Regimental Association: AGM Sat 25 October 2008

MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF THE REGIMENTAL ASSOCIATION
THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON'S REGIMENT
HELD AT THE HILTON HOTEL, BRADFORD
SATURDAY 25TH OCTOBER 2008

 
ITEM 1:   OPENING REMARKS
 

1.   
The President agreed that the Meeting and passed on apologies for absence from Colonel Cumberlege, Major MacDonald and Major Heron.
 
ITEM 2:  MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING
 
2.   It was unanimously agreed that the Minutes of the previous meeting were an accurate record of the meeting.
 
ITEM 3: MATTERS ARISING
 
3.  Item 7 Regimental Museum.  Brigadier Mundell reported that the refurbishment of the Museum was now almost complete.  There would be a ceremony to reopen the Museum on Tuesday 11th November, which would also be a ceremony of remembrance to mark the 90th Anniversary of the end of the 1st World War.
 
4.  Item 8 AOB.  Brigadier Greenway reminded the meeting that he had informed them of Keith Jagger's (Secretary to the London Branch) death at the last meeting.  He informed the meeting that his widow had come from London to attend the dinner that evening and asked all to make her feel welcome.
 
ITEM 4 REPORT ON THE REGIMENT

5.  The President said that he would be giving a full report on the Regiment at dinner later that evening so would not give repeat that here except that he wished to congratulate Major Heron on an excellently executed series of Freedom Parades which showed that the spirit of the 'The Dukes' continued in the West Riding.  He reported that 217 were attending the Reunion Dinner slightly more than the 200 attending last year which was good news.
 
6. Within the new Yorkshire Regiment the key for all those serving was the wider range of opportunities offered across all three battalions against a background of a high level of operational commitments.
 
7. On the sporting side, success across the Regiment had been limited to a significant extent by the level of activity and commitments.  However, despite this the 3rd Battalion (The ‘Dukes’) had reached the Army Cup semi-final in rugby and the finals in football.
 
ITEM 5: DWR FUNDS
 
8. The President reminded the meeting of the changes that had taken place to the Trust Funds held by The Duke of Wellington’s Regiment on formation of the Yorkshire Regiment.  Prior to amalgamation the total value of DWR funds had been approximately £1.4 million.  It had been agreed by all three antecedent Regiments that they would each transfer £1.0 million to the new Regiment.  This would enable the new Regiment  to properly meet its continuing obligations to support all its serving soldiers on formation. As importantly the new Regiment would also take on with this transfer of funds all responsibility for benevolence needs from all three antecedent Regiments.  This was seen by all three antecedent Regiments as the most efficient and effective way of managing benevolence needs into the future and in the best interests of those who might have to call on this assistance.
 

9. Transferring this amount of funds from each antecedent Regiment resulted in PWO passing over all their funds.  In future they would now be wholly reliant on a ‘grant back’ from the Yorkshire Regiment from which to sustain their ongoing antecedent Regiment needs the largest part of which would be required in support their Museum.  The Green Howards were left with a substantial sum within their remaining funds but with this they also still retained a major commitment in meeting the on going costs of their Museum this was a very substantial commitment. DWR were left with approximately £400K in their funds having already transferred £30K to the Museum to meets its future needs – a very much lesser requirement than for the other two antecedent Regiments since the DWR museum had the valuable support and benefit of being housed by Calderdale Council. 
 
10. The President informed the meeting that all the DWR funds were now invested with the Army Common Investment Fund (ACIF).  This fund had outperformed its benchmark  by 1% up until last month.  He reported that the ACIF invested funds for the long term and the fund aimed to achieve an annual growth of 6% over a 4 year period.
 
 11. Major Harrap advised the meeting of the current worth of the funds as:-

    a.  £207K - Friends of DWR Fund
    b.  £113K – Regimental  Association Fund
    c.  Total worth £320K. This was a drop in value from last years when the total value had been £460K and reflected the current drop in values across all stock markets.
 
