The Kew Guild AGM, 2024

The day started with a guided tour of the Tropical Nursery by Trustees Richard Barley and Silke Strickrodt - photos to come.  The weather was good and Richard and Silke were praised by those present for their expertise and knowledge. 

• 29 members and eight guests attended the meeting. 
• Members paused for one minute to remember those who are no longer with us: Jenny Grundy, Kenneth Roy Jones and  Jonathan Rickards.
• Unfortunately IT problems with members joining on Teams continued this year. Hopefully we can sort this by next year!
• The Kew Guild CIO met three times during the year. Meetings in 2024 continued to be hybrid with some members attending in person and others on Teams. All of the meetings were quorate in accordance with the CIO (three or one quarter of trustees).
• The Annual Report and Accounts were not ready and therefore not distributed prior to the meeting. They were approved via email by 29 members when they became available during October 2024. 
• Membership numbers have dropped slightly from 2023, with the number of affiliates down from 40 to 15.  218 members are now paying by Direct Debit, a large increase from 2023. Copies of the Journal will be distributed to incoming students during their induction day. 
• The absence of the Annual Dinner was questioned and Trustees responded that catering costs have proved to be too inhibitive for the Guild to take this forward. Therefore, in 2025, Trustees will arrange two separate events at Kew to serve as networking and get-together opportunities. 
• The Journal received high praise this year and members present at the meeting gave the Editor a round of applause. Ros asked for articles for next year, the deadline will be the end of January 2025.
• Names and addresses  returned to the Journal, although some were missed due to severe IT problems. SA will be in contact with those who expressed a wish to be added in January 2025.
• Awards for the year totalled £13,270. 
• Susan Weiler accepted her Honorary Fellowship at the meeting and thanked the Trustres and Members. 
• CK will be contacting all those who have ever received an award from the Guild in order to arrange a gathering to discover what happened to them once the award was given. 
• The Guild have increased level of prizes for student graduation to make the amounts more realistic and worth having. In the past the prizes have been skewed towards the Kew Diploma, but the Guild have created a new suite of awards for prize day in honour of Allan Hart.
• Trustees and Officers for the Presidential year 2024-25 were ratified. 
• The Guild have aggreed to support the Bedgebury Pinetum centenary celebrations with a financial contribution to enable them to deliver an interpretation trail that honours the close ties with RBG Kew. 
• Byelaws update: 
  

  Trustees recommend a rule change, ratified at the AGM. The change creates a Chair for the Board of Trustees from within their elected membership, removes the position of Vice President and makes the President Non-Executive. The change allows the Chair a longer period of office than Trustees in order to ensure continuity and allows the President to be nominated from anywhere amongst the membership as a figurehead without Board vote or commitment to Board business. In this change the current President Elect Richard Barley will accede as President in September 2025. This change was originally tabled by Colin Hindmarch about 25 years ago.

  Rob Brett will be the first chairperson for a three-year term.

  Richard Barley will take over as President for one year and will operate from overseas.

  Trustees will create a job description for both positions.

• Date of next Annual General Meeting: Saturday 6th September 2025, venue to be confirmed.