Minutes of West Midlands Region AGM

Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the West Midlands Region of the British Wheel of Yoga held at 1pm on Saturday 10th November 2007 at the Walton Community Centre, Whitemill Lane, Stone, Staffordshire.

1. Present. Andrew Davies (Staffordshire County Rep); Rachel White (Warwickshire County Rep); Richard Gordon (Regional Editor), plus Helen Barker (DCT) and Heather Donovan (DCT) and 21 Wheel members from the Region.

2. Apologies. Val Young (Shropshire County Rep); Lorna Loy (West Midlands County Rep); Anna- Sofie Warmington (Hereford and Worcestershire County Rep); Gillian Russel (Regional Training Officer); Donna Baldwin (Regional Treasurer); Veronica Winter (Marketing Officer); Sandi Bottone (National Vice Chair)

3. Reports of County Reps

Warwickshire. 5 events were planned, of which 4 took place. There was a First Aid IST day and two other IST days with Beverley Nolan and Zoe Knott. Two non-IST days were planned but one did not happen due to lack of support. Rachel expressed a concern that not enough was being made available to non-teaching Wheel members. She said that the Mid – Warwickshire Yoga Teachers’ Group continued to thrive, attracting teachers from different traditions.

Staffordshire. This was Andrew Davies’ first year in post. 3 events had been planned by Andrew (including an IST) and 2 events by Sue McPhee. Andrew expressed also a concern about lack of events for non-teaching Wheel members and asked for more information concerning IST days. He said he had requested assistance in his role as county rep and had received three offers of assistance. In the absence of the other County Reps there was a report on Hereford and Worcestershire from Helen Barker, describing the events that had taken place and thanking Anna-Sofie Warmington for her work. Pramila Sashidharan thanked Lorna Loy for organising the events in the West Midlands.

Regarding Shropshire it was noted that Val Young had organised and number of events and that there had been a trend of teachers leaving Adult Education due to the demands of additional paperwork.

4. Regional Newsletter. There was general satisfaction with the standard of the printing. Along with a request for members of the Region to send in articles , possibly including sequences of postures that could be tried by members.

5. Regional Treasurer. The accounts had been completed, showing a surplus. Most events had returned a profit. A summary of accounts would be shown in the next newsletter. A question was raised about the location of the Spectrum DVDs produced by the Wheel. The Regional Officer took the action to investigate. Likewise the payment to officers within the Region for attendance at National Congress as queried. The Regional Officer undertook to investigate.

6. Regional Training Officer. A clearer definition of this role was requested to prevent duplicated work by the County Reps.

7. Marketing Officer. The importance of this role was emphasised and the distinction between publicity (done by many people for specific events and classes) and marketing of yoga in general.

8. Elections:

Regional Officer. Richard Gordon was nominated by Sandi Bottone, Seconded by Rachel White and elected unanimously.

Regional Training Officer. Gillian Russel was nominated by Richard Gordon and seconded by Andrew Davies and elected unanimously.

Regional Marketing Officer. Veronica Winter was nominated by Richard Gordon and seconded by Rachel White and elected unanimously.

Regional Treasurer. Donna Baldwin was nominated by Richard Gordon and seconded by Andrew Davies and elected unanimously.

Regional Editor. Liz Gardner was nominated by Richard Gordon and seconded by Rachel White and elected unanimously.

County Reps

Hereford and Worcestershire. John Haywood and Sarah Watson were nominated by Anna-Sofie Warmington and seconded by Helen Barker to share the role, with John focussing on Herefordshire and Sarah on Worcestershire. John introduced himself and a graduate of Foundation Course I, but not a teacher of yoga. He said he was looking forward to supporting both teachers and students of yoga.

Warwickshire. Rachel White was nominated by Richard Gordon and seconded by Bill Heilbronnand elected unanimously.

Staffordshire Andrew Davies was nominated by Richard Gordon and seconded by Nicola Bourke and elected unanimously. Andrew requested members in the county should consider themselves for taking on this role in future and taking part in its work during his time in office.

West Midlands Lorna Loy was nominated by Richard Gordon and seconded by Rachel White and elected unanimously.

Shropshire Val Young stood down from this position, with thanks from the meeting for her work. The position is now vacant.

9. Any Other Business

There was a general discussion on relations between the Wheel and the government, especially with regard to recognised teaching qualifications. There was a request that the website should include an easily-downloaded copy of the Wheel logo and should have an update facility in which teachers could list their classes.

A congratulations page in the newsletter was requested for the benefit of members completing qualifications such as the Diploma, Foundation or Module courses.

10 Date and location of next meeting – to be confirmed

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   For Accounts Summary Click Here