2026 AGM Minutes

MINUTES OF NESTON FLOWER SOCIETY AGM HELD ON 15TH JANUARY 2026 AT URC CHURCH HALL

The Chairman welcomed the Members and due to the absence of our President, Kate Russell, conducted the Meeting.

1. Apologies for absence from Members – Belinda Parmentier, Susan Andian, Ruth Cattrell, Barbara Carter, Wendy Mitham, Agnes Cropper and Sally Cashen

2. Minutes of the last Meeting held on 16th January 2025 – There were no objections so the Chairman signed the Minutes as read. They had been displayed for Members to read online in the first 2 months of 2025 and a hard copy had been made available on the information table at our monthly meetings at the Civic Hall.

3. Chairmans Remarks – read by the Chairman
The Society had another busy year, as those of you that follow us on Facebook will testify.
Pictures galore of everything floral.

My thanks to the Committee for working superbly as a team to make things run smoothly.
What you put in, you get out and we have had lots of fun as well.
Thanks also to Frank for everything he does and to my own husband for stepping in to do the
sound a couple of times. Not forgetting club members who have given their time to help with
the sales table, card selling, raffle tickets and making coffee.

Our demonstrators last year had a wonderful variety of titles and flowers. You may remember
Dawn Weaver with her structures and orchids, Jo Purdy with tales from a Greek island, Kay
Ford’s brush with colour or our last minute dash to the URC Church for Paula Routledge’s
calamitous tale of her trip to the Queen’s garden party. Not forgetting the ‘bit of a Christmas
pantomime’ for our December coffee morning.

May was a very busy month; The New Members coffee morning was held at Pat’s house and
was enjoyed by all.
A number of our members helped out with the excellent Flower Festival celebrating 150 years
of the Parish Church. It was great to be part of this event. If you would like to be involved in
any capacity with future festivals, just let us know.

V.E. day was celebrated with coffee and cake and a red, white and blue theme.
June saw Club members playing their part in the community by making a large number of
Ladies Day floral staffs for children, Mums and Ukrainian ladies as the florists in Neston were
unable to help this year. Small girls apparently only want pink flowers!

The Society ran a number of workshops last year, starting with one in February at St. Bridget’s
in West Kirby to help church flower arrangers have confidence with pedestals, both with floral
foam and foam free. We were also asked to do workshops for Churchill Court and Hope Farm.
Barbara did a lot of work contacting churches of all denominations in the area and we held a
very successful pedestal workshop here in September, even attended by the Cheshire Area
Secretary.

The outing to Newark and the Flower Farm was not to be missed with a lovely lunch and
demonstration included. The Laundry Garden in Denbigh was delightful and some early
Christmas shopping was done at the Tweedmill. ‘Lunch at the Movies,’ at the URC hall, was
well attended and it’s something I’m looking forward to again this coming year. There is a
promise of even more cake than last year.! It’s great to do something social as well as our
regular floral demonstrations.

We were invited by Neston Council, as a past fund recipient, to decorate a Christmas tree as
part of a tree festival at the Town Hall. ‘Nature’s Bling’ was our title and the tree was
decorated with orange slices, cranberries, cinnamon sticks, aspidistra bows, wire flowers,
beaded fir trees and much more. I only hope that some of you were able to go along and see it.

We continue to refresh the Blue Bicycle café display when asked, with different colours for
each season. Five big arrangements for Christmas were put up in the rear event space and
lasted well in the cold weather. If you would like to be involved in this kind of communal
flower arranging, please speak to me. We would love to widen our base of flower arrangers.
Help and guidance is given if needed.

And then there were the wreath making workshops in December for the Gladstone Hall,
Burton, for the Trefoil Guild and for our own members, not forgetting Pam’s class. Must have
been nearly 80.
Ruth has booked a super variety of demonstrators for this year and I look forward to seeing you
all at the Civic Hall, weather permitting
.
4. Honorary Treasurer’s Report – read by the Hon. Treasurer Our income for Neston Flower Society from subscriptions, raffle, refreshments and HMRC Charities - your gift aid - was £6526 and the cost of demonstrators, hall hire, expenses and affiliation fees etc. came to £6982. Therefore, we had a deficit of £456 for the year. This has been recouped from events held during the year.
The Committee organised ‘Lunch at the Movies’ in April, we had workshops for church flower arrangers and Christmas wreath making. Then in December we had our Christmas Coffee Morning and Demonstration. Everyone seemed to embrace the idea of combining the two events and we hope you enjoyed our in house ‘Ready, Steady, Arrange’ from Pat Pam and Kate. It took a lot of organising on their part and the flowers were very special! Therefore, we have covered our deficit and had a surplus to give to charities.
During the year we gave Neston PCC £150 towards their Flower Festival, and some of our members gave their time to help decorate the Church. We gave our usual donation of £150 to the RBL and we will be donating £500 to Neston Civic Hall, £500 to EP&N Community Transport, as we feel many of our members benefit from this service, and £500 to Northern Lights, who work so hard. All these donations are given on your behalf.
We retained 125 members last year and hope with your help we can maintain that figure this year. Please encourage anyone you know who has shown an interest to come along for free in February. Even if they are not flower arrangers it is a pleasant morning watching a demonstrator create with beautiful flowers and listen to their varied stories. They could have a taster before committing to joining. We do not have a waiting list all are most welcome!
We have increased our subscription to £35 this year and hopefully, this should cover our deficit and the rising cost of demonstrator’s fees and expenses. We do not intend to increase the subscription in 2027. We want you all to feel you get value for money from your subscription. That is the end of my report for 2025.
The Chairman asked for a Proposer and Seconder for the adoption of the Accounts:-
Proposer:- Lief Prior Seconder:- Marion Forshaw
The Chairman thanked Keith Greenfield for auditing the accounts

5. Appointment of Auditor The Chairman advised the Meeting that Keith Greenfield is willing to audit the Society’s accounts for the coming year and asked for a Seconder and Proposer
Proposer:- Rachel Lindsay Seconder:- Chris Van Bergen

6.Annual Membership The Treasurer asked for the approval of the membership for the subscription fee for 2027 to remain at £35.
Proposer:- Brenda Cunnington Seconder:- Linda Worrall

7. Election of Officers and Committee The Chairman asked for a Proposer and Seconder for the following nominations to the Committee:- Chairman – Pam Fleming-Williams Minutes Secretary – Barbara Fisher Honorary Treasurer – Wendy Cooper Proposer:- Hilary Phillips Seconder:- Rosemary Wilcox

The following people have been nominated as Elected Members:- Ruth Cattrell, Marion Forshaw, Diana Greenfield, Julie Stonehouse, Lesley Williams and Pat Wood. Proposer:- Rosemary Wilcox Seconder:- Hilary Phillips Under the Constitution the Committee has the power to co-opt up to 3 members 8. AOB There was no further business 9. Closure of AGM The Chairman brought the meeting to a close at 10.45am.

10. Speaker The Chairman introduced the speaker, Joe Wainwright who is a photographer, and his title was ‘Gardens of the North West, North Wales and the Midlands – A Photographer’s View’.
The Vote of Thanks was given by Pam Fleming-Williams and she announced that the next monthly meeting of Neston Flower Society will be on Thursday, 19th February 2026. The demonstrator will be Pen Harrison and the title will be ‘Fantasy’.