AGM 27th November 2014

This years Elephants Not Included AGM will be on 27th November at 8pm, in the Alltwen Community Hall, Dyffryn Rd, Alltwen, Pontardawe. Swansea. SA8 3BY. 


Please try to be there. If you are unable to attend, but would like something discussed, please contact me, so I can add it to the agenda. Equally, if you would like to be considered for one of the three posts on the committee of the group (see below), let me know and I will nominate you and put your name on the ballot. The week before the AGM I will be sending out an email to all members that will have the agenda and list of people nominated for the committee posts, so that you all get a chance to think about things before the meeting or email me your votes and opinions on the agenda topics in advance if you cannot be there. Thanks.


Committee Posts Job Descriptions

Chair:-

• Responsible for the smooth running of the club.
• Keep club members informed of everything going on within the club.
• Covering or re-allocating work for committee members that are absent/ill/having problems with their duties.
• Run the lending library, processing and keeping record of equipment going out and coming back in.
• Keeping the Facebook group and blog news page up to date.
• Increase awareness in the local community what ENI is all about.
• Be the person club members contact to request master classes/training.
• Find venues and tutors for master classes requested by the club members.
• Dealing with complaints.
• Chair monthly meetings.
• Key holding.

Treasurer:- 

• Keep weekly club attendance records up to date with who has and hasn't paid.
• Keep accurate records of money taken each week.
• Keep accurate records of club expenditure.
• Keep and file receipts for all payments made by the club.
• Bank money (or arrange for another committee member to do so)
• Pay the monthly rent for the hall from club funds and pay club invoices.
• Attend short monthly meetings and keep the committee updated on the accounts and any problems.
• Occasional key holding.

Secretary:-

• Keep members records up to date and add new members detail to the records as they join.
• Providing all committee members with up to date copies of members details.
• Deal with correspondence to and from ENI.
• Apply for grants and deal with responses from the grant bodies.
• Write the minutes for all meetings and provide copies of them to all committee members. This can be digitally.
• Holding records of any complaints made within or to the group.
• Attend monthly meetings to report to the committee any mail, grant replies etc.
• Occasional key holding.

AGM - 2014

This years AGM will be taking place at sometime in November. I say sometime, because I have yet to find a date that all the Committee members will be available to be at a meeting. This is down mainly to the fact I, and Glen work shifts and my shifts are not in a set pattern. I only get about a weeks notice of my definite rota times.

"So why are you posting this on the blog?" I hear you ask. I want you to know that there may only be very short notice that the meeting is on. Due to this I am asking all of you that if you have a burning passion to be elected to the Committee let me know as soon as possible and I will draw up a ballot to email to all of you. This means that you can register your vote before hand if you are worried you will not be able to attend the actual meeting. 

Also, if you have something you would like discussed at the meeting, please send me a message about that too. We as a group should all be able to have an input into how the club is run and about what we do. Think about what you would like to happen in 2015 and let us know. If you have radical ideas about changes we can make to the club, be sure to include the reasons why you want the changes and how you feel they would improve ENI. All of this will go into the email I will send out so others have a chance to put forward their views on your ideas.

Please get all of this to me before Thursday 6th November, so I can compose and send out an email and given you all a chance to reply and vote before November has run away and turned into December.

Thanks

Lynne

Last Night's AGM

The AGM went well. Lots of things got discussed and an outline plan for how we move forward in 2014 was agreed. When the minutes of the meeting are transcribed they will be posted both here and on the the Facebook page. 

Thank you to those that came along. Your input was great. Here's to a wonderful 2014 at ENI. 

The 2014 Committee was voted in:- 

• Secretary - Cath Davies. 
• Treasurer - Stephen Hanbury. 
• Chair - Lynne Davies.

AGM

This Thursday 14th November 2013 we will be holding the Annual General Meeting of the Elephants Not Included club. It will start at 7.30pm, at the Alltwen Community Hall, so please be on time.

If you wish to stand for one of the committee posts, Chair, Secretary or Treasurer, please make it known to Lynne before this Wednesday 15th November.

If you have a topic that you feel needs discussing, please also tell Lynne before Wednesday.

This will allow us to put up a meeting agenda on the Facebook Page and here on the Blog before the meeting. That way people unable to attend the meeting will be able to email us anything they wish to have added to the discussion on a particular topic.

We are hoping that this years AGM will be fairly short and to the point. That way there will still be lots of time to play afterwards, but as we are hoping to make a few changes to how the club is run in the next year, it would help us to keep it short if people can be ready in advance with what they have to say.

Thank you!

Important AGM Information

The AGM will be held on 14th November 2013

Things are going to be a little different this year, due to our Treasurer being on the other side of the World when the meeting takes place.

