So then, the AGM.... (plus Andrew is 30 today!)

First of...

HAPPY 30TH BIRTHDAY ANDREW!!!!

BIG HUGS AND KISSES XXX

Oh, it's such a beautiful day today, the sun is bursting and there is just the slightest comfortable breeze off the sea. Heavenly. I wish I was outside writing this in the back garden but my hay fever meds from the Dr take a week to kick in and I only got them on Monday - no fair! Plus there are people mowing their grass and making it even worse - how rude!!!

So I want to tell you about our AGM last night. Officially you could say it was the 1st one, as last year there were only a few of us and now our number has about trebled! Of course it was held on the most glorious of nights and we should all have been tending our plots but such is life.

I was both happy and as usual, disappointed at the turn out. A lot more people than usual gathered (but then again we are a bigger group) but it was still only a fraction of our number. We (after much confusion and changing of the constitution to fit our needs better) elected our new committee members. We have 16 this year as opposed the the 10 we had before. I think it's probably a good idea; little sub groups can be made to focus on certain tasks and more voices = more opinions, ideas and hopefully fair decision making.

We chose our 4 main guys:

• Chairperson ~ Ronnie
• Vice Chairperson ~ Mel
• Secretary~ Austin
• Treasurer ~ Ivan.

Then there are the other 12 (including the Hubby).

Personally I think we have a good bunch of people and I wish them all the luck in the world. Red tape is my mortal enemy and they are going to have to deal with yards of it! A spiders web.r

The meeting somewhat descended into chaos and a shouting match, reminiscent of a school playground. Many people started to get, umm, passionate and this came across as anger and almost a bullying undertone began against our allotment council official. I'm afraid to say it was all very embarrassing and quite childish. We were all there to work together and make this the best Allotments we can and sometimes passions run so high we lose sight of the joy that we have an allotment in the first place. Yes, most of the arguments and comments were valid but I believe a calm head is required at these meetings or progress will never happen. Plus, there is no excuse for bullying at any time what so ever, no matter how frustrated we may get.

Anyway, the tensions calmed down and now we have some very confusing and upsetting questions cleared up and I think everyone left the meeting feeling a bit better and maybe reassured. Mistakes have been made by the council but they excepted that and no one is being evicted as they had feared. Mistakes have been made on our part too and I think, I hope we have a clean slate now.

Next event we have to look forward to is the family fun day and I know we'll all work together for that. We all care about our plots, we all care, that's the important thing.