The President after a very brief welcome to all who had attended, introduced Frank Sheehan, the Chief Fire Officer of West Midlands Fire Service who would formally open the Meeting and indicated for the Standard Bearer to march the NARF Standard into the room where he received it. This formality over, he invited Frank Sheehan to address the Meeting:

Mr Sheehan thanked Brian for his invitation and acknowledged presence in the room of some of the people who had been his mentors over the years, two of whom he stated were on the Top Table.
He indicated his pride in Birmingham and went on to make mention of the degree of changes that were being made to the British Fire Service. The way services were to be structured he said, has created an atmosphere of uncertainty. The Firefighters Strike, had somewhat changed the perceptions of the Public to fire personnel! He reminded Members, that as the dispute had got underway, another Inquiry was brought into force, this being The Bain Inquiry for which the principal outcome had been the issue of Regional Structuring. The basis of this has been that of public fire safety and fire services are as consequence to undergo radical changes . Mr Sheehan proceeded to provide for members an eloquent and comprehensive overview of what those changes and the subsequent changes brought about by the new Act to be brought into force to replace the Fire services Act 1947 would likely be.

The President thanked Mr Sheehan for his comprehensive coverage of what was happening in the Service and presented the CFO with a Crystal Laser hologram of Vigar�s , �Saved� based upon the painting at the Fire Service College. At this juncture Mr Sheehan left the Meeting to allow its business to be conducted.

Mr Wakefield said that without more ado, he would move to the first item on the Agenda which was to be Apologies.

The Secretary offered the apologies of those who had been in touch already:

Paul Webster No4 District, Hazel Buckby Minute Secretary, John Temple No 3 District , Tony Palmer Editorial Committee, David Hayden No7 District. Barry Unger, Essex No 5 District. The following were those tendered at the Meeting: Alan Barton, Frank Fielding

The President went through the document in detail for accuracy with no identified anomalies.

There being no matters arising from the Minutes it was Proposed by Bill Meaden and Seconded by Maurice Howard that the Minutes be accepted.

Mr Robinson did an appraisal of several pieces of correspondence that he had received as General Secretary. He suggested, that approval was needed to publish information on funeral planning from a commercial company offering a service to associations of retired persons and this was forthcoming from those present.
Ms Matthews from West Midlands advised that they had included details of a prepaid funeral plan in a course at West Midlands which didn�t get a �good press!�
Mr Robinson had during his input on correspondence about the withdrawal of Lancashire from NARF membership, hinted that this might be about the increase in subscriptions. Mr Davis advised that despite having all withdrawn their membership of NARF in favour of some type of Comrades Association, the withdrawn members would all continue to pay the same subscription rate for their own utilisation purposes!
Mr Meaden suggested that for what we get, the subscription rate is �blinking marvellous�

Mr Robinson reiterated the comments upon his submitted report made to the earlier Council. in which he stated his intention of ceasing to do the job of Secretary after the October Council since it did seem obvious that all the while there was somebody willing to carry on doing the work as a temporary measure, there would be nobody willing to put themselves forward to take it on as a regular commitment. He stated that his reluctance to carry on even in the temporary position which had now existed since the middle of 2002, was as much to do with his health worries, as the pressure of the work.

Cliff Davis asked for clarification of what he saw to be a contradiction in two parts of Colin Bailey�s Financial Report which was then explained by the Treasurer. Mr Davis also suggested that �1880 in audited accounts didn�t coincide with the members who had paid which again hopefully he was satisfied with after some elaboration by Mr Bailey. It was Proposed by Andy Mulligan and Seconded by Bill Meaden that the Report be accepted by the Meeting. This was unanimous.

All these confirmed appointments were Proposed to be accepted by Stan Bairsto and Seconded by Tom Parry and were, unanimously approved.

Tom Parry suggested a Vote of Thanks be recorded for all the members who had carried out the functions of the roles dealt with over the previous year period Seconded by John Jackson this was approved unanimously

