BRISTOL BAE SYSTEMS & AIRBUS  RETIRED MANAGEMENT STAFF ASSOCIATION

Minutes of the 25th Annual General Meeting  - 11 March 2005

Held at the BAWA Centre, Southmead Road.  

1. Opening Address

The Meeting opened at 10.05 attended by approximately 70 Members.

The Chairman welcomed all Members, Joint Members and Guests. Coffee and refreshments would be available after the meeting, then there would be a talk about the Airbus A380 by Bob Bray (Wing Project Engineering Leader).

2. Apologies

There were 7 apologies

3. Minutes of the last Meeting

No dissenters to the Minutes published in the Newsletter. They were  approved unanimously

4. Matters Arising

Ref.Para.8. It was confirmed that the new Constitution incorporating Membership changes would affect overseas as well as U.K members; arrangements are being made for overseas members with com-puters to receive Newsletters by email.Ref.Para.9. Following the retirement of Tony Dudman from the Chairmanship of the PCC the Chairman has written thank-ing him for all his efforts, over many years, on behalf of all pensioners in Area 8 and the RMSA.Ref.Para.15. The proposal from Fred Napthene to start the AGM at 10.30.am was not agreed on the grounds that we needed the time at the end of the meeting for guest speakers.

5. Obituaries

Sadly, since the last AGM, the following Members have died: K.Purchase, A.Hazell, Mrs D M West, F Dixon, R A Goldie, D C Tufnell, P Soper, J F Foord

6. Chairman’s Report

"This year has been most interesting in that the Committee had to contend with the constitutional changes agreed at the last AGM. This entailed a lot of work for the Membership Secretary during the preparation of the Autumn Newsletter which had to include all the relevant notices of change. However, all went well and we firmly believe that all affected Members were correctly informed. To date the payment of subs due on 1st January is much the same as in previous years, the Membership Secretary will give the details in his report. Two ex Life Members were dissatisfied with the arrangements and one thought that the Committee was not doing enough for pensioners. I have a certain sympathy with that but it is not from the lack of trying that we are unable to obtain all the improvements we would like.

The basic problem is that real improvements involve money, and if you have been reading the papers or listening to the news you will realise that the BAE Systems Pensions Fund is in a difficult position with regard to cash. We hope this will improve with the risingstocks and shares index, so we have been concentrating on improvements that do not cost a lot of money, like the letters that BAE Systems send to bereaved dependants. To date these have been less than sympathetic, and sometimes misleading. After approximately 5 years the Company agreed to improve them. However for some unexplained reason, when the improved letters were to be issued, they had reverted back to the originals. We used to receive from the Company (very late) a list of pensioners who had died. This was useful, as in many cases we had had no report of deaths from the bereaved. The Company then retreated behind the Data Protection Act and withdrew this facility. A great deal of work was done including obtaining advice from the controller that the DPA did not apply after a person had died. We are very well aware that care must be taken not to involve bereaved families in that the information was only used to keep our records up to date. This was put to the Trustees (we do not know why) and they rejected it. At the last meeting of the Trustees, David Moakes (now our Pensioner Trustee) was told it had now been agreed and we should start to receive this information. It has taken a long time and a lot of research on the part of RMSA, FRE and Plymouth to restore this service. These are just two of the items we have dealt with.

Our social arrangements during the year were, as always, arranged and monitored by David (no doubt helped by Janet). They were very successful and the change to Lytham, including a visit to Blackpool, was good. This year, the short break will be taken  in Llandudno, with the Hotel of the same chain as at Lytham, which was OK, so let us hope it will be the same this year with some first class scenery thrown in for good measure. 'Do come and join the group, it really is good'!Your Committee met Iain Gray (Managing Director of Airbus) in April 2004. We exchanged views and he out-lined how the Airbus administration, functioned, which was informative. Subsequently Iain accepted our invitation to Xmas lunch. He said he enjoyed the occasion very much, meeting up with some ex colleagues and talking to many more. We hope to keep up this contact with him in the future.

Bill Brand has been very busy putting our Newsletter on the Web. This will exclude  any contact information thus avoiding anyone receiving unwanted mail. The site also contains the Area 8 Newsletter and additional photographs for which there was not room in our Newsletter the website is - http://www.bapas.org.uk. I must emphasise, as I have done before, that your Committee have been first class in supporting me doing their respective jobs. However, I think the RMSA would benefit from some new (younger) talent with some new ideas. The Committee has a vacancy for one more member, if and when the retiring members are elected, so come along you newer members and give us a few hours of your time and the benefit of your views. It is only once a month and is a pleasant meeting of approximately 2 hours (with coffee)."  

