Marconi Veterans Association AGM – 16 April 2011

The Annual General Meeting of the Marconi Veterans Association was held on Saturday 16th April 2011 at the Marconi Athletic & Social Club following the reunion and luncheon.

AGENDA

1  Minutes

To approve the minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on 17 April 2010.

The minutes were passed unanimously by a show of hands.

2.  Accounts

To receive the audited accounts for the year ended 31 December 2010.

Passed unanimously by a show of hands.

3.  Committee

To elect officers and members of the Committee.

All members of the Committee, being eligible, offered themselves for re-election.

The Committee was elected unanimously by a show of hands.

4. Motion submitted by Veterans Roy Simons and Alan Hartley-Smith

This motion calls upon the Marconi Veterans Association to undertake the setting up of an on-line histories web site.  Full details can be found in  the annex below together with the response from the Marconi Veterans Association.

The MVA recommended that the proposal should not be adopted and the motion was defeated on a show of hands.

Further discussions are ongoing with the proposers to try and find an acceptable solution to the collection and dissemination of historical information.

5.  Any other business

There was no other business.

6.  Next Meeting

The next reunion and AGM will be on Saturday 21st April 2012 at the Marconi Club.

The AGM lasted 4 minutes and 8 seconds.

ANNEX

Proposal to consider support for on-line histories

Justification

The recent MVA newsletter described well advanced work-in-progress to generate a viable web-based history of Marconi Radar.  As well as drawing on material lodged at Sandford Mill by Peter Turrall, Roy Simons and others it is making use of the memories of Radar and Research Labs personnel.

It is proposed that this activity be adopted by the Association

to encourage other parts of the Companies to follow suit

to encourage Veterans and others to record their experiences, time now being of the essence

so that support may be sought via the Association from bodies who may be able to provide financial support in kind to cover hosting services and the like, to facilitate a permanent and locally based service for such initiatives.

The proposal can perhaps be viewed as a substitute for Sir Robert Telford’s proposed Centenary history publication for which some preparatory material still exists and also as a partial substitute for the MVA initiative to seek career histories from members which were to be collected and displayed in the proposed MVA museum.

Comment from the Standing Committee

This motion as proposed is noted.

The Marconi Veterans Association, via its website, newsletter and the efforts of Veterans both at Sandford Mill and in many other ways, assists in the p[reservation of the history of the various Marconi Com[panies and provides support to a number of affiliated groups.  This support would willingly be extended to anyone undertaking the activities outlined above.

However, for the Association to undertake the recording, co-ordination, legal and commercial clearances and publication of the on-line histories would cause unacceptable burden both organisationally and financially.

We, therefore, strongly recommend that this motion not be accepted.