Dear Twinners, 

 

The next Devon Twinning Circle meeting will be the 2023 Annual General Meeting, hosted once again by Tiverton Twinning Association, which will be held on Saturday 28th October at 2 pm in the Village Hall, Halberton, EX16 7AF.  Lunch will be served at 12.30 pm.   

Lunch, prepared and served by our hosts, will be soup, Mediterranean chicken, and trifle or cheese & biscuits, at a cost of £12.50 per person.  

Please send your booking no later than 21st October either by email to jeanaplin@live.co.uk with bank transfer to Tiverton Town Twinning Association,  

52-30-17 acc no. 32108559 with reference your name and association. 

Or by cheque to Jean Aplin, 13 Crowden Crescent, Tiverton, EX16 4ET.  Please make your cheque out to Tiverton Town Twinning Association and mention the name of your association with your booking. 

Please let Jean know of any specific dietary requirements. 

 

Following the meeting we shall have a short session to share our news.  We know that most of you have had visits from, or paid visits to, your twin towns and villages this summer.  So please come along prepared to tell us briefly about highlights of those visits. 

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Directions to Halberton Village Hall. 

 From the M5. 

Leave at Junction 27 and follow the A361 North Devon Link Road for only about ¼ mile, taking the first exit to Sampford Peverell.  

Follow this road through Sampford Peverell and continue until you reach Halberton.  

The hall is on the right hand side of the road, car park is behind the hall. 

 

From North Devon via the A361 (North Devon Link Road).  

At the Tiverton roundabout go straight ahead on the A361 dual carriageway to leave at the next exit.  

Turn right at the top of the slip road to cross the A361, go straight on at the roundabout by McDonalds, and turn left at the next roundabout.  

Follow this road, passing Blundell’s School, until you come to Halberton.  

The hall is on the left hand side of the road, car park is behind the hall. 

 

 

DEVON TWINNING CIRCLE

MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

HELD AT HALBERTON VILLAGE HALL ON SATURDAY OCTOBER 29TH 2022

 

Attendance and apologies.  There were 23 members present representing 10 associations:  Barnstaple, Bideford, Clevedon, Dawlish,  Exeter, Exmouth, South Molton, Sampford Peverell, Tiverton & Uffculme,

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Apologies were received from 4 committee members:Mike Boyle, Pauline Knowles, Claire Benton, Pamela Bines, and 17 associations:Abbotskerswell, Brampford Speke, Burnham-on-Sea & Highbridge, Cheriton Fitzpaine, Chittlehampton, Crediton, Crewkerne, Exminster, Holsworthy, Horrabridge, Kenton, Kingsteignton, Northam, Portishead, , Torrington, Wrington & Yealmpton.

 

Chairman’s opening remarks and report.  The Vice-Chairman, Mary, welcomed everyone to the meeting as the Chairman, Mike, was unable to attend.

Mike sent the following report:  It hardly seems a year since I took over from Josie, such a lot has happened in the world. The idea of meeting in hotels or Pubs has I feel gone down well. The best bit was being able to see you all face-to –face.

I hope Josie is getting better and it won’t be too long until we see her back at our meetings. (Josie is much better and we were pleased to see her present at this meeting.)

A little bird tells me that Dennis is finally retiring, we will miss him a lot as over the years he has done a lot of hard work for the Association.

I am glad to see from our newsletter that there is now movement between the UK and the Continent. For those who have made the trip I hope you had an enjoyable time and that your host towns are coming over here. For those who have still to go I hope it is not too long before you manage to reconnect with our European friends.

Unfortunately, when the date of the AGM was picked, I did not realise that it was the launch of the Devon Poppy Appeal and as Chairman and Poppy Organiser for Totnes I had to be at the launch. I am sure that my Vice Chair Mary will handle the meeting and it will give her a chance to practice before she takes over in 23..

Hope you have a successful AGM and look forward to seeing you all at the next meeting in January.

 

Minutes of 2019 AGM. These were approved with one amendment: item 8; Pat Sherwood is no longer on the committee, having expressed a wish to retire.

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Matters arising.  There were no matters arising.   

 

Secretary’ report.  Apart from getting out notices about meetings and telling everyone that further info will be by email, most of my correspondence has been news from groups.  This does help me to keep in touch and know who’s who.  Wrington produce an excellent monthly newsletter which makes interesting reading.  I have had one query from an association that realised they didn’t have a constitution and could I provide a sample?  This was done.

We need some new members for the committee to serve 2 years each from this AGM.

The term served by the chairman seems to be 2 years but I have been unable to find anything to this effect in writing. The committee agreed that at the 2023 AGM we insert a clause in the constitution to say that the chairman serves for a maximum of two years.

I have received an offer from Torrington to host on April 15th and will be very happy to receive further offers.

 

Treasurer’s report.  Treasurer’s report.  Dennis explained that Claire has been managing the accounts under his supervision since April and can be elected as the new treasurer at this afternoon’s AGM.  There has been a small profit last year, largely because of some meetings not being held.  The balance in the HSBC account at 31st March was £9,562.30. This has since been transferred to a NatWest account and the balance at 24th October was £11,295.12.

