Minutes of the Nineteenth Annual General Meeting of the Friends of the Church in India held on Saturday 1 October 2011

The Nineteenth Annual General Meeting of FCI was held on Saturday 1 October 2011 at the YMCA Indian Student Hostel, London with approximately 70 members of FCI attending and eligible to vote.

The Chair, Revd Julie Lipp-Nathaniel, welcomed everyone.

Apologies

Dr Daleep Mukarji, Revd and Mrs Murdoch McKenzie, Canon Arun & Mrs John, Revds Daniel & Judith Ramble, Canon Derek & Mrs Elton, Revd Jim & Mrs McManus, Revd Peter & Mrs Hiscock.

Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of 2010

These were approved for signature, as recommended by the Management Committee and signed by the Chair.  A copy had been posted on the website.

The Secretary’s report

Mrs Angela Wingate presented her report for 2011.  (Appendix 1)

The Treasurer’s report

Revd Suresh Kumar presented his report and statement of accounts for the year ending  31 March 2011 (Appendix 2).  Suresh explained that the financial year for FCI accounts was changing to January - December for 2012.  He was pleased to report a surplus for 2011 of £1136.98 achieved, mainly, through the sale of calendars produced by Dr Timothy Mark and donations from members, in response to an appeal to help reduce last year’s deficit.  The statement of accounts and the Independent Examiner’s Report were received with thanks.  There were no questions.

Elections

Two members of the Management Committee representing FCI, Revd Jessie Anand and Revd Solomon Joseph, had served their three year term.  Jessie was willing to serve again but Revd Joseph wished to stand down.  Mr Antony Thomas was nominated by three FCI members, Mrs Margaret Smith, Miss Jean Stolton and Revd Roy Smith.  The Management Committee nominated Revd Jessie Anand to be re elected.  Mr Antony Thomas and Revd Jessie Anand were unanimously elected to serve on the Management Committee for a term of three years.

Date of next AGM Saturday 6 October 2012 at the YMCA Indian Student Hostel, London

The meeting ended at 2.20 p.m.

Appendix 1

FCI SECRETARY’S REPORT 2011

The meetings held in the last year were the Annual FCI Day on 2 October 2010 and the two regular management committee meetings, in October 2010 and May 2011.  A seminar is planned for Saturday 19 November 2011, which I hope you will consider attending.  It is to be held in Leicester and has been advertised in Pilgrim and on fliers here today.

2011 is not the year for the St Thomas Unity Lecture but we look forward to that next year, 2012, and planning is already under way, with the lecturer and his subject chosen.  We are very grateful to the former secretary, Margaret Smith, for agreeing to coordinate the lecture tour.  Margaret has also worked very hard as Membership Secretary, persuading people to join and to pay their subscriptions, for which we thank her very much.  Inevitably, some friends have died since the last FCI Day and membership numbers fall without positive action.

I hope you have enjoyed reading the two editions of Pilgrim published this year.  We are extremely fortunate that our editor, Revd Dr Timothy Mark, has given of his time and energy so unstintingly and produced such excellent journals.  But that is not all of his FCI work – last year Timothy produced a calendar to raise funds for FCI and, as you will have seen today, he has produced another for 2012, which I hope you have all bought, both for your enjoyment and for raising more money.

Greetings from FCI were sent to CNI for their 40^th Anniversary celebrations of Unity last October.  Our chair, Julie, attended the CSI/CNI Relations Forum in April, in Utrecht, on behalf of FCI and Julie was pleased to note that FCI definitely has a place in the forum for sharing information and experience.

I would like to thank FCI committee members and friends for helping me learn things I need to know about the secretary’s job in this, my first year, and hope I haven’t forgotten too many things.   

Angela Wingate (Secretary)

1 October 2011

Appendix 2:

Treasurer’s Report

Dear Friends,

I am happy to present the financial statement for the year ended 31^st March 2011. I am also presenting the Balance sheet. The statements are presented with comparative figures for the last two years preceding 2011.

The cost of pilgrim is increasing and the committee travels showed an increase. As you know there is a general increase in the country on printing, postage and stationary and also on travel.

Thanks to the efforts of Rev. Timothy Mark, this was well supported by our members. The fundraising efforts through the sale of calendars brought us a net profit of £ 913.05.

I also wish to thanks the efforts of our membership secretaries who worked hard to raise the membership subscriptions to a new high figure of 2504.00. Our appeal to our members explaining our financial constraints also brought us the sum of £559.90 as donations.

The gift aid claims which were finalised and presented this year brought us an income of £631.99. Once again I would like thank our friends Margaret Smith and Joy Martin for their valuable help.

We are consolidating on our bank balances and we have a surplus yearly account. Praise the Lord! We also put aside the sum of £300 towards Unity Lectures.

We cannot sit and relax because the surplus is basically from the fundraising and the special donations we received this year. The financial year 2011-12 will see a further rise in travel and admin costs.

Let us find new ways of increasing the income for a stable financial situation.

With the approval of the enabling group the financial year is changed from April – March to January – December. This will help us align with our subscription year.

Click here for the Financial Reports in Acrobat format (.pdf)