Have you never been to an Esperanto event abroad? We'd like to help you take those first steps and are offering £200 towards your costs to participate in Somera Esperanto-Studado in Slovakia. It's an an event from July 12 to 20 and encompasses a mix of classroom activities (for all levels), tourism, and socialising -- all in Esperanto, of course!

Details about our scheme

All charities need to have people who are responsible in law for running them. These people are called trustees and we elect ours at the AGM. The current trustees would like to invite suitable candidates to stand for election in Dover.

The trustees communicate primarily by email and meet up to five times a year, whether in person at Esperanto House or online using Skype. There have to be at least four and there are currently seven, a mixture of people who have been involved in Esperanto for decades and some fresh faces coming via the Duolingo route or returning to Esperanto after a little time away. That means there is space for others to come on board to help run EAB.

Trusteeship puts you in a unique position to make decisions and influence the direction and work of the charity. If you have a vision for EAB, trusteeship is the best way to realise it. It isn't a paid role although you will be reimbursed out-of-pocket expenses incurred, such as travel costs to attend meetings.

Don't feel that you can't carry out the role if you're not fluent in Esperanto; meetings are held in English. It doesn't even matter if you're new. What counts is having ideas and being willing to work with the other trustees in the best interest of the charity.

Trustees come from a range of backgrounds. There isn't a particular model to follow, though some people may find themselves feeling at home in the role a bit more than many others, such as people who have previous experience of being a charity trustee. If that's you, then we'd love to hear from you, as we would from, say, people who run their own business or work in management or with budgets. If any of these things apply to you, then you could well thrive in the role, to the benefit of EAB.

If you think you might be interested, you should feel absolutely free to speak with Viv, Tim or one of the current trustees to get an idea of what is involved. There won't be any commitment assumed if you make an enquiry but we would really like to welcome new people with new ideas on board.

How to send in a nomination
To make your nomination known, please email Viv (eab@esperanto.org.uk) and make her aware that you wish to stand for election as a trustee. You must be a paid-up member of EAB and will need to be backed by two members, so please provide their names. She will then contact them herself to confirm that they wish to back you. Please ensure that emails reach Viv by 12:00 on Friday, February 8; nominations received afterwards unfortunately won't be accepted. If you submit a nomination from Viv but don't receive confirmation of receipts within a reasonable timeframe, please don't automatically assume your email arrived but check with her to be sure before the deadline.

Candidates will have the opportunity to present themselves in up to 200 words in the following issue of Update, so don't worry if you're new and don't know many people. All of us were new once!

After an extensive period of development, the Esperanto Association of Britain is launching a new online home today.

The site that you're currently seeing is not the finished version but we feel is stable enough now for EAB members to enjoy and assist with developing by offering their comments and suggestions and reporting bugs where they see them.

Feel free to make use of the discussion areas, join one of our social groups, make purchases from our shop, contribute articles, read up on our classroom courses and see what we offer as distance learning, as well as finding out how to find other Esperanto speakers.

And if you're new to the Esperanto Association of Britain, we invite you to read about who we are and what we do.

Most of the content is currently in English. That will change in the future when the site stabilises and new features, currently under development, appear. We invite you to check back regularly as the site continues to take shape and hope you'll enjoy using it.

We would like to pay tribute to Bill Walker, who administrated the previous site from its creation in 2005 until its retirement today.

Bill himself refers to simply stepping in back then as a stop-gap and not at all expecting to still be here running substantially the same site so many years later. We are delighted that Bill has offered to continue supporting EAB with this new site and will be part of the team going forward.

Following suggestions received from members over the course of several years, the trustees of EAB applied to the Charity Commission to revise the charitable object of EAB. The Charity Commission has approved the new wording and so the object of EAB reads now 'To advance education in and about the international language Esperanto and to preserve and promote the culture and heritage of Esperanto for the educational benefit of the general public.'