7. Treasurers Report

"Since the last AGM I have improved and managed to publish the examined accounts in the Spring Newsletter which had enabled the Members to raise any questions concerning the accounts.The response from Life Members relating to the cessation of Life Membership has been most gratifying with some Members paying their 2005 subscriptions before the end of 2004. In fact some members were so keen to pay that they sent in cheques each time the payment slip was published!Referring to Social events, for the first time a supplement for single occupancy of rooms on the Short Break had been levied. The Committee had agreed to un-derwrite the supplement for 2004 but for the 2005 Short Break it would be paid by the members concerned.

Overall the finances were still in a healthy state.The problem which arose for some of the members when paying their subs by Standing Order has been resolved and is now working well.On behalf of the Committee I wish to thank BAWA for continuing to provide accommodation for the AGM and the Committee Meetings, without charge.My thanks to Gordon Hastings for exam-ining the Accounts for 2004 and also to Cary Needs who, living close by, was able to give guidance as and when re-quested. David Curtis proposed accept-ance of the Accounts which was seconded by Bob Hewitt. Carried unanimously.Fred Napthine later raised a question re-garding the loss on the Social events and asked if that meant that the rest of the membership were subsidising the events. The reply given was 'yes'; however, it is the intention that Social events should break even and one way of achieving that is for more members to support these events.

Post Meeting Notes

Thanks to Airbus for their continued support in printing the Newsletter free of charge.The Membership Subscription will remain at £2 for 2006.

8. Proposed Changes to Constitution

The Secretary reminded the meeting that at the last AGM the Committee proposed a change to the Membership structure. The Proposal was carried unanimously to take effect from January 2005. This is now in operation and the changeover is running smoothly with no more than 2 objections from the whole of the mem-bership.Inevitably, this required a change to the Constitution. The main changes are sum-marised on P.2. Of the Spring Newsletter. All references to Life Membership have been deleted and associated paragraphs amended accordingly.The title of the Constitution has been changed to incorporate the current Com-pany structure and include devolved companies. Whilst this makes for a long title (as pointed out from the floor) it does attempt to combine the historic and modern. However the shortened version, i.e. 'RMSA' has been retained.A few copies of the Constitution were available if Members would like to see the detail. The meeting was asked to approve the new Constitution.

Proposed:  J BartlettSeconded: B Raybould  Carried unanimously

9. Pensions Matters

There have been few pension matters that could have affected members, a Sub-committee chaired by Alan Smith exists to monitor these and will convene if the occasion arises.

10. Social Events

The Social Secretary outlined the events for 2005. There would be day trips on April 27 to  Llancaiach Fawr Manor in Caerphilly and on July 21 to  Lynton and Lynmouth.There will be a Short Break from October 7 to 11 to LlandudnoXmas Lunch in 2004 was rated as a success and the format seems to have been accepted by the majority of attendeesThe Xmas Lunch for 2005 is to be held on 9 December

11. Newsletter

Bill Brand expressed his thanks to all members who had written articles for the Newsletter and asked if there were any members who would be prepared to write articles perhaps dealing with their hobbies or past times.

There was a vote of appreciation for the excellence of the Newsletter

12. Election of Officers

In accordance with the Constitution the following Committee Members are due to retire.

Mr J P Tyler. Mr D WelsfordMrs D Bartlett. Mr W Brand.Mr K Strange

The retiring members have all agreed to stand again and have been Proposed en bloc - Mr C S Wilson. Seconded en bloc - Dr T Coombe - Carried unanimously.

13. Election of Account Examiner

Mr G Hastings and Mr C Needs have agreed to stand again.Proposed:   Mr W BrandSeconded: Mr K BooyCarried unanimously

14. Change of start time for the AGM from 10.00 hrs to 10.30 hrs - see para-graph 4 above.

15. Memorabilia

Tom Coombe is the coordinator

16. A.O.B.

A vote of thanks was received from the floor for the excellent work carried out by the Committee.

The meeting ended at 11:00 hrs and the Chairman thanked everyone for attending and hoped to see many of you at the social events.Following a break for refreshments an excellent talk was given by Bob Bray on the history and build of the Airbus A 380, which included a slide show. A vote of thanks to Rob Bray was proposed by the Chairman on behalf of the RMSA, which was fully supported by the members.

Mr C F Webb - Chairman      J P Tyler - Secretary

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