MINUTES OF THE HALTON APPRENTICES’ ASSOCIATION

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING – 30th JULY 2011

Doc. Ref: -AAA/103

Present: G Burton Chairman

Sir Dusty Miller Vice-Patron

C Spink Vice-Patron

D Larkin Deputy Chairman/Archivist

D O’Brien Office Manager

F Crooks Treasurer

P Brown Deputy Membership Secretary

P Milner Branches Secretary

S Morgan Haltonian Editor

R Priest Halton Grove

A Parrott Trading

F Hanford Museum Chief Curator

P Ayres Museum

B Smith Council Member

Sqn Ldr G Ball Liaison Officer

P West Secretary

Plus 83 members

Item 1 – Introduction and Apologies

The Chairman welcomed our Vice-Patrons, Sir Dusty Miller and Cliff Spink, and the Vice-Presidents and members attending. Apologies had been received from our Patron, Sir Michael Armitage, our President, Gp Capt Elliot and Council members, Tony King, Barry Smith, and John Nelson, and 10 other members.

Item 2 – Minutes of the Previous Meeting

The minutes of the previous meeting held on 24^th July 2010 had been posted on the website. It was proposed by Stuart Morgan and seconded by Fred Crooks that the minutes were a true and accurate record of the meeting. The minutes were approved unanimously.

Item 3 – Matters Arising from the Previous Minutes

There were no matters arising.

Item 4 – Elections

a. Election of Chairman. Geoff Burton was proposed as Chairman and was elected unopposed.

b. Election of Officers and Trustees. It was proposed by Sir Dusty and seconded by John Smith (73^rd) that the existing Council members and Trustees be re-elected; this was agreed unanimously.

Item 5 - Membership State

The Deputy Membership Secretary, Peter Brown, gave a resume of the article that appeared in the June 2011 edition of the Haltonian. In answering a question from the floor from an ex-airfield instructor, Peter explained that he was eligible to join the Association.

The Chairman thanked both Tony King and Peter Brown for their hard work over the last year.

Item 6 – Branch Matters

The Branches Secretary, Peter Milner, presented a list of entries that had no HAA representation. The list is provided at Annex A. Efforts to recruit representatives for these entries had proved fruitless. There had been a request for the details of entry representatives to be placed on our website, but concerns over data protection had precluded this. Members would be requested to ask for such details from the HAA office.

The Chairman thanked Peter for his sterling efforts over the past year.

Item 7- Association Finances

The treasurer explained that he would highlight only specific points from the statements of accounts and balance sheet published in the June 2011 edition of the Haltonian.  The Charity Commissioners had insisted that all income and expenditure derived in a particular year should be attributed to that year and not amortized over subsequent years.  This affected our income this year from the Triennial and subscriptions which had resulted in the accounts showing a considerable increase in income.

It was proposed by Denis O’Brien and seconded by Dave Crosby (75^th) that the balance sheet be approved.  This was agreed unanimously.

The Chairman thanked Fred for his hard work and John Nelson for his efforts in obtaining Gift Aid funds for the Association.

Item 8 - Haltonian

Firstly, Stuart gave a resume of his article published in the June 2011 edition of the Haltonian. He then went on to describe his involvement with the Old Haltonian Social networking site. The site went from strength to strength and now had a membership of almost 1300 members. It was open to HAA members and non-members. The network was ideal for forming entry groups within the site and for displaying relevant information, and to create discussions. The only input from the administrators, who are Council members, was to approve new members and to download the wealth of information useful for our archivist. The site had generated many new members and non-members should be encouraged to join.

Moderation of applications to join the site was introduced as a result of an external hacker, but the intrusion was stopped within a few minutes after detection and the problem would not be repeated.

The Chairman expressed his backing for the NING site but stated that he would not hesitate to remove the site if it was used to abuse fellow members.

Asked from the floor if ring binders could be made available to contain the magazine, it was stated that this would be investigated.

The Chairman thanked Stuart for his considerable efforts over the last year in getting the new format up and running.

