Airborne Forces Association, Cyprus

 

Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held at the Shiambelos Restaurant, Pano Polimedia, Limassol at 1200hrs on Thursday, 14 October 2021.

 

The Chairman, Mike Borner (MB) opened the meeting at 1206 hrs and welcomed attendees to the meeting.

 

1.   a)  Apologies

            Bob Gallagher, Ron Henderson, Alan Banks, Steve Thomas

b) Present

    M Borner (MB), D Allison (DA), E. Findlay (EF), P Holroyd (PH)

    A Cochrane-Dyet (ACD), R Emery (RE), Mary Borner (Sec),

    M Cotton (MC), Mike Syme (MS), Mike Webb (MW) John McGlasson (JM)

   (11 members)

       

2.      Count of Votes and Establish a Quorum

         9 Members were in attendance and 4 Apologies      

 

3.     Minutes of the 2020 AGM

        The Chairman, MB read through the minutes of the 2020 AGM.

        Proposed as a true record by MC, seconded by PH

 

4.    Matters Arising from the Minutes

       MB reported that for because of the ongoing Covid restrictions all our planned

       events for the last year were cancelled.

       

 5.    Chairman’s Report

        MB read through his report, found after these minutes

        Proposed as accepted by RE, seconded by EF

 

    6.    Treasurer’s Report

        DA produced a financial report from July 2020 – October 2021, a copy of which was

        distributed to the members. DA confirmed the present balance of the account is:

        €1,139.22.  DA mentioned that we did not send a donation to Airborne Forces Fund  but      hoped it would be possible this year.  DA commented that the bank balance was meagre mainly due to the fact the Association had been unable to hold events because of the report by MB in item 4, highlighting the Christmas party (raffle).

        The report was duly proposed as accepted by EF, seconded by ACD.

 

 7.    Haberdasher’s Report

        EF reported that he handed €190 to DA for sales to date.  ER mentioned that

        he had managed to get rid of most of his old stock of polo shirts and was at

        present just ordering one off sizes on request from members. Further discussion

        ensued as to whether EF should order more polo shirts for stock and it was

        decided that Karamanos was quite amiable to separate orders, it was, therefore,

        confirmed that EF should order on demand at present.

        The report was duly proposed as accepted by DA, seconded by RE

 

 

8.    Election of Committee

     a) The existing committee were prepared to continue for 2020 - 2021 the

         Committee remains as below:

     

                   The following people were unanimously elected proposed & seconded as noted.

   

Position               Name                                      Proposed              Seconded

Chairman          Michael Borner   (MB)            ACD                        MC

Secretary           Mary Borner       (Sec)            PH                           RE

Treasurer          Dorothy Allison   (DA)             ER                           MS

Haberdasher    Eddie Findlay      (HEF)            MB                         MC

PR Member      Angus Cochrane-Dyet (ACD)  MB                         DA

Committee Members:

                           Peter Holroyd      (PH)             MB                         MW

                           Richard Emery    (RE)              MB                          MC

 

11-  Welfare and Personal Contact

MB briefed the meeting that during the recent Pandemic situation he had managed

to contact most of the members with a special emphasis on our single ladies. 

MB was very pleased that Fr Ian Nicholson has agreed to be the Padre for the Association.  Fr Ian has stated he would follow up personal contact and welfare matters as they occur.

​

12  Proposals for Honorary Membership

      There were no new proposals for Honorary Membership offered.

 

13. Any Other Business

1. MB asked for views on whether the members felt that the Association should continue with the commemoration services for the Rhine Crossing and Arnhem due to the fact that there were not many of the Veterans still alive.  The members voted unanimously to continue with the present trend.

2. MB reminded the members that the next event on the calendar was the Remembrance Day Service on Sunday, 14 November 2021.  As in previous years members elect to attend the service locally.  MB said that there would be a Service in Happy Valley this year but to date he had not been informed of the program or safety regulations.  He would contact the GSM for an update.

3. ACD put forward a proposal for a trip to Kyrenia.  MB asked him to go ahead and organize a trip.

4. RE asked about the outcome of advertising in local media for new members.  ACD confirmed this had been completed with no real interest.  MB commented that he felt there was a certain lack of interest with ex-Para’s on the island.

5. ACD told the meeting that he had managed to get BFBS to announce that the Association was holding it’s AGM today.  He would continue to stay in contact with BFBS.

6. MB informed the members that RE had recently written a book which was about to be published. MB asked RE if he would be our next guest speaker on the subject of the book.  RE agreed.

7. MB informed the members that he would like to hold the next AGM in May 2022 to bring it in line with the original date.

8. PH thought it might be an idea for a Vice Chairman to be elected to assist MB with the idea of taking over in the future.  The idea was discussed at some length and it was agreed to leave it abeyance until the next AGM.

9. DA informed meeting that Jim Leighton, a long term member, who now lived in the UK was not well and that she would be seeing him during her visit to UK in the next couple of weeks.

 

 

 

 

 

There being no further business the meeting closed at 1310hrs.

 

 

 

Michael J W Borner

Chairman                                                                                                                      17 October 2021