Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the Bonnyrigg & Lasswade Local History Society held in the Pitcairn Centre, High Street, Bonnyrigg on Wednesday 19th April 2006. 1. Introduction. Herbert Dryden opened the meeting and welcomed those present. He said that that this was the 24th AGM of the Society. He asked everyone to ensure that they had signed the members’ attendance book prior to the start of the meeting. He also apologised in advance regarding the advertised screening of a DVD produced by the Esk Valley Trust. Unfortunately due to technical difficulties it would be possible to view the DVD at the end of the AGM, however, it was hoped that it would be available at a future date. 2. Apologies. Apologies were recorded on behalf of Betty Stoddart, Kit McMillan and Nancy Docherty. 3. Minutes of the last Annual General Meeting. These were formally approved by the meeting, proposed by Alex Waugh and seconded by Mary Gardiner. 4. Treasurer's Report. Howard Turner referred the members to the Balance Sheet. He explained that the Income at the start of the year included cash in hand of £37.92 and the current account was £1044.51. Membership fees for 80 members @ £4.00 each came to £320.00 and visitors’ fees @ £1.00 each came to £18.00, giving a total of £338.00. Donations to the Society were £8.40, the grant received from Midlothian Council was £134.00 and the sale of teas & coffees at the meetings raised £44.90. Bank interest received was £8.00. Income for outings to Mount Stuart were £20.00 and to Beamish and the Scottish Parliament, a total of £935.70. A charitable donation of £100.00 had been received from the BBC for the use of McTaggart archive photographs for a recent BBC TV series. Expenditure included £26.00 for subscriptions, the hall (public liability) insurance was £131.67, Secretary’s expenses were £2.50, Chairman’s expenses £31.00, Treasurer’s expenses £20.74, tea expenses were £17.45 and speakers’ expenses were £50.00. Rental payment made to Bonnyrigg Parish Church for the use of the Pitcairn Centre together with a donation for the use of their microphone system was £85.00. Expenses for the Mount Stuart outing were £617.00, Beamish outing £821.00 and the Scottish Parliament outing £79.55. Outing refunds were £46.40 and donations made by the Society amounted to £20.00. Website hosting and use of the domain name for the last four years amounted to £120.00. An invoice for this had been difficult to obtain from the service provider hence the large amount in one payment. This left the cash in hand at £59.11 and the current account at £544.01. Mr Turner commented on the increasing costs being incurred for the hall (public liability) insurance and also said that in the longer term that the Society would also have to consider replacement of its projection equipment, as newer technology became available. However this was beyond our current means. In the shorter term, he said that we might consider borrowing projection equipment from Midlothian Council (Local Studies) or Midlothian Voluntary Action. It was also noted that the grant from Midlothian Council remained very important to the Society and that it was not guaranteed; it had to be applied for each year. It was now almost the same as the amount now paid for the hall insurance by the Society. Mr Turner then invited questions from the members. Mr Dryden thanked Mr Turner for his report and as there were no questions raised, he asked that the accounts be approved and these were proposed by Mrs Bett and seconded by Mrs Waugh. Thanks were also recorded to Mrs Mary Muirhead for auditing the accounts. Mrs Muirhead was re-appointed as auditor for the following year, proposed by Cathy Simpson and seconded by Alison Ferguson. 5. Chairman's Report Mr Dryden was pleased to report on another very successful season. He recalled that in May of last year we had a very enjoyable outing to Mount Stuart in Rothesay and in the September we visited the North of England Open Air Museum at Beamish in Northumberland. Attendances at the meetings throughout the year had been very good; however, concerns remained as to our ability to accommodate larger numbers and plans to move to a larger facility were still being considered. In October, John MacFie gave a very interesting talk to the Society, illustrated with some of his own drawings on his days at the Lady Victoria Colliery at Newtongrange. In November, Alistair Johnson and Drew Elliot gave illustrated talks on the old and the new buildings of the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh. In January 2006 we welcomed Stella Rankine who spoke about the creation of her garden and also her garden business at Kevock, a passion that got out of hand. In February, Althea Dundas-Bekker, Cathy Simpson together with some of current residents of Midfield House, all spoke about their memories of the building past and present. Also in February, we had a tour of the New