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The written report you have for this AGM looks back on the achievements of the past year, which were many and considerable. 2007 was a good year for the WSR and the WSRA. 2008 has been and is likely to continue to be a tougher proposition for a number of reasons, including the general economic situation, the weather we have had and the wheel/rail problems we have faced. I am pleased that we have Chris Austin here to say a few words about that. I want to make some remarks about the future for the WSRA, which I know is where you wish me and your committee to focus our attention. I said to the Committee when I took on as Chairman that I was much more interested in helping the WSRA to make the best of the future rather than attempting to manage the past, which is a singularly pointless exercise.
Firstly, I want to say what an honour and a privilege it has been to be asked to be the WSRA Chairman. I first came to the railway in 1981 as a 17-year old volunteer for the S&DRT at Washford - an interest kindled by my parents home being close to the Somerset & Dorset. Passing by Washford were some interesting trains (occasionally steam-hauled, rather like today! and occasionally on time, entirely unlike today) and I found it more interesting to help run these. Soon I had qualified as signalman, and guard, often working trains with a young fireman called Paul Conibeare, firing to his regular driver, David Rouse. I never thought for a moment that 25 years later, Paul might be General Manager and I Chairman of the WSRA !
The WSRA has tremendous strengths. It has more than 5,000 members, many of them active in their support of the railway, be it by active volunteering, financial support in various forms, or by visiting the railway when they can. The WSRA has 30 years of achievement from the past behind it, and without the WSRA’s support, there would be no WSR. The WSR is the greatest heritage railway in our part of the country and undoubtedly part of the premier league in the UK as a whole.
You would not think much of me as Chairman if I only looked at the good news and did not have an eye to challenges which the WSRA faces. In my 6 months in post so far, I have identified, two particular areas which, if not tackled, will hold the WSRA back from achieving all that we might.
The first is a degree of insularity amongst particular groups or departments. There is a Greek fable which expresses this very well.
Aesops Fables – The Beggars
The Beggars of a certain town used to spend the night in a ruined house on the outskirts of the town. They would spend the day begging and then would come back to the house in the evening to eat the scraps they had been given during the day. One might have some scraps of meat unsold from the butcher, another the vegetables unsold at the end of the day from the greengrocer.
One day, one of the beggars found an iron cooking pot in the kitchen of the ruined house. He proposed to the others that they pooled what they had been given at the end of the day to make a nourishing and wholesome soup. All agreed. That evening they scavenged wood from the ruined house and built a fire and boiled water in the pot over the fire. Each stepped forward with the scraps of meat or vegetables they had and bent to drop them into the water in the pot. However, none of the beggars trusted the others and each thought that the others would only pretend to drop their scraps into the boiling water. And so it happened. Each kept for himself what he had obtained.
When the water had been boiling for an hour, each stepped forward and took a cup of the liquid. They then realised that none had trusted each other as all each had was a cup of boiling water. Each sipped their boiling water and nibbled on their scraps of raw meat or vegetables, thinking of the nourishing soup they could have been enjoying, had they trusted and co-operated with each other.
The moral of the story is clear. We will achieve far more if we trust and co-operate with each other. This goes for individual members, groups and the WSRA’s relationships with the other bodies which make up the WSR. Your Committee will work to ensure that the common good is always at the forefront of decisions taken. After all, the public see us as ‘one railway’. It is easy to carp and moan. It is harder, but much more productive, to respond positively to requests for help or, better still, to offer it without being asked.
The second difficulty I have identified, is that as the WSRA grows, it needs to implement financial reporting and control structures and other organisational structures appropriate to the organisation it now is. Your committee are working to ensure that such systems and controls will be in place at the earliest opportunity. The Memorandum & Articles of both the WSRA and the subsidiary Promotions Company are out of date. Stephen Williams is considering the appropriate revisions of these and we are consulting with the Charity Commissioners and taking appropriate legal advice. Stephen will bring his proposals to the Committee in the autumn; we will consult on these with you, the membership over the winter; and I expect to bring the proposals for a changed set of M&A to the membership at the same time as next year’s AGM. It is likely that these changes will include the Williton Restorations facility being operated as a separate company in its own right, wholly-owned by the WSRA. Your Committee look forward to receiving your comments, suggestions and assistance with these changes.