The original wording didn't have any wording which indicated responsibility for cultural heritage, the over 100 years of Esperanto literature held in the Butler Library, which members and the trustees believe is incumbent on EAB to protect. The new wording removes some superfluous wording which didn't obviously relate to measurable charitable activity.

After considerable research and internal discussion, the trustees presented the revised wording in the AGM of 2017, after which followed a period of consultation with members for one year. Articles inviting feedback from members were published in Update 78 and 79 and the revised wording was subjected to AGM approval in 2018. Of the 53 votes submitted, 43 were FOR, 8 AGAINST and 2 ABSTAINED. The trustees subsequently submitted the proposed wording to the Charity Commission, who have approved and therefore officialised it with immediate effect.

Earlier this week, EAB sent out the email below to its members, explaining how it uses their personal details, introducing a new privacy policy, and explaining that members who wish to receive emails about general information need specifically to opt in to it. We have set up a consent form so that those of you who would like to receive this type of email can indicate your wishes:

If you change your mind down the line, all you have to do is complete the form again and indicate that you don't consent. Alternatively, you can contact us through our other channels.

You may have heard about the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and received emails from other organisations explaining how they use your data or revising their privacy policies. The GDPR, which comes into effect on the 25 May 2018, is about ensuring that organisations which hold information on you act as responsible stewards of that data. They need to be clear on what data they hold and what they use it for. We are writing to you in order to comply with GDPR requirements, and to ask you to confirm that you would like to receive information from us.

How EAB uses your personal details

Here at the Esperanto Association of Britain we take your privacy seriously. We principally use your personal details in order to administer your membership, for example, sending you La Brita Esperantisto, Update and official documentation such as the Trustees’ Annual Report.

From time to time we send out an email which we believe to be of general interest; examples from the past year include informing you that Marjorie Boulton, the most eminent Esperantist in the country, had sadly passed away and making you aware of her funeral details, and an email from the organisers of our annual conference inviting you to take part.

We do not pass your personal details on to any third parties. We hold your details in our database for three months if your membership lapses in order to be able to send you a reminder to renew; if you choose not to renew, we delete your details after those three months.

What you need to do: opting in to allow us to contact you

The GDPR allows EAB to use your details in order to administer your membership, send you information about an event you’ve signed up for, reply to your emails and so on. The GDPR considers it a reasonable assumption that when you became a member, you intended for us to send you your magazines, that you expect us to use your email address to reply to you, and so on.

However, we are not able to assume that you would like us to contact you about things we consider might be of interest to you, such as those examples mentioned above, or to make you aware of a similar course to one which we know you’ve attended before and enjoyed.

In order to be able to contact you from time to time about this sort of thing, we need to know that you have actively consented. In order to make it easy for you to do so and for us to record that you have, we have set up a form at [link]. Please do take a moment to complete it; if you don’t, we unfortunately have to assume that you don’t wish to be contacted.

In line with the GDPR, we have updated our Privacy Policy, the changes to which will come into effect on the 25th May 2018. The updated Privacy Policy sets out how we will collect and use your personal data and what your individual data protection and privacy rights are. We encourage you to take a moment to visit our website and read our updated Privacy Policy.

In the future, we may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. Therefore we encourage you to review the Privacy Policy periodically to keep up to date. We will always let you know if we make any material changes to the way we process your personal data.

If you change your mind in the future and decide to opt out, then you can simply contact the office by email at eab@esperanto.org.uk or write to Esperanto House, Station Road, Barlaston, ST12 9DE. We will immediately remove your details from the general mailing list.

[This is a "stop-press"/placeholder report - a more comprehensive report will be published in EAB Update or a copy of the minutes will be circulated to members with EAB Update]

EAB's 41^st Annual General Meeting was held on 15^th April 2018 at Morlan Centre, Aberystwyth. The meeting was chaired by Kat Newbould with fellow trustees Damon Lord, Clare Hunter, Ed Robertson and Sally Phillips. EAB president Ian Carter sent a video message honouring Marjorie Boulton.

