Attendees:- Richard Brown (RB), Steve Cashmore (SC), Paul Goddard (PG), Alex Picker (AP), Andy Collier (AC) and Ken Burney (KB) plus 24 members.

Apologies:- Gordon Bickley and Phil Bailey.

1.Chair’s remarks:- RB said that he felt that his performance as Chair over the past year had been average and that he had considered standing down as Chair due to a long-standing illness of his aged mother along with work pressures as Head of 2 schools. However, he is retiring this Summer and hopes to be able to devote more time to CMS matters.

He hoped that there would be an auction on 8^th March at Leicester but this has to be firmed up. When it is, he will organise the speaker(s).

RB reported there had been an informal committee meeting at our Lord’s gathering – too few committee members were able to attend to make the meeting quorate. Lord’s is booked for November 2025.

RB thought that both the Derby and Lord’s meetings had been excellent with not widely seen guests in Peter Kirsten and Asif Iqbal. RB estimated that CMS had engaged with c 35% of our membership at Lord’s with 100 + attendees. Along with Derby, he felt that we had engaged with c 40% of our membership.

Due to circumstances, the December magazine has been delayed until January. 

CMS will have an annual nominated charity – currently, it is the Alzheimer’s Society.

Plans are in place for the replacement of our long-serving Treasurer, Paul Goddard. RB will be in consultation with the Auctions Group with a view to separating auction-related transactions from the role of Treasurer. The stewardship of CMS’ money is very important.

The Minutes for the 2024 AGM were accepted as a true record.

Matters arising:- Surplus funds were transferred to a Nat West interest bearing savings account from February 2024 paying a circa three times the rate on the CMS deposit account.

RB and Tim Knight work in tandem to make sure there are no clashes of auctions between the two organisations.

CMS will continue to give support to the Notts. Yearbook.

RB said that there will be reciprocal advertising between CMS and the County Cricket Matters magazine edited by Annie Chave.

There is a possibility of a Members’ Area on the website in the future.

Due to being an affiliate of the Cricket Societies’ Association, it is more possible to be able to attract good guests via contacts there.

CMS remains the only cricket memorabilia organisation which holds physical auctions.

RB made a plea for members to supply contributions for the magazine.

2.Treasurer’s Report:- PG started by thanking the Chairman for his significant contribution to CMS affairs in the last year and ongoing.

PG referred attendees to the accounts and used the accounts narrative on page 1 as the basis for his oral comments. There was a deficit of £839 on the year. This was largely due to postage costs and more guests and hence fees. Income was slightly up.

PG urged all members to pay their annual subscription by Standing Oder on 01 August. This is the most efficient way of doing things.

Auction commission was significantly better but E-list commission is down. He suggested that (as recommended by the Auctions Team) consideration be given to increasing commission rates to 10% for non-member Auction vendors and all E-list sales.

PG has moved some monies into a NatWest fixed term savings account. The interest rate was over 4% initially but is now 3.75%. Withdrawals are subject to 95 days’ notice. No withdrawals have been required to date and none are projected in the near term.

Some postage savings have been made by using a more cost-effective franking machine contract set up by the Secretary last year.

Room costs had increased significantly particularly at Lord’s although RB pointed out that, due to our long-standing relationship with Lord’s, CMS gets a significant charity concession rate.

Lunch subsidies’ cost had significantly increased though at the latest meeting at Derby, no subsidy was in place. This is a matter which the committee needs to address for the longer term.

PG said that the prices of cards had remained the same despite increases in production costs. Thus, there was a case to put those prices up for both sales at meetings and subsequently via the website.

A proposal to accept the accounts was made by Tim Jones and seconded by Mike Williams and was passed unanimously.

3.Vote of Thanks:- The Chairman thanked David Start for undertaking the Examination of the accounts – again – and was pleased to note that David is happy to continue in this role.

4.Secretary’s Report:- Paid up members = 296. Around 85% of our membership can be contacted via email = very good.

There are 324 who view CMS via Twitter – up by 64 year on year.

SC said that he is redesigning the website and will be working with Peter Griffiths on it.

The Tom Price scorecards raised £165 which was given to the Alzheimer’s Society.

7.Treasurer Designate:- Michael Rayner and Tim Jones proposed and seconded respectively Peter Madelin as our new Treasurer Designate to take over from PG once the required formalities are completed. PG is committed to ensuring a full and smooth changeover. PM was approved by the attendees.

8.Vote of Thanks:- RB proposed a Vote of Thanks for our dedicated Auctions Team. MR advised that having administration in place for all auctions was vital in terms of doing the paperwork for buyers and collecting bid monies. MR also said that the team suggested 10% commission to be paid by non-CMS members with 7% being retained for CMS members.

9.AOB:- 

Michael Rayner asked about raising the profile of CMS as a membership of c 300 seems very low. He also asked if the Minutes of committee meetings could be issued to members. This is something that the committee will need to address.

Peter Griffiths suggested that online meetings may help to raise the profile and engage with more members.

Mike Williams commented that it would be reasonable for the Committee to publish the Minutes of all its meetings to Members. In addition, in principle he supported the suggested card price increase and commission rate increases as they would help close or eliminate the current cycle of annual deficits.

RB suggested that it could also mean not having to increase subscription rates which he preferred to keep at current levels if possible. Subscription rates will not be changed for 2025/26.

Ken Burney said that he has been an agreement in principle to hold a Cricket Memorabilia Market at the Cheltenham Cricket Festival in July. The two CC games both start on a Tuesday – 22 July and 29 July. A CMM would probably be held on the third day (Thursday). The PCA Past Players Day will probably be returning to CCF.

Following the AGM there was an interesting discussion with David Tossell covering his recently published book, “Blood on the Tracks – England in Australia in 1974/75”. There was an opportunity for members to ask David questions about his book and the tour. Members may buy the book (signed) at a discounted price (£20 including P & P) via the Nightwatchman website using code CMS6.

The meeting closed at 20.30