2025 started with our club AGM.

President John Smith welcomed everyone and explained that everything would be on screen for everyone to see. He encouraged everyone to ask questions as it was their club.

Club Chairman, Mike Delves, said that 2024 had been a successful year for the club. We had excellent demonstrators visit us, and the outdoor events went extremely well despite the poor weather at times. He said that the club had implemented a lot of new innovations during the year, with an updated website and the purchase of new technical equipment for our demonstrations. The equipment had been purchased thanks to a donation from an anonymous member, for which the club was extremely grateful. Mike finished by announcing that we had recently presented one of our founding members, Pat Clarke, with an Honorary Life Membership to the club in recognition of his long service to the club and his support in making the club viable at the very start. Pat was unable to attend the meeting due to his health and everyone wished him well.

Left: Pat Clarke and Jake Dunn (oldest and youngest members of the club) at our August 2024 meeting

Right: The certificate presented to Pat making him a Life Long Member

Club officers then gave their reports, the main points were as follows:

  • Club finances are in a strong position as a result of increased income from a growing club membership, the AWGB demonstrators grant, and the donation we received from an anonymous member.
  • Our membership numbers have consistently grown over the last 2 years and we finished 2024 with 84 members (64 have so far renewed their membership for 2025)
  • We had excellent demonstrators in 2024, and we have already got the 2025 calendar booked. Tony Jones said that he was now booking our demonstrators for 2026
  • We have now purchased the new audio visual equipment for the club, and Tim gave a brief overview of what it can do and what it will bring to club nights. He also explained the new club website and confirmed that emails had been sent out with log in details for members to access the members only section.
  • We attended 4 outdoor events in 2024 which were well attended by club members who had helped to set up and take down the stand, and support it throughout each event.
  • In 2025 we are planning to attend 4 events: Coombs Wood Canal Trust weekend (Halesowen), Astwood Bank Carnival, The Ploughing Festival (Ragley Hall), and the Bonded Warehouse Open Weekend (Stourbridge)

The election of officers for 2025 then took place. The elected officers were voted in by a unanimous show of hands.

Jenny D’Addea stood down as our Treasurer at the meeting after a number of years in the post. It goes without saying that the club would not be where it is today without Jenny’s input and her diligent oversight of club finances. As a gesture of our thanks, Jenny was presented with a bouquet of flowers from the club.

We look forward to seeing Jenny at many club meetings to come and hope that she will enjoy the evenings without having to count the cash!

Other points that were discussed on the evening:

  • More club members contributing to social media and the website with reports on events, how to’s, classifieds, etc
  • What members want to see on Hands on nights – Tool Sharpening, wood selection, finishes, pyrography, and techniques/angles to hold tools.
  • More work on the members table – encourage new members to bring along work so that they can ask for help from experienced members, experienced members to bring more work (including the committee), Members Table to be only on Hands On nights.
  • Club Charity – should we have a club charity to support and have charity tables at our outdoor events?
  • Youth Training & Novice training days
  • Burcot Woodtruners becoming a charity itself in order to limit any liability to it’s members.

I am pleased to say that the committee have details of all of the above points and will be discussing them at their next committee meeting. I will provide further details when they are available.

Thank you to everyone who came on Thursday night and thank you for your support.