The Chair, Dr. Joanne Backhouse, welcomed the members to the Annual General Meeting of Wirral Ancient Egypt Society.
1. Apologies were received from Rosie and Bill Jackson, Cheryl Tempest, Ursula Starr, Maureen Lawson and Martin Kavanagh.
2. Last Year’s AGM Minutes were circulated to members by email shortly before the meeting. No queries were raised and there were no matters arising
3. Chair’s Report – Jo reported that membership numbers had remained at about the same level as last year, with the current total being 50. Although some members have left, about the same number of new ones have joined the Society. Jo then gave a summary of the Societies activities for the year, with many excellent lectures having been enjoyed. A programme has been put together for 2026 and will again include 2 Zoom meetings, which enable us to have fascinating lectures from international speakers. In April 2026 we will have a lecture from Heidi Kopp-Junk, a very popular and lively speaker, and in September Cedric Gobeil will bring us up to date with Turin’s work at Deir el-Medina. She next reported that due to health matters Rosie and Bill Jackson have had to stand down from the Committee after many, many years of valued service to the Society. The Committee has been operating on minimal numbers for some years now, with only one over the required quorum of 5 and, in the current situation, more new members are urgently required for the Society to continue. A new Secretary is essential.
4. Election of Committee Members – Proposals and seconds were received for re-election of the current Committee Members : Jo Backhouse - Chair, Cheryl Tempest - Membership and Events, Cheryl Hanson - Treasurer, Steve Tasker – Book Sales. Two new members, Chris Holland and Jacky Finch, were put forward and proposals and seconds received. (Later offers to serve on the Committee were also received from Keith Carter and Kathryn Young).
5. Treasurer’s Report - Cheryl Hanson sent the financial details to members by email in advance of the AGM and hard copies were also made available at the meeting. Cheryl went through the income received and expenses incurred during the year which were almost equal to each other and remained at a similar level to the previous year; there was a small net profit of £272.29. Funds held at the start of the year were £4159.30 and at the end £4431.59, giving the Society a sound financial position to withstand any cost increases or replacement of equipment.
6. AOB – One member asked if the healthy state of the Society’s funds could stretch to refreshments being free next year, rather than 50p as at present. This was agreed. Another member asked about reinstating the Bursary Student scheme which operated previously. The Chair responded that Covid initially caused this to be paused and, although it has been considered since then it requires a considerable amount of work to administer and the minimal Committee numbers of late have made this impossible. However, the Committee fully supports this and looks to start it up again as soon as there are sufficient resources to implement it.
The Chair brought the meeting to a close and invited the President to give his lecture.