At the meeting of the Society Committee on 4th April 2018 it was agreed that the Society be dissolved and that an Extraordinary General Meeting be convened to confirm the decision.
This decision has been taken with great sadness but it is considered that the Society has run its course and has now reached the end of its effective life. Since its founding on 4th May 1960 the Society has had an outstanding record of involvement in many local issues and of championing Harborne at every opportunity. On the face of it the Society might appear to be in a good position with over 550 members, healthy finances and good attendances at our speakers’ meetings. Members will, however, be well aware that over the last few years the Committee has highlighted the fact that the future of the So-ciety would be in jeopardy and would not continue to function unless more members joined the Com-mittee in an active role as long serving officers retired. Appeals for members willing to take on specific roles, such as Speakers’ Programme Secretary, largely went unanswered.
In Autumn 2014 the Committee carried out a survey of members in the hope that it might result in some younger members joining the Committee but again without any long-term success. Changes were made to the Constitution in 2015 to reduce the minimum number of Committee members and also the number of specified officers in order to let members take on specific roles without them having to serve on the Committee. Again this proved unsuccessful.
The situation facing the Society is familiar to many other long established comparable societies, name-ly an increasingly ageing membership and few willing to take an active part in the management and work of the societies. The matter has now come to a head.
At last year’s Annual General Meeting [AGM] Marcia Meyer, Chairman for seven years, retired from the post and the Committee together with Roger Miles, a former Chairman and Vice-Chairman and Com-mittee member for forty-two years. Three new members were elected to the Committee but regretta-bly, for health reasons, two of them subsequently resigned. The third, Marion Brown, joined the Com-mittee to become the new Chairman but she resigned from the Committee and from the Society in Feb-ruary. We have been without a Speakers’ Programme Secretary for four years and an Honorary Sec-retary for virtually two years. In January with the AGM on the horizon Jenny Buchan, Membership Secretary for eighteen years and also co-ordinator of the Newsletter distribution and delivery for many years [a huge task in its own right], indicated that she would not be seeking re-election after thirty-three years on the Committee. In addition, Brenda Durbin, Honorary Treasurer, also indicated her wish to stand down after serving in the post for eighteen years. The member responsible for securing advertising for the Summer Newsletter had left the Committee at the last AGM and no replacement could be secured. Eric Deeson, Newsletter Editor for the last two years, relinquished that role after dealing with the Christmas Newsletter and has since resigned. Only six of the members elected to the Committee at the last AGM remain but thankfully Roger Miles and Phil Stokes agreed to be co-opted on to the Committee to ensure that the Constitution was complied with. Every member of the Committee is aged 70 years or over which is in stark contrast with the founding members in 1960 who were in their 30s and 40s.
From the outset a major priority for the Society was the health and viability of High Street as a principal shopping centre and in the 1970s we succeeded in securing adoption of planning policies to support High Street by aiming to restrict the change of use of shops to non-retail purposes in the core area. Subsequent Council planning documents retained those policies and the current Shopping and Local Centres document seeks to ensure at least 55% retail units in the core area. As a matter of policy the Society opposes every change of use from retail. Unfortunately in 2015 the Government’s national planning policies extended permitted development rights for High Streets everywhere in England to such a degree that virtually 82% of the retail properties in the Primary Shopping Area of High Street having under 150 sq. metres floor space can change use from retail to just about any other use, apart from hot food takeaways, without requiring planning approval. Consequently the Society and the Council’s planners are now powerless to take any effective action to influence the viability of High Street. We now look to the Business Improvement District to become the guardian of High Street.
This sad decision for dissolution should not in any way be allowed to detract from the Society’s proud record of service to Harborne over the last fifty-eight years. Many challenges have been faced and many campaigns have been fought. You can’t win them all ~ the failure to secure the Thomas Attwood statue for Harborne; the failure by the narrowest of margins to secure a Residents’ Parking Scheme for central Harborne; and most recently the shock U-turn by the Local Government Boundary Commission not to adopt the Society’s proposals for the Beech Lanes area to be returned to Harborne after years of exile in Quinton Ward.
