ELMBRIDGE WOMEN IN BUSINESS

 ELEVENTH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING  

Wednesday, 16 May 2007 at 7.30 pm at Burhill Golf Club, Burwood Road, Walton-On-Thames  

AGENDA

1. Introduction

Good evening everyone, and welcome to the 11 th Annual General Meeting of Elmbridge Women in Business. We shall get the formalities of the evening over as fast as possible and then get on with the fun part! I now declare the 11 th Annual General Meeting Open at 7.38pm

2. Apologies for absence –Sylvia Adams

3. Chairman’s Report

1. One year ago, when I was elected Chairman, there were three things uppermost in my mind.

The first of these was the rather shaky state of the EWiB finances. One year on, I am pleased to report that the finances are both healthy and stable, as a result of firstly a timely opportunity to benefit from European Social Fund funding, and secondly a conscious revising and streamlining of our processes to cut running costs. But I won’t steal Mary’s thunder by saying any more about the finances, you’ll hear her report in a few moments!

2. The second thing on my mind was how EWiB would fare in a very different networking environment, with so much more competition, than when the group was established. In my Address at last year’s AGM I said “I am convinced that EWiB can offer Members something unique among networking opportunities: a careful mix of professional development, personal development, and fun, in a relaxed and convivial setting.”

With that in mind, over the past year we have learned from Mandy Sansom how to project the right visual image as business women by our choices of style and colour. From Charmian Ingham we learned how to project the right image through our voices and the manner and confidence with which we speak, and from Gill Harvey-Bush we learned how to keep our emotional responses under control and prevent them from disrupting our business and personal lives.

Networking itself was the subject of a lively speed-networking evening run by Jane Burridge, and also formed a key element of our Christmas Networking Party, where a networking game and competitive wine-tasting courtesy of Laithwaites - not to mention delicious food from Fizz Catering - meant that we found out all sorts of things about each other!

We were inspired by Dr Diane Keith with her remarkable stories of medical trailblazing – some planned and some – tragically - unplanned; Linda Kemeny gave us a unique insight into civic ceremonial with her description of being Mayoress for a year.

Samantha New-Fielding taught us about our four bodies and three minds, and how our daily lives can be dramatically improved when these all work together. Next month Jacky Pey will be teaching us how properly chosen and fitted lingerie can support (literally!) one of those bodies, with, we hope, positive effects on all the others!

And finally sheer unadulterated fun is expected in a few minutes when Carmen will be introducing us to the magic of Flamenco!

3. The third thing on my mind a year ago was to encourage as much feedback from the members as possible, so that the Committee and I should understand what you wanted from EWiB in support of our agreed aims, which are, I remind you:

• To provide a support network
• To give members the opportunity to promote their business
• To share information and ideas
• To promote each other’s activities
• To increase understanding of business issues
• To develop personal effectiveness
• To publicise member’s businesses and promotional offers

I am very happy to say that there has been LOTS of feedback, and we have done our best to incorporate it into our plans for the upcoming year, which I will tell you about in a few moments.

But now, before we move on to the next item on the Agenda, I would like to thank the members of the EWiB Committee over the past year for their support, input and hard work.

4. Treasurer’s Report and to receive, consider and approve the Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2006

Balances:

Current account : £ 223.00

Deposit account : £4765.00

• Started the year with less available funds than would have ideally liked
• Had used the previous reserves to fund the 10 year anniversary dinner + speaker (Francis Edmonds)
• Received £2,050 from University of Surrey, European Social Fund Money – Leadership with Christina Osborne
• received membership fees
• Bank balance now much improved. Current a/c £223, deposit a/c (earning interest) £4,765
• Keeping membership and attendance fees at last years level
• Events self financing. Break even 30 people
• Deposit a/c used to subsidise payment to speakers, Xmas party & summer party & future events
• Confirm that committee take no fees & no subsidies. Therefore all money for members benefit.
• More detailed analysis of all cash movements available for anyone who wants- contact me.

5. Committee

(a) To re-elect the Chairman of EWIB in accordance with 5(b) of the Constitution. (Jane Burridge has agreed to continue if re-elected).

Proposer :Amanda Fisackerly Seconder : Janet Newis

(b) To re-elect the Treasurer of EWIB in accordance with 5(b) of the Constitution. (Mary Waring has agreed to continue if re-elected).

Proposer : Diana Hoad

Seconder : Pippa Tucker-Brown

• En block proposal to re-elect the remaining officers of the Committee.

(All remaining officers have agreed to serve if re-elected).

Sylvia Adams, Amanda Fisackerly & Penny Rowling).

Proposer – Sue Mackender

Seconder – Claire Firth

• To elect two new members to the Committee:

Liz Labrum, Janet Newis.

