The Friends of Pinner Village Gardens 2022 Annual General Meeting was held on Monday evening at the Pinner Arms near the park. We had nineteen attendees for the proceedings, which covered diverse points such as the membership pricing, mowing regime, changes to the constitution, the plans for interpretation panels for the ridge and furrow field and of course this year’s committee election.
As part of the review of the constitution of Friends of Pinner Village Gardens, changes were voted in with immediate effect to revise the election period for committee members from one year to three, modify the Junior Ambassador position to become a new general Committee Member 3 and bring in a formal co-opting process so that committee positions can more easily become filled between AGMs should they become vacant.
It was proposed that membership rates should increase for the first time since the formation of the Friends, going from £5 to £10 for a yearly membership, and £50 to £100 for a lifetime membership. While existing Friends on yearly memberships will remain on the current pricing, they will be written to in order to advise them of this change.
It is the objective that memberships should pay for the ongoing maintenance of the park, which is estimated to be around £2000 a year. Special projects, such as park improvements will come from further donations and by seeking grants through awarding bodies.
The votes were held to elect the new committee, including a new chair following the departure of Antonia Savvides earlier this year.
- Chairperson – Dodie Melville-Riddell
- Treasurer – Stephen Spiro
- Secretary – Brian Chapman
- Communications Lead – Sarah Brook
- Education and Environmental Advisor – Simon Braidman
- Landscape Advisor – Natalia Kuznetsova
- Volunteer Coordinator – Jonathan Freedman
- Committee member 1 – Helen Ryan
- Committee member 2 – Jackie Lindop
- Committee member 3 – Glyn Watkins
The posts of Event Coordinator and Funding Coordinator remain vacant. If you are interested in assisting the Friends in those roles, please do get in touch with us at info@pinnervillagegardens.org.uk.
Dodie will be well known to our volunteers and frequent visitors to the park and has been co-opted onto the Committee for most of the last year as Volunteer Coordinator. She has been in particular leading on the design of the new planting scheme for the Hereford Gardens entranceway. We would also like to welcome back Jonathan Freedman to the post of Volunteer Coordinator, who is another very familiar face to all those in the park frequently.