From UMHC Hiking Guide
Once a year the club meets to elect a new committee – those brave souls who undertake to run the club for the following year. The meeting occurs in March before the Easter holiday and in addition to voting for new committee members it involves various arcane traditions, most of them alcohol-related. This can be quite confusing to the uninitiated, particularly after a few pints, so a guide to the mysterious events of the AGM is given below.
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The Reports
The meeting begins with a lot of waffle from members of the executive. First, the Secretary reads out the minutes from the previous year’s AGM and these are approved (it’s not clear what would happen were the minutes not to be approved. Presumably the entire year would have to be erased from history). Then the Chair gives their report on the year’s activities. This is usually a vaguely humorous summary of the ups and downs of the year. Finally, the Treasurer gives the Treasurer’s report, complete with handouts and numbers. They go through the club’s financial activities for the year, highlighting any particularly serious disasters in the hope that these will be avoided in the future (they never are).
The Elections
We then move onto the main event – electing the new committee. The procedure for each vote is as follows: each candidate gives a short speech explaining why everyone should vote for them. The person who proposed them for the job confirms that yes, everyone should definitely vote for them. The candidate then takes a few questions from the floor. In the rare event of a contested election, this process is repeated for the other candidates. Then everyone votes on specially designed slips of paper. The fictitious person RON (aka Re-Open Nominations) is added to each ballot, in case anyone feels that the post would be better filled by no-one at all than by the person who’s nominated.
There are no strict rules regarding what order positions are voted on, but it makes sense to get the new Chair elected first. Voting moves along at a brisk pace, though there are occasional breaks for people to go to the bar.
The Surprise Candidate
Although contested votes are rare at AGMs, one post is always hard-fought. A last-minute candidate by the name of A. Pint always stands against the nominees for social secretary. Should Mr (or Mrs) Pint win the vote, all is not lost. The prospective social secretary can defeat the pint by drinking it (preferably in one).
The Awards
There are a couple of awards given out at the AGM. These awards were instituted by the UMIST club some years ago and the stories behind them are as follows:
The Treasurer’s Tankard
See also: Recipients of the Treasurer's Cup
Nich Porter was a keen committee member in the mid 90's. He was the UMIST club treasurer at the time when on the second hike of the year on a trip to Snowdon. A group were doing the horseshoe and Nich was scrambling up the steep section onto Crib y Dysgil when a hand-hold came loose and he fell off the side of the ridge sustaining massive head injuries. He unfortunately passed away a couple of days later. A big reunion still occurs every year to celebrate Nich life attended by some of the old gits of around that time. As he was club’s treasurer, the treasurer’s tankard is awarded in his memory. At the AGM, the newly elected treasurer must down a pint of Porter Ale from the tankard.
The Fresher’s Boot
See also: Recipients of the Most Active Fresher Award
Val Henderson was the UMIST club secretary in 1989 and after a very active year she contracted Hodgkinsons disease, which is cancer of the throat. Despite over a year of battling with cancer, she finally passed away in 1990. As she was such an active member of the club, her boot is given as an award to the most active fresher each year. They are selected by a vote at the AGM of all (and only) the freshers there present.
The Life Members
A tradition that has continued from Manchester University club is the electing of life members. People who have done exceptional services for the club can be made life members and thereafter do not need to pay membership fees each year. Life members are elected by a majority vote at the AGM. At the EGM of 2007 it was voted that life members should still have to pay their BMC membership fees.
The Aftermath
After the close of the meeting it is customary to celebrate the successful election of a new committee with the quaffing of beverages. It is traditional that the Chair buys each person on their committee a pint. In recent years there has been some confusion over whether this applies to the incoming or outgoing committee (however, the Chairman at the time of writing has already done his duty and will not be doing it again!). Thereafter, celebrations can continue late into the night.