The draft minutes of the previous AGM [in Edinburgh, May 2017] were presented. There was a lengthy discussion of suggested corrections and refinements to those minutes. The minutes (with agreed corrections) were approved as an accurate record of that previous AGM.

Clare Hunter presented the Trustees' Report [for year ending October 2017] and Financial Report [for year ending October 2017]. A full version of the financial report is available from the (relevant section of) the Charity Commission website, or on request to Esperanto House.

A question had been submitted about the Trustees' Handbook; Clare explained that this had become outdated and had been superseded by a Trustees' Induction Presentation which is presented to all new trustees.

The proposals to re-appoint the current independent examiner, and to leave the [voting member] subscription rates unchanged, were approved.

The proposal to amend the constitution ("object of the association") was discussed and voted upon.

"The Object of the Association shall be to advance education in and about the international language Esperanto and to preserve the culture and heritage of Esperanto for the educational benefit of the general public."

This proposal will now be submitted to the Charity Commission for their consideration (as, legally, it cannot be adopted witout their approval).

The votes for the Mananagement Committee* were counted by Viv O'Dunne.
[*The Management Committee comprises the Trustees of the Association.]
Ian Carter, Edmund Grimley Evans, Clare Hunter, Damon Lord, Laura Miller, Kathryn Newbould and Ed Robertson were elected as trustees.

Ian Carter was the sole candidate for president of the Association, and so was re-appointed president.

The meeting ended with further discussion and suggestions from the membership. Tim Owen presented a proposal for the 2019 British Experanto Conference - the 100^th - to be held in Dover, with an optional day excursion to Calais.

(Original report.)

[This is a "stop-press"/placeholder report - a more comprehensive report will be published in EAB Update or a copy of the minutes will be circulated to members with EAB Update]

EAB's 40^th Annual General Meeting was held on 21^st May 2016 at The Melting Pot, Edinburgh. The meeting was led by trustees Clare Hunter, Ian Carter and Ed Robertson.

The minutes of the previous AGM [in Liverpool, March 2016], the Trustees' Report [for year ending October 2016] and Financial Report [for year ending October 2016] were presented. The minutes were approved as an accurate record of what had been said at the previous AGM, and there were then some comments and discussions about other matters. It was clarified that the Trustees' report is a report by the Trustees (not the Members) to the Charity Commission and had already been submitted in February (along with the financial statement); there were then some further comments and discussions about other matters. There was a question about the footnote references in the summary financial statement; Clare Hunter explained that the full 16-page statement (including footnotes) are accessible to all via the (relevant section of) the Charity Commission website, or on request to Esperanto House.

The proposals to re-appoint the current independent examiner, and to leave the [voting member] subscription rates unchanged, were all approved.

Clare Hunter introduced a discussion about the object of the charity (i.e. its stated mission and purpose). The trusees intend to review and perhaps to revise this, to address members' concerns (expressed at previous AGMs) about the heritage of the Bulter Library and Esperanto culture in Britain. The wording has to be chosen carefully, because it can have legal consequences for the charitable status of the Association, and will then have to be approved by the Charity Commission and a future Annual General Meeting before it can be adopted. A working draft revision was presented for discussion; Clare explained any wording which implies that the charity works for or benefits only a select or exclusive community would probably fail to satisfy the Charity Commission's rules.

• Working draft revision: "To advance education in and about the international language Esperanto, and to preserve the cultural heritage of Esperanto, for the educational benefit of the general public."

The votes for the Mananagement Committee* were counted by Viv O'Dunne.

[*The Management Committee comprises the Trustees of the Association.]
Ian Carter, Geoffrey Greatrex, Edmund Grimley Evans, Clare Hunter, Damon Lord, Kathryn Newbould, Sally Phillips, Ed Robertson and Geoffrey Sutton were elected as trustees.

