Alresford and District Horticultural Society
79th Annual General Meeting 2025
The Chairman, Mrs Janet Pooley, was in the chair.
Apologies were received from Clare Read, Peter Kidman, Valerie Powell and Magda Pitkin.
AGENDA
1. Welcome address.
The Chairman welcomed the Members and told them what form the evening would take.
2. To approve the Minutes of the 2024 AGM.
All the Members had previously received a copy of the 2024 Minutes. Their adoption was proposed by Anne Ward, seconded by Ralph Pointer and adopted unanimously.
3. To receive the Chairman’s Report.
Since all Members had previously received a copy of this, Janet Pooley announced that she would just select relevant items for comment.
She began by thanking the Committee for their support over the last year, which had been a difficult one for her owing to health issues. She shared with the Membership that these had been resolved and she was looking forward to resuming her role.
i) Speakers.
We have had a variety of speakers, have had mostly positive feedback and hope to replicate this in the coming year.
ii) Alresford Horticultural Show.
The Chairman said how amazed she is that a small Society can put on an event such as this. She thanked Ann Winfield for her organisation of this event and the 55 Members who had contributed to making it a success.
iii) Wisley Outing.
This had been opened up to other Alresford Societies this year, resulting in a full coach and a small profit being made. We shall repeat this next time.
iv) Social Events.
Val Ramshaw had organised and hosted an enjoyable Summer Garden Party and organised the Christmas Supper at The Swan Hotel for which the Chairman thanked her.
v) Membership.
The Chairman emphasised the importance of recruiting more members so that we can pay our way. We need to target younger people through advertising on Social Media platforms.
Re the proposal to change the Society’s name to Alresford Garden Club to make it sound more inclusive (2024 AGM Minutes, 8. AOB), the Members were informed that this would cause a number of difficulties, not least with our bank accounts, so the name would remain the same but we could informally call ourselves Alresford Garden Club.4. Adoption of the Financial Statement and Examined Balance Sheet to 31.12.24
The Chairman thanked the Treasurer, Vivienne Isemann, for all her hard work with the finances, including changes to the banking arrangements.
Members were provided with a Financial Report and an audited Income and Expenditure Statement, showing there was an overall profit of £576.13. Ralph Pointer asked about the profit of £451.30 from Fund Raising and the Treasurer explained that profit from fundraising was recorded under several headings, including the Show which was recorded separately.