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2010 AGM Notice, 2009 AGM Minutes, 2009/2010 Reports The Annual General Meeting will be held on Friday, 15th October, 2010 at 7.30pm in Glastonbury Abbey Museum Agenda 1. Apologies for absence 2. Minutes of the last Annual General Meeting 3. Matters arising from the Minutes 4. Chairman’s Report 5. Presentation of the Accounts to 31st August 2010 6. Election of Officers and Committee 7. Any other business Minutes of the last Annual General Meeting held at 7.30pm on Friday 13th October 2009 in Glastonbury Abbey Museum Lady Gass in the chair. 1. 1. Apologies for absence Ms M Acland Hood, 2. Minutes of the last Annual General Meeting The minutes of the AGM held on Friday 3rd October 2008, having been circulated to all Members were accepted. 3. Matters arising 4. Chairman’s Report The Chairman spoke of the Society’s six well attended public meetings and the enjoyable field trip to Fairfield House and Cothay Manor during the 2008/2009 season. The committee had negotiated the details of that part of a government funded Research Project by Reading University into the “In situ preservation of wetland heritage: hydrological and chemical change in the burial environment of the Somerset Levels” (to identify threats to the preservation of buried material in the levels due to the dryer weather associated with Climate Change) that concerned the Glastonbury Lake Village. It has subsequently supported Louise Jones in the first phase of her two year monthly monitoring. This committee supported Nancy Hollinrake (the Society’s representative on the Managing Board of the Tribunal TIC) in the Board’s work in ensuring the continued presence of the Society’s museum in the Tribunal at a time when funding patterns for TICs are changing. The Society’s library, with the assistance of David Orchard, continued to provide a valuable research tool to both visitors and members. 5. Presentation of the Accounts to 31st August 2009 The Accounts were presented by the Hon Treasurer, Nancy Hollinrake and accepted. 5. 6. Election of Officers and Committee The appointed officers are: President: Lady Gass Vice Presidents: The Mayor of Glastonbury (ex officio) Mr M Brown, Professors B J Coles and J D Coles and Mr J Loveridge. The following officers were elected: Chairman: Mr N J Bonham Vice Chairmen: Dr T Hopkinson-Ball Hon. Secretary: Mrs N Hollinrake Hon. Treasurer: Mr D P B Miller Hon. Librarian Mr D Orchard. Membership Secretary Mrs D Bonham. Committee: Mr J Brunsdon, Mr C Hollinrake, Ms S Morland and Mr W Wych. Tribunal Display Sub Committee (dormant) membership confirmed: Mr N Bonham, Mrs M Gosling, Mrs A Heeley, Mr D Miller and Mr D Orchard Town Hall Display Sub Committee membership agreed: Mr N Bonham, Mr J Brunsdon, Mr N Cottle, Mrs N Hollinrake and Mr D Orchard GAS Representative on Glastonbury Tribunal Ltd Board Mrs N Hollinrake.
Chairman’s Report, 2009/10 season Public Meetings During the past season there were six meetings. Jerry Sampson compared the building of the 12th century east ends at Wells Cathedral and Glastonbury Abbey. After last year’s AGM Tim Hopkinson-Ball described the late mediaeval cult of Our Lady of Glastonbury. I put into context State and Church relations in Central Somerset up to the Reformation and Nancy Hollinrake started on her survey of Glastonbury from the Romans to the Saxons. Both of these will be continued during this coming season. Louise Jones, the research student from Reading University described the monitoring that she has started at the Glastonbury Lake Village and Dom Aidan, Abbot of Downside, spoke about the English Benedictines at Downside since the Reformation. There was a Field Trip when 35 members were shown round Downside Abbey church having spent the morning at Camely parish church. The average attendance at the six meetings was 40. Membership The membership of the Society has reached an all-time high for its 135th year - 108 paid up members. 15 were new members last year and we’re grateful that 43 now pay by Bankers’ Order. Committee During the year your committee spent time considering the future of the Lake Village Museum, aware of the growing funding difficulties for TICs and the criticisms of the inadequate disabled access upstairs in the Tribunal. It has also been planning for the first of what may be a series of practical archaeology summer schools and developing a strategy for future research based upon the Glastonbury Lake Village site and the artefacts from it that are on show and in store. Library The use of the Society’s Library has steadily increased this year, with enquiries on local history outweighing those on legend and myth. Town, Abbey and County history, family history and the dating of houses account for the largest number plus one-off enquiries concerning ‘Ancient Science’, ‘Joseph of Arimathea’, ‘Templars’ and ‘Bligh Bond’. Several visitors showed an interest in heraldry and genealogy (some from the USA) and there was much study of textiles in preparation for the Abbey’s exhibition. Directories and voters’ lists now help to trace the occupants of houses in the late 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. We anticipate that John Money’s Cannon volumes will be in the library shortly: “The Chronicles of John Cannon, Excise Officer and Writing Master, Part 1: 1684-1733 (Somerset, Oxfordshire, Berkshire) and Part 2: 1734-43 (Somerset) (Records of Social and Economic History)”. We are grateful to David Orchard, the Society’s Librarian who continues to be available at the library on Monday afternoons but also on numerous other occasions for foreign visitors to the town with only limited time in the area. David would value assistance in listing the contents of the 12 volumes of miscellaneous ‘pamphlets’ from someone who could list the contents without yielding too frequently to the temptation to read them. Please contact him at (01458) 833078 or mobile 07717 442 747. Museum The Society has provided a museum in the town since it was founded in 1885, the Town Hall’s small hall being built to house it. Since 1960 it has housed the Society’s display of its world famous, unique Glastonbury Lake Village collection in the Tribunal. The not-for-profit company, Glastonbury Tribunal Ltd., was subsequently set up to run it with the Tourist Information Centre after the fore-runner of English Heritage could no longer employ a custodian in the Tribunal. The TIC provides free advertising of the museum on their website and in the town guide, the staffing to keep the museum clean and open and the finance for running expenses like electricity, while the museum gives access to a heritage building (under English Heritage care) at a very advantageous rate. The Society allows the TIC to retain the admission income to the museum; in effect, museum entry fees pay the rent. This symbiotic relationship has worked for the past 20 years, aided by grants from other sources. Unfortunately, cutbacks in government funding have led to a retraction in the grant paid by Mendip and no funding is expected next year from the District Council. The Tribunal board are exploring other avenues to compensate for this significant funding shortfall, but are likely to need all of the help they can get. The GAS Committee members who are on the Glastonbury Tribunal Board of Directors are John Brunsdon and Nancy Hollinrake (representing the Society) and they are calling on our membership to come to the support of our museum by supporting the TIC. Members are being recruited to act as volunteers to support our professional TIC staff as often or as seldom as is convenient within the Tribunal. There could be fewer better ways to further the work of the Society than to help keep the museum open on the High Street while ensuring that our visitors find what they want in Glastonbury; whether it be a good meal and a night’s sleep or reliable information about our rich history and archaeology. Let’s not be the generation who allow it to be closed. Please phone Nancy on Glastonbury 833332 to find out more. If you would like to contribute to these or any of our activities or if you would like to talk to the Society’s members or share with them anything of local antiquarian interest please contact me (at 01458 832657 or at neill@bonham.go-plus.net) for inclusion in our future programme. Neill Bonham (Chairman) |