2011

Minutes of Annual General Meeting held on 3 September 2011

Directors in Attendance

Dinah McDonald  Chair
Pearl Brown        Treasurer
David McKenzie   Secretary
Ron Cruickshank
David Eaglesham 
Billy King
Victor Sandall

Members in Attendance

Jim Aitchison
Evelyn Boyd
Janice Hampson
Teresa Lenton

Apologies

Fraser Smith
Councillor Bruce Marshall      Argyll & Bute Council
John Forth                          Loch Lomond & Trossachs National Park

Before the meeting opened, a presentation on the work of Argyll Voluntary Action was made by Andy Ferguson. Andy distributed leaflets and invited interested parties to contact the organisation.

Minutes of last AGM

The minutes of the last AGM held on 11 September 2010 were proposed by David Eaglesham, seconded by Ron Cruickshank and Billy King and adopted.

Chair Report

Dinah McDonald reported on the activities of the Trust since last AGM.
Following from the completion of the Community Action Plan and the Community Profile, various subgroups continued to work on projects arising from the community consultation:

 We applied for and were successful in obtaining a grant from Big Lottery to contract consultants to work with a sub group into the feasibility of a community shop along the shore. The feasibility study concluded there was the potential for one community shop and post office. As the Strone Post Office and shop continue to run, this meant it was not feasible to start a new shop. We are grateful to Jean Maskell and her team tor all the work they put into this, and are delighted to see Strone Post Office go from strength to strength.
 We had feedback from the consultants looking at the possibility of an anaerobic digester to treat the sewage along the shore. They concluded that this would not be viable. But a follow on idea from this was to look at the possibility of a biomass heating system. At a public meeting held in Highgate Hall, those present voted to ask the Trust to apply for funding to look into the feasibility of this. Due to changes in the national grants for renewable energy, this was not a viable proposition. Following on from this, a local fuel supplier contacted the Trust and has begun supplying cheaper fuel to householders in the area.
 The Paths group were successful in applying for three grants - from The National Park, from Leader and from SNH - to put in a new path link from Blairmore to Gairletter - this route was included in one of the walks in Cowal Fest and provides a fabulous link for cyclists from the shore to connect with the forest tracks further north and west.
 Community Partnership Goes Green. As part of 8 communities throughout the National Park, we applied tor and were successful in getting a grant to assist those living within Benmore and Kilmun Parish to save energy. This project involved a library of energy monitors which were (and still are) available to borrow for everyone living in the area so that the energy use of your home could be broken down and calculated. Energy advisers called on householders to give advice on how to save energy within the home, including the social tariffs which were available and what grants may be available. 100 households took advantage of the insulation offer. We held a workshop with advisers from Historic Scotland and Changeworks discussing micro-renewable energy production and insulation in 'hard to treat houses'. The consultants offered advice to those with non-domestic buildings such as village halls. The Consultants worked with Strone School on raising awareness of the importance of energy saving.
 At Graham's Point, we now have a bar-b-que for use by those visiting the point. The wall has been repaired. Our thanks to the volunteers who look after Graham's Point and to the Council staff who cut the grass.
 As part of our grant application to the National Park, we included a donation towards the running costs of the local newsletter Loch'n’Glen. Many thanks to Ron for all his work over the past years and Good Luck to Lorraine and Janice in taking the newsletter on - we do appreciate how much work is involved, but also we realise the vital importance of this communication link between the many groups in the area.

Treasurer’s Report 

Pearl Brown presented the report of the Trust finances through end of December 2010.

David McKenzie proposed the adoption of the Treasurer’s report; this was seconded by David Eaglesham and adopted.

Appointment of Directors  

The Constitution of the Trust requires that five directors retire annually, although they can stand for re-election. It was noted that Jeanette Sloss had resigned as a director earlier in the year.

The following Directors retired as per the Trust Memorandum & Articles of Association:

David McKenzie
Ron Cruickshank
Billy King
David Eaglesham
Victor Sandall

All of the retiring Directors, except Ron Cruickshank, indicated that they would be prepared to stand for re-election. Dinah McDonald proposed that the following members be elected as Directors:

David McKenzie
Billy King
David Eaglesham
Victor Sandall

The motion was seconded by Pearl Brown and approved unanimously.

Evelyn Boyd, a member and former Director of the Trust, indicated that she would be prepared to put her name forward to be a Director. Billy King proposed that Evelyn Boyd be elected a Director of the Trust. This was seconded by Dinah McDonald and approved unanimously.

On behalf of the Board, Dinah welcomed Evelyn back and also expressed the enormous debt of gratitude that the Board owed to Ron Cruickshank for his work over the years. Dinah hoped that, if circumstances change, Ron would consider re-joining the Board at some future point.

Next AGM   

The next AGM will be held on Saturday 12 May 2012.