The Committee will, as normal, all be stepping down at the end of the meeting, where upon we will vote in the new years committee, but ​instead of that embarrassing moment when we ask "Who would like to stand for the position of ...", we have decided to give you lots of advanced notice and will be asking you to tell Lynne before the 4th November of your interest in standing. A ballot sheet will be drawn up of all the people who want to be considered for the posts of chair, Secretary and Treasurer and that ballot will be send to any members that cannot attend the meeting, so they can email in their votes in advance. There are two main reasons we want to do it this way, one, because often members that work shift patterns cannot be at the meeting and therefore do not get to stand or vote, and we feel this is unfair on them. Secondly, because we feel some members don't like to blow their own trumpets in a public meeting and are too shy (for want of a better word) to ask to stand. There is a list of responsibilities each position holds below. You can read them and decide if you wish to stand. Please be aware that if you do stand for a position, and you get voted in, you will be expected to do the work that goes with that role. There is an estimated average time each position takes a week on each description.

We are also asking you in advance if you have topics you want discussed at the AGM. See list below of the topics that the committee would like to bring up. If you want anything else added let Lynne know as soon as possible please.

Agenda discussion topics

• Changing the committee to have an odd number of members so there cannot be a hung vote.
• Feedback on what people felt did and didn't work in the last year.
• What would you like to see ENI doing in the year to come?
• How people would like to be reminded of unpaid weekly fees.
• Ideas of how to attract new members.
• Changes to the way events are set up and run.
• Monthly newsletter and Mailing lists.
• Regular monthly committee meetings.
• Opening time, should it stay at 7pm?
• First Aid.
• Health and safety.

Committee Members Responsibilities

Chair:-
1 1/2 hours per week.

• Responsible for the smooth running of the club.
• Keep club members informed of everything going on within the club.
• Covering or re-allocating work for committee members that are absent/ill/having problems with their duties.
• Run the lending library, processing and keeping record of equipment going out and coming back in.
• keeping Facebook group and blog news page up to date.
• Increase awareness in local community what ENI is all about.
• Be the contact point for club members requesting master classes/training.
• Find venues and tutors for master classes requested by club members.
• Deal with complaints
• Chair monthly meetings

Treasurer:-
15-40 minutes per week.

• Keep weekly club attendance records up to date with who has and hasn't paid.
• Keep accurate records of money taken each week.
• Keep accurate records of club expenditure.
• Keep and file receipts for all payments made by the club.
• Bank Money (or arrange for another committee member to do so)
• Pay the monthly rent for the venue from club funds and pay club invoices.
• Attend short monthly meetings and keep committee updated on the accounts and any problems.

Secretary:-
20-30 minutes per week.

• Keep members records up to date and safe.
• Add new members details as they join.
• Deal with correspondence to and from ENI
• Apply for grants and deal with responses from the grant bodies.
• Keep the minutes for all meetings and provide copies of them to all committee members. This can be digitally.
• Holding records of any complaints made within the group.
• Attend monthly meetings to report to committee any mail, grant replies, etc.

Events Organiser:-
Hours per week are very flexible depending on up coming events.
This post may no longer exist after the AGM.

• Find events for ENI to attend.
• Arrange ENI parties/gatherings.
• Be the contact point for events we are requested to attend by outside bodies.
• Bring all requests before the club for the members to vote if they wish to be involved in each events.
• Organise and inform members where they are supposed to be, and at what time. Insure they know what they need to bring with them and all the health and safety information for the event.
• Confirm with the event organisers that their insurance covers ENI for the whole event.
• Write risk assessment for external venues if required.
• Attend short monthly meetings and keep the committee update on any up coming events and requests.

Newsletter Sign Up and AGM News

We are about to start sending out Monthly News letters with all the information of workshops, events and club members news. We are inviting all club members to send in articles to go in the mail shot, such as if they manage to nail 5 ball juggling or have achieved a personal goal.

The newsletter will be sent via MailChimp and you can sign up to receive the once monthly mail shot here. We promise you that we will not spam your email boxes with millions of emails as we all know how annoying that is.It will only be the one email a month and maybe the occasional email to inform you about an impromptu beach meeting because the weather is nice, or a message to let you know of an unforeseen cancellation of a workshop or club meeting, so I do hope most/all of you will sign up for the Newsletter.

As many of you may already know, it is coming up to AGM time. We need to hold this meeting once a year for us to discuss what we got right and what we got wrong last year, how we go forward with the club, and vote in a Committee for the next year. To that end the present committee have decided to be a bit more organised this year and we will be emailing all of the regular members with a list of what we would like to discuss so that you all have the chance to let us know if you would like something else added to the agenda of the meeting. We will also be asking you to let us know in advance of the meeting if you would like to stand to be one of the committee members for the next year. To help you to decide if you would like to do that the email will contain a job description for each committee position. The reason we are doing this is because we feel that sometimes putting yourself forward on the night in front of a group of people can be a bit off putting. If you can register your interest in taking up one of the posts in advance maybe more people would feel comfortable volunteering. All of the present committee members will step down on the night and a vote will go ahead with all the people wishing to stand being voted upon. If you cannot make it to the AGM you will be able to email vote in advance.

