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Record of 2023 Chair’s address
Good afternoon and welcome to the 62nd Annual General Meeting of the National Vegetable Society, here in the Orangery at Newby Hall
Apologies – Jean Forrester Lesley Stone, Grant Cathro
Chairs report National AGM 2023, Newby Hall.
Firstly, I would like to thank the Northern Branch for hosting the Show this year and I must say what a show it’s been, with such outstanding exhibits, especially after the year of weather we have had from one extreme to the other. I can remember it being a washout at Malvern Spring Festival, then a hot June to the wet July and August then of course last week hot again. Always something to try us.
Doesn’t time fly. It was when the Northern branch held the National Show at Harrogate 5 years ago in 2018 that you voted me to the chair. I said then it was going to be no mean task. I was under no illusion regarding the amount of work and effort required by myself and the board of Trustees. My first aim was to stabilize the board
of Trustees and in the first year we put together a development plan with aims and objectives to move the Society forward and to understand how and what we were going to do .
One of the key improvements was when we introduced a membership management package in 2020 which provided
an easy-to-use membership system to lighten the membership secretary’s workload along with live up to date access, plus the new website with improved structure and events management. The system has also enabled us to easily contact groups with news and updates via the email broadcast system.
Then who could have predicted covid-19!! We carried on with communication via email, we even tried conference telephone calls and as you can imagine 15/16 people all on the same line, doesn’t bear thinking about now, but this led us looking at technology to assist support our members... and then Zoom came along, which we used to hold meetings, and also leading to virtual shows & zoom talks... and with the feedback from you the members, the winter Zoom talks have continued each year. We found that having shorter meetings more often is more productive & focused than trying to cram everything into one long meeting. Some Branches and DA’s have also started to use Zoom too.
Since last year’s AGM in Malvern, we have had two members come forward to take on the roles of Assistant Secretary and Sponsorship Manager. Michelle Nixon sat here at the top table today is our Assistant Secretary and Chris Spree, who unfortunately couldn’t make it here this weekend, has taken on the Sponsorship Officer’s role ... Thanks to Michelle and Chris. It is planned as part of this AGM that we can ratify and formally vote to approve Michelle and Chris for these two important roles.
Volunteers are so important, and I would like to thank Mark Hall for standing in as Trophy Secretary this year. If anyone would like to take on this role permanently, please let me know.
Talking of volunteers, you might be aware of a camera going around the Show.......one of our members Sean Cameron, came forward and volunteered to film the National Championships for us. Thankyou Sean. from start to finish.
As I stand here though we still require volunteers to step forward for the role of Webmaster and a new role that we are proposing today,
of Social Media Officer. It’s really important that we can have more volunteers to spread the load and provide more timely support
for our members. If anyone wants to find out more, then please contact Raymond, Fiona or myself. I’m sure there’s people out there with the right skills and enthusiasm.
I also really need to push the fact that a new National Treasurer will be required at next year’s AGM as Jean Forrester feels it’s time to relinquish the post, but she is more than happy to train and show the ropes to anyone who is interested in taking on the role. Thank you.
As you know I like to visit activities at all Branches throughout the year. I have attended the Southern, Welsh and here the Northern, holding the National Show and I will be attending the Midlands next week at Malvern and although I didn’t get to the Scottish Branch Championships, I intend going to their seminar again, this November.
With the NVS in Ireland growing fast and membership now over 100, a couple of weeks ago I travelled across to Moate in Ireland to attend their inaugural Championships. It was a great show, with high quality exhibits and the highest % of exhibits staged to that which were entered. Note - only one exhibit was not staged when usually the average can sit at around the 70% mark, so well done everyone and thankyou to Raymond and the team for making this happen... and can I say how nice it is to see some Irish members who have made the long journey to be with us here today.
Lastly, before I finish, I would like to thank not only all the Trustees board members, old and new, for their continued hard work and support, but to all you volunteers out there that help keep the NVS moving forward... at Branch and DA level. I would also like to add my personal thanks to Fiona and Raymond for their hard work and support.
So, that’s enough from me .......and I would now like to ask our President,MedwynWilliamstogivehis“President’saddress”. Thankyou.
CLOSING AGM SPEACH
Well thankyou everyone. I would now like to formally close our Annual General Meeting for 2023.
We will now move on to our presentations to our judges, exhibitors and award recipients.
CLOSING SPEACH OF THE DAY
Congratulations to all the award recipients, judges and trophy winners and a big thank you to all our exhibitors and helpers who made the show happen.
Before we go, I would just like to thank Simon Smith for having organized a get-together later this evening in Harrogate. Those going should already know the details and have paid their monies to Simon. Empress on the Stray Hotel, 10 Church Street, on the Stray, Harrogate, postcode HG1 4SP from 7.00pm onwards. Please see Simon if you have any questions.
I hope you all enjoy the rest of your weekend here in Ripon.
Next year, it’s the turn of the Southern Branch to Host the National Championships and it will be held at the South of England Show, Ardingly on the 21st & 22nd of September.
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