The Hampshire Family Historian | Volume 50 No.1 | June 2023

HGS News

Letter to members and AGM Update Those of you who use e-mail, will have received at the end of April a letter about the society. For those without e-mail it is reproduced here. Following is an update about the AGM. Letter Dear Member, Hampshire Genealogical Society rarely contacts all members via email but we have a serious situation which we urgently need

offered to become Chairman. Jane Painter, Fareham Group Organiser and a former Executive Committee member, has offered to take on the role of Secretary. Does anyone else wish to put themselves forward for either role? If there are other nominations then we will hold an election at the Society’s AGM on Saturday 17 June (details of which were included in the March Journal and are available on the website). In the meantime, Tony and Jane will be co-opted to these positions so that we have enough people to deal with the day-to-day running of HGS and prepare for the AGM. If Tony becomes Chairman, Fiona Ranger, currently Co organiser of the National and International Groups, has offered to take over as Bookstall Manager. We’re very grateful to them all. The Society is due to celebrate its 50th anniversary next year. In order for it to continue to that point, we are still in need of further volunteers. Our Vice-Chairman, Chris Pavey, is due to stand down at the AGM, and this is another essential role, in support of the Chairman. Do you want HGS to continue? Can you offer to help in any way? The Executive Committee identified that the workload of the Society was spread among too few people, and we have been through a difficult period of transition and change. All the volunteer roles are currently being reviewed by the Exec, and further posts are being created to make sure that the work is more evenly distributed and to ensure

members’ help to resolve. This will be a long email but please read to the end as it’s an important matter. The Society is entirely run by volunteers, including an ‘Executive Committee’ which should contain 13 Trustees, including four Principal Officers (Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer). Most of you will be aware from reading the last few editions of the Journal that the Society has been without a Secretary for some time. Unfortunately, our Chairman, Paul Pinhorne, has now had to stand down too, for health reasons. This is a major blow as Paul safely steered us through the pandemic, and oversaw the successful move from the office in Cosham to the Society’s new home within Hampshire Record Office (HRO). You will read more about his achievements in the next Journal. HGS cannot continue without a Chairman or Secretary, but we are pleased to say that volunteers have come forward for these two roles. Tony Sinclair, currently Bookstall Manager and Winchester Group Organiser, has

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