12. Major Harrap circulated a summary of all benevolence grants made by the Yorkshire Regiment in the Financial Year 2007/08.  The total value of benevolence grants had been £65,070.35 (including benevolent appeals and Christmas Grants) plus a grant of £10,000 to the Army Benevolent Fund making the total cost of Benevolence Support provided over the year as £76,070.35. In addition the Army Benevolent Fund itself had made grants in support of the Yorkshire Regiment benevolence cases of £32,825.  He asked the meeting to note that the total value of support for each of the antecedent Regiment's benevolence needs had been broadly equal and Major Harrap confirmed that the Yorkshire Regiment in making grants followed exactly the same guidelines as has been used previously by RHQ DWR.  Both the Yorkshire Regiment and DWR had used the ABF Benevolence Guidelines in making their grant decisions.
  

ITEM 6 FUTURE ASSOCIATION ORGANISATION, COMMUNICATION AND EVENTS
 
13. The President said that there had for some time been considerable discussion about the nature of the reunion dinner, much of it on the Regimental web-site, and others had written directly to him.  As a consequence he had asked Brigadier Mundell to form a Committee to look at how the Regimental Association ran its affairs, particularly its functions and the reunion dinner, and to present a report for the Regimental Association Committee to consider.
 
14. He reminded the meeting that the Association had primarily two purposes:-

    a.  To foster comradeship amongst those who had served in the Regiment.

    b.  To support the Regiment, which was now the Yorkshire Regiment, and in particular the 3rd Battalion (Duke of Wellington's).
 
15. Brigadier Mundell had produced a short summary of his findings so far, which he had circulated earlier to all Regimental Association Branches and all attending the meeting were given a copy.  He wished now to discuss this summary within the meeting so that he could take the AGMs views forward for the Regimental Association Committee to consider when it met on 20th November 2008.

 16. He reminded the meeting that the Regiment (DWR) had two remaining bodies to manage its continuing affairs.

    a.  The Trustees.  They were responsible for managing the  remaining Trust Funds in accordance with the objects set out in each fund’s Trust Deeds.  For the Regimental Association Fund the primary object Regimental benevolence. This responsibility had now been passed, along with nearly all its funds since this was its primary responsibility, to the Yorkshire Regiment. Those residual funds remaining should now be applied in meeting the Regimental Association Fund’s secondary charitable purpose, ‘the efficiency of the Regiment’ (which was now the Yorkshire Regiment and the 3rd Battalion in particular) and its esprit de corps and traditions.  It was this secondary object which allowed Trustees to support those Regimental Association activities which were seen as fostered esprit de corps within the Regiment and maintenance of its traditions.  The Friends of the Duke of Wellington's Regiment Fund's objectives were broadly the same as the secondary objectives of the Regimental Association Fund – namely the efficiency of the Regiment and maintenance of its esprit de corps and traditions. 

    b.  The Regimental Association Committee.  Though this committee was made up with largely the same people as the Trustees, its function was separate and it was important to under stand that they were separate. The Regimental Association Committees remit was to oversee the continuing affairs of The Duke of Wellington's Regiment Association.  It was to this  committee that his (Brigadier Mundell’s) report would be presented.

 17. Brigadier Mundell  explained that there were traditionally three principal events in the Regimental Association calendar:
 -    The Annual Reunion Dinner
 -    The Regimental Church Service
 -    The Annual Officers Dinner

 In addition a number of other  events had grown up such as:

   The 'Halifax' reunion
    33rd/76th Dinner
   The London Group functions
   Various activities organised by the  3rd Battalion such as the  forthcoming Rugby Dinner
   which were all to be welcomed and  encouraged. 
 