Barry Hook, Secretary of the Committee, referred to his written Report and introduced Peter Maguire to those attending who might not have met him yet. He said that Peter had prepared the last edition of NARF News and that we had fortuitously managed to get Peter on board very quickly after the sudden resignation of John Love from the post. Barry said that we had now got another Printer but that since dispensing with the previous company Daniel Thomas they had been far from responsive and we had not, and would not now, receive the outstanding payment and the diaries which were part of the previous contract.
Barry mentioned the Recruitment flyer which he had produced and which had been distributed with pension pay slips within Tyne and Wear authority. This initiative had resulted in a significant number of applications for membership. The Committee will now continue on similar lines in the same District and Districts 4 and 1 also.
Barry advised that he had been in contact with Ken Knight, Fire Commissioner for London Fire Brigade who agreed that NARF should submit an article in the London Pension Fund Authority�s Newsletter to retired London personnel.
Mr Davis asked whether there was now a formal deadline for articles to be submitted for our own Newsletter. Peter Maguire felt that with the co-operation we were getting from the new printer a fortnight before printing would be the absolute latest but was aware that his predecessor had felt that the earlier input material could be received, the better. The President suggested that we should settle on a more appropriate period and that three weeks should be adopted as minimum. This advance deadline would be publicised in April issue of NARF News.

Barry suggested that the next issue of NARF News might be reduced to 9000 copies in view of the reductions in membership, The last issue had been of 10000 copies . Barry advised that the overall costs were not directly related to the number of copies, but actually incurred more heavily in the distribution . Peter Maguire stated that a 100 copies of the NARF News had been distributed to each of the Benevolent Fund homes.

Bill Meaden speaking to his written report, told members that he was a member of Age Retirement Forum as well as his other involvement with Age Concern.
Whilst it was well known, that at age of seventy, Driving Licences had to be renewed and this wasn�t a problem, these did have to be paid for every few years and this was seen as somewhat discriminatory. Age Concern had fought for and won a concession from April 1st this year, that renewed Driving Licences would be free to those over seventy. Mr Robinson said it was two months too late for him since his had been due for renewal in January but the concession was welcome even though he supposed that the cost of the photograph to go on the renewed licence would still need to be paid for by the Applicant!
Bill advised that Age Concern were setting up an Individual Members Scheme and money had been allocated by the Trustees to get the project started. This was to give greater legitimacy to Age Concern England (ACE) in its campaigning for the rights of older people, with Government bodies and others.
Mr Meaden asked that members who had matters of concern should not hesitate to get in touch with him if they thought he could be of any help. 11/ Report of Pensions Committee

Barry Hook suggested that perhaps NARF did not give sufficient prominence to what was actually being achieved on member�s behalf in regard to Pensions queries being resolved. On one of the recent cases dealt with, Pensions Committee had told a Pensions Authority they were wrong in action they had taken on the pension of one of our members,.The Authority had acknowledged the error, and the result had been the reinstatement of the full pension of the NARF Member!
Barry stressed for information of Members, that the Committee does not and cannot, get involved in problems occuring with State benefits because this was �a minefield�. Age Concern can advise on these issues with a degree of authority, whilst the FSN Benevolent Fund has an excellent �help line� (Freephone 0800 389 8820)
Barry drew attention to his written report where it stated that pensions increases for retired fire personnel would be 2.8% from 5th April and said the date should have been 12th April.

Again Barry on his feet to say that PSPC usually stage an annual Pensions conference to which someone from Government comes so that any delegate can ask them questions from the floor. By our membership of PSPC, Barry stated, we have the potential backing of thousands of pensioners who were in previous public service employment. This gives us a much stronger negotiating pressure when it comes to pension anomalies and contentious issues affecting retired people. The ongoing problem of Care for the Elderly is still very much a live issue with PSPC and it would continue to seek improvements. Mr Meaden suggested that our annual subscription of �5 per year would be worth it, just for the membership of PSPC alone.

Colin Bailey advised that there had been no movement with the Trust at all and said that he and other constituent members could get no information. There needs to be some activity soon, since the Memorial Service for September is fast looming with no advance guidance even on the venue this year. The last meeting of the Trust that Colin had attended was May of 2003 and no information had filtered down since.

Mr Bailey told members he had called into the National Arboretum site on his way to Birmingham and the drill tower which constitutes the bulk of our memorial there, does need a good coat of paint. Colin said the structure is covered with bird droppings and the base is also covered with bird detritus.
Colin said that there is some evidence that individual family members can have plaques mounted at the site. Last year said Colin, NARF had suggested that we could perhaps plant a tree at the site. Whilst this written offer had been formally acknowledged, it had been mooted that it would be on the Agenda for the first meeting of the new Advisory Board that was to be set up, but this hasn�t so far come to fruition. In the meantime there was also now, no Secretary of the Trust with the retirement of the former Secretary. Colin advised members that our Acting General Secretary, Peter Robinson, was intending to contact Sir Graham Meldrum about our concerns since Graham is Vice Chairman of The Trust.
Colin suggested that the Arboretum is well worth a visit and entry is free. The British Legion have taken over the running of the site and the journey is worth while making even if our fire service site is a mess!
Ms Matthews stated that she had visited the Arboretum specifically to see our memorial site. During her visit she had been accosted by an RAF Regiment member on the adjoining site who had suggested that we should be disgusted with the state of our site. Roy Orringe hastened to notify meeting, that it wasn�t our site, it was The Fire Brigades Charitable Memorial Trust site.
Graham Bow suggested that perhaps the responsibility for what went on at the fire memorial site was vested too far away geographically and perhaps the day to day overview of the situation should be vested in No 4 District of NARF where there would be some volition to get something done. Mr Robinson thought that the matter should be left in abeyance until he had had the opportunity to speak with Sir Graham Meldrum and draw all these anomalies to his attention.

