AGM & Woodland Walk

The Annual General Meeting – 9th May

AGM’s are often dry, tedious affairs, but not with CDWS!

Our chairman, Jonathan Pegler welcomed over 50 members to the AGM held in the village hall in Coleshill. Jonathan described some of the highlights of the previous year, including the trip to Highgrove, our St David’s Day dinner, the perfect weather for the Summer Lunch, the Golf Day, the four day sightseeing trip around Cardiff, visiting the Magic Circle and the Christmas Get-together.AGM 2014

A quick straw-poll revealed that there was sufficient interest in a visit to see the London Welsh Festival of Male Choirs at the Albert Hall on October 18th. Details will be circulated soon.

Graham Beavan briefly explained the intricacies of the Society’s funds, reassuring the membership that we still had some.

With the formal part of the evening over Ann Tennant and her staff provided a delicious choice of hot dishes and desserts – so difficult to choose between that I had to try several of them.

Glenys at AGMFinally, we were entertained by Glenys Groves, accompanied at the piano by Francine.  Glenys ran through a selection of songs from opera and musicals, some well known, others a new treat.  I had never heard Cole Porter’s song about the Little Oyster before!

Glenys finished to well deserved and enthusiastic applause. We then quickly restored the hall to order and said our farewells at about 10:30.

 

 

 

Visit to Church Wood, Hedgerley

A small, but elite party met by the village pond in Hedgerley on Saturday 17th May. We knew that our search might be in vain, but we were prepared to overcome many hardships in our search for late bluebells.

In fact the weather was perfect, the going easy, and yes! – we did find some late blooming bluebells. We were told that if we kept our eyes peeled, we might spot some rare wild orchids growing next to the path – but no-one spotted them.

We meandered around the wood, with Gwyn and Jean Owen striding out ahead acting as pathfinders while others admired the wild flowers and tried to identify them.

After an hour or so we reached the church with an interesting churchyard, indicating that we were arriving back in civilisation – and there would be a pub nearby!

And what a pub – the journey was rewarded with a visit to The White Horse in Hedgerley, well known for both its food and beer. We sat in the garden talking of previous more adventurous escapades while enjoying one of a variety of beers from the cask and a great selection of hot & cold dishes. Hedgerley Pub

2013 AGM – Friday 17th May

We had a tremendous turnout for the 2013 AGM, over 60 people travelled to the Coleshill Village Hall.

As Chairman, Gwyndaf John welcomed everyone and remembered all the events that had been organised over the past year. Membership at the yearend was 109 paid-up members (plus a few honouree ones).

Our Treasurer, Graham Beavan, went through the accounts which showed that we actually made a slight profit for the year; the books are looking quite healthy.

Jonathan Pegler then took us through the proposed amendments to our Constitution. Jonathan explained that the original Constitution was drawn up over 10 years ago when the Society was first proposed and the actual running of the group has deviated from that over the course of the years. The revisions refer to small things like the approval of the accounts, membership of and elections to the committee.

What may have been a dry subject was brightened up by some lively questioning from the floor, but with a couple of very minor revisions, the new Constitution was unanimously approved.

Gwyn, then turned to elections to the committee. This year, four members of the committee are standing down, after many years of really fantastic service, these are: Bob Ford, Eileen Mitchell, Hugh Griffiths and Maldwyn Pugh. Bob and Hugh are past chairmen, Eileen was our Treasurer for many years, and Maldwyn was secretary and did most of the administration behind the scenes for many a year.

Gwyn congratulated them all, and presented them with small tokens of the Society’s appreciation. At this point, Gwyn announced that he was standing down as Chairman, and would be succeeded by Jonathan Pegler.

Jean Owen is a welcome new addition to the committee. The remaining officials were re-elected for the following year. So the new committee is:
Life President……………..Ann Evans
Chairman…………………Jonathan Pegler
Vice Chairman……………to be appointed
Minutes Secretary………..Kay Day
Treasurer…………………Graham Beavan
Membership Secretary….Ann Lawrence
Other Members…………..Anne Thomas, Jean Owen, David Powell, Gwyndaf John

Jonathan and Gwyn gave fair warning that other members could be co-opted onto the committee – and therefore no-one should feel safely out of the running.

Ann Tennant’s team then provided an excellent hot meal with choice of puds and coffee.

The entertainment for evening was provided by Maldwyn Pugh , who gave an interesting and amusing talk about his childhood growing up in a welsh dairy business in Soho. Maldwyn described his family memories and those of wartime.

As his talk progressed he started to reveal stories of some of the characters he got to know as a child and teen. Maldwyn then started talking about some of the street trade that he was able to observe from his vantage point living above the Soho streets. He also offered to reveal even more if approached discreetly after the talk.

We finished about 10pm and there were willing hands to help clear the hall before we left.