A report was included in the previous copy of News and Views of the interesting technical talk given by Stuart Kennedy on The Importance of Bias following the Branch AGM held on 16 March. However I thought members may be interested in what happened at the AGM itself, which preceded Stuart’s presentation.

The meeting was chaired by the outgoing Branch Chairman, Harvey Mason, who reported that the Branch had enjoyed a good year of meetings and talks, to be capped by the talk to be given by Stuart Kennedy after the AGM.

The Chairman expressed the Branch’s condolences to both Roderick O’Driscoll and Peter Chapman, whose wives had sadly passed away during the year. He also advised the Branch that Bernhard Lippman has, through ill health, retired as Branch Secretary after many years of loyal service. Bernhard has served the Branch tirelessly, and his contribution will always be appreciated. The role of Branch Secretary is to be taken over by Helena Brown.

The Chairman thanked both the speakers of the past year and the members who attended the meetings, all of which proved to be interesting and informative evenings. Meetings will continue to be held at the Reigate Manor for the foreseeable future as the venue suits the need of the Branch well.

David Bailey tabled the Treasurer’s Report, which was accepted. The Report shows a surplus to Branch funds, although this does fluctuate depending on day-to-day cashflow demands.

In the absence of a surplus of nominees for election to the Committee, it was not necessary to hold a ballot on this occasion. In accordance with Branch rules, Peter Chapman and Ian Wilson retired from the Committee by rotation, but both offered themselves for re-election and were gladly welcomed back to the Committee for another term of service. Helena Brown, Peter Cousins, Bob Crease and Dennis James had been co-opted to the Committee during 2003/2004 and therefore offered themselves for formal election. Again this was accepted. In addition, Ian Williams had offered his services to the Committee, and has therefore been gratefully co-opted. Bernhard Lippman and Roger Clarke have retired from the Committee and did not offer themselves for re-election.

The programme for 2004/2005 was outlined, and will include talks by His Honour Judge Humphrey Lloyd QC, The Branch’s Patron The Honourable Mr Justice Forbes, the new President of The Institute, Brian Eggleston, Tony Bingham, Chris Hough and John Riches. Details of these and other meetings and events will be circulated in News & Views.

In the absence of any other business, the meeting was then closed.

Presidential Elections

A letter seeking nominations for the South East Branch 2005 Presidential candidate was sent to all Branch members during March. This was as a result of the new procedure for the election of future Presidents of the Institute, outlined in the proposed new Bylaws. No nominations were received from the South East Branch so it has not been necessary for the Branch to hold an election. However, other Branches have nominated candidates so a Presidential election will be held at the first Congress. More details of this appear elsewhere in this edition of News and Views.