Ian Carter was the sole candidate for president of the Association, and so remained president.

The motion to amend the EAB constitution (to revert to a previous version) was not carried.

(Original report.)

[This is a "stop-press"/placeholder report - a more comprehensive report will be published in EAB Update or a copy of the minutes will be circulated to members with EAB Update]

EAB's 39^th Annual General Meeting was held on 20^th March 2016 at The Gateway Conference Centre, Liverpool. The meeting was chaired by (Honorary Secretary) Tim Owen at the request of the outgoing President Paul Gubbins and the Vice-President Edmund Grimley-Evans, neither of whom were able to attend in person.

The minutes of the previous AGM [in Brighton, April 2015], the Trustees' Report [for year ending October 2015] and Financial Report [for year ending October 2015] were presented.

The proposals to receive the minutes of the previous AGM, to re-appoint the current independent examiner, and to leave the [voting member] subscription rates unchanged, were all approved.

Various suggestions and comments were received from the members present. Topics discussed included the option of spending money on resorces to manage/organise the Butler library; recuritment of new trustees; the drawing power of combined events e.g. Buchanan Masterclass with British Congress; fortcoming EAB courses and events (see esperanto.org.uk/events); EAB will refund KER examination fees for (up to) ten successful exam-takers at the June KER session in London organised by Renato Corsetti; the NoJEF trustees are considering options for merging administration activities with those of EAB (subject to further legal advice).

Ed Robertson announced that the 2017 British Esperanto Congress will be a joint venture with the 2017 Scottish Congress, to be held in Edinburgh in the second half of May 2017 (the precise date still To Be Confirmed).

The votes for the ManCom* were counted by Viv O'Dunne.

[* ManCom= Management Committee, and Trustees of the Association]

Ian Carter, Edmund Grimley Evans, Clare Hunter, Tim Owen, Ed Robertson were elected as trustees.

(Original report.)

[This is a "stop-press"/placeholder report - a more comprehensive report will be published in EAB Update or a copy of the minutes will be circulated to members with EAB Update]

EAB's 38^th Annual General Meeting was held on 19^th April 2015 at The Jubilee Library, Brighton.

The minutes of the previous AGM [in Sheffield, April 2014], the Trustees' Report [for year ending October 2014] and Financial Report [for year ending October 2014] were presented.

The proposals to receive the minutes of the previous AGM (with corrections and clarifications), to re-appoint the current independent examiner, and to leave the [voting member] subscription rates unchanged, were all approved.

The resolution to amend the constitution (to explicitly embed conditions concerning the Butler Library) was not approved; Paul Gubbins explained that the management committee would be addressing the library's organisation and operation in future meetings.

Joyce Bunting, former honorary treasurer, was awarded fellowship ("fratulo") of EAB in recognition of her many years' service and advice to the Association.

Various suggestions and comments were received from the members present, including a discussion on the wishes and options for future British Esperanto Congresses.

The votes for the ManCom* were counted by Viv O'Dunne.

[* ManCom= Management Committee, and Trustees of the Association]

Ian Carter, Paul Dennett, Edmund Grimley Evans, Paul Gubbins, Clare Hunter, Tim Owen, Ed Robertson were elected as trustees.

Paul Gubbins was the sole candidate for president of the Association, and so remained president.

(Original report.)

[This is a "stop-press"/placeholder report - a more comprehensive report will be published in EAB Update or a copy of the minutes will be circulated to members with EAB Update]

EAB's 37^th Annual General Meeting was held on 20^th April 2014 at The Circle, Sheffield.

The minutes of the previous AGM [in Ramsgate, May 2013], the Trustees' Report [for year ending October 2013] and Financial Report [for year ending October 2013] were presented.

The proposals to receive the minutes of the previous AGM (with one correction), to receive the Trustee's report, to receive the financial report, to re-appoint the current independent examiner, and to leave the [voting member] subscription rates unchanged were all approved.

