AGM report

BRISTOL BAE SYSTEMS & AIRBUS

RETIRED MANAGEMENT STAFF ASSOCIATION

Minutes of the 27th Annual General Meeting 9th March 2007

Held at the BAWA Centre. Southmead Road

Opening Address

The meeting opened at 10:10 and the Chairman gave a warm welcome to the members present. An apology was tendered from the committee regarding the error of the meeting date as published in the Newsletter. This was tempered with the statement that on conclusion of the formal business of the AGM coffee would be available for all members the cost to be met from RMSA funds.

Apologies

Apologies were tendered on behalf of: - John Tyler. Ken & Elsie Mills. Joan Sealley. Tug Wilson.

Peter Houlton and Tom Coombe.

Minutes of the Last Meeting

The minutes were accepted as a true record by all members present following a proposal from John Bartlett and seconded by Lew Clack.

Matters Arising

There were no matters arising

Obituaries

Since the last AGM 20 members are known to have died, or their death from earlier times has been notified to us. Their names are listed here in alphabetical order:

Mr G D Ballinger. Mr G T Bishop. Mr T C Brocklesby. Mr J Chilton.

Mrs M G Coombe.

Mr K E N Cragg.

Mr G M Davies.

Mr E H England.

Mr H J Fuller. Mr W F Gibb.

Mr J V T Howard.

Mr J A Knight.

Mr E J W Matthews.

Mr N A Purnell. Mr H L Riddell.

Mr J A Scott. Mr O R L Taylor.

Mr P J Thursby. Mr C L Treeby.

Mr M C Wilson.

Chairman's Report

The operation of the Association has progressed as usual; the social activities being the main item on the agenda as far as members were concerned, and as usual they were very successful, due to the efforts of David, from the days out, the short break and the Christmas Lunch. Behind the scenes your committee have performed as well as usual, dealing with the more mundane items, but that is the point; none of the committee members are getting any younger, as indeed are any of us. We have been in office for some time now, and any attempts to raise the interest of younger??? members have failed. In a similar organisation to ours, the same problem arose, and after many failed attempts by the chairman to improve the situation, he decided that the only thing to do was to wind up the association. This produced the desired effect and some new blood was found. Now we are close to that situation and I do not want to do the same thing. All I want is for members of this association to come forward and help the committee with perhaps some new ideas. When we asked for suggestions for our 25th Anniversary, we did not have one idea put to the committee. There must have been something in someone's mind, but for one reason or another, not one came forward. For that reason this year the retiring members have not been nominated by the committee; they are all willing to stand again and I would be pleased to see them on the new committee, but we hoped that by doing this the membership would at least, have the opportunity of thinking of the situation and maybe responding.

Treasurers Report.

The financial report printed in the Spring Newsletter shows that the finances are still in a strong position. The income from subscriptions together with the interest from the Bank and the Donations are slightly less than the Administration and Newsletter costs. However the small profit from the Social Events has resulted in a surplus for the year. The subscription can remain at £2 for 2008.

A few more members have chosen to pay their subscriptions by Standing Order which means that payment is automatic and overcomes the "have I paid or haven't I paid" problem that can occur.

The association still benefits from the generosity of BAWA, who provide the accommodation free for this AGM and the committee meetings, and also Airbus for printing copies of the Newsletter without charge. Without this assistance our expenses would be significantly increased.

My thanks go to Gordon Hastings who, once again, examined the accounts, and to Carey Needs who is available when the need arises. I am happy to state that they are both willing to continue to provide this service.

I offer the accounts for 2006 to the members for approval.

Acceptance of the accounts was proposed by Ron Stear and seconded by Peter Aze and carried unanimously.

Pension Matters

There was not a lot to report on the Pensions front but Peter Aze in his capacity as Association Member and as JPC Representative, being closer to the Pensions front than most of us gave a short address from the floor on current situation. Peter highlighted the potential problem that could arise in 2010 when Airbus and BAE are scheduled to re-negotiate the situation regarding Airbus employees-currently contributing quite heavily toward the fund deficiency. If the decision was made for Airbus members to leave the BAE main scheme... that could pose a problem for the future.

There were some questions from the floor requesting clarification on some points following which Peter was thanked for his contribution.

Social Events

David reported on the success of all the events that took place in 2006 and remarked on the particular success of the Christmas Lunch which was generally judged to be one of the best we had had even though the final number was down on the number that had applied for tickets.

The events for 2007 are as per the current Newsletter and as is usual at this time, we are still looking for additional support for both of the day trips and the short break: the final itinerary for the latter has yet to be published but none the less, applications are progressing nicely.

The Newsletter report was short and sweet. Bill Brand thanked all those who had contributed articles, also to those who had expressed their pleasure with regard to the Newsletter. Bill Brand asked again for additional contributions so as to hold a library of articles on which to draw and thus maintain a balanced Newsletter.

Election of Officers

In accordance with the constitution, the following committee members were due to retire: Mrs D Bartlett. Mr W Brand. Mr D Curtis. Mr K Strange. Mr J Tyler and Mr D Welsford.

Each of these members expressed their willingness to stand again but further to his earlier statement, the chairman again reiterated the need for new blood on the committee and asked those in attendance to consider the question and to come up with nominations or volunteers. This was met in general with a deathly silence until Kevin Cheverton volunteered to do what he could to help. Finally John Bartlett proposed and Ron Franklin seconded that the retiring committee members be re-elected en-bloc and accepted unanimously.

Election of Account Examiners

Both Messrs Hastings and Needs have expressed their willingness to stand again; their re-election was proposed en-bloc by Frank Webb and seconded by John Tyler and carried unanimously.

Memorabilia

The card from Sir George White to an employee in hospital has been placed in the hands of Bill Brand by Ron Frost for onward transmission and safe keeping by the Kemble Archivist-John Battersby. The final hand over will be achieved at the earliest opportunity.

Any Other Business

The question was raised from the floor regarding the administration cost to the association with regard to postage for the circulation of the Newsletter, and could we not save considerable expense by circulating the Newsletter via e-mail.

Bill Brand pointed out that this could be achieved for all those members who were sufficiently computer literate or indeed possessed a computer, providing such members e-mail addresses were known. A show of hands indicated that about 50% of those in attendance would be prepared to receive electronic copy. If that trend was reflected across the whole membership then substantial savings could be expected. Bill Brand undertook to include an article in the next Newsletter where members could express their willingness to receive electronic copy and to provide their e-mail addresses.

There being no further business, the meeting closed at 11:10 with the members availing themselves of coffee while the room was prepared for our speaker Mr Bob Kenny of MBDA.

The members settled down to hear a very interesting non-technical talk on how the old Dynamics/ Guided Weapons departments based at Filton had evolved into MBDA; how the various European countries had acted in concord to achieve a major defence industry equalled only by the USA and able to achieve end results unobtainable by government. The talk was very well accepted by the membership who showed their appreciation in the usual way. On the conclusion of his talk, Mr Bob Kenny made himself available to answer any questions the members may have.

On behalf of the RMSA, the Chairman proposed a vote of thanks to our guest which was fully supported by the members in attendance.

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Mr C F Webb

(Chairman)

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Mr W Brand

(Secretary Pro-tem)