56th Annual National Conference 1997

Report on Conferernce held at the The Assembly Rooms, Derby 19th - 20th April 1997

Saturday Afternoon

This was followed by the Presidential Address by Linda Street, Vice President. She told us that she wanted friendly debate during the Conference. She thinks that the sap will be rising at the dinner dance later and that you should check the sex of your dancing partner! She also revealed a preference for male jelly babies.

Tellers were elected and it was established the Conference was quorate. The minutes of the 55^th Annual National Conference were accepted nem con and there were no matters arising. The Annual Report and Accounts for 1996 wee both accepted.

So on to the debate - the voting strength was established as 106. The first motion to change the deadline for nominations of National Chairman to at least 28 days before the start of the ANC. This was proposed on behalf of the ANC by Jo Shaw, Central Area Chairman. There was one question and the motion was passed unanimously.

The next motion was to make the age range 18 to under 36. This was proposed by Andy Bond, South Essex Area Chairman, on behalf of the ANC. Andy summed up by saying that the NEC don't think it was the right thing to do, they know it was the right thing to do. One speaker against the motion was worried that we would end up being Jurassic Plus. By contrast the next speaker saw this motion as the way forward.

An amendment was proposed by Chingford Group that Associate Life Members will revert to Full Life Members without having to pay the £10 fee. After some discussion the amendment was lost. Debate then resumed on the original motion. After much discussion, both for and against, a move to the vote was proposed and was passed. Then the vote on the motion itself was taken. The motion required a 75% majority to be passed. There were 4 abstensions, 74 for and 27 against. A Wimbledon delegate requested a recount. The voting strength was re-established as 106. The recount revealed that the number of votes cast were higher than the voting strength. After some more work by the tellers the final results of the recount were 4 abstentions, 76 for (74.5%) and 26 against so the motion was still lost.

After the coffee break a further recount was requested. The Chairman accepted this. The Chairman's ruling was challenged but this challenge was lost. This second recount involved delegates physically moving to different sides of the room and resulted in 5 abstentions, 73 for and 28 against (72.2%). Therefore the motion was still lost.

The election of National Chairman was then discussed in which one Candidate Sandra Bradshaw gave her nomination speech.

The evening dinner dance was well received with a good performance from live band Dash Rip Rock and the Bulge Disco 

Sunday Morning

Ballot papers were then completed for the election of National Chairman. After the coffee break the Facility for National Debate started. The first topic was the number and structure of Areas and whether the NEC should be restructured. The problems of having too large an Area were pointed out. Some expressed the view that the NEC is unwieldy due to the number of people it consists of.

The next topic was the future of the Federation and National scale events. Clive Bryant sung the praises of national events and said that they encourage people to rejoin. Everyone agreed that all the holidays are great.

The third topic was Andy Bond on the subject "The Future and How To Get There". He feels that 18 Plus is the microwave meal of the social world. 

Sunday Afternoon

There was a presentation by the external Public Relations Officer, Judy Horsburgh. She spoke about her work so far; recruitment campaign, setting up database of group publicity contacts, adverts in national papers and contacts with agony aunts. She has even written to some TV shows and magazines to try and get makeovers for some of the NEC! She had a firm word with groups as there is good response to publicity but the retention is still low. Then onto her future plans which include coverage on TV. If she can get publicity going so then can groups. We all need to work together and make 18 Plus a household name.

Vaughan Wonnacott, Nicholson House Officer, spoke about the Cahrles Padgham Disabled Wing. He explained who Charles Padgham was for the benefit of people not lucky enough to have known him. The free weekend at Nicholson House was won by Slough, Windsor and Eton Group who raised £260 for the fund of the wing. The total raised over the year was £853.45. He urges all members to visit Nicholson House, make use of its facilities, visit the surrounding attractions and admire the new paintwork!

During the National Chairman's address Sandra said that she was pleased that the motions were fully debated and that the delegates debating the motions had thought out their speeches before hand. She was disappointed that one of the motions had been dragged out because the margin by which the motion was lost was so minor. However, she was pleased that the delegates stuck to their decisions. She felt that the motion was lost due to the Conference only just being quorate. She also stressed that there should be no ill feeling towards those delegates who voted against the motions. Instead you should ask the Groups who didn't attend, why not. Sandra presented Karen Grey with a token of appreciation for the work she has done for the Federation

Presentation of Trophies

Presentations were made to Jon Black, the "office girl" for all his hard work over the weekend and to Linda Street for presiding over the Conference. Linda Street, Rebecca White and Karen Grey were elected as Vice-Presidents.

A vote of thanks was proposed for the National Chairman's work at the conference. The date and venue for the 57^th ANC were announced. 9^th - 10^th May 1998 at Hastings.

Linda Street gave the Presidential closing address.

The Conference was closed by The National Chairman, Sandra Bradshaw.

 Last updated 22 February 2007 by webmaster@18plus.org.uk