The resolution to adopt the proposed (updated) constitution was approved.

Various suggestions and comments were received from the members present.

The votes for the ManCom* were counted by Viv O'Dunne.
[* ManCom= Management Committee, and Trustees of the Association]
Edmund Grimley Evans, Paul Gubbins, Clare Hunter, Tim Owen, Ed Robertson, Michael Seaton were elected as trustees.

Paul Gubbins was the sole candidate for president of the association, and so became the new president.

(Original report.)

[This is a "stop-press"/placeholder report - a more comprehensive report was published in EAB Update issue 62 (July-September 2013) - see below.]

EAB's 36^th Annual General Meeting was held on 12^th May 2013 at King's Church and Community Theatre, Ramsgate.

The minutes of the previous AGM, the Trustees' Report [for year ending October 2012] and Financial Report were presented.

The proposals to receive the minutes of the previous AGB (with minor corrections), to receive the Trustee's report (with minor corrections), to receive the financial report, to re-appoint the current independent examiner, and to leave the [voting member] subscription rates unchanged, were all approved. [Claire Hunter explained that there had been a change to the Supporter's rate in the previous year to cover increased postage and printing costs, but the constitution only requires a vote on the subscription rate for voting membership.]

The votes for the ManCom* were counted by Viv O'Dunne and Vilĉjo Walker.
[* ManCom= Management Committee, and Trustees of the Association]
Edmund Grimley Evans, Paul Gubbins, Clare Hunter, Tim Owen, Ed Robertson, Michael Seaton were elected as trustees.

Paul Gubbins was the sole candidate for president of the association, and so became the new president. Tim Owen thanked John Wells for serving as EAB's president since 2004 (to a round of applause from the membership) and presented a comemorative cake.

[The following report was printed in EAB Update issue 62 (July-September 2013).]

Summary of the AGM

John Wells opened the meeting with a commemoration of the members who had passed away since the previous AGM. A few moments’ silence was observed. John made special mention of the death of Ernle Money, a former barrister and MP who championed Esperanto. Apologies were received from Michael Seaton, Edmund Grimley Evans, Derek Tatton and Angela Tellier.

The minutes of the previous AGM from Eastbourne were received and approved subject to minor change.

The Trustees' Annual Report for the year ending 31 October 2012 and published in EAB Update was received and unanimously approved.

Clare Hunter read through a simplified version of the accounts, which were accepted unanimously. John Wells expressed his thanks to Clare for her proficient management, recording and explanation. She in turn presented her thanks to Joyce Bunting for continuing to assist with our investment portfolio and to Viv O'Dunne for so efficiently managing the accounts on a day-to-day basis.

The decision on whether to re-appoint the independent examiner was made. Helen Fantom proposed that the management team stay with Dains LLP, seconded by Joyce Bunting. This proposal was carried unanimously.

The issue whether to keep subscription rates unchanged was discussed. Clare Hunter informed that the supporters now had to choose between two tiers, following discussion at the 2012 AGM that the cost of printing and posting EAB Update was greater than the cost of joining up. Supporters who are happy to receive an electronic version of EAB Update can continue to pay £10, but those who wish to receive a paper copy now have to pay £15. Bill Walker queried why subscription rates were held to a vote but supporter rates weren't; Clare Hunter responded that by constitution subscription rates for membership had to be put to a vote. There were two abstentions to the motion to keep subscription rates the same; everyone else approved.

Viv O’Dunne and Bill Walker were nominated and approved as vote-counters.

Arnold Pitt asked whether there were any plans made for a congress in 2014. Tim Owen announced that work had started and invited Jack Warren to make a short presentation, in which he invited members to visit Sheffield over the Easter weekend.