18. However, he reminded the meeting, that the scope for organising and supporting events from RHQ had been very much reduced since the formation of The Yorkshire Regiment. What used to be RHQ was now the Halifax Area Office of the Yorkshire Regiment and consisted of only two staff (Major Heron and Janet Gul) whose primary commitment had to be to support first, when this was required, the needs of The Yorkshire Regiment and only after that the continuing needs of DWR.  It was their support and work for the Yorkshire Regiment  that they were paid for by the MOD.
 
18. Having set out this background Brigadier Mundell said the issue he wished to explore with the meeting was that of the Annual Reunion. The current format for this was arousing considerable comment and emotion across the Association. The particular point that seemed to be most at issue was that many felt a ticketed dinner excluded a considerable number who primarily wished just to socialise and reunite with friends without being obliged to join the meal.  He reminded the meeting of the background that led to the current format for the reunion dinner:-

 - The original reunion venue had been the Huddersfield Drill Hall which many had seen as too 'down market' and which had been uninviting to wives who were and remain an important part of the Regiment.
 
                -  The venue had then moved to Ainley Top where the first dinners had been held. However this had been seen as unsatisfactory as it been difficult to get to and was not large enough.
              - The reunion had then moved on once more to Bradford Hilton where the focal point of the reunion had been the dinner and the opportunity for all attending this to be  updated on the Regiment by the Colonel of the Regiment. For several years those not attending the dinner had been able to come to the reunion bar as well.  Many/most of the ‘drinkers’ arrived later in the evening after visiting other local pubs.  Unfortunately this had led to some issues over misbehaviour by a few of those attending late in the evening. The hotel had, as a result, required that, if the dinner was to continue to be held there, then they would require it to be ticketed and only open to those attending the dinner. This remained the current format.
 
19. There was then a wide ranging discussion over the possible options for future dinners and reunions.  The principal views expressed were:-

               a.  The current dinner was the one opportunity in the year for a reasonably formal occasion, to which wives could be invited (who too were part of the Regiment), where those attending could hear an update on the Regiment (both DWR and the Yorkshire Regiment) and that £15.00 was a very reasonable and affordable price for the dinner.  This price was achieved primarily because those who attended the dinner were also the ones who sold the raffle tickets from which the dinner was then in due course subsidised.

              b.  There was a need to bring back and encourage  into the Association and its events the 'younger' generation. Many of those would want to attend a less formal event and found the current dinner format unattractive because of its greater formality.

              c.  Various ideas were then suggested as to how the current format could be changed or adapted including:-

 -           A buffet dinner
 -            Taking two functions rooms in the  hotel.  One for the dinner and one  for the 'drinks'.
           -  Supporting two separate functions
 -            Charging those coming solely for drinks a reduced ticket price.
 -           Circulating a table of options across the Regimental Association to seek the preferences of the wider Regiment.

              d.  In summary the broad consensus was:-

                   (1)  There was very considerable goodwill for the Regiment which needed to be supported.

                  (2)  There was a need within either the reunion, or the calendar of events across the year, to be more inclusive and to attract the support of those who did not currently attend the reunion.

                  (3)  That said there was a desire to maintain one reasonably formal function in the calendar to which wives could be invited and at which the President could give an update on the Regiment.

                 (4)  Many supported the idea of two separate functions – a more formal reunion dinner and a less formal 'open house' reunion along the lines of that now being held in Halifax.

                 (5)  That there should be encouragement to discuss ideas and issues, together at the Association AGM rather than just airing these on the website.

  
20. Brigadier Mundell thanked all for their views and said he would take these forward in his paper for consideration by the Regimental Association Committee which was meeting on 20th November 2009.
 
 

21. Major Harrap confirmed that the next Regimental Church Service would be held in Halifax Parish Church on 25th April 2009.
 
ITEM 7 ANY OTHER BUSINESS
 
22. There were no other matters raised.
 
ITEM 8 DATE OF NEXT MEETING
 
23. The date of the next meeting was provisionally agreed as Saturday 3rd October 2009 pending confirmation of the calendar of future events by the Regimental Association Committee.