Scottish Parliament at Holyrood. In March we had a conducted tour around Dalkeith House, courtesy of John Lawler. We also ran an exhibition in the Bonnyrigg Public Library from October to Christmas, featuring some of the historic buildings in the area. Thanks were extended to Jan Brown, Dorothy Anderson, Anne MacDonald and Moira Dryden for their assistance in staging the exhibition. Plans are already at an advanced stage for the 2006-2007 season and in March 2007, the Society will celebrate its Silver Jubilee. Thanks were again extended to the Kirk Session of Bonnyrigg Parish Church for allowing us to meet in the Pitcairn Centre. Particular thanks were due to Bonnyrigg Church Badminton Club for allowing us to use the Loudon Hall for our October & February meetings. We also appreciated being allowed to use the church microphone system. Mr Dryden expressed his thanks to the committee of the Society and to the members for their support over the past year and also to Neil Stewart for his support including taking the minutes for the AGM and administering the website. 6. Election of Office Bearers and Committee. Mr Dryden advised the meeting of the process for electing Office Bearers and Committee in accordance with the Constitution of the Society. During the year, Mary Gardiner resigned from the committee due to other commitments and thanks were extended to her for all that she had done for the Society. Mr Dryden also intimated that the retiring committee, which included those co-opted during the year, consisted of Sheena Johnson, Margaret Waugh, Margaret Hamilton, Cathy Simpson, Christine Elliot, Betty Stoddart, Jeanette Kidd, Alison Ferguson and Howard Turner. All were all willing to be re-elected, if the members were happy that they should serve for a further year. This was unanimously approved by the meeting, proposed by Mary Gardiner and seconded by Mrs Bett. Mrs Sheena Johnson was re-elected as Secretary, proposed by Jeanette Kidd and seconded by Alison Ferguson. Mr Howard Turner was re-elected as Treasurer, proposed by Mary Renwick and seconded by Margaret Waugh. The position of Vice Chair remained unfilled. Mr Dryden then handed over to Neil Stewart to oversee the election of Chairman of the Society. Mr Stewart intimated that Mr Dryden had expressed a willingness to continue should this be acceptable to the members. Mr Stewart asked the meeting for further nominations for the post of Chairman. None were received, so Mr Stewart then asked if the members wished to re-elect Mr Dryden to the post. This was unanimously endorsed by the meeting and Mr Dryden was duly re-elected proposed by Cathy Simpson and seconded by Margaret Hamilton. Mr Dryden thanked the meeting for their decision but also said that as the membership was now exceeding 80 people that he sincerely hoped that next year’s AGM perhaps someone else would volunteer their services as Chairman. He felt that the time had come for a change to be made. 7. Any Other Competent Business. Mr Stewart suggested that each committee member might like to consider hosting a Society meeting, instead of the Chairman doing it. Giving out the notices at the start of the meeting, introducing the guest speaker and then giving a vote of thanks, might give individual committee members the confidence to eventually become office bearers. He said that he appreciated that not everyone might be comfortable with public speaking but since the majority of the membership knew one another it was worth a try. Mr Stewart reminded the committee that he still had a quantity of acid free cardboard storage boxes, presently located in the loft of his house and asked if they could be utilised for extending the archive. Mr Dryden reminded the members that at the 2005 AGM, they had given approval for a donation of £20.00 to be made to the work of the Esk Valley Trust. The Society had associate membership and Mr Dryden now sought approval to renew the membership and make a further donation of £20.00. This was unanimously approved by the meeting. Mr Dryden intimated that the proposed outing to Dundee in May was undersubscribed and it looked as if it would be cancelled. If this was the case then those who had already paid for the outing would receive a full refund. Mr Dryden gave some brief information about proposed speakers for the 2006/2007 season and also asked if there was any interest in a possible dinner to celebrate the Society’s Silver Jubilee. A large show of hands from the meeting suggested that this proposal would be supported. Mr Dryden had written on behalf the Society to Midlothian Council expressing concern about the proposed wind turbine farm to be built at Auchencorse Moss near Penicuik. He said that whilst the renewable energy concept was attractive, that this proposal would have a detrimental affect on the landscape. As there were no further items of business Mr Dryden closed the meeting and thanked the members for their attendance.