The London Fire Brigade Welfare Fund - Southern Area AGM
Wednesday 13th April 2016 at 11am
Held at Charlton Park Rugby Club, Broad Walk, London SE3 8NB
Present
Apologies
Adam Andrews-Homerton -Area Secretary
S. Hayward E27 Erith
Paul Capocci-Sidcup -Area Asst Secretary
P. Doherty H29 Purley
Paul Renshaw -ret’d-Area Chairman
D. Field H28 Woodside
Barry Kemp-ret’d-Area Treasurer
M. Davidson E43 Beckenham
Lee Down-Area Asst Secretary
D. Whiting Ret’d
Carol Connelly - WF BMD
J. Scudder Ret’d
Charlie Beatt - Tooting
C.Franklin Ret’d
David Williams - E22 Greenwich
Paul Prizeman - ret’d
Chris Line - E23/E29 East Greenwich-Lee Green
Geoff Scudder - ret’d
Robert Dunk - E25 Plumstead
Darren Hill - H38 Sutton
Ellie Voce - E31 Forest Hill
D. Roberts - H40 Sidcup
Bill Ludlow - E22 Greenwich
Kevin Tierney - H24 Brixton
Miki Keenan - ret’d
Paul Reeve - ret’d
Anton Murrells - E30 Eltham
Iain Laizer - E35 Old Kent Road
Steven Panting - E21 Lewisham
Lee Sparks - E37 Peckham
Terry Gooding - Union Street
Mat Rosendale - H24 Brixton
Max Dixon - Bromley
Tony Leslie - H21 Clapham
Glen Miller - H23 Lambeth River
Alan Ellis - ret’d
Steven Davis - Ret’d
Greg Caswell - E23 East Greenwich
Anthony White - ret’d
Lyndon Burrell - H41 Kingston
Fred Buss - E41 Orpington
Phil Watson - E23 East Greenwich
Simon Brown – H33 Wandsworth
Barry Hammond - ret’d
1. Apologies received, as listed above.
2. Previous Minutes
Paul Renshaw, Chair, opened the meeting and requested approval of previous minutes. Mat
Rosendale proposed and Geoff Scudder seconded. There were no matters arising from
previous minutes.
3. Election of Officers
Paul Capocci to become Secretary.
Adam Andrews to take over as Assistant Secretary
Lee Down Assistant Secretary
Barry Kemp Treasurer.
Paul Renshaw to remain as Chairman/retired Rep.
All officers willing to stand for the next year.
This was formally proposed by PR and agreed unanimously by those attending.
AA stated that there would be a vacancy next year for an Assistant Secretary.
4. Chairman’s Report
The area is being run well and many varied activities are taking place. Commended the
committee for organising theses events. Stated the need for members to attend the AGM to
know what is going on.
Question from the floor
Are there any plans to increase subs?
CC. No change this year, will be reviewed at the next meeting. Maybe a need to look at the
death benefit for retired members.
How do we recruit new members to the fund?
CC. Mark Hatfield gives a talk to recruits at Harrow. A request has been made to borough
managers to go into stations which has been signed off so will happen.
PC. Need to encourage new recruits to join.
AA. A screenshot of stars can be sent to the welfare office to confirm membership of fund.
Is there a possibility of not being able to pay subs direct from salary?
AA. No
Welfare reps to be able to print out rejoining forms and give to retired members.
5. Secretary’s Report
AA - Big thank you to the Southern area committee, Lee Down for arranging the Xmas train and
setting up another store at H21 Clapham along with Paul Capocci and Greg Caswell at E23
East Greenwich. Without their efforts the area would not run as well as it does. We are
always looking for station reps to assist with arranging activities that they are interested in.
Please email me or the committee with your ideas and where we can assist you.
Area stores at E23 and H21
Consumables - All requests still need to come from your SM, this is to confirm that a risk
assessment has been carried out and that they are happy for you to have this item of
equipment.