I hope that you all are happy with this way of doing it, as we on the committee felt this would be a more inclusive and give everyone the chance to have a say on how the club moves forward.

AGM Topics

Just so you can all have a think before the event, here are some topics that will be discussed at the AGM this week.

• Review accounts and decide on a minimum amount we should keep as a float in the bank.
• Decide if we need to have a cap on the amount we have in the bank and what to do with the money when it goes over that agreed amount.
• Restructuring how club events are to be organised.
• Discuss the committee members job descriptions and update*.
• Organising a team of blog writers and vote in an editor or two.
• Set a New Years Challenge on the blog.
• Events to be put on the website Calender. (Please bring with you any details of events you want adding)
• Vote in 2013's committee members.If you wish to stand for a position let us know, so you can be nominated when it comes to voting time.

*These are the current descriptions:-

Club Members Responsibilities

Chair:-
• Responsible for the smooth running of the club.
• Keep club members informed of everything going on within the club.
• Covering or re-allocating work for committee members that are absent/ill/having problems with their duties.
• Run the lending library, processing and keeping record of equipment going out and coming back in.
• Keeping the Facebook group and blog news page up to date.
• Increase awareness in the local community what ENI is all about.
• Be the person club members contact to request master classes/training
• Find venues and tutors for master classes requested by the club members.
• Dealing with complaints.
• Chair monthly meetings.


Treasurer:-
• Keep weekly club attendance records up to date with who has and hasn't paid.
• Keep accurate records of money taken each week.
• Keep accurate records of club expenditure.
• Keep and file receipts for all payments made by the club.
• Bank money (or arrange for another committee member to do so)
• Pay the monthly rent for the hall from club funds and pay club invoices.
• Attend short monthly meetings and keep the committee updated on the accounts and any problems.


Secretary:- 
• Keep members records up to date and add new members detail to the records as they join.
• Deal with correspondence to and from ENI
• Apply for grants and deal with responses from the grant bodies.
• Write the minutes for all meetings and provide copies of them to all committee members. This can be digitally.
• Holding records of any complaints made within or to the group.
• Attend monthly meetings to report to the committee any mail, grant replies etc.

Events Organiser:-
• Find events for ENI to attend.
• Arrange ENI parties/gatherings.
• Be the point of contact for anyone approaching ENI requesting attendance at events.
• Bring all requests before the club for the members to vote if the wish to be involved in each event.
• Organise members to be where they are supposed to be, at the time they are supposed to be, and insure they understand all the health and safety rules that the event have given you.
• Confirm with events organisers that ENI is covered by the event insurance.
• Write risk assessment for external venues if requested.
• Attend short monthly meetings and keep the committee updated on any up coming events or requests.

Club Members:- 
• Have spatial awareness and take care within the hall.
• Wear safety equipment when needed.
• Return any borrowed equipment within the agreed time period.
• Bring forward ideas for events to the Events Organiser and be involved in setting up the event if the club members vote to participate in said event.
• Make sure the hall is left in the same state it was in when we arrive by helping to clean up at the end of the night.
• Report any damaged to equipment or venue to a Committee member.

AGM 2012

The AGM for the Elephants Not Included will be held at 8pm on the 13th December 2012 at the Alltwen Community Hall. We will be discussing what has happened in the last year and what we hope to do in 2013. We will be nominating and voting in a Committee for the year and reviewing the accounts and what we should do with the club funds. Please be there to have your say. We will try to keep the meeting as short as possible. Tea, coffee, squash and biscuits will be provided. If you have a topic you wish to be discussed please contact Lynne or Kim to have it added to the agenda. I hope to see you all there!

Minutes from the AGM 1st December 2011

In attendance: Peter Duncan, Lynne Davies, Stephen Hanbury, Daniel Mahers, Andy Horobin, Robert Roberts, Nick Roberts, Sonia Cresswell, James Matthews, Chris Morgan, Greg Hartland.

Apologies: Vaughan Budd

Background
A busy schedule has caused Vaughan Budd be unable to regularly attend ENI weekly club meetings and this has lead him to decided to step down as Secretary. The Club members would like to thank him for his years service in the post.

Finances
Stephen did not have an exact figure to give us having been away from the club the week before, so I will update the figure here as soon as he has calculated it. A rough estimate was £500


1. Filling the secretary post.
The club members were asked to propose someone for the post. Kim Hopkins was nominated by Stephen Hanbury and seconded by Daniel Mayers. A majority of members votes yes to the proposal so we are happy to announce that Kim Hopkins is now the Club Secretary.

