ORCHARDS LIVE Annual Report 10/11
Chairman’s Report for year to April 2011
Given at the Annual Gathering, King’s Nympton, 1st May 2011
As we enter our twenty-first year I am pleased to report that we remain successful, with a record membership well over 250, a full programme 16 events, three Newsletters, improvements to our websites, significant additions to our equipment and sound finances. For these achievements I thank the Committee and volunteers. Of course there are issues to be addressed and I will leave these to the end.
On membership we have no plans for increasing our subscription which has never been raised! Does this sound like a politician’s statement? For £5 it is remarkable value but as costs increase we must keep it under review.
There is not much to say about our training courses other than we need to promote some of them better. We are looking at improvements to the hand-outs which accompany them. I would like to thank all those involved.
During the year there were two main developments to our events programme: our September Apple Roadshow at Hatherleigh which had a faltering start in 2009, was very well attended and received, while our new February Scion Day at Eggesford was voted a great success: both look set to become annual events. It is worth noting that 2010 Apple Day at RHS Rosemoor (an event which we initiated nearly twenty years ago) had the biggest attendance ever, so the interest is sustained; we had a good response to our new ‘interactive’ approach to the apple display.
It is easy to take Newsletters for granted, but they involve quite a lot of work, so to produce three annually more or less on time and with only one or two textual boobs is a real achievement. I will come back to this. Our websites have involved work and money during 2010/11, and a fundamental redesign of devon-apples will be manifested shortly. We are making more use of e-mail to inform members of events and news - it’s so much cheaper than post.
Over the last few years we have been investing in equipment particularly apple mills and a press, and their popularity with members has grown. The biggest development of the year has been our acquisition of a Tuthill-Temperley M2000 cider apple harvester with a trailer, thanks to a Leader4 grant. Its arrival was noted favourably in the North Devon Journal which praised Orchard Lives’ achievements.
Our finances are sound. Thanks to donations in time, particularly from those who run our courses, and money (we have had several generous donations) we have been able to build up a modest reserve. This has been supplemented by rental income from our equipment which of course will be set aside for repairs and replacement.
Our weaknesses during the year have been in lacking a permanent Newsletter Editor and in having no proper system of promoting our courses - most are fully subscribed but those for ‘prospective’ members are not. We are addressing these issues.
Finally, I shall note two exceptional developments. In January 2011, aided by a grant from the National Trust and Natural England, we held a Conference at Killerton for Orchard Groups from across the South West. It was well-attended, well-received, and led to the establishment of a grouping called Orchards South West which will meet again in 2012.
Over the last few months we have been working on our next Newsletter; it will be our 50th, and will take the form of a glossy colour booklet marking some very real achievements over 20 years. I think its publication in a couple of months will show that there have been very real achievements over the last two decades, and that we can all be proud of our membership of Orchards Live.
Michael Gee,
April 2011.