Since the last AGM we have continued to support station activities which have included station
Xmas parties with families, trips abroad etc. We still require a small article and photos for the
magazine and a list of members taking part with pay numbers as we are required to check
membership for all activities.
We booked 4x family caravan weekends at Selsea, 2015 sold out again.
Booked 3x family weekends at Selsea 2016. Sold out, unfortunately the site could not
accommodate dates for the RW.
Gliding - due to a lot of interest, looking at dates for this year. Will let you know as soon as
possible.
We arranged the Xmas train again in 2015. This was a great success and over subscribed. Will
be looking to book again in 2016, dates to be confirmed.
Panto 2015 for the family was over subscribed, already booked our panto tickets for 2016.
Still assisting with £120 towards hall hire for retirement functions, £100 for pitch hire.
Not as many sports sections as we once had, still supporting golf, climbing and fishing sections.
Need to try to ensure all station personnel are members of the Welfare Fund - continue to
support the lottery which has increased to a maximum of 15 chances (£15) Email me and I will
send out joining forms. Need to ensure contact and next of kin details are correct.
Retired section continues to grow, station reps need to encourage members to rejoin on
retirement. Email format has changed due to limit sending emails from home email.
Please forward your details to [email protected] for the retired section.
Brigade want to bring gardens back - discussion about whether we want to put funds
towards them.
Rep - Are the brigade putting any finance towards them? Suggestion that station petty cash
could be used.
PR - Brigade used to fund gardens - offensive to ask Welfare for funds.
Rep - Local council was happy to maintain the front garden at Deptford.
Suggestion - Ask management to give initial funding for gardens through the 150 project team.
AA - Wait and see what the brigade come up with first.
Sky TV payments - proposal to give a percentage payment for sky TV - voted against.
6. Treasurer’s Report
BK referred to financial report.
Expenses as listed on the account-please note carry over sum of £4108.73
Question from the floor
What items come under the heading of Station Training?
AA -Table tennis equipment, Dartboards and darts and Boxing etc.
How are theatre tickets discounted?
BK- Generally the fund applies a discount against the full price of the ticket.
PC- In the event that the fund obtains tickets at a discounted price, that discount will be passed
on to the members and if possible a further discount may be made by the fund.
The method / timescale of cashing cheques was explained.
CC- The quickest way to inform members about theatre tickets was by Facebook. The fund had
received a lot of complimentary tickets this year. Better not to have waiting lists for tickets so
members have an even chance of obtaining them.
7. Retired Section Report
The retired section should not be a separate entity to that of serving members.
Held a Christmas function and a summer function is planned.
Geoff Scudder organised a Golf event and more will take place.
AA- No reason to stop being in the fund and taking part in activities because of retirement.
Encourage retired members to rejoin and take part. Over 300 members are on the email list and
receive regular emails about retirements and events. Hope to arrange an event in London.
8. AOB
Sports section - Southern Golf
Proposal to increase Southern Golf budget - Motion carried.
AA-Central welfare responsible for team sports now.
Question from the floor
Why can't Welfare sell anything at open days?
CC - Play Mobil are the sponsors of the open days. Monopoly is manufactured by a competitor so
we are not allowed to sell it at open days, this applies to FF charity items as well.
Can clothing be sold at open days?
CC - Welfare rep went to Soho open day. Should be able to sell welfare clothing.
Suggestions made about supplying stations with items to sell.
A request was made from the floor for their station to be provided with a Nutri-Bullet.
Following a discussion it was agreed to keep things as it is now i.e. the same amounts as we have
now for games console(150) radios (50) and all other electrical equipment will be considered on
their own merit - where nutria-bullet fall under. this is to be managed by the board.
CC. Become a friend of the Welfare Fund on Facebook and supply personal email addresses.
Request not to forward messages to people that are not in the fund.
Make sure your personal details are up to date especially if you move.
Final comments from the board:
AA - Thank you all for coming today - pleased with the good turn out.
PR closed the meeting at 14:00.