This decision has been taken with great sadness but it is considered that the Society has run its course and has now reached the end of its effective life. Since its founding on 4th May 1960 the Society has had an outstanding record of involvement in many local issues and of championing Harborne at every opportunity. On the face of it the Society might appear to be in a good position with over 550 members, healthy finances and good attendances at our speakers’ meetings. Members will, however, be well aware that over the last few years the Committee has highlighted the fact that the future of the So-ciety would be in jeopardy and would not continue to function unless more members joined the Com-mittee in an active role as long serving officers retired. Appeals for members willing to take on specific roles, such as Speakers’ Programme Secretary, largely went unanswered.
In Autumn 2014 the Committee carried out a survey of members in the hope that it might result in some younger members joining the Committee but again without any long-term success. Changes were made to the Constitution in 2015 to reduce the minimum number of Committee members and also the number of specified officers in order to let members take on specific roles without them having to serve on the Committee. Again this proved unsuccessful.
The situation facing the Society is familiar to many other long established comparable societies, name-ly an increasingly ageing membership and few willing to take an active part in the management and work of the societies. The matter has now come to a head.
At last year’s Annual General Meeting [AGM] Marcia Meyer, Chairman for seven years, retired from the post and the Committee together with Roger Miles, a former Chairman and Vice-Chairman and Com-mittee member for forty-two years. Three new members were elected to the Committee but regretta-bly, for health reasons, two of them subsequently resigned. The third, Marion Brown, joined the Com-mittee to become the new Chairman but she resigned from the Committee and from the Society in Feb-ruary. We have been without a Speakers’ Programme Secretary for four years and an Honorary Sec-retary for virtually two years. In January with the AGM on the horizon Jenny Buchan, Membership Secretary for eighteen years and also co-ordinator of the Newsletter distribution and delivery for many years [a huge task in its own right], indicated that she would not be seeking re-election after thirty-three years on the Committee. In addition, Brenda Durbin, Honorary Treasurer, also indicated her wish to stand down after serving in the post for eighteen years. The member responsible for securing advertising for the Summer Newsletter had left the Committee at the last AGM and no replacement could be secured. Eric Deeson, Newsletter Editor for the last two years, relinquished that role after dealing with the Christmas Newsletter and has since resigned. Only six of the members elected to the Committee at the last AGM remain but thankfully Roger Miles and Phil Stokes agreed to be co-opted on to the Committee to ensure that the Constitution was complied with. Every member of the Committee is aged 70 years or over which is in stark contrast with the founding members in 1960 who were in their 30s and 40s.
From the outset a major priority for the Society was the health and viability of High Street as a principal shopping centre and in the 1970s we succeeded in securing adoption of planning policies to support High Street by aiming to restrict the change of use of shops to non-retail purposes in the core area. Subsequent Council planning documents retained those policies and the current Shopping and Local Centres document seeks to ensure at least 55% retail units in the core area. As a matter of policy the Society opposes every change of use from retail. Unfortunately in 2015 the Government’s national planning policies extended permitted development rights for High Streets everywhere in England to such a degree that virtually 82% of the retail properties in the Primary Shopping Area of High Street having under 150 sq. metres floor space can change use from retail to just about any other use, apart from hot food takeaways, without requiring planning approval. Consequently the Society and the Council’s planners are now powerless to take any effective action to influence the viability of High Street. We now look to the Business Improvement District to become the guardian of High Street.
This sad decision for dissolution should not in any way be allowed to detract from the Society’s proud record of service to Harborne over the last fifty-eight years. Many challenges have been faced and many campaigns have been fought. You can’t win them all ~ the failure to secure the Thomas Attwood statue for Harborne; the failure by the narrowest of margins to secure a Residents’ Parking Scheme for central Harborne; and most recently the shock U-turn by the Local Government Boundary Commission not to adopt the Society’s proposals for the Beech Lanes area to be returned to Harborne after years of exile in Quinton Ward.