After a minute’s silence in honour of our late Queen and in tribute to our new King, the meeting started just after 6.45. Numbers (even when Zoom attendees were taken into account) were down on last year but more than enough people attended to form a comfortable quorum.
The meeting ratified all the proposed constitutional modifications: some of these were minor procedural issues, but the committee is now empowered both to grant honorary memberships to non-members (these memberships do not come with the right to vote or stand for office, but they do convey all other privileges and responsibilities of membership) and to promote existing members to free memberships in recognition of outstanding service (this latter category of members will continue to have full membership rights).
The members asked the committee to look into longer terms of office, creating a new code of conduct and complaints procedure, and into the election procedure for presidents and vice-presidents, and to bring proposals before the 2023 AGM. If any member is interested in joining the ‘Constitutional Sub-Group’, please contact the Secretary (secretary@bala-lake-railway.co.uk).
All the candidates were successfully elected, including two new people, so the officers of the Society for the next year are as follows. If any member wishes to know the precise number of votes cast for any or all candidates, please contact the Secretary on the above email address.
President and Vice-Presidents:
Peter Miller (President); Brian Bennett (Vice-President); Julian Birley (Vice-President); Chris Jackson (Vice-President). Following the constitutional changes approved at the AGM, the holders of these offices have the right to vote at committee meetings, though they are not technically members of the committee. This means that they are under no obligation to attend committee meetings. These roles continue to be, primarily, honorific.
Committee Members:
Tim Williams (Chairman); Dave Fildes (Vice-Chairman); Dave Scotson (Honorary Treasurer); Mat Peacock (Honorary Secretary); Cathy and Martin Houghton (Joint Membership Secretaries); Nick Talbot (Llanuwchllyn Express Editor); Francis Stapleton (Heritage Officer); Rob Houghton (Committee Member); Hilary Moorhouse (Committee Member); Bob Newton (Committee Member).
There is a vacancy for a full member of the committee, and the committee is empowered to co-opt a person to fill it, pending the next set of elections. If you would like to apply, please contact the Secretary or any other committee member.