Item 9 – Trenchard Museum

Led by Francis Handford, the chief curator, the museum was now reaching out to the wider community and attracting more visits. However, additional help in the museum was always needed. Coffee and tea was provided and helpers lunched in the Henderson Mess. One of the helpers, Tom Costello (59th) had raised £3,000 towards the production of a film about Don Findlay. Dan Snow, the TV presenter, would provide the commentary. A DVD would be available for sale in the museum.

A 3 year project to build a replica of the Mayfly aircraft originally built by Halton apprentices in the 1920s was under way. It would not fly due to the costs involved. Graham Booker (107th) was undertaking a project to transfer the old foolscap records onto disc.

In response to concerns about the future of the Halton Apprentices display at the RAF Museum, a letter had been received from the museum’s director general, Peter Dye, that the exhibit would be returned on display in 2012.

The Chairman thanked Francis Hanford and the team for their hard work.

Item 10 – Halton Grove

a. Grove Development. Duncan Grant outlined the development of the Grove details of which were detailed in the June 2011 edition of the Haltonian.

b. Interactive Board. The interactive information board would be a panel measuring 3 feet by 2 feet and would give visitors visual and narrative information about the Grove and the history of the Apprentice Scheme. In response to a question about the lifespan of the board, it was stated that it was expected to last, with regular battery changes, for 10 to 15 years. It was proposed by David Morgan (73^rd) and seconded by Peter Milner that up to £5200 should be provided for the purchase of the interactive board. This proposal was agreed unanimously.

c. 90^th Anniversary Celebrations.- 2012. The theme for the celebration would be the past, present, and the future. The 13^th May 2012 was the provisional date and confirmation could not be given until the availability of the principal guest was known. There would be representation from Halton, Cosford, and the Golden Oldies. Total cost was expected to be approximately £19,000 some of which would be recouped. It was proposed by Denis O’Brien and seconded by Dave Crosby (75^th) that up to £11,500 be allocated for the 2012 celebrations. The proposal was agreed unanimously.

The Chairman thanked Duncan and the Grove team for all their hard work, particularly their total commitment following the tragic death of Ian Sloss who had been leading the Project.

Item 11 – Chairman’s Report

Last year had been extremely busy with, as well as the ceremonial events, a new Haltonian and the completion of the enhancements to the Grove. The 2010 Triennial was the first not to be held at the airfield and, although this did not please everyone, the facilities on the Henderson/Groves venue were far superior. The new format, especially the catering and sunset ceremony, which included the superb flying display by our vice-patron , Cliff Spink, was hugely successful and would be maintained in future after ironing out a few rough edges; a concern was the modest attendance at the church parade.

The annual remembrance service at the Tribute at which the RNZAF window was dedicated was well attended as was the Cenotaph service. The latter was a moving experience and, provided they could stand for a few hours, members were encouraged to apply to the office for tickets to attend.

There had been 9 entry reunions held at Halton and the format laid on was popular. An option was to have the Golden Oldies at a very reasonable price. We are indebted to our President and the station staff for the support given to all our events.

The largely unseen work of our welfare Council member, Duncan Grant, continued throughout the year. Although individual welfare needs remained low, concern over the availability of care in old age was growing, and Duncan would write a series of articles for the Haltonian on the topic. Thanks are due to Duncan for his welfare work and his involvement in the Grove.

The Triennial created a massive additional workload for the HAA office volunteers and the Chairman had previously taken this very much for granted along with the routine work. However, since taking over the Chair, he had seen at first hand the tremendous amount of commitment, dedication, and effort put in by the volunteers in running the Association and without whom the Association would not exist. His sincere thanks went out to the office team.

Finally, the Chairman went on to say that the timing of the AGM had been problematical in falling in the holiday period. This has been due to the financial year ending in April and then the need for 2-3 months to balance the books. This had been overcome by changing this and subsequent financial years end to 31^st December. This would allow the AGM to be held next in April thereby, hopefully, attracting more attendees.

The Chairman reminded the meeting of the 2 remembrance services with the Cenotaph on 13^th November and the Halton ceremony on 15^th November. He also mentioned that the next edition of the Haltonian (Issue 61) would be delayed until confirmation of the principal guest’s attendance at the 90^th Anniversary celebration had been obtained. This was likely to be late November or early December.

