Our Chairman, Alan Devonport, Report delivered at our AGM

South Yorkshire Branch of the Dry Stone Walling Association

Annual General Meeting 2006

Chairman’s Report

It has been an extremely busy year for the branch, with the first major change being the monthly meeting at the Cock Inn, Birdwell, Barnsley. I feel at this point that we must thank all of the staff there as they have always gone out of there way since we began in January to accommodate us.

Secondly, we have established an enthusiastic committee, with a full contingent of officers. Another positive issue is that by the branch now sending a representative to the national management meetings, and pushing the branch’s opinions, we are again now been considered as a driving force within the D.S.W.A.

Also with the change in the branch constitution, it has enabled us to contact people within our boundary, and let them know what the branch now has to offer.

In February, there were three designs presented to the branch for consideration as the new branch logo, and after much deliberation, the excellent design by Tom Valentine was decided upon.

From this, Les must firstly be thanked for sourcing a very good supplier named Xamax, and this has resulted in a new branch clothing range becoming available.

Secondly, on attaining his level 1 qualification, bringing the total D.S.W.A accredited instructors to three, and thirdly, what he has created on the internet with regards to our new blog site can only be described as fantastic. He stepped in as secretary after Marcus had to sadly resign for personal reasons, and has really helped push the branch forward.

Major thanks must go out to both Gary and his father, John Helliwell, for enabling us to establish a new training site in Hoylandswaine, Barnsley. This has really been a huge success for us, as the branch development in this area of our boundary has gone through the roof. Another point is its ease of access, so much so that we are attracting new members from across the border in West Yorkshire.

A further exciting feature is that we are about to develop an examination centre at the site. This will enable the Craftsman Certification Scheme to be taken at all levels within our branch, which is sadly not available at Whirlow Hall Farm, BUT THE BRANCH IS GOING TO NEED A LOT OF HELP….

The Yorkshire Open Walling Competition took place in June. We had four members of the branch that competed, which resulted in 2 first prizes, a second and a third in two of the three classes.

Our demonstrations this year speak for themselves;

Emley Show with the W.Y. Branch; over 14,000 visitors, 5 branch members present.

Penistone Show; over 20,000 visitors, 12 branch members present.

Whirlow Hall Farm Fair; approximately 8,500 visitors, 8 branch members present.

Special thanks must go to the West Yorkshire branch for loaning their gazebo and show material. Also Johnson’s Quarries and Honley Skip Hire who generously contributed to our display at the Emley Show and we thank them for their support. Last but certainly not least I feel the branch owes a huge thanks to Eddy, Rob and John who gave up their time to prepare the for the Whirlow Hall Farm Fair, and returned after to clear the site.

With our training course fees being increased in line with other neighbouring branches, it was felt that the branch should provide a more professional image and offer value for money. As we were sadly lacking with regards to branch tools and materials, we decided to invest in new tools for branch training courses and practice meets. At the same time, we are developing the ‘Branch Shop’ to generate funds for the branch.

We have held 3 branch training courses since April, at both Whirlow Hall Farm and Hoylandswaine with a total of 22 trainees, of which 17 were beginners and 5 were improvers. A further one has taken place in collaboration with Penistone Grammar School involving 17 trainees, and due to the success of the shows that we have attended, we have been forced to put on another training course in November.

As the course fee now includes national membership, combined with the change in our constitution, by the end of the year we look set to have almost 60 new branch members, which will be an approximate 200% increase in membership in ten months!

A few problems that we have encountered this year, has been with regards to writing cheques and also with the contacting of our members. This has been because of a series of reasons , different database files held at head office, the changes of officers, the completed bank mandate with officer details going missing. These seemed to have been ironed out and we now envisage better collation with head office.

For many different reasons, we have had several members that have successfully taken craft certificates with other branches, however, in April we ran a ‘Mock’ exam day, with the real one the following week. This was warmly welcomed by the entrants, to the extent that we will be repeating this in late October.

There were a few problems earlier in the year with regards to Sandbeck Park. After initially having no point of contact, Mick Booth should be thanked for taking on the responsibility for the site and liasing with them. Because of the fact that it is our only limestone site, we I feel that we have to utilise this site better next year.

John Lackenby’s memorial has developed now to the stage that there is a plan for a convex series of seating/steps in the garden of the hall, where the visiting children can play, but also where teachers can gather the pupils together for teaching purposes.

I feel the focus of the branch over the winter months should be the construction of the memorial to John. Secondly, the development of the examination site at Hoylandswaine. I suggest that the way to pursue these projects would be to arrange sub-committees to help realise these projects.

In addition it has been noted that we need to provide more practice meets. This has not taken place as much as we would have liked this year do to a greater focus on training courses, but I suggest a way to help resolve this would be to run practice meets alongside the training courses, however, we will need more volunteers to come forward and help, but as there is already a ‘drop in’ facility running at Hoylandswaine, this would help address this.

Throughout the year we have worked well as a team. It has been a true team effort with officers, committee members and some of our newer members getting involved in the organisation of events. The three branch training courses to date would not have been run without everyone giving what time they could. No activities take place without someone working to organise them and because of the widening group of members coming forward and taking responsibility for different aspects we can be a little more ambitious next year.

I would like to end by thanking everyone who has contributed either as an officer or committee member for your valuable contribution to this year’s programme and feel sure that next years will be even more successful.

Alan Devonport