The Annual General Meeting of the Marconi Veterans Association was held on Saturday 14th April 2012 at the Marconi Athletic & Social Club following the reunion and luncheon.
AGENDA
1Â Minutes
To approve the minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on 16 April 2011.
The minutes were passed unanimously by a show of hands.
2. Accounts
To receive the audited accounts for the year ended 31 December 2011.
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. Appointment of Auditor
A resolution will be proposed for the re-appointment of Mr T Mundon as auditor of the Marconi Veterans Association.
Passed unanimously by a show of hands.
5. Any other business
Several of our veterans had asked why they were having to pay back monies to the GEC pension fund. Our patron veteran Robbie Robertson explained the situation as follows:
 Thanks for that Peter but not a big thank you.
I do note that actually none of those who were given payment because they had been underpaid have complained but the actual situation is very very complicated. Mistakes were made in 1995, they’ve recently in the last two years come to light and the first reaction was to say “what the hell we’ll let it lie.â€Â The lawyers, predictably, wouldn’t let us so we were obliged to deal with it in a most incredibly complex fashion.
What’s actually happened is of the roughly 55,000 pensioners and deferred pensioners somewhere around between three and four thousand have either been overpaid or underpaid.
Those who were underpaid were, obviously, very easy to deal with because they have all received cheques. Those that were overpaid are a bigger problem. There was a proposal to write it off, which the lawyers killed outright for us so we were obliged to do what we have done, which those of you who have had letters will know about.
Please, please, please if the underpayment gives you a problem get in touch with us. All of our names are on the website; there are 28 of us on the committee, we are all ready to take up the case on an individual basis. If anyone is in dire trouble because what’s happened is their pension will be frozen; nobody has been asked to send money back unless they chose to do so, but if you are facing problems please let us know.  We want to deal with it in the best way we can for your benefit.
Finally, the pay increase, and I should have said at the beginning, I’m sorry, this relates entirely and totally to the GEC 1972 scheme.  The BAE members are in quite a different scheme where, to the best of my knowledge, the same mistake was not made.  This year for the GEC 1972 scheme the pay rise is 3.9% which goes a little way towards some comfort for you but if you have a problem let us know, we can do something about it.
Thank you.
6. Next Meeting
The next reunion and AGM will be on Saturday 20 April 2013 at the Marconi Club. This will be the 77th reunion.
The AGM lasted 4 minutes and 44 seconds including Robbie’s pension explanations.