Minutes of the First Annual general Meeting of the Friends of Stow Maries Aerodrome (FoSMA)

held at he aerodrome on 20
th
June 2014

Present: Geoff Charge (chair), Bob Pluck (vice-chairman),Roger Lawson (Treasurer), Derek Juniper
(Webmaster), Corinne Lawson (Membership Secretary), Trevor Neale (Head of Retail)
28 members (inc Committee)

1. The Chairman opened the meeting by welcoming everyone and detailing some of the
activities of FoSMA over the preceding year. He thanked everyone for their support and
outlined some forthcoming events and activities involving FoSMA and the aerodrome.

2. Constitution: It was proposed by Simon Askins and seconded by Brian Harley that the
constitution be accepted. This was passed unanimously.

3. Treasurers Report: Roger Lawson presented the annual audited accounts to 31
st
March 2014
and updated members on the current position as of 31
st
May 2014. The accounts were
approved unanimously by the meeting.

4. Membership Secretarys Report: Corinne Lawson reported that we currently had 197
members including 71 volunteers, 14 honoraries and some flyers. More members were
joining now as Friends.

5. Webmasters Report: Derek Juniper outlined the progress that had been made in the year on
the FoSMA website and informed members that a new global website including FoSMA had
been created for the aerodrome and is www.stowmaries.org.uk. This will supersede the
current site (www.stowmaries.com).

6. Retail Managers Report: Trevor Neale gave his report outlining the rationale behind setting
up a retail operation and the constraints under which it operates. The FoSMA committee
had just allocated some 2300 in total from general funds and the shops takings to upgrade
the stock with new items, some of which would be on sale before the Armed Forces Day on
28
th
June.


7. Resignation of the Interim Auditor Trevor Neale: His resignation was caused by the conflict
of interest with being Head of Retail.

8. Election of Officers and Committee: The Chair resigned and Bob Pluck took over as interim
Chair. All the current Officers and Committee members were re-elected en-bloc
unanimously. It was mentioned that we still need a clerk but there were no volunteers
forthcoming!


9. Trevor Neale outlined the reason for the proposal to raise additional funds to fund the
expansion of the retail operation and that it was a contingency only at this stage but gave
the committee the powers to ask members if it was felt necessary.
The proposal to authorise the raising of interest free loan(s) from members to a maximum of
5000 to fund the continued expansion of, and purchase of stock for the Retail operation
was accepted unanimously.
10. Appointment of auditor for 2014-5. It was proposed and accepted that a retire bank
manager Mr David Leslie (with no affiliations to FoSMA) be appointed auditor for the coming
year.

11. Any other business:
a) JF raised the possibility of getting one of the Red Arrows team to give a talk which the
Chairman said he would follow up and that he himself was proposing to give a talk on his
experience in aircraft design over 50 years.

b) Several people mentioned the lack of publicity of aerodrome events. It was explained
that visiting aircraft availability was weather dependent and we did not wish to
disappoint visitors. There was also a 3000 limit on the number of visitors we were
allowed on any one day. Nonetheless the meeting approved that a formal approach be
made to the Trust on this issue.


c) The question of the security of the books left loose in the Museum was raised and the
Chairman said he would speak to the Curator (Ivor) on his return from holiday.

There being no further business the meeting closed.
Refreshments were gratefully received by all members and thanks go to Corinne for the cakes and
Sandra for the tea and coffee.