THE KEDGE ANCHOR SPRING 2024 3 SECRETARY’S REPORT Stephen Howarth MA (with Distinction), FRHistS, FRGS, Cert. Ed. (Oxon) Hon. Secretary, The 1805 Club A NEW STATUS WITH THE SAME PURPOSES Thanks to the support and approval of its members, The 1805 Club continues to evolve. At our AGM on 17 June 2023, in the Princess Royal Gallery of the National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth, and by the unanimous vote of members present and voting, together with proxies, the Club changed from being an unincorporated registered charity – the status adopted on 26 September 1998 – to a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) registered in England and Wales, number 1201272. The business and assets of the unincorporated Club were transferred to the CIO at that meeting. However, we cannot yet fully wind up the unincorporated Club and close its bank account because more than 100 members have paid into that account. Members can help the winding-up process by making sure that subscription payments are made to the new account, as promulgated already. Please also ensure that you have paid or will pay the correct amount for the year. Before the winding-up is complete, we are obliged to run formal aspects of the unincorporated Club in parallel with the activities of the CIO. Our meeting on 25 May 2024 will therefore include an AGM of the unincorporated Club, followed by the �irst of the CIO. COUNCIL We have for the time being retained the name ‘Council’ for the group overseeing the unincorporated Club, as distinct from the Trustees of the CIO. TRUSTEES In the unincorporated past, all members of the Club’s Council had to accept personal liability for the debts or obligations of the charity. One of the major bene�its of the new incorporated status is that Trustees – the new name for the people who oversee the Club and its activities – do not have personal liability. We must have at least 4 Trustees and may have as many as 12. The �irst four Trustees, appointed on 17 June 2023 and named in the founding Constitution, are John Rodgaard, Geraint Day, Stephen Howarth, and Nicholas Ridge. The basic CIO Constitution does not dictate titles or roles, but the �irst four Trustees retain their previous roles. At the forthcoming �irst AGM of the CIO, all four of the �irst appointed Trustees must stand down and may present themselves for election. As it happens, and to the regret of all his friends and colleagues, Geraint Day has decided not to present himself for election. Having been a member since January 2005, Geraint has been a great friend of the Club and latterly has provided expert guidance on Governance, especially in the transformation to CIO status. His new love of travel in the Arctic and Antarctic mean that he is ‘going outside and may be some time’ – but he remains a loyal Club member. We are deeply grateful for his past service. At subsequent AGMs of the CIO, only one-third of the Trustees (or number nearest to one-third) must retire at the subsequent AGM. They may still be re-elected, or replaced either by election of the members or, if necessary, by appointment by the other Trustees. We will publish a rotational calendar of Trustees who must stand down, in the hope (we remain hopeful!) that with a period of notice longer than a year, members will think ahead beyond their current obligations outside the Club, and stand for election. Your Club really does encourage this. An important new ability introduced by CIO status is that we may have non-Trustees on committees. This offers potential bene�its for all, because members who would like to make their expert advice available to the Trustees may now do so, and indeed may chair a Committee, without having to become a Trustee. All members are earnestly encouraged to consider how best they might contribute to this. Please inform the Secretary. The bimonthly meetings of the Trustees, whether online, hybrid, or face to face, provide the forum. In this connection, please note too that we urgently seek to appoint a Clerk to the Trustees, as advertised on page 10. CONSERVATION The new CIO arrangements retain the original Constitutional purposes of The 1805 Club: �irst and foremost, our USP, the conservation of monuments and memorials of the 18C Royal Navy. No other organisation has this as a prime purpose. We have expanded it since 2016 to include the detailed recording of such artefacts in our MemLog, the provision of permanent transcriptions of inscriptions, and the creation of new memorials. The past year has been highly notable for the creation of the Cornwallis Memorial: the culmination of our decade-long project in partnership with the Milford-on-Sea Historical Record Society. Moreover, despite a serious but happily temporary setback, we are also proud to see the progress with the Nevis Register project, possibly our most important historical conservation project ever, in partnership with the Borthwick Institute of the University of York. The coming year holds promise of the successful conclusion of the long-running George Forbes memorial project in Aberdeenshire, and a possible new memorial in Cornwall to Private Richard Masters, Royal Marines, killed at Trafalgar. EVENTS Club events create great opportunities for members to get together and share their interest in the Georgianera Royal Navy. Some enterprising London-based members organised their own successful social gettogether this year, and within the constraints of Data Protection we will gladly help others do likewise. If you would like to investigate this, please ask. Main events of the year included the splendid unveiling of the Cornwallis memorial; a semi-formal dinner in the Royal Maritime Club, Portsmouth; the momentous AGM (chaired by Richard Cornwallis); a US Continued on page 4
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