AGM

Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held at Park Hall Hotel,

Preston, Lancashire on Saturday 1 May 2010

Present:

Chair Barry Stickings

Vice Chair Phil McEvilly

Secretary Lynda Rhodes

Treasurer Gary Murphy

Acting Assistant Secretary Jenny Lupton

Ambassador Robbie Crow

Observer Debby Clark

Observer Gavin Waugh

Members: Mrs A Ajmal, Mr & Mrs S Andrews, Mr & Mrs J

Atkinson, Mr & Mrs C Bates, Mr & Mrs R Bird, Mr & Mrs C

Bould, Mrs S Brister, Mrs D Bruce, Mrs M Carberry, Mr & Mrs G

Clark, Mr & Mrs G Clive, Mr & Mrs G Cook, Mr M Cook & Ms T

Bryan, Mr & Mrs Croft, Mr & Mrs R Crow, Mr & Mrs J Davis, Mr

& Mrs W Day, Mr & Mrs J Delaney, Mr & Mrs M Dennison, Mr &

Mrs M Eccles, Mr & Mrs D Eggins, Mr & Mrs C Folder, Mr M

Food and Ms C Holmes, Mr & Mrs A Gardiner, Mr & Mrs M

Gordon, Mr & Mrs M Griffin, Mr & Mrs K Guha, Mr P Hale & Ms

S Lacey, Mr & Mrs C Hall, Mr & Mrs A Hamriding, Ms S Hiley,

Mr & Mrs R Hornbrook, Mr B Hornby, Mr M Horspool, Mr R

Inaba & Mrs D Demomo, Ms S Jessop, Mrs T Karvaski, Mr &

Mrs A King, Mr & Mrs D Lamin, Mr C Lear & Ms P Jones, Mr T

Lupton, Mr & Mrs M Machin, Mr & Mrs S May, Mrs M McEvilly,

Ms M McMenamin, Mr & Mrs N Morgan, Ms C Morris, Mr J

Murphy & Ms C Dunstan, Mrs R Murphy, Mr & Mrs A Newton,

Mr & Mrs C Nicklin, Mrs K Ott, Mr & Mrs J Paterson, Mr & Mrs D

Paul, Mr & Mrs M Potter, Mr & Mrs P Pouncey, Mr & Mrs J

Preston, Ms S Price, Mr & Mrs J Reynolds, Mr I Rhodes, Mr &

Mrs D Rojas-Al-Varez, Mr & Mrs J Ronnback, Mr & Mrs W Rose,

Mr & Mrs D Sharp, Mrs D Sloan, Mr & Mrs J Steven, Mr & Mrs

M Stevens, Mr & Mrs J Sumner, Mr & Mrs L Tilley, Mr & Mrs S

Thompson, Ms L Thomson, Mr & Mrs A Thorne, Mr & Mrs N

Tidcombe, Mr & Mrs T Walkden, Mr & Mrs A Walker, Mrs S

Waugh, Mr & Mrs G Wilkes, Mr & Mrs K Wilson, Mr & Mrs M

Wilson, Mr & Mrs P Wolstenholme.

Introduction

Barry Stickings introduced himself. He welcomed all families

especially the 20 new families and introduced a special guest

the new mascot for MACS, MACS the Monkey. Barry explained

to everyone the agenda for the meeting.

Apologies for Absence

None were received.

Minutes of the AGM held on 2 May 2008

Minutes of the AGM held on 2 May 2008 were accepted as true

and correct.

Matters Arising

There were no matters arising.

Chairs Report (Barry Stickings)

Barry went through the activities that will be taking place over

the weekend, including the dinners, today the music workshop

being held after lunch MACS and has got talent show this

evening.

The Team – Barry introduced all of the current committee to

the families.

Gala Ball – Barry went over that MACS held a Gala Ball at the end of 2002, this raised the profile of MACS and around

£20,000.

6th November this year we will be holding another Gala Ball

which is to be a black tie event in London. We are aiming for

corporate companies to come along, Barry asked families to let

any large companies know about this event to help to raise the

profile of MACS.

David Blunkett and Jodie Prenger will be attending.

Toy – Barry showed everyone a toy which was the idea behind

the balloons to become the Logo for MACS 17 years ago.

Treasurer’s Report (Gary Murphy)

Gary informed everyone that the year end has now been

changed from April to December, MACS has also changed Bank

Account from NatWest to a CAF Account.

There is a new payments procedure this is now all done online,

Lynda the Secretary enters the payments, Gary the Treasurer

checks all payments are entered correctly then Barry the Chair

or Phil the Vice Chair approves them.

Gary went over the accounts the income was around £ from

the Marathon.

The costs in 2009 have increased these were on the AGM (due

to providing inflatable activities and new families), providing

more grants, there is a governance cost of 1% which is for

holding meetings, none of the Trustees are paid this cost is to

cover mileages and rooms for the meetings.