Paul Gubbins announced that there will be a three-day programme in Liverpool in conjunction with the University, financed by the Buchanan Foundation. He informed that there would be three strands; a language strand, hosted by Wim Jansen; a literature strand, which he would host; and language seminars in Esperanto itself, guided by Angela Tellier.

Arturo Prent asked whether there had been any update on Wedgwood Memorial College. Tim Owen informed that the group which had submitted several business plans to run services from the College via a Community Asset Transfer had run several courses in different locations to demonstrate that money that could have come to Barlaston had headed elsewhere.They were adopting the approach of running a 'virtual college', registered as a cooperative benefit society. He confirmed that there would be no scope for this group to buy the College simply because the asking price was in the millions.

Paul Gubbins, as the new President of the Association, was invited by John Wells to present himself, which he duly did. John Wells then wished him well for the future, and Tim Owen, on behalf of the trustees who have served under John Wells, thanked him, presenting him with a card, present and cake, which was cut and shared among the attendees

The membership votes were as follows:

All the above were duly elected to the Management Committee.

(Original report.)

[This is a "stop-press"/placeholder report - a more comprehensive report will be published in or distributed with a future issue of EAB Update - see below for an extract of that report.]

EAB's 35^th Annual General Meeting was held on 22^nd April 2012 at St Andrews and St Georges West, Edinburgh.

The minutes of the previous AGM, the Trustees' Report [for year ending October 2011] and Financial Report were presented.

The proposals to receive the minutes of the previous AGB, to receive the Trustee's report, to receive the financial report, and to agree that the subscription rates for the next financial year shall remain unchanged were approved. However, Claire Hunter warned next year the Supporters' subscription rate (currently £10) would probably need to rise, simply to cover the increased mailing costs of quarterly issues of EAB Update (following recent significant price rises by the Royal Mail); any Members or Supporters willing to receive EAB Update online (and so save EAB the postage costs) were invited to contact the EAB office.

The (re)appointment of the independent examiner (of the accounts) was discussed; Hon Treasurer Clare Hunter explained that the performance of the current examiners Kingston Smith had been far from satisfactory; a proposal was approved for ManCom to select a suitable independent examiner.

The votes for the ManCom* were counted by Hilary Chapman and Harry Barron.

[* ManCom= Management Committee, and Trustees of the Association]

Edmund Grimley Evans, Clare Hunter, Tim Owen, Hugh ("Hju") Reid, Ed Robertson, Michael Seaton and John Wells were elected as trustees.

John Wells was elected as president of the association.

Tim Owen announced planned future events (still provisional at this stage); the 2013 British Congress in Ramsgate, the 2014 British Congress in Yorkshire, and a Drondo (discussion circle) event in November 2012 in Liverpool.

The winners of the 2011 writing and photo competition were announced:

• EAB website: Susan Badham for her report on attending Course-you-Can.
• EAB website: Hilary Chapman for his report on a visit to Argentina.
• La Brita Esperantisto: Jack Warren for his article Historio de okulvitroj in LBE No. 970.

Minutes of the 35th Annual General Meeting of Esperanto-Asocio de Britio

April 22nd, 2012, St Andrew's and St George's West Church, Edinburgh

1: John Wells opened the meeting with a commemoration of the members who have passed away since the last AGM. A few moments' silence was observed in respect of those known to have passed away and David Kelso.

2: Apologies were received from Brian O'Sullivan, Marjorie Boulton, Derek Tatton and Stephen Thompson. 40 members, 1 supporter, and 5 observers were present.

3: The minutes of the previous AGM from Eastbourne were received and approved, with two abstentions.

4: The Trustees' Annual Report for the year ending October 31st 2011 and published in Update was received. John Wells summarised it paragraph by paragraph.

4.1: Terry Page queried why there was a paragraph headed "public benefit" and, in particular, why it contained the sentence "EAB does not exclude anyone for any reason". Clare Hunter explained that the Charities Act 2006 necessitated the inclusion of acknowledgment that we meet the requirement about public benefit and that we declare whether or not we discriminate about who can apply for membership.