Proposer – Mary Waring

Seconder – Celia Warren

6. Chairman’s address - Plans for the forthcoming year.

Now I would like to say a few words about our plans for the forthcoming year, but before I do that I’d like to welcome Liz and Janet onto the Committee, they are especially welcome since both of them are relatively new members, and we need constantly to incorporate new ideas to keep EWiB moving forward.

Fees:

As you have heard, the EWiB finances are now both healthy and stable. This means that we are able to hold all fees – membership, events, marketing - at their current level over the next year.

Membership:

However the size of our membership is not as healthy as we would like; currently around 80 members when in the past membership has been as high as 140. We recognise that there is much more “competition” in the form of other networking, and especially women’s networking, available now than there has been in the past. Still, we will be looking at initiatives to try to increase membership. To remind you, the benefits of membership are

• inclusion in, and receipt of, the Directory
• opportunity to display cards and literature at every event
• opportunity to market directly to the members

Facilitated networking:

Networking continues to be one of the topics most requested by our members. Also, we know that the group can seem intimidating for guests when they first attend our meetings. We therefore propose to hold a “Networking Circle” (better name, anyone?) at EVERY meeting, starting in September. This is how it will work:

• All guests are invited to take part, together with any members who wish to do so.
• Run by one of the Committee (decided in advance so Sarah and Jane on reception can tell members and especially guests who will be running the session)
• Takes place at 7pm either on the landing by the window (space for 6-8) or towards the back of the meeting room (well away from any technical wrestling with projectors which may be going on up front)
• Everyone has 1 minute to describe their business and what they are looking for; we exchange business cards and/or literature, then Q & A and free networking until 7.30
• 6.30 arrival and buffet, 7.00 Network Circle, 7.30 speaker
• Event flyers and website will be updated to publicise this
• Format card on reception desk will show timings for the evening

Venue:

We have experimented this year by dividing our time between our longstanding venue at Silvermere and Burhill. While a change is always interesting, we don’t feel that Burhill offers us any real advantage over Silvermere, and we seem to be able to influence the quality of the food more at Silvermere, so we propose to hold all our events there next session.

Programme of events:

I mentioned earlier that we have had lots of feedback; one of the things that came over loud and clear was the demand for practical information on “how to….” drive one’s business forward.

• With that in mind, we kick off our meetings in September with “How to Make Money with No Money”, from Karen Megranahan, who did just that to become a multi-millionairess.
• Later in the programme we will learn how to harness the power of the internet to grow our businesses, from Karen Margerison of web design company Bloomhost.
• Roz Maher will talk to us about how to get at the advice, consultancy, training, funding and other support available to us as Women in Business from Business Link.
• Jane Burridge will give us practical tips and strategies on how to network effectively
• And finishing the year in June, Ann Edwards from Strategic Planning Solutions will talk to us about Exit Strategy and Planning, essentially how to arrange things so that we can eventually walk away from our businesses, taking some value with us.
• Somewhere between business development and personal development comes Liz Labrum’s talk on how to “keep your head while all around are losing theirs”
• while Catherine Pullen will get us off physically to a great start next January by talking about how to fit an effective exercise programme into the busiest and most time-strapped of lives.

We haven’t forgotten to have fun:

• the very popular Sharon Knight will return to talk to us about Astrology and its influence on every aspect of our business and personal lives;
• and at the AGM next year we will tackle “Mid-Life Makeovers”, with makeup artists on hand to bring about some transformations.
• There will be a Summer Garden Party on August 11 th for members and partners, with gorgeous food from Fizz catering;
• and for Christmas we would like to know if members would prefer a Christmas Dinner, or a Christmas Party with games along the lines of what we did last year.

We hope you will agree that this is a fantastic programme; you can pick up a copy on the way out, and we’ll be emailing everyone with the programme and putting it up on the website www.EWiB.co.uk .

Finally, I’d like you to join me in a vote of thanks to two people without whose efforts EWiB would be much less successful, but who don’t get a chance to stand up and tell you what a great job they are doing:

- our Administrator Sarah Hobbs who handles all the day-to-day logistics of the memberships, the Directory and the events;

- and Jackie Mitchell our PR Officer who makes sure that our events are always well publicised in the local press.

• Any other business

Diana Hoad raised the question of having another gala dinner event. Jane Burridge commented that it could be considered however we may not be able to provide a first class speaker as has been the case in earlier years, given their source through Diana Boulter. Members opinions were sought and the subject would be discussed at committee.

NB At the conclusion of the AGM, there will be a 10 minute break before we introduce our guest speaker for the evening.

NNB If you would like a copy of last year’s Minutes, please be kind enough to see Sarah Hobbs after the meeting and she will send you a copy.

8. The AGM concluded at 7.58pm