MACS has separate accounts which are for events/items such

as the AGM, Gala Ball and Caravans, the money in these

accounts can only be spent on that event/item.

80% of the income to MACS comes from the Marathon, 21%

costs is for the Marathon, 33% costs goes towards holding the

AGM and Regional Events.

Events in 2010 we did not have as many runners for this year

for the Marathon, we are hoping to reach £170,000 and by

holding the Gala Ball this will lower the % on fundraising so

therefore our main fundraising not being through the Marathon

alone.

Gary asked if anyone has any questions to please see him

after the meeting.

After the income and expenditures of the year MACS is in a

finically healthy situation with the current Balance being £

Barry informed families that if they have a request for help to

please send the application to Lynda or someone on the

committee, this will then be discussed and as soon as a

decision has been made we will let the families know.

Achievement Awards – Barry explained that as none of the winners of this years Achievement Awards were staying all the

prizes have been sent out, Barry read out the winners:-

Kier Wilson

Aiden Preston

Olivia Kavanagh

Marathon 2010 – Barry thanked some of the MACS Dad’s

that were attending the Weekend that ran this years

Marathon, he also showed a small clip of photos of some of the

runners.

New Website – This is being set up at the moment and will

be ready to go live in the next few weeks, it will have video

access, be a good layout and colour scheme, also Barry

informed everyone that MACS is on Facebook, if anyone has

any other ideas for the new website to please see Barry over

the Weekend.

Talk in the USA – Barry went over to the USA last July for a

conference to give a talk on MACS, they could not believe the

amount of work we do and that we provide families with

grants towards equipment.

Sailing Trip – This year was the 2nd trip that MACS funded,

for a MACS child and a buddy to take part in, this will be

happening again next year, we have already had interest from

6 MACS children, the trip is open to children over the age of

12, Barry informed everyone that there is a stand at the back

of the room about the trip, Robbie will be available to answer

any questions.

MACS Caravan (Phil McEvilly)

Phil went over, that after lots of discussions within the

committee in meetings and via email re the caravan in

Scotland. Up to the end of March this year we only had one

family who was booked into that Caravan (the only reason

they had booked that caravan was that they couldn’t get into

the caravan that they wanted to) we had to make the decision

as last year we lost over £7,000 on this caravan alone.

Phil had stayed at Mullion Park in Cornwall which was a great

site. Prices were looked into the purchase of a new caravan.

This cost would have been around £42,000.

As the caravan in Scotland is in really good condition we

looked into moving it to the site in Cornwall, the cost for this

was around £10,000, we also had a rebate of just under

£1,900. The caravan has now been moved and will be ready to

use from the week after the Whitsun Holiday, bookings will be

open from Saturday 8th May for this season. Priority will be

given to families that have not yet stayed at any of the

caravans.

There will be a new booking system set in place for 2011

season.

Phil said if any families have any questions to please see him

over the Weekend.

Regional Supporters (Debby Clark)

Debby Clark told us about how the Regional Supporters

started in 1999 the aim for this was to have a person in each

county that families could talk to and put them in contact with

other families, to try to hold an event each year to get families

in counties to meet up, in 2000 there were 7 Regional

Supporters a year later there were 20.

Last year we re-launched the Regional Supporters and had 23

new supporters covering 29 regions. Over the last 12 months

there has been 13 events held in different regions with a total

of 265 people attending them. Ben, who is an Adult with a

MACS condition, has joined as an Adult Supporter to help with

the older MACS Children and we also have a Grandparent

Supporter.

Debby thanked all the Regional Supporters for all the work

they have put in over the last 12 months and asked parents if

any of them would become a Regional Supporter/Contact and

possibly to hold an event, Debby would be around during the

weekend for parents to talk to her about this.

Debby also invited all the Regional Supporters and anyone

interested to find out anymore about helping, to come along to

the meeting this afternoon being held at Ilford Suite at

4.30pm.

Junior Sub Committee – Matthew Horspool

Matthew went over how the Junior Sub Committee will run,

trying to get MACS children involved in giving ideas to the

main committee on what they would like to see happen within

MACS, Children over the age of 12 are more than welcome to

attend a meeting being held this afternoon in the Ilford Suite

at 2.30pm.

Constitution Changes

All the changes were emailed to all families on the MACS email

database, we had 53 votes back. Barry explained that anyone

who voted online can’t vote again during the meeting.

Debby went through the changes (copy of which is attached to

these minutes) to the following clauses:-

D Powers

Amend (x), there were no objections to the changes

Add (xi), there were no objections to the changes

G Executive Committee

Amend (c), there were no objections to the changes

J Meetings and proceedings of the Executive Committee

Amend (5), there were no objections to the changes

P Annual General Meeting

Amend (1) there were no objections to the changes

Q Special General Meeting

Amend there were no objections to the changes

V Arrangements until first General Meeting

Remove and replace with the new Grievance Procedure, there

were no objections to the changes.

