WLSinfo 2008 AGM
October 23, 2008
By Vineeta
The 2008 AGM, held on 11th October at the Thistle Hotel, East Midlands Hotel, was the sixth one for the charity, and the biggest yet. It was the biggest in terms of the numbers who attended and also had the most comprehensive programme so far.
For many of our members (and the team) the AGM was actually a weekend affair. I would guess that at least half of all those who came arrived on Friday and stayed until Sunday. Folks started drifting in to the Thistle Hotel from around lunchtime on Friday and many made use of the swimming pool and other facilities on offer. It was lovely to have the opportunity to meet up with friends old and new. We kept the bar and restaurant staff busy on Friday night and there was much bonhomie as people caught up with each other. There was also the meeting of new friends in the flesh for the first time, putting faces to usernames they'd formed a friendship with online and with whom they'd shared their deepest thoughts, concerns and bowel habits, but had never spoken to face to face.
For some, Friday was the start of a hectic weekend. Jean (Spaniel Lover) and her husband, Dave, were kept busy receiving and sorting out out clothes for the clothing sale. Members donated clothes they had shrunk out of so that other members could buy them at a knock down price and the proceeds came to the charity. There were some brand new and some very special items donated, people were extremely generous. Jean and Dave were ably and remarkably assisted by many volunteers, and their hard work continued until Sunday afternoon.
Saturday morning marked the start of the official programme. Vineeta's army spun into action. Registration started right after breakfast and after collecting our (very fetching and professional looking) name badges we sat down to be mesmerised, educated and moved by our keynote speaker. Dr Alex Blakemore, Professor of Human Molecular Genetics at Imperial College, London gave us a fascinating talk on "All in our genes? How can our DNA make us fat?"
We couldn't have got off to a better start. You see, as well as being a jolly clever person, Alex is one of us. She is the member we know as aifb, and she understands all about being morbidly obese, the years of relentless dieting, and the years of relentless feelings of failure, inadequacy, self loathing and shame that most of us have lived with. But unlike many of us, she knew it was not necessarily down to us simply being greedy and/or weak willed. She explained how, for some of us, our genetics may affect, and even control, our eating behaviour. She also explained how in days gone by we would have been life's survivors, the one's who could live longer, reproduce and get through hard times, because we wouldn't die of malnutrition and were very efficient at storing and hanging onto fat and calories. Now, however, by some cruel switch of fate (and a great deal of progress by mankind in the Western world, not to mention Marks and Spencers) that which made us the strongest now makes us weak and vulnerable in terms of health and life expectancy. The session ended with everyone feeling uplifted - not all fat is bad, our bodies are not our enemies, we don't have to hate our bodies or ourselves! Hallelujah!!!
In the afternoon was the formal AGM, the business part of the day and the reason we have this gathering at all. The Chairman, Ken Clare, gave his annual report and the financial report. Formal minutes of the AGM are posted separately.
Then it was to the surgery specific sessions. Everyone split into their groups and attended various meetings for DSers, RNYers, Bandsters, support group co-ordinators and those who'd had or were interested in revision surgery. This was an opportunity to share questions and to pool knowledge, experience and support.
After the surgery groups, it was time to get freshened up (and even glammed up) for the evening. Wow, the transformations that took place were amazing. Out came the lipstick, sparkles, spangles, killer heels, spaghetti straps and even no straps! And that was just the blokes.
Ed, (Tranmerefan) had offered his services as photographer and set his gear up in a room dedicated to taking photos of people indiviually, in couples and in groups. Many had been here last year and had their photos taken and wanted to compare just how far they had come in 12 months. So many people were unrecognisable. Several took my breath away, it was as if they had melted. Ed was an absolute star. He worked for hours, showing great patience and humour. How he coped with some of the poses that were struck is beyond me. But he put everyone at ease and made each of us feel that we looked a million dollars.
The AGM is about fundraising as much as anything else. As a charity we are reliant on donations to fund the site and enable us to keep it going and make developments. Another critical area of expenditure for us is the support groups - over 20 in place, many of which are funded by the charity either through the provision of accommodation for meetings and/or training for support group co-ordinators and/or printed material eg leaflets, business cards etc. So we rattled the tins (well, it was ice buckets, really) hard and, as Ken said, turned people upside down and shook them for all their 'loose change'. The result was awesome. The day's fundraising resulted in a record breaking total of £1,100.25. This is the best ever and was made up as follows:
£410.25 from the clothing sale
£495.00 from the raffle
£195.00 from photographs
As the charity had spent £175 in raffle prizes and Ed, Jean (and all her helpers) and the raffle girls had given their services freely, this represented a profit of £925.25. YEAY!!!
After the buffet and raffle, the disco started up and folks danced the night away.
A very good day in all and a resounding success judging by the comments of those who came. We may have to look at a bigger venue next year, we are making enquiries about the O2 centre!!!
