The meeting began at approx 15.15 hrs in the presence of:
President – Mrs June West
Treasurer – Mr François Devin
Secretary – Mrs Linda Gorton
Mme Josephine Collinson
Mme Marie France Simmonet
Mr Roger Petitjean
Mr Patrice Garreau
Mr Brian Collinson
47 other Members of the Association were present or were represented.
President’s Report
June began by welcoming everyone to the AGM and on behalf of the Committee, wished everyone a Happy New Year. .During her report, which was interpreted into French by Marie France, she went on to recall the social events, which had occurred during 2013,
“ Our first event following the last AGM was the fete de Galette de Roi during which a competition was held to select the best home-made crown. Jim West won the men’s section with his light-headed version and the lady’s prize went to Josette Tatinclaux. The usual pancake party took place in February thanks to François’s culinary skills.
During March a Folk dance and supper was held and well attended and enjoyed by all. Thanks to Phillipe and his team for the musical input. The Beetle drive in April was not well attended but those who did enjoyed it and had plenty of cake. At the end of June a number of us went to visit a vineyard at Champ du Layon. We received a warm welcome from the proprietors who also provided a very nice room in which to eat our picnic lunch and gave us an assortment of wine to go with it. After a visit to the vines and production area it was back to make our purchases.
We had planned to have a B-B-Q to celebrate t he birth of the new Royal baby and set the date for 27yh July hoping that it would arrive in time. Prince George appeared a few days prior to the date.
Thanks to Roger.
During to the times when the Salle was unavailable we had a number of outside events including bowling, two walks, a visit to the Vendee miniature village, a visit to Sable d’Olonne for fish & chips, an evening at Bourinne a Loulou, a sardine factory shop and the bar! Our annual picnic at Lac de Jaunay was not so popular this year, perhaps it is time for a change of venue. please let us know if you have some ideas.
Five members of Le Pont filled a car for the Rallye Touristique d’Association expérience et Partage and I am pleased to say that Le Pont won one of the competitions.
This year came to a close with a loto afternoon in November, a trip to the Christmas show at Puy de Fou and our Chant de Noel which was attended by 74 people. Thanks to Claudine who played the keyboard for us. The singing was great. We quenched our thirst with vin chaud, mince pies and other cakes. We also used this occasion to collect tinned and dried food to present to Restos du Coeur at St. Hilarie who received it gratefully and told us that their client numbers had doubled in the past year. We have received a very nice letter thanking Le Pont for its participation and can I tell you that the 7th/8th March is the annual collection for Restos du Coeur across France and I you would like to bring some gifts for that on either Thursday evening or Friday morning before those dates , we will see that they are delivered.
Whilst we have had a successful year, we have seen the number of English speaking members decreasing. This has led us to do a mail shot of British sounding names found in the phone book for the St. Hilaire de Riez area and surrounding villages. So far we have had two new couples come to Le Pont and we welcome them especially today and hope they will join us. A number of people have returned to the UK and sadly a number have been ill and unable to come to Le Pont. We take this opportunity to extend our sincere condolences to those who have lost loved ones over the past year.
I would personally like to thank members who help on Friday mornings serving tea and coffee and all the committee members who are responsible for opening the Salle and making sure everything is in order when the session is finished. Thanks to Brian, Michel and Anne-Marie for doing the quiz every Friday morning. Also thank you Brian for keeping the website up to date and if you haven’t visited it yet please do. Thanks also to François and Marie France for their work every Thursday evening. Every member of the Committee contributes to the organisation of the Association and I thank each of them for their participation and support.
Francois is our Treasurer and I hand over to him for his annual report.
Treasurers Report.
Please see attachments .
June welcomed new Members. As there had been no comments from the last year’s AGM minutes these were accepted by the membership as were the President’s Report and the Treasurer’s. There were no questions from the floor
2013 in retrospect.
Marie France had created an excellent series of slides – with a sound track – to illustrate those events of 2013 which June had described. These were projected and much appreciated.
Elections to Membership of the Committee.
Patrice Garreau has resigned from the Committee but will still act as publicity officers so he is ex-officio now. There is a new candidate Josette Languedoc and Marie France is due for re-election. During the subsequent discussion the votes were taken by secret ballot and were as follows:
52 votes cast for Mme Languedoc unanimous
52 votes for Mme Simonnet unanimous
Then June announced that she would be resigning as President and a successor would be announced later. Linda Gorton was also resigning as Secretary. There were some concern raised from the floor that this would severely alter the Association and help was promised to help June as one of the main reasons was expressed by her that her French was not extensive enough for an association with an increasing French membership and to represent Le Pont at official meetings. Several members also thanked her for her leadership.
The meeting ended but all comments will be taken to the Committee meeting and the membership will be informed of developments asap.
Linda Gorton- Secretary