An offer was made that the other 3 committee members would step down if anyone else wished to take up any of the posts, but no one did.

The committee is:-
Chair -Lynne Davies
Treasurer - Stephen Hanbury
Secretary - Kim Hopkins
Events Organiser - Daniel Mahers.

Job Descriptions can be found here.

2.Decisions 

• Monies that we agreed to be donated to the charity Performers Without Borders will be paid by check before the 1st January 2012. To be actioned by LD and SH.
• Cupboard to store equipment at the Alltwen Community Hall will aim to be completed by the 31st January 2012. To be actioned by LD and DM.
• Birthday cakes will no longer be provided by LD, due to costs.

3. Site Rules

Due to many new members joining the club we re-visited the rules of use of the hall.

4. Events

• This years Christmas Party will be held on 29th December. Organisation DM
• Curry night at the hall on a club night in January. Food to be made at LD and DM and transported up to the hall. Date yet to be agreed.
• A summer Gathering was proposed for 2012. It was agreed it would be good to have one, but that it be less formal than last year and involve booking a campsite for a weekend. Organisation will begin in the new year. To avoid it clashing with other summer events could people give dates to DM of any weekends they cannot attend. Organisation to be actioned DM.
• DM Proposed an Urban Unicyclists meeting in Swansea on a week day evening in the spring/summer. Date, venue and times to be confirmed. Invitations would be extended to unicyclists out side the ENI club to join in. JM suggested approaching the council for a busking licence so funds could be collected for the club at this event. Organisation DM.
• The Unicyclists would like to have an evening of unicycle hockey arrange and would like to invite the Cardiff Unicycle Hockey team along to teach them them the rules of the game. It was suggested this could coincide with a Curry night. Action to be taken by DM
• The 4 seasons Fests that are run in the village through out the year. DM will be in contact again with the Neath and Port Talbot Council (Ceri Jones) and the Pontardawe Chamber of Trade and commerce (John Jones) organisers to express to them that we need more notice for these events than we have been given in the last year. That will mean we have more time to prepare and practice for the events.

5. Training and master classes

LD suggested that we could send individual members to get training in their chosen skill that they then bring back to the club to train others, but SH suggested it would be better to either arrange for the trainers to come to our club to teach or for members to go together to training venues with the club subsidising the travel expenses. The consensus of opinion was to try and get people to come to the club to train people and or to hire a mini bus/look for community subsidised travel to take members to training in either Cardiff or Bristol. This needs on going discussion and quotes of costs being obtained. Members were then asked what they would like training in:-

• Staff 
• Hoops
• Poi
• Hat manipulation
• Acro-balance
• Unicycling
• Clowning
• Theatre
• Stage Fighting

It was pointed out that if trainers were to come to us, we would need safety equipment, such as gym mats/crash mats. To be actioned by LD, SH and DM

John Jones has informed the club that in the spring there is going to be a workshop in the Arts Centre Pontardawe, available for us to attend free of charge, on building large parade puppets. Suggestions were put forward that we should attempt to build a large elephants head.

6. Grants

DM notified us that the community council grant deadline was drawing near and offered to apply again for us this year and would state we need the money for carnival equipment. Actioned DM and KH

7. Any other Business

PD encouraged all the members to attend local circus shows, as a club, such as the Cwtch Cabaret nights that have been going on in the last few months at the Pontardawe Art Centre. Members that had already attended agreed that the evenings were great fun and worth attending. 

PD also informed us that on Tuesday 13 December the Circus Eruption Christmas show was on and asked the ENI members if the wished to attend. It was agreed that some would.

AMG is tonight!

Tonight is the A.G.M. of the ENI club. There is a normal club meeting running tonight from 7pm at the hall. The only difference is that at 8pm we will start the meeting. I am hoping it will not be a long meeting, so if you wish to be there please be on time.

Yesterday evening I was informed that Vaughan Budd is stepping down from the post of club Secretary. Due to his schedule been very busy, he feels he should stand aside to allow someone with more time to take up the role. This means we will need to vote someone else into the position tonight. I'd like to thank Vaughan for being the secretary for the last year and hope that he is able to find time to come along to the club, as I for one miss him and his fun input to the evenings.

I hope to see you all tonight!

Elephants Not included AGM 2011

The Annual General Meeting  for the Elephants Not Included will be on the 1st December at 8pm at the Alltwen Community Centre. Please inform me before hand if you have a topic you wish to be put on the agenda for discussion. We will try to keep the meeting short and to the point, so please arrive on time. If you cannot attend but still have something you wish to put forward to the club please send me the details via email and I will print it off and read it out at the meeting for you. Thank you!