Item 12 – Appointment of Financial Examiner

There was only one candidate for the position of financial examiner, and it was proposed by Mike Evans (70^th) and seconded by Peter Brown that John Taylor, (137^th ), the existing examiner be elected. The proposal was carried unanimously.

Item 13 – President’s Address

Our President was unfortunately taken ill on the eve of the AGM and was therefore unable to attend.

Item 14 – Patron’s Address

Unfortunately, our patron was also unable to attend, but Sir Dusty read a statement on his behalf. Sir Michael noted that the RAF seemed to be undergoing constant change these days, but it was pleasing to see that our Association remained steady and continued to thrive in the hands of the hard-working Council and with the enthusiasm of its members. He apologized for not being able to attend but sent his best wishes to us all for a successful AGM.

Sir Dusty went on to note that, although it was now a smaller RAF, men and women continued to perform ‘out of their skins’; Lord Trenchard would have been proud. Halton was doing well thanks to the CO, our President.

Item 15 – Closure

The meeting closed at 1440hrs.

Original signed

G O Burton P West

Chairman Secretary

Annex:

A. List of Lost Members

Surname	Initials	Entry
HAMMERSLEY	F C	7
KIPPAX	W J S	9
ROBERTS	W	13
MANNING	J G	13
PALMER	A G	14
FELLINGHAM	J W	16
STACEY	G I	18
MACKRETH	J A B	18
ROACH	T B	21
SMITH	J W C	23
SUTTON	J C K	24
HALES	A N J	28
SEVERN	J G	29
DUNPHY	D G	31
PAICE	G P	32
CROXTON	T R	32
HALL	G	32
DONOVAN	R G	32
CROSSLAND	S	34
OWEN	J J	34
CARTER	R F	34
PLANTON	D	35
ENGLISH	E	35
SELLENS	A E J	36
SPARROW	A	37
GRESHAM	D I	37
PARISH	E C	38
HOWARD	G A	38
THOMAS	G I	38
MORRIS	J A	39
CRITCHLEY	R R	39
PIPER	J F G	40
SOLMAN	E J	40
FENTON	C R	40
FALK	E H	40
BETHELL	J L	40
SOUTHCOTT	O	41
FOX	S	41
CARTER	C T	41
JENKINS	L C	41
EGGLESTON	T	41
SHARPLES	E J	42
HART	D W	42
GEORGE	D R	43
DAVIDSON	A S	43
ELLAR	G	44
DRABBLE	F W	44
TAYLOR	L C	46
ANSDELL	D J	46
SCHOLES	D L	46
BINGHAM	J H	48
JOHNSON	W A	54
LUKE	M K	56
COLE	J R	57
ROSE	R	59
HIRD	J J D	60
Surname	Initials	Entry
SHERWIN	D	60
THOMAS	D R	63
DODD	R L	71
DILLEY	D J	72
COLE	M R	76
LOURENSZ	W J	79
BARCLAY-TIMMIS	K F J	80
FAIRWEATHER	R J	85
SULLIVAN	J P	86
LOWE	G F	89
TEBBY	D P	90
MASON	B	90
STEWART	K A R	91
O'BRIEN	O J	91
JONES	M J	92
BREEZE-HATCHETT	R J S	94
McDERMOTT	R J	94
OSBORNE	C J	99
DAVIES	A B C	99
CORY	R A	100
SHANNON	D M	100
GRIFFIN	J	103
WILSON	K	103
ABRA	J E	104
LADBROOK	P R	105
RODDY	S P	105
CROSSLAND	J D	114
MORRISON	C G	117
DINSDALE	G S	128
HAMSTEAD	T J	130
AVERY	N	130
AUGHTON	P	132
EADY	C J	137
BALL	D W	139
CARROLL	M	139
SIDLEY	M A	142
STONE	M W	143
LEVER	R G	145
VIRTUE	J D	145
ROBERTS	L P	150
DEMPSEY	M P	201
VERNOUM	K G	212
TOWELL	R	215
NOBLE	S A	224
WRIGHT	K P	402
WALKER	D A	999