4.2: Elizabeth Stanley asked that the meeting acknowledge that the Springboard project had been praised in a European report, a particularly outstanding event in her view because the UK's approach to languages is never lauded.

4.3: Helen Fantom expressed her thanks to Marteno Minih for his steering of the Language Show in London.

4.4: Sally Philips expressed that she didn't think the translation of the 2011 congress title in the Trustees' Annual Report ("Lighthouse, Lights and Luminaries") was quite accurate but was unable to provide a closer interpretation.

4.5: Ed Robertson explained that the Wednesday following the congress would see Professor Wim Jansen holding the Buchanan Lecture at the University of Liverpool.

4.6: Michael Sims explained that people known to him had said that they wouldn't join EAB because the membership form was in English.

4.7: The meeting voted unanimously to approve the Trustees' Annual Report.

5: The financial report was received with spontaneous applause for Clare Hunter, who proceeded to read through the simplified version of the accounts. She underlined that we had moved to a system of "cash accounting" and that several late invoices from Stoke-on-Trent City Council meant that figures for 2009/10 were paid in 2010/2011's accounts. She spoke about the frustrating problems posed by the independent examiner's late delivery of the accounts compounded by repeated mistakes therein. Joyce Bunting confirmed that investments were yielding returns of about 4% but that inflation was eroding them. The meeting unanimously approved the financial report.

6: The decision on whether to re-appoint the independent examiner was held. Helen Fantom proposed that the management team find a new examiner, seconded by Sally Philips. This proposal was carried unanimously.

7: The issue to keep subscription rates unchanged was discussed. Clare Hunter indicated that change may come in the supporter category because supporters pay £10 and receive £11's worth of publications. Miland Joshi suggested two rates for supporters; one for online access to the periodicals, one for printed. One person voted against the proposal, one abstained; everyone else approved the motion to keep the subscription rates the same.

8: Bill Chapman and Harry Barron were nominated and approved as vote-counters.

9: Other business

9.1: Tim Owen recapped the back-story to the closure of Wedgwood Memorial College, reiterating that the closure meant that the Butler Library and three bedrooms reverted exclusively to EAB. Arturo Prent expressed his hope that the Management Committee would see whether Stoke-on- Trent City Council might like to buy out the contract. Tim Owen responded that he'd written a letter to the members accompanying Update 56 which stated that the legal advice was to engage in talks with SoT to see what might be on offer and so this was underway. He added that financial compensation was out of the question because the lease represents millions of pounds in savings into the future compared to market prices and SoT has faced successive budget cuts that it simply can't meet.

9.2: Tim Owen gave a short explanation as to why the association is one of 11 who hadn't paid a subscription to EEU this year. He underlined that he was glad that Seán Ó Riain, EEU president, was in attendance and that EAB would encourage its members to attend the EEU Congress in Galway.

9.3: Tim Owen explained that he had engaged in conversation with Stefan MacGill of ILEI about the absence of an EAB representative. Elizabeth Stanley volunteered for the role.

9.4: Jack Warren stated that he hopes the closure of Wedgwood Memorial College won't put an end to EAB's programme of residential courses. Tim Owen responded that alternatives were being investigated and that he was set to run a Drondo course in Liverpool in November alongside sister charities' courses.

9.5: Arturo Prent queried whether the voting instructions might indicate whether a limit for the number of candidates for whom one may vote exists.

9.6: Helen Fantom proposed a gesture of thanks to the Management Committee for its work over the previous year. This was accepted by acclaim.

The results for the election of the Management Committee were:

Edmund Grimley Evans, Clare Hunter, Tim Owen, Hugh Reid, Ed Robertson, Michael Seaton and John Wells were duly elected.

As EAB President candidates, Ian Fantom received 2 votes and John Wells received 66 votes. John Wells was thus elected as President.

(Original report.)