Guest Speaker – Tracie Tappenden VICTA

Tracie thanked everyone for the invitation to join us over our

Family Weekend. She expressed the feeling of warmth that

she has received from everyone, both Charities work hard

together for the London Marathon.

Tracie read some of the stories of Children from VICTA.

In 2009 VICTA runners raised over £400,000, with this money

they help with individual grants – like MACS do. In 2009 they

provided grants of £20,000, a family weekend last year at

Centre Parcs with MACS and LOOK, this year a weekend to be

held in the Isle of Wight, 18-25 gap year, blind in business –

filling in gaps, support other Charities with different conditions.

Tracie went over her story about her son Max.

Refreshments Break for 15 minutes.

Proposal for Spending Limits:-

As it stands the Committee do not have any restrictions on the

amount of money that can be spent on any one item, this is

how the Committee feel it needs to stay as we will be very

restricted to purchase large items, organise events such as the

London Marathon, the MACS AGM/Family Weekend and the

Sailing Trips.

It was explained that the Trustees are liable for all the monies

that MACS have in the accounts, so therefore if the Trustees

misspent the money they would be liable for it, the monies in

the separate accounts for example AGM, Gala Ball, Caravan

can not be spent on anything else other than what it is

designated for.

There were 2 objections from the floor, families wanting us to

have a set limit on monies we can spend without holding a

Special General Meeting.

After a discussion it was decided by raise of hand vote for the

Constitution to remain as it is at present giving the Committee

the power to spend the monies on items needed, this to be

reviewed each year at the AGM.

Election of Trustees

Under our constitution the following nominations had been

received at least 14 days prior to the AGM.

The following Trustees were elected.

Chair Barry Stickings Nominated by Rab Crow,

Seconded by Andrea Machin

Vice Chair Phil McEvilly, Nominated by Patsy Sharp,

Seconded by Mike Eccles

Secretary Lynda Rhodes, Nominated by Gillian Gardiner,

Seconded by Paula Andrews

Treasurer & Gary Murphy, Nominated by Gordon Cook,

Marathon Seconded by James Sumner

Assistant Secretary Jenny Lupton, Nominated by Karen Cook,

Seconded by Fay Sumner

Observer Gavin Waugh, Nominated by Tim Walkden

Seconded by Mel Gordon

Observer & Regional Debby Clark, Nominated by Suzanne

Hiley

Supporter coordinator Seconded by Julie Wilson

Gifts - Fay Sumner & Robbie Crow received a gift from Barry & Lynda on behalf of everyone from MACS as a thank you for

all the hard work they have put into the running of MACS.

Lunch – Barry informed everyone that after the AGM there

would be sandwiches in the Park Suite for the families to be

served from 1.45pm.

TV Clip - Barry showed a TV clip shown on London Tonight in

January when some MACS families went to meet Jodie

Prenger.

Speaker (Mark Potter MACS Dad)

Mark gave a very emotional and heartfelt talk about his

experiences of being a MACS Dad and the story of his 8 year

old Son Nathan, with the feelings felt by the family and

Hospital visits.

How Nathan had inspired him to the run the London Marathon

and the thought of him kept him going through that day.

Guest Speaker (Jim Dixon Benefits)

Jim thanked us for inviting him back to our AGM. He explained

the work he does for Welfare Rights for Lancashire County

Council and now an Advisor to MACS families via the website.

He gave a brief chat on the talk that he gave 2 years ago.

There is now a link on the Website. Families can email him

with any questions. He will then get in contact with the family.

Questions and Answers

A Question and answers session between many of the parents

present took place.

Questions were asked and answered on a variety of topics.

Main points to arise were:

1. Golden Bonds for the London Marathon, how do they

work –Gary explained the cost for each Golden Bond to

MACS is £300, the minimum each runner is to raise who

has a Golden Bond is £1,150, this does outweigh the cost

of purchasing the Golden Bond.

1. One of the Families Son’s is leaving School he has uni-

lateral Anophthalmia and was wanting to be a mechanic

how hard would it be – Ben used to work as an engineer,

now does mechanical work at home, not being able to

see out of one eye has not stopped him just the need to

take extra precautions.

1. Education – there were a few families that were having

problems with schools/schooling for children, such as

private education, scholarship won to attend grammar

schools even though child has a 1-1 statement the

independent schools not always providing the extra help

needed. Another family a child being attending Nursery

doing really well at the annual review the family were

informed that the child would have to attend a special

school – VICTA said they would help to try to find out

some more information also another family suggested to

contact KIDZ for help and advise.

1. A child is coming up to the age of 19 and has will be

unable to work due to disabilities, how do they start to

claim Employment Support – Jim suggested the family

email the details over to him, he will have a look and

then ring them with the advise.

1. Emigrating – a family told us that they were wanting to

Emigrate they passed everything ok, until the got to the

final stage and failed on medical grounds as their Son

was Registered Blind.

Barry thanked the Guest Speakers for attending and the

meeting was closed.