Committee Present:
| President: | Val Dromgoole |
| Vice President: | Peter Allin |
| Deputy Secretary: | Jacqui Rogerson |
| Treasurer: | Mick Cox |
| Communications Officer: | Ian Rogerson |
| Groups Coordinator: | David Whybrow |
| Membership Secretary: | Stan Staines |
Apologies:
Secretary: Margaret March
1. Welcome
VD welcomed everyone to the meeting. Apologies were sent by the Secretary, Margaret March.
2. Approval of General Assembly Minutes September 2019
The minutes were agreed and signed.
3. President Report
VD highlighted forthcoming events including the Christmas Extravaganza (which would include mince pies and sherry for all!) and Mike Frost’s End-of-Year-Lunch at La Masena restaurant, which would include a collection of loose change for the ‘Pennies from Heaven’ charity appeal.
VD pointed out that there were also collection tins at the meeting for the U3A nominated charity of the year, Help of Denia and Marina Alta, and for the Poppy Appeal.
VD appealed for volunteers to join the Travel Team.
VD reminded members that renewals for 2020 were due from January and, if renewals were not made by the end of April, members would have to rejoin and pay the €10 joining fee.
Nominations for Executive Committee positions were now welcomed and should be send to Election Auditor Roger Barclay by the end of November. VD announced that she would not be standing for re-election.
VD said PA works hard to arrange speakers for the general meetings, but said that it was a shame there was not as good a turnout as there was today. Members are missing some very good talks, she added.
4. Vice-President Report
PA welcomed new members and said he was delighted to see so many people at the meeting. He suggested that many were attracted by speaker Angela Chantry, but emphasised that, although the titles of some of our talks may sound boring, the content was very interesting. He urged members to support our guest speakers next year.
5. Membership Secretary Report
SS reported that 17 new members had joined on the day, bringing the membership total to 1,386, which was only 20 fewer than at the end of last year. SS emphasised that if members did not renew by the end of February, they would not be eligible to vote in the Executive Committee elections and if they did not renew by the end of April, they would have to rejoin and pay the rejoining fee.
6. Groups Coordinator Report
DW welcomed such a good turnout of members. He reported that Geoff Allen had taken over as group leader of the Monday Cribbage Group and he said that another member was interested in starting a Pickle Ball group, which apparently originated in the USA.
7. Communications Officer Report
IR said he was delighted at such a good turnout, which he hoped was due in some part to the fact that everybody had received his ‘Invitation to the Meeting’ email. He explained that he had been trialling a new system of issuing emails, feeding directly from the members’ database, which seemed to be working well. He urged more members, especially group leaders, to use the new website, which enabled them to post their own information.
IR reiterated his appeal for help on communications and publicity and urged anybody interested to contact him.
8. Treasurer Report
Treasurer (MC) reported that U3A Javea currently has €56,454.48 in the bank, of which €27,470.48 is being held for Travel, Spanish Culture & Cuisine, special events and charity. This leaves a balance of €28,984. He pointed out that the U3A had now transferred its bank account from Caixa to Sabadell and urged members not to make any further payments through Caixa.
9. Any other business
There were no questions from the floor but member Gary Johnson announced that the Javea Players are staging ‘Look Out, He’s Got A Gun’ in December, a 1950s crime thriller spoof, and urged anyone interested to hurry because tickets were selling fast.
10. Guest Speaker
Well-known member Angela Chantry gave an extremely enlightening presentation on ‘The History of Javea and its Royal Connections’, which was well received by the audience. Angela took members on a journey through time from the Palaeolithic period (30,000-10,000 BC), through the Iberian period (800-300 BC) and Roman times (300 BC-400 AD) all the way to the tourist town that Javea has become today.
During her talk, she revealed that King Philip III granted Xabia (Javea) the status of ‘Royal Town’ with its own coat of arms. Angela surprised members with some generally unknown information such as the fact that Javea once had an airfield, a bullring and a castle mansion! With the boom in tourism, the town’s population doubled between 1975 and 2000 from 10,000 to around 20,000.
Angela was thanked for her talk by Vice-President (PA) and presented with a gift.
11. Closure – The meeting closed at 12.30 pm
