 years) Creditors.. Accountant 2,193 20 660 1,903 63 2,873 2.533 56.717 40,938 Aeeumulated Fund Brou Net Surplus (Deficit) ht Forward 40,938 15.779 41.675 (737) 56,717 40,938