A highly enjoyable Branch AGM took place at The School Hall, Cuckfield, West Sussex, on a sunny, spring Sunday afternoon. There was a palpable sense of pride and optimism about the success of the Branch in the air.

Chairman Brian welcomed the members and after the formalities of approving last year’s minutes, delivered a brief, but up-beat, report including highlights from the last twelve months. He was delighted by the number of members attending our Fun Day and walks. He praised the website and Lowdown - thanking the officers and committee for all their hard work.

Frankie reported on the success of her first year as Hon Secretary. She was especially delighted with the Branch achieving one hundred members, and said how enthusiastic and committed many members where.

Michael distributed copies of the Branch accounts and his report highlighted a healthy reserve of funds. A proportion had been deposited in a high-interest account, though interest rates were very low at the current time.

Once again, Frankie, this time wearing her Branch Representative’s hat, informed the meeting about the various BHC committee meetings that she had attended. There are some further new rule changes which will affect the branches and she expressed some disappointment that they had not been consulted over this. The meeting was in total agreement.

Sue Sampson’s Basset Hound Welfare report was praised by the Chairman, and her super efforts in re-homing hounds won a very warm appreciated round of applause from everyone present.

Your editor took the opportunity of thanking everyone who had submitted material to Lowdown over the past twelve months. He quoted the American statesman and intellectual, Adlai Stevenson, who wrote, ‘Editors are men who separate the wheat from the chaff; and print the chaff!’ He said he hoped that this wasn’t the case with the newsletter.

Jean Miller’s Walks’ Organiser’s report recorded the good attendance at most of the walks and expressed optimism for future meets.

Derek riveted everyone with a virtuoso report about the website - all interesting stuff about domain names, hosting, and that kind of thing. Though at the piano, his report was unaccompanied - this disappointed many of us. Even so, everyone clapped enthusiastically when he finally sat down.

After Any Other Business, Brian rang Dusty’s Bell and concluded the meeting. The company then enjoyed the tasty refreshments which were supplied by the committee