Tatsfield Horticultural Society

Annual General Meeting

Tuesday 15^th November 2022, at 19.30

Apologies for Absence

These were received from Veronica Geary, Dilo de Alwis and Marjorie Broughton. 25 members attended.

Minutes of the previous AGM, held on 9 November 2021

These were accepted by those present as a true record of the meeting, and were signed by the Vice Chairman, Jon Allbutt.

Matters Arising

None.

Chairman’s Report : Jon Allbutt (per pro Pam Bishop)

I am still researching the history of our Society, it is clear that under various titles there has been a horticultural society in Tatsfield for over a hundred years.

Like so many of our local organisations the Society continued to deal with the usual challenges of maintaining a healthy membership, having sufficient funds, presenting an interesting programme of activities for members, and then we all had to deal with the pandemic.

We were determined to continue as best we could within pandemic rules and guidelines.

Numbers at our events were down but it was well worth it to see and hear folk enjoying themselves and we are very hopeful for the future of our Society. The lack of entries in some of the show categories is disappointing, especially in the Junior Sections, we will continue to try and come up with new ideas to attract our young folk, if anybody has a bright idea please let us know!

In February the team started the task of producing a new Yearbook using the new format as last year, reviewing the show schedules and securing the much needed adverts to help fund the cost of production. Distributing the new Yearbook has been a challenge as we are short of volunteers but overall we have managed to cover most of the village this year, please let us know if you need a copy, or know of someone who needs one.

Following the pandemic guidelines we cancelled some Gardening Club meetings, but we were delighted to welcome back Bryan Everest for his talk in March. Bryan’s mixture of expert gardening tips, wisdom and humour made it a great evening and we look forward to hearing him again soon!

Our annual Plant Sales in May, and an extra one in September, were a great success with very few plants remaining, a big thank you to all who donated home grown plants, this is an important fundraising event

We were blessed with good weather for our group trip to the RHS Wisley Gardens in June. The gardens were at their best, the new Hillside Centre is full of information and the new landscaping around it is settling in very well.

Our Garden Visit this year was to Titsey Place and Gardens on the 5^th July, where the group were shown around by the new Head Gardener Rory Dryburgh. The formal gardens are a joy to see at this time of year, and I am sure we will pay a return visit.

As the summer developed, we realised that it was going to be a tough gardening year, and yet we enjoyed some bumper crops whilst some succumbed to the heat, such is the life of a gardener!

The Autumn Show was again low on numbers of entries but high on quality and the tea and homemade cakes were as popular as ever.

A big thank you to the committee, members and volunteers for all your hard work this year, our new programme of events is ready, and we look forward to another successful year.

 

Treasurer’s Report : Martin Allen

All figures rounded.

The Society incorporating the Compost group funds has had another good and positive financial year, following on from a static Covid 19 – 21 position, with total funds now £ 9085 (2021 : £ 8477) with an overall surplus of

£ 844.74 (£ -960.46)

Our main form of income is the membership of £ 5 a year or a donation from seniors for the Year Book which has been hugely improved but costs a little more totalling £ 1255.00 and £ 740 from our Year Book Advertisers. This after a loss of income from 2021 even though the Year Book was reused as Covid allowed us.

Well done and thank you to all of you members and our people that do the delivery rounds each year

We end up delivering some 320+ year books around the village and the wider area.

The 2 x Plant Sales, done for the first time this year made £482 and still the prices we charge for the products remain extremely good value and are normally sold out quickly.

The Society have made various donations throughout the year which have benefited the members and the village generally;

We donated £100 to TIB to assist them to continue to make the village look great and donated £50 to the Parish magazine.

The Tandridge Together Lottery sums were £ 409 which included a donation from a Lottery winner, (438) so thank you to everyone who has purchased their tickets but would ask you to support us this way if you are not already doing so. The THS committee has continued to donate these sums to the working of the Compost group.

The Autumn and Spring shows do make a loss but they are the mainstay of the Society and as such this is where a good sum of money is spent for the members and villagers to enjoy the exhibitions take part in the raffle and of course enjoy the teas and cakes. £ 1169 was spent on the shows with an income from Lunches /Teas / Raffle and Door entry of £ 582 so a loss of £ 587 this year. .

Compost Section: £ 2480 was spent including the servicing of the Big Shredder, and the purchase of a new set of cutting blades the service costs for the lawnmower and the purchase of the new engine for the sieve, which has worked so well this year, against an income of £ 1375 from grants from both TPC and SCC, without which this enterprise could not function, donations and sales of compost and a shared lawnmower donation from the TACG totalling £ 868. Making a loss of £ -237

One small point to note that when we opened in 2021 petrol cost us £ 1.03 and when we finished the season in 2022 petrol cost £ 1.72 per litre.

The accounts have been checked and passed by Alan Armitage who we thank for this service. The Balance sheet, and the Income and Expenditure sheet are appended to this report.

Composting Report

In the absence of Dilo de Alwis, a short verbal report on composting was given by Martin Allen. He said that 2022 had been difficult, for several reasons. Firstly, allotmenteers and others were abusing the composting facility, by dumping large amounts of waste especially at times other than official opening times which had resulted in the site being almost overwhelmed. Secondly, the use of woodchips to open out the texture of the compost had not been a success, with too much undigested woodchip in the final product, which had led to complaints. Finally, the summer had been exceedingly dry. Coupled with the decision not to water the bins (on environmental grounds) this had led to very poor decomposition. It was hoped that recent heavy rain would remedy this over winter. As a result of this, outturn was reduced at about 18000 litres, as opposed to 23000 litres two years ago.

Election of Officers

The following were proposed for election :-

President : Bob David

Chairman : Jon Allbutt

Treasurer : Martin Allen

Secretary : Peter Maynard

All officers were proposed by Alan Armitage, seconded by Margaret Bishop and elected unanimously.

Election of Committee Members

Carol Gaskell, Christine Stainer, Sue Warren, Janet Rand, Pam Bishop and Dilo de Alwis were all nominated by Paul Stainer, seconded by Christine Stainer, and elected unanimously. In addition, John Rand has agreed to be the Parish Council representative on the committee.

 

Appointment of Honorary Auditor

Alan Armitage was appointed as Honorary Auditor.

Any Other Business

Janet Rand asked if the Knight’s discount voucher, at present printed on the back cover of the yearbook, could be distributed as a separate card. She offered to laminate these. Jon Allbutt said that this could give some difficulties. Firstly, there was the extra cost, and then there was the problem of distributing it with the yearbook – should it be attached? All suggestions would be welcomed, and he would speak to the printers about possible solutions.

The meeting ended at 20.00.