Graham Bow stated that the matters concerning membership status were all contained in his Report and subsequent paper circulated to Council Members earlier in the day. In essence we were still recovering from the loss of London members and more recently the withdrawal of our Lancashire Branch.

Roy Orringe gave an account of the background to the difficulties encountered in Northern Ireland in seeking to get some tangible recognition of the extreme pressures that had been experienced by NI Firefighters during �the troubles�. Medals had been approved for Police, Prison Officers and Ambulance Brigade but for some obscure reason resisted for fire personnel. Roy told members he was dealing with the matter because the Secretary for State for Northern Ireland was coincidentally his MP in Wales which gave him access to the man. Paul Murphy, said Roy, would be looking into to the long and ongoing saga, and Roy himself, would continue to pursue an outcome.
Harry Martin, Northern Ireland District representative also gave a short and personal amplification of what Roy had reported.

The President advised the AGM, that after much discussion on the way forward for recruitment of new NARF members and following on from the success of the Tyne and Wear initiative reported by Barry Hook earlier, it had been decided to pursue future circulation of recruitment flyers in Districts 1, 2 and 4.

Motion 1

Emergency Resolution from District 1:

The Council should take all necessary steps to ensure the full protection of the Pension provisions covered by Sections 26 and 27 of The Fire Services Act 1947 and Section 8 of The Fire Services Act 1959 and all subsequent Statutory Instruments issued under Section 26 of The Fire Services Act 1947.

The Motion was Proposed by Cliff Davis and Seconded by Maurice Howard and was carried unanimously.

Motion 2

Submitted by District 7

�With regard to the suggestion contained in Edition No 17 of NARF News, that the title of this Association is no longer appropriate, No 7 District considers that the title� �The National Association of Retired Firefighters� should be retained and urges Conference to reject any proposals to the contrary when due to consider amendments to the National Constitution�

This was Proposed by Barry Hook and Seconded by John Jackson. When put to the Vote there was only one registered objection.

Motion 3

This was as follows:-
That subscriptions at National Level will be raised to �5 per Member from 1st January 2005.

This reminded the Secretary was part of an ongoing Motion carried over from 2002 when it had been agreed that national subscriptions would go up by �1 per year for each of the years 2003, 2004 and 2005 which means they would have reached the pre-agreed level of �5 by 2005. This agreement publicised to every NARF Member, had been that the increases would be put progressively to Annual General Meetings each year starting in 2002 until 2004.

Proposed by Roy Orringe and Seconded by Maurice Howard, the Motion was carried unanimously.

Motion 4

This had been submitted by District 1 but amended in Council to read:

,�That Subscriptions for Direct Members be retained at �5 for 2005, until we establish some stability in our membership levels.�

Cliff Davis suggested that if we did not review the subscriptions for Direct Members when subscriptions for Branch Members had reached what they were paying to National level then he could visualise Branch Members resigning if Direct Members were to be paying less.

Brian Wakefield reminded the Meeting that there had been no objections to the discrepancies between what the Direct Members were paying as against Branch subscriptions when for a few years previously Direct Members had been paying several pounds more than Branch Members. It would be the case that a review of their payments would occur in the future but just not for 2005! Mr Meaden said that if Branch Members were so incensed that, as Cliff was suggesting , Direct Members might be paying less than them, they were failing to take cognisance of having a Branch to belong to, which most Direct Members did not, he felt the comment to be inappropriate. It was Proposed by Andy Mulligan and Seconded by Maurice Howard that the Motion be put: There were 21 in favour and 2 against the motion and with one Abstention. It was deemed to have been carried.

The President ended the meeting at 1650 hours and the Standard was marched out by Alan Beecroft to conclude the proceedings.