At 7.00am a party of us assembled at the Portacabin in Poole awaiting the Siemens mini-bus which Richard Hills was able to hire to take us to H.M.S. president in London for the Annual General Meeting. After picking up Doug on the way we stopped at Fleet for a short break and then arrived at President near Tower Bridge soon after 10.00.
We had managed to acquire some magnetic car stickers to adorn the bus so we hope someone noticed them! The meeting was well attended by about 65 members and we stated with a remembrance ceremony to Tom Peppitt, on the decking outside President, overlooking the Thames, and although interrupted by two tour boats of rowdy people included a short appreciation of Tom. The meeting commenced soon after with the usual formalities and although we had gone prepared with many proxy votes they were not needed this year as the votes were not contentious and mainly clearing up items in the Memo and Articles.
We took our own packed lunch as President does not provide catering and during the break had a chance to look at Londinium 1, moored alongside the pontoons in the Thames. We all had a chance to go on board and took a photo of the Poole members on board.
Hopefully next Spring we can arrange another trip to London and take the vessel out for a day down the River. After lunch the conference started with presentations from the Treasurer, the National Fundraising Manager, our own Nigel who very cunningly organised it so that the members did most of the talking!, and the National Fleet Manager, my son David. This was followed by a talk by David Dobson on Emergency Resilience and details of a conference he is shortly attending.
The last item on the Agenda was the presentation of long service medals which included me and my son. The presentations were made by the Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Tower Hamlets, Commander John Ludgate RNR (Rtd), the previous Commanding Officer of H.M.S. President. This item concluded the day and after photos had been taken we set off for Poole, a few diversions needed for one reason and another but we were back in Pole at about 9.00pm.
Peter Lockwood
20th November 2011