That brings me neatly to the one need I intended to bring to you, the membership, at the AGM. Service on The WSRA Committee is not easy, and it is no place for passengers, but it is tremendously rewarding. We presently have announced vacancies for 4 posts: Treasurer, Secretary, Press Officer and a new post to give the large number of Operations staff a route to the Committee. I intend that the highest standards of openness and propriety are maintained in WSRA business, as is only right. I wish to find the very best candidates for these positions. That is why they have been advertised and why the opportunity to be considered for them will remain open until 31 July. If you think you are suitable for any of them, then please come forward. There are interesting times ahead for the WSRA as part of the WSR!
I should mention specifically 5 new occupants of posts.
The first is Susan Kaufman, our new salaried Association manager. I am pleased to say that the advertisement brought forward a high quality of applicant, and Susan was the best. We are luck to have her and the Committee has already seen the quality of what she can do.
Ken Davidge is our new station master at Bishops Lydeard and has the personal ‘presence’ and energy to run the Association’s flagship station in the way which our visitors expect. He deserves our full support.
Ian Coleby has taken on the mantle of Curator of our Museum and plans changes to make it more relevant and more interesting for our visitors.
Roger Stobbs has come forward as Legacy Officer to manage the important task of ensuring that we all make appropriate provision for the WSR in our wills.
Magda Davies (who cannot be with us today) is our new stations liaison officer and is working hard to show that the WSRA is relevant and useful to all stations along the line.
In the autumn, there will be a further round of vacancies to fill. I am very grateful to Ian Aldridge for having stepped in temporarily to fill the volunteer co-ordinator and youth officer posts. We are also an educational charity and should be maintaining stronger links with our local schools and colleges. That demands some form of education officer for the WSRA. These posts will be advertised in due course.
What might the Association be involved with in the future?
We have Norton triangle to complete and Williton Restorations gets more interesting by the day (and it is rumoured that we will see Braunton out-and-about before very long-is that right? Gareth?). We must never lose sight of the importance of the revenue-generating parts of the WSRA. Your Committee will examine ways in which the fund-raising parts of the WSRA, including namely the QB, the retail activities, the raffle, the rally and our relationship with our members can make best use of our assets. This will require open and forward-looking thinking unencumbered by the insularity I mentioned earlier.
I will be considering with your committee:
| • | the purchase of the Station Master’s House
| | • | Provision of permanent 21st Century standard volunteer accommodation
| | • | The purchase and restoration of at least one further GWR locomotive
| | • | The Association’s part in the proposed developments at Bishop’s Lydeard
| | • | A long term plan for bringing customer facilities up to date at BL in appropriate GWR style, including, for example, covered accommodation for passengers and the QB. Consultation on this has already started.
| | • | Support for the initial works which will allow signalled loops at Kentsford and near Leigh to increase the traffic capacity of the line.
| | • | Improved facilities for the RAMS group
| | • | Support for the efforts of stations along the whole length of the line
| | • | Further engineering facilities at Williton including a dedicated machine shop, and a preparation and painting facility for railway vehicles.
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All this can be achieved, in time, if we work together and support our revenue-generating activities.
I remember the Bishops Lydeard of 20 years ago. No shop, goods shed stacked with gently-rotting coach components, tickets only sold on the train, no signalling, no loco facilities. Dead as a doornail for the 2 or 3 hour interval between trains.
You only have to look at the station now to see what has been achieve in the past 20 years.
Just imagine what we can achieve in the next 20 years!
Thank you.
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