When you get dragged along to a Company Annual General Meeting, you know it’s going to be a dull old affair, with votes on this and votes on that, then the re-election of the officers and approval of the accounts…. (yawn!!). If you’re lucky you might go home with some headed notepaper and a free pen that stops working after three days – Well things are quite different at our Village Shop AGM… 

Last night, 26 brave souls ventured up to the Church (though 8 of them were on the committee, so didn’t have much choice in the matter!). On arrival, shareholders (*) were directed to socially distanced tables where they were served with complimentary wine and beer – recently harvested from the Village Shop shelves. To accompany the drinks, warm sausage rolls, pork pies and a selection of crisps (including Gluten free) were also served. (Rumours that the free booze & nibbles were provided to prevent anyone asking difficult questions of the Chairman are completely unfounded…) The meeting then proceeded as expected, with updates on last year and plans for the future delivered by Jayne and John. Peter then showed us how much money we have in the piggy bank, and, whilst we didn’t all understand some of the more technical accounting phrases, Peter kept smiling throughout his report, so we can assume the shop performed rather well last year.

Victoria Hope (a young person) gave us a beautifully crafted report on her experience working on Sunday mornings as youth volunteer, and drew the loudest applause of the evening – Thank you Victoria.

To round off the evening, we introduced an additional item to the agenda – the “Village Shop AGM Academy Awards” to celebrate the outstanding contribution made to the shop by our award winners in the following categories: – Karen Williams – Monday Flapjack, Julia Powell – Thursday Scones, Alan Powell – Carpentry, Slab Laying, Furniture Painting and Bin Clearing and Peter James for his continuous service as Treasurer since the shop was conceived back in 2007.

Copies of their certificates are reproduced below, and although not as stylish as an Oscar, they did come with a bag of chocolate buttons. Click the images for a closer look!

Our managers – Jayne and Sue both received a bouquet of the finest flowers that were available from the Co-op, though sadly the budget for chocolate buttons had expired.

(*) Why not become a shareholder and you too can receive an invitation to next year’s AGM. A Village Shop Share will cost you just £5 and whilst there is an annual subscription of £2, it’s cheaper than a Netflix subscription – our entertainment is live, and you won’t get free sausage rolls from them! If you are interested, just leave your name and contact details at the Village Shop or email titchmarsh.villageshop@gmail.com and we will send you an application form.