In reply to a question, Dennis explained that although we often make a small profit on the PL insurance due to the need to guess the number of groups paying a premium, we are not able to return this directly to the groups.

The accounts were accepted, p: S. Moreton, s:  J.Mardon

 

Dennis is now retiring as treasurer and as a committee member. Josie made a presentation to him to thank him for his years of service.

 

Insurance Officer’s report.  Unfortunately Pam was not feeling too well and went home after this morning’s committee meeting.  Her report to the committee was as follows:  53 associations have paid membership and 51 have also paid PL insurance.  Premiums have to be based on the expected number of associations wanting to take advantage of it so it is necessary to allow for one or two associations dropping out.  The next renewal date is 8th June 2023.

In answer to a question at committee about travel insurance, she said there was no chance of being able to offer it.

 

Matters arising from the committee.  The Monica Saunders Trophy for Summer 2021 to Spring 2022 will not be awarded as there were no newsletters during this period.   The winners for Autumn 2022 are Ashburton Twinning Association.  Exmouth Association reminded us that they are still waiting for their award from the Summer edition of the newsletter. 

 

Motion to amend the constitution. The section headed “The Monica Saunders Trophy” to be deleted and replaced with: “The Monica Saunders trophy is awarded annually to the Association which the committee considers to have made some significant contribution to twinning or the work of Devon Twinning Circle during that year, and the Don Leech tankard to the individual person/persons involved.

Besides the trophy there will be a prize of £150 awarded at the discretion of the Committee.”  

The motion was passed unanimously,  p: S. Moreton, s: J. Aplin

 

Election of Officers and Committee.

The following were elected, p: P.Worsfold, s: D.Cameron:

Chairman:                   Mike Boyle

Vice Chairman:           Mary Lowther

Secretary:                    Jenny Worsfold

Treasurer:                   Claire Benton

Insurance Officer:       Pam Bines

There were no new candidates for the committee.  (At the end of the meeting Sue Moreton offered to serve and will be co-opted at the next committee meeting.)

Philip Worsfold and Maurice Mardon were elected last year to serve on the committee for 2 years.  Jean Aplin is also on the committee as newsletter editor and   Josie Mardon as immediate past chairman.

 

Any other business. Tiverton Association was thanked for an excellent meal and arrangements.

 

Meeting closed, 2.40 pm.

There followed a short tea break and an informal session of news from the groups

 

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DEVON TWINNING CIRCLE MINUTES OF THE GENERAL MEETING

HELD AT THE BRIDGE, YATTON, ON SATURDAY APRIL 15TH 2023

 

John Merritt of Clevedon TA welcomed us all to Somerset.He was sorry it had not proved possible to hold the meeting in Clevedon but hoped we might be able to visit their lovely town.

 

1. Chairman’s opening remarks.  Mike thanked John for the welcome and said how good it was to see so many here and how good too that twinning visits were all getting going again.  He noted that many groups are starting to make, or to host visits, including his own, Totnes, which has been invited to a 50th anniversary event in Vire next year, with Vire’s other twins.  He is pleased to see good heart in the Twinning Circle and hopes to see more younger people so that it can continue.

 

Attendance and apologies.  There were 35 members present representing 14 member associations:  Bampton, Burnham-on-Sea & Highbridge, Chard, Clevedon, Dawlish, Exeter Twinning Circle, Exmouth, Kenton, North Petherton, Portishead, Sampford Peverell, Taunton, Tiverton and Totnes.

Apologies were received from:  Pam Bines, Dennis Knowles and from the following Associations:  Abbotskerswell, Ashburton, Bideford, Brampford Speke, Chittlehampton, Crediton, Horrabridge, Kingsteignton, Newton & Noss, Northam, South Molton and Tickenham.

 

Minutes of the General Meeting held in January 2023 were approved.

 

Matters arising.  None.

 

Chairman’s report.  Mike felt this had been covered in his opening remarks.

 

Secretary’s report.  Ide TA is closing; they asked for advice on procedure and were  referred to their own constitution.  Witheridge TA closed some time ago and sought advice re funds. Again they were referred to own constitution.

Jenny was contacted by Paul Bristow of the British-German Assn. for Devon.  His letter was forwarded to those TAs with German Twins

The next meetings will be on July 22nd in Bideford and on October 28th in Barnstaple.

 

Treasurer’s report.  The accounts prepared by the Treasurer were circulated.

We made a significant profit on insurance last year which will be returned to the groups by reducing the next premium.  We are planning to  spend some of the funds by arranging a social day when representatives from the various TA’s can meet together and chat.

 

Insurance Officer’s report.  Pam was unable to be with us today but reported that she has asked our insurance broker to quote for a travel policy.  She should get the PL insurance paperwork out next month.

 

Matters arising from committee meeting. 

The winner of the Monica Saunders award for the best article in the spring edition of Home To Home is Axminster TA.

 

Any Other Business.  None

 

Following the meeting we enjoyed a talk from Rob Grimmond, Somerset representative of the British-German Association which was relevant to twinning whichever country our twins come from.

 

 

Next Meeting: this will be on July 22nd, hosted by Bideford Twinning Association..

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