Annual General Meeting
Saturday 8th March 2025
The 158th Annual General Meeting was held in Sonning Common Village Hall in Oxfordshire, following the Quekett Spring Sale, and was also available live via Zoom so that members who were unable to attend in person could to participate.
Lisa Ashby (the Hon. Secretary) opened the meeting and explained that the Club is experimenting with venues for the AGM, and had hoped that sharing a location with a sales meeting would encourage a greater attendance.
Lisa Ashby and Terry Hope
Lisa showed a PowerPoint version of the Annual Report, including details of the Quekett’s own meetings and the outreach events where Quekett members have promoted microscopy.
Terry Hope (the President) presented Lisa with a bottle of champagne to thank her for all of her hard work as Hon. Secretary.
Lisa and Terry emphasised that the Club needs more members who are willing to help run the Club by serving on the committee. We currently need a Treasurer and two Ordinary Members, and in 2026 we will need a new editor for the Bulletin. The meeting confirmed the committee members who will serve until the 2026 AGM.
Lisa and Terry also emphasised that the Club depends on its members to help in promoting microscopy. Our registration as a charity requires us to promote microscopy, but we urgently need more volunteers. In 2024 we not able to attend the AES Annual Exhibition and the BENHS Annual Exhibition because we had only one volunteer. We risk losing our charitable status if we do not promote microscopy. Volunteers do not need to be expert microscopists or experts in any subject area, they just need to be willing to bring along a microscope and some interesting slides or specimens and meet the public.
The Hon. Treasurer (Kirit Gorhandas) has had to resign for personal reasons, and Stephen Parker has very kindly agreed to serve as Acting Treasurer for 2–3 months until a replacement can be found. Kirit’s resignation meant that the Treasurer’s Report is not yet available, but we were assured that the Club is in a good financial position and that there was no need for the annual subscription to be increased. Joan Bingley (the Members’ Auditor) reported that there were no problems with any of the documents that she had been able to examine.
The Annual Report, the Treasurer’s Report and the Accounts for 2024 will be available for Quekett members under the Downloads menu.
John Gregory organised the Zoom meeting from home.