Report on the AGM, 23 October 2002  -  A personal view by Jane Grierson:

 A Friends of the Lizard Annual General Meeting is different from almost any other AGM because it is fun;  yes, really.  For a start, the initials could stand for Awfully Good Meal and if you have not heard Friends of the Lizard’s reputation for perfect prandials, or sampled any of their tempting titbits, then it is time that you did.  Friends of the Lizard is a serious organisation that addresses serious issues, but our gatherings are always highly convivial, and we like to show appreciation of Members’ support for our meetings by laying on a good spread so that we can, like Napoleon’s army, march on our stomachs.  Watching the way that some folk put away the food that night, they soon will be, but . . .   And, of course, we oil the wheels with red and white and fruit juices that our team of experienced wine tasters (Yvonne) scours the shelves of Tesco’s for.

 Formal Minutes are elsewhere, but it is down to me to applaud the Chairman’s witticisms. For those of you who have forgotten, I am one of the founder members of Friends of the Lizard, Jane James az woz, now very happily Jane Grierson, having tied the knot this year with your Vice Chairman John Grierson, another founder member.  We served our time at the battle of Worvas.

In his Chairman’s report, Jeremy kindly introduced all the Committee, old and new, giving a thumbnail of each member – for example John Roberts, our Treasurer, and silk expert (we are still working this one out:  anything to do with Janet Reager??), and then went on to talk of more serious issues.  Sadly, some were not listening, as they were thinking about John Robert’s underwear, but most of us did pay attention.  Jeremy and the Committee had put in a lot of work over the year, all of which you will be familiar with from previous Newsletters.  He then mentioned that there had been one sad event and I wondered what this could be.  It was me !  Jeremy explained that I had resigned from the Committee earlier in the year, giving as my reason that I  needed to spend more time with my family.  This might sound a feeble excuse, but anyone wishing to meet my family is welcome to the challenge.  Anyway, Jeremy thought that as said family consisted of three cats (wrong, it’s four) and a geriatric (looking straight at John Grierson) dog, he could see no real reason for my resignation.  The fact that later I married him (JG, not JD) seemed to satisfy him, however, especially as he was invited to the wedding.

Then we fell on the supper with enthusiasm and hit several bottles of Tesco’s best offers. Then, as highlight of the evening, it was time for Jonathon Coudrille’s talk on Painting on the Lizard.  As he took pains to point out, this had nothing to do with houses, but involved putting oils or pastels to paper and coming up with something out of this world.  His slides showed the tip of the iceberg that is Jonathon’s talent and, if you thought you saw a hint of Dali, or seashell that was voluptuous, even faintly erotic, you were not wrong.  One could gaze for hours just at a glass fishing float painted by Jonathon, but there are other details to observe, all of them spellbinding.

Finally, it was time to judge the Photographic Competition.  Jonathon rose nobly to the occasion for the second year, showing a heightened appreciation of the art form by awarding me a first prize for my photo of a particularly disgusting farmyard.  Avril took home the cup, for which she will pay penance by having to keep it clean, but her new camera had obviously done her proud.

Are you sorry you weren’t there?  We were.  But there is time for you to make up for it – be at the next meeting!  Even better, suggest what sort of meeting you would like.  We cannot believe that all our Members want to do is pay their £5 per year and rest easy on the assumption that Friends of the Lizard is looking after their little piece of Cornwall for them.  It is, but the Committee cannot continue this indefinitely without more help.  I served my time and I enjoyed it.  How about you?