Another beautiful day in Javea as we strolled to the Casa de Cultura for our General Meeting with the Committee, followed by a fascinating talk on AI by our Guest Speaker Christine Betterton-Jones.
We had a good attendance of members to hear the Committee report on developments since our last General Meeting.
Our Vice President, Margaret March, reported that we transferred the website to a new hosting company in April and as some of you will know it caused some issues with emails, and pages on the website not being found. We have been clearing all issues raised as quickly as we can but if you experience any problems, please let us know. You can write to me or Peter Bayliss the Webmaster.
Margaret said that as part of improving our communications with members we thought it would be useful to use WhatsApp as another means to communicate and would be interested to get an idea if this would be feasible. She asked how many members present used this method of communicaiotn and a show of hands revealed an overwhelming majority. There was general agreement to try out a system using WhatsApp and Margaret said we will send information about how this will work when we set it up.
Our Treasurer, Henrik Rasmussen reported a healthy bank balance of 13,500 euros.
Our Groups Coordinator, Mike Frost reported that 47 Groups were still up and running, but that the President was endeavouring to establish the 48th known as ‘Circulo de Amistad’ (circle of friendship). The President explained that the aim was to have the first group actually run in Spanish (Castellano), with the twin aims of improving our Spanish through usage (not classes), including attending activities in the Pueblo run in Spanish, meet those running local services, and thereby enhance integration. The Group is already over subscribed!
The Membership Secretary Jim Short was unable to attend but his report was read by the Secretary Gillian Flaxman and reported membership now 1,100 (with 138 new this year). Some members instead of ‘renewing’ actually applied as new members and paid too much. This caused extra work and confusion. However, these good members agreed that the excess would go to charity – well done!
Gillian reported that she was liaising with those Group Leaders, who use Town Hall facilities, to obtain their dates for the next session after the summer so that she could submit the bookings to the Town Hall. We also had the Mayor Rosa Cardona and Raquel Voliero Councillor for Social Services, the Third Age and Foreigners present to see what we do.
The February Group Fair was very well supported and included representatives from outside organisations such as Cancer Care, MABS Cancer Support and RADARS all of which arfe part of our Member Support Network. Click to find out more.
The March Coffee morning had fewer members than we would have liked but we had Francis Love from MABS Cancer Supprt to tell us all about their work and ask for volunteers to help with their work boht in their shops and other work they undertake.
We didn’t have a Coffee Morning in April as the Social Centre was not available to us.
Finally Gillian mentioned that we had changed the way contact is made with Group Leaders on the website from an email address to a form. This was becuase emails have been proving unsatifactory and forms represent a more certain way of making contact.
And then to the Presentation on AI. Christine gave a fascinating talk on the development of AI, some of its usages (not known to most of us), the Pros (many), and the Cons (many). She warned against believing everything AI said without checking, and showed examples of its inaccuracies. We all now know that we need to learn more about this technology, which will have as profound an impact on our lives as the Industrial Revolution did in the 19th Century.
Afterwards Margaret March thanked Christine for a very informative presentation and explained that normally we give a gift of appreciation, but Christine had asked instead that we make a donation to Make A Smile. Very well done Christine!
Our next General Meeting is on Friday 30 October, keep an eye out for notices with details but please note your diary now.
See you all soon. Take care in the heat!