Annual General Meeting - 7 May 2011
The 30th Annual General Meeting of the WFA held at York St John University was adjudged a great success with the President and 93 members in attendance. The AGM itself was preceded by talks by Rob Thompson on "Third Ypres", and by Professor John Derry who spoke on ‘Petain: the Pessimistic Patriot'. There will be videos of the two talks soon on the WFA website.
The Chairman, Bruce Simpson, welcomed members to the meeting and spoke of the strength of the WFA lying primarily in the Branches' activities. He said that at national level the WFA was supporting and liaising with other organisations for example at the ‘Who Do You Think You Are?' Exhibition and with the Friends of Lochnagar. He referred to a highlight of the WFA year with the 11th November Cenotaph Service attended by members of the Victoria and George Cross Association. This was followed by the Guards Chapel service and lunch at Peelers Restaurant where he was pleased to award Honorary Membership to Les Carter, Maurice Johnson, Stuart Bufton and Tom Miles for their services to the WFA over many years including the 11th November event.
President's Address
The President, Correlli Barnett, made his usual insightful address (which will be soon be featured in a video on the WFA website).
He said that, after many years as President, he had decided it was time to stand down. Bruce Simpson made tribute to the President and presented him with a mounted model of a ‘Bomber' from the Middlesex Regiment to mark his service to the WFA and his retirement as President. The President's wife Ruth, always a strong supporter of the WFA , was presented with a bouquet of flowers. The President thanked the WFA for the gifts to him and to Ruth and also for giving him the honour of serving the WFA as its President for many years, a task which he had enjoyed immensely.
Election of new President
Professor Peter Simkins had been nominated with the support of Vice Presidents and was recommended by the Executive Committee to the AGM. Peter was proposed by David Cohen and seconded by David Tattersfield. His election was enthusiastically supported by everyone at the AGM.
Professor Simkins then spoke of his thanks and delight at being given this honour and said that he would do his utmost to serve and support the WFA as its President.
Election of Trustees
The Trustees of the Association were appointed as follows:
Chairman: Bruce Simpson
Vice Chairman: Martin Hornby
Honorary Secretary: Steve Oram
Honorary Treasurer: Stuart Humphreys
Branch Co-ordinator: David Easton
Commodities Officer: Fiona McGrath
Development Officer: David Tattersfield
Joint Education Trustees: Martyn Hale/David Seymour
Historical Information Officer: Matt Lucas
Membership Trustee: John Richardson
Press & Publicity Officer: Mark Forsdike
Honorary Assistant Secretary: Jane Backhouse
The AGM was informed that the Executive Committee had decided to fill the vacant Legal Officer position by electing Richard Hughes who was a qualified and practising solicitor. The meeting was then introduced to Richard Hughes.
The Chairman thanked and paid tribute to Hilary Wheeler who had decided to stand down after many years service as Memorials Trustee. He also thanked Simon Smith who had decided to stand down as Legal Officer for personal reasons.
Following a number of items of Other Business, including a decision to consider if the Association would be best served with a change of name, and an update on the changes with the USA Branch, the meeting ended at 16:20.
Full copies of the AGM Minutes will be published to members as usual via 'The Bulletin'.
WFA Branch Chairs' Conference 8 May 2011
The Branch Chairs' Conference was held on the day following the AGM, in York.
The meeting was organised and conducted by David Easton (in the Chair), as WFA Branch Co-ordinator. In attendance were Bruce Simpson, Chairman of the WFA, 26 Branch Chairmen/Representatives and 13 Trustee/Appointee Executive Committee members.
The meeting, which continued throughout the day, was wide-ranging and covered a great number of topics on Branch administration, promotion of Branch activities, Branch relations with the WFA as a national body, and on general WFA administration. Everyone had the opportunity to learn from good practice demonstrated on the day by presenters and those in attendance.
A full report will, as usual, be made in 'The Bulletin'.
You can view two slideshows of photographs taken of the two events, kindly supplied (and copyright 2011) David Easton and Roy Backhouse. Please use the 'expand' icon to view the slideshow full screen and press 'Esc' on your keyboard to return to this page.
