AN EXPERT in gemstones will be the speaker at the latest of the Eastbourne Society's monthly talks at St Saviour's and St Peter's Church Hall next Tuesday (September 8) at 7.30pm.

Mrs Azeena Rajap, who is married to a local GP, is a qualified gemologist with a degree in mineralogy. Her talk will explain how sapphires, emeralds, diamonds and pearls are mined or found, and she will also speak about imitation and synthetic gems available on the market and how and where to get gems tested.

For security reason there will be nothing of great value on site.
Members of the Society and visitors are welcome, and there is free parking in the churchyard.

For further information contact Owen Boydell on 721825 or email: owenboydell@talktalk.net

Hugh Riddick, Co-Chairman, reports;

Since becoming your joint-chairman, with Geoffrey Mantle, I have learnt a lot about the Society and what it achieves. I have also identified several gaps in our activities.

MEMBERS are the key to everything. Without them we do not exist. Yet how often do we hear from them? Are your Committee getting it right? Geoffrey and I would like to hear from you. Why not write a letter with your views for publication in the Newsletter?

TALKS. The Society arranges monthly talks, at present held in the Underground Theatre (see below). Key speakers have been invited on important topics. Yet attendances are poor. Please tell us how we can improve.

EVENTS. We also have coffee mornings and evening talks at the Heritage Centre. Some of these are well-attended, but actual numbers are low because room is limited. The Centre itself is under very serious consideration - a Working Party is preparing a report to your Executive Committee which has to come forward to the Borough Council with ideas and proposals for its long-term future by the end of 2008. What are your ideas?

OUR CONSTITUTION. Your Committee would like to come forward to our next AGM with proposals for revising our Constitution. The new Charities Act offers a possible new framework for how we operate, but the Charities Commission is dragging its feet on advice on how this can be achieved. In any case, my view is that we must first make up our minds on what we want to achieve for the town before we start to tinker with our internal set-up. This is a debate in which everyone can be involved and the next AGM should be the forum for a full-on debate.

There are two main aspects: -

1. We are an unlimited voluntary organisation and we are also registered as a charity. There is a strong argument for converting to limited liability (a private company) as some local organisations have done, but we are aiming probably at changing into a Charitable Incorporated Organisation ( a CIO ) introduced under the 2006 Charities Act. Unfortunately, new regulations and advice on procedure from the Charity Commission have been delayed and we are not sure how soon this can be achieved.

2. Most important for the future of the Society is how we operate within our Constitution. Are our objectives the right ones? Do we have a wide enough membership to encourage local organisations (as well as individuals) to take part in our affairs - and, if not, how do we achieve this?

This is where you come in. We want all members to contribute to the debate. Yes, we have an 'eye to the past' (heritage and all that) - but do we sufficiently look to the future? Can we involve young people more in our affairs? Are we sufficiently alive to changes in our town and environment? Until we have decided which way we want to go, it is difficult for your Committee to make recommendations. I am happy to receive your suggestions.

HELP! We are currently trying to function without an Honorary Secretary, which puts additional strains on Geoffrey and me. We need someone to fill this important office and keep us in order. Would anyone, not necessarily with secretarial experience, like to offer to help? We do have some excellent new members on the Executive Committee, but the Society's administration is definitely creaking.

You, the members, are the important people. Please keep us up to the mark!

In recent years we have held enjoyable Christmas festivities at the Heritage Centre. Lack of space and difficulty of access have been a problem and so in the Autumn Newsletter are details of a Christmas Lunch which will be held on December 9th at the Chatsworth Hotel. The booking form needs to be returned as soon as possible.

Why not put the date for the lunch in your diary, make a booking and join many other Society members in a splendid festive occasion.

With effect from the September 2008 meeting the meeting venue will be St. Saviours Church Hall in South Street. It has easy access, its own car park and is quite central.

We look forward to seeing many more members at this new meting place.

The Annual General Meeting of the Society, advertised in the Newsletter promises to be momentous, for in so many ways the Eastbourne Society has reached a watershed in its affairs. It is therefore important that all members - even those people who see themselves as passive rank and file, or those who (like your Chairman) have normally little taste for the formalities of public meetings - should this year make every effort to attend, and to make their voices heard. The future of this long- established Society must lie in the hands of all of its members, and not become the exclusive property of any one coterie.

