Wolvercote Tree Group Notice of AGM Thurs 24 February 2022

The Wolvercote Tree Group Committee is calling an AGM for Thursday 24 February – scroll down to read the formal notice and agenda. To ensure the meeting is quorate, your attendance would be much appreciated. The main business will be to receive and approve the report from the Chair and Tree Group accounts (below) for the period 1 January to 31 December 2021, and to discuss plans for 2022. To send your apologies, email  valtate@btinternet.com, call 01865 559316 or write to 2 Cyprus Terrace, Oxford OX2 8AT. Members are reminded that 2022 membership subscriptions – £6.00 each – are due. Thanks to all who have paid already. We are encouraging members to set up a Standing Order to make collection easier for you and the Tree Group. Many banks allow you to set up standing orders by telephone or online. Our bank details are: account name: Wolvercote Tree Group; sort code 20-65-18; account number 70413941. When completed, please email date of first payment to jon@benjon.co.uk Jon Price (Treasurer) or tel: 07935 033 147. Alternatively, pay electronically using the bank details as above and reference Surname_Subs. Please advise the Treasurer when sent. Or send a cheque, payable to “Wolvercote Tree Group”, to Jon Price, 7 Pennywell Drive, Oxford OX2 8NB.
Many thanks, Val Tate (Secretary)

Litter Picking (while we have your attention!) Every March the Wolvercote Tree Group and the Wolvercote Commoners’ Committee join forces to litter pick as our contribution to the OxClean scheme. We plan to go ahead this year (CV-19 permitting) as in earlier years, meeting in the Bathing Place Car Park on Saturday 19 March at 10:00am. Offers of help to Jo Malden josephine.malden@gmail.com

Notice of AGM

Notice is hereby given that the committee of the above-named community group has determined that an Annual General Meeting of Members will be held on Thursday 24 February 2022 at 7.30pm. The meeting will be in the Wolvercote Baptist Church Hall. Lower Wolvercote. Attendees are politely requested to wear a face covering unless addressing the meeting.
The business to be transacted at the meeting is as follows:
* To confirm the minutes of the last general meeting.
* To receive and if so resolved to adopt the report of the Committee for the most recent period.
* To receive and if so resolved to adopt the statement of accounts for the most recent year ended 31 December 2021.
* To elect Committee Members* and Officers**
* To receive and if so resolved to adopt the committee’s plans for 2022 and associated financial projections.
* No re-elections this year. There are three vacancies for Committee Members. Members of The Committee will be elected for a period of three years Their primary responsibility is to ensure that the Tree Group follows its aims as set out in the Constitution. Each Committee Member contributes as much additional help as their personal responsibilities allow. Meetings are held at least four times a year.
** Chair John Winterbottom and Vice-Chair Jo Malden have completed a three-year term and may stand for re-election.
Please communicate suggestions or nominations, along with notification of any other business to the Chair, John Winterbottom, 59 Rosamund Road, OX2 8NX or email: jwinterbottom8@googlemail.com  no later than 12:00 hrs 23 February 2022.

Agenda

* Apologies
* Minutes of the 2021 AGM
* Report from the Chair – see below
* Treasurer’s report – download financial accounts for FY 2021  
* Election of Committee Members
* Election of officers
* Plans for 2022 – download financial forecast for FY 2022
* AOB – date of next committee meeting

Report from the Chair

Dear Members and Friends A warm welcome to our AGM. Hope you’re keeping safe, well and sane! Well here we are a year on and the pandemic hasn’t abated. There are some encouraging signs though which have meant, in many regards, we can start to work and meet back in the orchard as we used to. This is good for all our spirits. We thank again Jo and Val for the informative newsletters and orchard reports that keep us abreast of seasonal activity in the orchard. Even though there are both busy and quiet periods through the year there is always something that can be done. We would particularly like to thanks Anne McHardy who probably visits most weeks and keeps the twig fall under control and produces a bounty of kindling packs. With the DDA path complete, we had earmarked work to replace the rear boundary fence that sits alongside the track down to the riverside. This was completed last week by Olive Green. It looks fabulous, and will serve to deflect the fight path of the bees entering and leaving the hive up to a higher trajectory so that there is little chance of then flying directly into folk who regularly use the path; this has been a concern for some time. We have increased the size of the bee enclosure and anticipate the addition of another couple of hives when Madelaina gets around to it. The remaining intention is to soften the boundary by planting some selected hedging orchard side of the fence. A task for later in the year. The idea of publishing a calendar celebrating local tress with photographs and poetry came to fruition just before Christmas. Whilst we have a few left, we have made a small profit. It is a wonderful work. As is the recipe book, which not only had recipes for hot cakes, but sold like hot cakes. These activities have help us to swell funds for things such as the new fence. Another initiative that is ongoing is to get a better understanding as to what flora species currently inhabit the orchard alongside our fruit trees. We have a small group of members who have been cataloguing the many species we have, so that we might determine what other varieties we might introduce to support both the bees and the trees. By the time you read this we will have undertaken the planting of some additional and replacement trees on Nixey’s Field – between the back of Rosamund Road and Elmthorpe Road, and the A34 embankment. We thank Richard Tenant-Eyles for his initiative with this and Charlotte Fenton for opening up her house and garden to allow us to access the field. Most of the travail of the committee and membership is reported in the regular newsletters we issue. So it remains for me to thank all the committee for their hard work and passion in maintaining the space we know as Wolvercote Community Orchard, and in particular Jo Malden and Jon Price, for keeping us on a financial even-keel. And also to you, the members, for getting along to as many of the workdays and events that we plan, as you are able. Should you wish to understand about how to get more involved, then please talk to a member of the committee: the pruning still needs doing!

Thank you
John Winterbottom, Chair Wolvercote Tree Group