17/02/2026

Farewell to our ninth year.

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Right at the start please ChrisN would like to apologise for the lack of pictures in this write up. He used his brand new Motorola mobile telephone to take them. Unfortunately there are 2 apps for the camera and he selected the wrong one and now can't find a trace of them on his device so many thanks to CliffJ, PeterC and TerryM for helping. If anybody else took any please forward them to ChrisN so that he can add them as appropriate.

Now onto my comments:

We had our AGM at Catisfield Community Centre. We were very pleased with the attendance of 61 members and 9 guests which included four councillors, our Mayor Louise Clubley, her escort Pam Bryant, councillors Gemma Furnival (Fort Fraeham Ward) and Dave Wiltshire (Portchester). Our dear friend Graham Gowman (the MSN Southern Region Ambassador) along with his replacement Julian Pease. After ten years at the helm Graham has decided that it is time for him to take a bit of a backseat.

Our chairman gave a brief rundown on last years activities and plans for the future. It is truly amazing how many local community groups, especially youth groups, that we now support. As far as our future is concerned it's all about having our own building. Until we can secure a plot of ground or a suitable building the work and search continues! Our Treasurer gave a, relatively, brief breakdown of our finances, and he was pleased to say that we are currently in a good and stable financial position although if we ever get started on the new shed we are all going to have to put our shoulders to the wheel because we shall need much more behind us.

Carrying on from the treasurer's report, the secretary put forward the motion from the trustees that we increase our annual donation for membership to £96.00 a year, £8.00 a month. Ideally this would be appreciated in one payment by the end of March but if you might find this a bit of a stretch have a word with Cliff to sort out a solution.

Another of our guests, Paul Bowler, gave a brief talk on the local Prostate Cancer Support Organisation and Leah Llesley informed us of local exercise classes that can help delay onset and alleviate some of the pain if later on, details are on the board in the recreation room. We then moved on to members motions from John Camfield and Gordon Henneker which were discussed in full

We had three trustees standing down: Rod Parker (Recycling), John Camfield (Vice-chair) and Mick Foster (PR). Everybody wished them well and thanked them for their hard work. Finally a totally un-planned interruption from Geoff Gennings: He insisted on having his say, basically it was a heartfelt thanks for all of the work, help and support that the members, have given him and other people over the years. It left not a dry-eye in the house. Geoff it was and is our pleasure.

After a few words from 2 of the councillors the meeting came to a close with the presentation of beautiful flowers supplied by Sarah from Moonstones Florist

Author: Chris Hodgson