Change is in the air. The AGM will this year be presented with a proposal that a sub- committee urgently examine the ways in which the Constitution of the Society now needs to be amended. Of the changes under discussion, perhaps the most far-reaching is that the Society should become an Incorporated Body. This will mean that instead of the Trustees alone carrying responsibility for any debts, financial responsibility would be shared (but only up to the value of one pound) between all the Society's members. There are a number of other changes under consideration, and it is important that they are considered by as many members as possible.

Changes in the Constitution are inevitably linked with the wider question - with which your committee has, in various ways, been wrestling throughout the year- of the core purposes for which the Eastbourne Society exists. Your present chairman has made no secret of the fact that he believes the Society should revert to its original function of being a radical, campaigning society striving for the overall improvement of the whole of Eastbourne - in a word, that it should vigourously follow its own precept of 'looking to the future with an eye to the past'.

However it has become apparent that these views by no means have the support of all members. Some prefer to see the Eastbourne Society as essentially conservative in nature, existing to preserve icons from the town's Victorian heritage, satisfied with defining Eastbourne's culture as what goes on in Devonshire Park, and happy to remain aloof from the lives led by the majority of Eastbourne citizens in the central and eastern parts of the town. It would be good openly to exchange views about the way the Eastbourne Society should now go - for it cannot simultaneously achieve both of these purposes.

One small achievement of my year as Chairman has been that the Society has begun to work much more purposefully with the Town Hall Administration, and in this we must express our thanks to the Leader, Councillor David Tutt, who accepted our (surely not very enticing) invitation to be co-opted on to our executive committee. It has so far proved fruitful, but there is a great deal more to be done. Following that step, how deeply would Society members now like to be involved in consultations about, and development of, the town?

One matter central to the Society, and to planning Eastbourne's cultural development, is the future of the Heritage Centre. Again, we have had some success here during the past year, for the Centre has been returned to the Society for use as its headquarters, and members of the Heritage Centre 2008 Committee are busily setting up this year's summer programme. However, the Society's continued tenure of the Heritage Centre comes with the clear obligation to propose, by the end of this year a means by which the building may after that be brought into purposeful full-time use for the wider benefit of all Eastbourne. Your committee has been working on this too, and proposals for development, with new partners, will be brought to the AGM.

For other people the Eastbourne Society is simply a means by which they can meet like-minded people, hear something about the history of, and future plans for the town, while enjoying pleasant social gatherings. This is of course admirable but still raises questions about how active members would wish to be. The meetings at the Under Ground theatre are now being planned so that on occasions during the year members will have the opportunity to make their own contributions to a debate. Yet it may be that some members feel short-changed by being asked, as it were, to amuse themselves and would prefer to sit back and enjoy a full programme of lectures.

There is, in a word, a great deal to discuss. And on this occasion the views, and votes, of members really do matter, for your Executive Committee next year will have a different composition. Although, happily, a number of old committee hands have said they are willing to put themselves forward for re-election, there will inevitably be changes. My own work in other places - largely set aside this year - means that I cannot stand again as Chairman, so that position must be filled at the AGM. We are doing as our Constitution allows and dividing the position of Hon Secretary from Minutes Secretary, and so an additional nominee is called for there. There are also openings for new committee members. I have a lifelong abhorrence of fixed elections and so let me say, clearly and without equivocation, that it is open to anyone in the Society to use the enclosed proposal form and to allow themselves to be put forward for any of those positions. There are no shoe-ins. It will be for members attending the AGM to decide upon the constitution of our new executive committee.

I want to conclude my final Chairman's Report with two remarks. First, I should like to express my grateful thanks both to my immediate predecessor and to the members of the outgoing executive committee, all of whom have been, without exception, constructive and supportive of me during my year in office. Second, I should like to say (without casting any aspersions at all) that in my opinion it would now be good for the society to have some new, and younger faces around the committee table to face the challenges ahead.

I think I can promise you therefore that this year's AGM will not be dull. Do make a note of the date - April 8th.