On Wednesday 26 June 2024, we held our Annual General Meeting with Louise in the chair, making sure that everything ran exactly as planned. There were a few apologies owing to holidays, but in all there was a good turnout for the meeting.

The Minutes of the previous AGM were approved and adopted. There were no Matters Arising from the previous AGM.

Louise presented her Chair’s Report to the meeting, pointing out that the Kenton & District u3a had now run for 10 years. She thanked each officer for the hard work over the previous 12 months, and thanked the members of the Committee for their continued service to the membership and the officers. She made special mention of Adele Setton who had sadly passed away at the end of March 2024. Louise thanked John who has stepped in and taken on Adele’s duties.

She also thanked the Group Leaders, including those who in the process of getting new groups established. Finally, she thanked all the members who have done so much to maintain the fun and friendship of Kenton & District u3a. The Chair’s Report was proposed and seconded and then adopted by the meeting.

We then had the financial report and accounts to consider. Our treasurer presented the accounts and explained in clear terms why the format needed to change in order to help with the financial management of the Kenton & District u3a. This was an in-depth report with much technical detail, but it was excellently presented by our Treasurer Anita, and thanks were expressed to our Accounts Examiner Eric for his work on the accounts.

We then had the election of the officers for 2024-2025, and they were elected unopposed as follows:
Chair: Dick Nathan
Vice-Chair: Louise Bennett
Secretary: Judith Littman
Treasurer: Anita Maund
Committee Members (in alphabetical order); John Bishop, Howard Goldstein, Ruth Levere, Kevin O’Doherty, Diana O’Reardon, Peter Rummer, Richard Rumsey, Sonia Sassoon, Vivien Spiteri.

The 10 candles on the Kenton & District Birthday Cake were then lit, and the new chair’s first task was to blow them out!

The whole assembly then expressed their warm appreciation of the hard work, dedication and skill that Louise had demonstrated over the past three years, and wished her well for the future.

And with that, the Summer Social started, with some groups staying in the air-conditioned room and other groups finding shade under the trees outside. Both locations enjoyed picnics that they had brought, and throughout the afternoon the weather obliged!