It was noted that the approved revised Constitution had been put into effect and thus the organisation was now known as the Bathford Twinning Association.

There were no other matters arising.

The main fundraising events had been the co-operation with the Parish Plan Committee in a Quiz Night when we had provided the catering for the supper, a Safari Supper and an Open Gardens Day. She thanked all who had organised these events and reported good feed back from people who had bought tickets and taken part. Other ideas were in the pipeline.

Although a misunderstanding over dates had caused the visit by the Artannais to be cancelled, a group from Bathford had had a very enjoyable and useful visit to Artannes in September. As well as being accorded the usual hospitable welcome, the group had taken part in a more relaxed programme that gave time to get to know the hosts better. The opportunity had been used to have a formal meeting with their Comité de Jumelage to discuss formal twinning plans. Although there were political issues to be overcome in Artannes, it had been agreed in principle that we would seek to hold the charter signing in Bathford in 2005 or the first half of 2006 and the return event in Artannes later in 2006. The Bathford Parish Council had formally agreed earlier this year to support the linking and a letter had now gone from the Chair of the Parish Council to the Mayor of Artannes expressing these sentiments.

Private visits in both directions have also been made during the year.

French communication has also been improved by the welcome efforts of John Lees through two French classes. These have ceased over the summer but John had agreed to continue them after Christmas. There appeared, from the Parish Plan Survey, to be a lot of enthusiasm for future classes still untapped in the village.

The Twinning Association now had its own website. Thanks were expressed to Nick Breeze who had set it up. It was now in the care of Patrick Hathway who had improved the content and was extremely diligent in keeping it up-to-date. He was warmly thanked for his efforts and a small token of our appreciation was to be given to him.

Richard Lees was also thanked for his considerable contribution in establishing a Youth Forum to interest young people in the village in twinning. Links between the primary schools in both villages had been set up, though not without certain challenges at our end. Although Richard had now gone to university, he had set up the necessary machinery for youth activities to continue.

Communication with members had been maintained through the medium of the Newsletter, which Tony Woodcock continued to write. A communications subcommittee had been set up which would seek to develop our contact and image strategy. In the meantime, Tony had put together an information leaflet that would be available in the Post Office and to give to interested prospective members.

A spirit of friendship had continued to thrive between the French and English communities, the residents of Bathford and Kingsdown and now with the Batheaston Twinning Association with whom we had had occasional meetings and exchanges of ideas. This had proved to our mutual benefit.

The New Year would bring new challenges, especially if we are to host a formal twinning ceremony.

In closing Maureen recorded her thanks to the committee for their dedication and support.

He said that, at the beginning of this period, the committee had set itself the target of raising the Association's reserves to £2000 by the time we approached formal twinning. These currently stood at £1,712.51 and achieving the target was now easily within our reach. The reason for needing such a sum was to fund the programme and entertaining which would be necessary for the formal twinning ceremony in Bathford. Although we hoped to seek EU funding towards this end, it was known that the pay-out process was likely to be slow. It was always possible that it might not be approved as the terms were quite exacting, so we needed to take action to avoid going into debt.

The Association's original account with the Portman Building Society had been closed and funds transferred to the Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank. This would give us a better rate of interest on deposits and also a current account with cheque book facilities. £1500 had therefore been put on deposit immediately and the remainder left for use in the new current account.

Chris recorded his thanks to Derek Brown for auditing the accounts once again.

Richard Hathway proposed and Tony Evans seconded that the accounts be accepted. This was unanimously approved.

Chair: For the election of Chair, Maureen handed over the meeting to Vice Chair, John Lees, who invited nominations from the floor. Chris Eker proposed and Jan Hooker seconded that Maureen Breeze be elected Chair. There being no other nominations, Maureen was elected unopposed.
Vice Chair: Resuming the Chair, Maureen called for nominations for Vice Chair. Colin Priston proposed and Anne Woodcock seconded that John Lees be elected Vice Chair. There being no other nominations, John was elected unopposed.
Secretary: Linda Clarkson proposed and Peter Rideal seconded that Tony Woodcock be elected Secretary. There being no further nominations, Tony was elected unopposed.
Treasurer: Tony Woodcock proposed and John Lees seconded that Chris Eker be elected Treasurer. He was elected unopposed.
Membership Secretary: Tony Evans proposed and Helen Lees seconded that Jeanette Kremer be elected to this post. Jeanette, although unavoidably absent, had signified her willingness to continue. She was elected unopposed.
Committee: The Chair reminded the meeting that all 7 committee seats were open and expressed the view that it would be good to see some new people coming into the committee.
John Lees proposed and Chris Eker seconded that David Llewelyn be elected to the committee.
Richard Hathway proposed and Maureen Evans seconded that the 5 sitting members be re-elected, namely, Colin Priston, Tony Evans, Julia Masdin, Anne Woodcock and Peter Rideal.

There being no further nominations, the 6 persons proposed were elected unopposed. One vacancy remains.

The thanks of the Association to the retiring committee members were recorded.

Tony Woodcock reminded the new committee that the next meeting would be on Tuesday 16 November at 62 Meadow Park at 8.00pm.

Maureen Breeze discussed the Cookery Book that she was putting together with Tony's help. She had designed a format and we currently had some 70 recipes that would be sufficient to make the book thoroughly worthwhile producing. If any one else wished to submit a further recipe, she would keep it open until the weekend but thereafter would have to finalise the text if we were to achieve the aim of having it ready for our table at the Christmas Fair in the Parish Rooms on Saturday 27 November from 10.00 until 12 noon.

The intention was to do an initial run of 50 copies for this event and other sales. At present the cost had not been worked out but it was hoped that it would be in the region of £5 per copy.

About a dozen French recipes had been received as well as 2 Italian ones! There was discussion as to whether to translate these or not. A small majority of those present felt that in keeping with the spirit of twinning, these should be left in their original language. It was decided to do this for the first run, but a note would be put into the text stating that a translation supplement would be produced for a later printing.

On the subject of French Classes, John said he intended to start up again after Christmas. From information received in the Parish Plan Survey, there appeared to be a number of other people in the village who might be interested. He intended to call a public meeting in about 3 weeks' time to establish the level of interest and the standard of French of those who wanted to become involved.

The Chair then concluded the meeting and supper was served.