Minutes of the 55th Annual General Meeting held on 7th May 2009 At the premises of The Binsted Group, Omega Park, Alton

Present: Colin Barker (Chairman), Ed Binsted (President), Andrew Broadbent, Brian Gibbs, Shayne Ford, Graham Hayes, Cliff Salmons, Barry Wilson, John Yates
The Chairman opened the meeting at 14.15.
Apologies for Absence had been received from David Batey, Colin Clelland, Tony Knight, Paul Tarrant

Item 1.------Convening Notice
The Convening Notice had been circulated to members on 3rd April 2009. It was proposed by Colin Barker, seconded by Shayne Ford and carried unanimously that the Notice be approved.

Item 2.------ Minutes of Previous Meeting
The Minutes of the 54th Annual General Meeting had been circulated to members with the Convening Notice. It was therefore proposed by Barry Wilson, seconded by Brian Gibbs and carried unanimously that the Minutes be approved and signed by the Chairman.

Item 3.------ Approval of Accounts
Wall & Co, the accountants, were not invited to the AGM as it was not felt to be necessary given the lack of any prior notified questions regarding the accounts. It was proposed by Andrew Broadbent, seconded by Graham Hayes and carried unanimously that the income & expenditure account be approved.

Item 4.------ Membership Fees
Membership fees will remain unchanged at £200 + VAT for Corporate members, and £50 + VAT for Individual members (an initial £10 fee is charged for new members for both Corporate and Individual). It was proposed by Brian Gibbs, seconded by Andrew Broadbent and carried unanimously that membership fees remain unchanged.

Item 5.------ Appointment of Wall & Co for the current financial year
It was proposed by Shayne Ford and seconded by Barry Wilson and carried unanimously that Wall & Co be re-appointed as auditor for the current financial year.

Item 6.------ Election of Council Members
In accordance with paragraph 5 of the Constitution, Tony Knight, and Barry Wilson are retiring at the Annual General Meeting being held on 7th May.
They have both indicated their willingness to stand for re-election.
It was proposed by Shayne Ford and seconded by Andrew Broadbent and carried unanimously that they be re-elected.
Wyllie Woodburn was co-opted onto Council.

Item 7.------ The National Chairman’s Report
This year has been an extremely positive one for the BBI. We have increased membership revenue and dinner revenue, which, considering the economic situation is a very pleasing result.

At the start of 2008 John Yates retired as General Secretary and I would like to thank him for all his hard work in the previous years. The administration of the BBI then moved back to the Binsted Group at Attwood House. Subsequently the Group has now relocated to offices in Oriel Court, Alton, and it is in these offices that future Council meetings and competitions will take place. During the course of the year we welcomed Paul Tarrant and Graham Hayes to the Council.

In July, we held the judging for the competition for ‘Ales, Lagers and Ciders’ and it was good to see that this attracted significantly more entries than on the previous occasion. It was a pleasure to welcome both past winners and new winners, one of whom came from as far way as New Zealand and was also able to attend the annual dinner in November.

The visits organised by Brian Gibbs have been an outstanding success for our members. The visits, which are generally over sold in terms of places, give the opportunity to visiting delegates to see best practice and to have the opportunity to network within the industry and they have proved to be of great benefit to all of the BBI members.

I would like to take this opportunity of thanking all of the host companies who welcomed BBI members during 2008 – Glenmorangie at Broxburn, Diageo at Runcorn, Coors Brewers at Burton, A. G. Barr at Cumbernauld, Ashplaste & Arla Foods Dairy at Ashby, Coca Cola at Edmonton, Britvic at Beckton and Premier Foods at Bury St. Edmunds.

In October the BBI attended the PPMA Show at the NEC and we hosted a table at the PPMA Dinner and entertained a number of host companies who had been generous enough to open their doors to the membership during the course of the previous year.

In November we held our annual dinner at the Vintners’ Hall and again had a ‘full house’. The Vintners’ Hall has proved to be a very successful venue for the annual dinner and it has been decided to run the event there again in 2009.

I would especially like to thank our sponsors of the dinner – GSF, Kosme, Logoplaste UK and Quinn Glass for their continued support and also thanks to members who took a number of guests to the dinner.

During 2008 the BBI has continued to be active whether it be via our visits, meetings, website, dinners, competitions and exhibitions and I look forward to meeting with as many members during the course of the coming year as I have met this year.

As always I would like to thank all members of the Council for their tremendous support in helping to make the past year another successful one for the BBI.

Colin Barker
Chairman of The BBI Meeting closed at 14.20