Vision Buxton held its AGM on 11th April this year.

Chairman's Report

At the end of another very tough year in terms of the economy, it's great to be able to say that Vision Buxton is still here and going strong.  Although we have said goodbye to some people since last year, we are still attracting new members at a steady rate and I'd like to give a warm welcome to all of you today.

I'd also like to welcome Lindsay Walker to Vision Buxton.  Lindsay started to work for us late last year, and has made a huge difference to the way we communicate with members, especially regarding the regular newsletters and updates to the website.  Make sure you let her know if you'd like to spread the word about anything.

Lindsay works closely with the Membership Committee, which at the moment comprises of Mo Stewart, Andrea Lewis, Adrian Brown and Carolyn.  Adrian has just agreed to take on the job of chairing that committee from me, for which I am very grateful!  I'd specifically like to say thanks to both Mo and Andrea at this point.  They have supported Vision Buxton in so many ways over a very long period of time, giving huge amounts of time to the organisation.  We cannot run Vision Buxton without such generosity, and the AGM is the time to acknowledge this and say a big thank you to them and to everyone who gives of their time. We are very grateful indeed to a large number of people for their valuable contributions – keep up the good work!

Louise Potter is still working hard as chair of the Marketing group, generally comprising of Claire Rhodes, Pat Chapman, David Mulholland, Terry Crawford and Dave Golding.  Other people come in and help from time to time, including Jen Francis who has helped out with the website, and Steve Caddy who contributes the 'What's On' section for the site.  Claire worked very hard last year to organise another very successful journalists' visit, and we hope to have another later this year.  Watch this space for details and appeals for help!  I hope you've seen the latest Buxton Town Guide, produced for Vision Buxton by David Mulholland and his team.  The guide continues to go from strength to strength with nearly 50 thousand being printed this year – still not enough to quite satisfy demand, but we are getting there!  The Visit Buxton website continues to attract huge numbers of hits, especially on the 'things to do', 'accommodation' and 'what's on' pages, so if your organisation can benefit from this site, then make sure you are on there!

Vision Buxton could not be as successful as it is without the extremely hard work done by Martin Wragg.  Not only is he our Company Secretary, keeping a close eye on the formal side of things, helping us out with legal matters and keeping meticulous notes, but he also acts as our Treasurer, keeping a tight rein on the purse strings.  Woe betide us if we commit to buying anything without checking with Martin first!  Once again, thank you, Martin, for the huge amount of work you do for Vision Buxton.

Directors keep an eye on what's going on in and around the town, and in the last year we have had presentations on both the Cowdale and Tesco development proposals, giving Vision Buxton members the chance to quiz the developers and have their views heard.  We are members of Peak Cycle Links, and are looking forward to seeing more sections of the route opening soon and hopefully bringing business into Buxton.  We will, of course continue to follow the long running saga of the Crescent, and hopefully we'll hear more on that later this week.  Our lunch last month with Trevor Osborne as speaker was extremely well attended.  We are always on the lookout for suitable speakers for these events, and would appreciate suggestions from our members!

Last week we ran a very successful workshop looking at Spring Gardens, the street not the shopping centre, and asking stakeholders what they would like to see happen there in the future, should money become available.  Some great ideas were put forward, and you'll hear more about that very soon.  Thanks to Director Richard Silson for organising and running the workshop, and for all the work that follows to take the proposals to the next stage.

Andrea Lewis continues to chair the hard working Christmas Lights committee, which is in the process of breaking away from Vision Buxton and becoming independent!  Vision Buxton will continue to support the initiative, Buxton Sparkles, and I hope that you will all help out with fund raising later in the year.  If we are to expand the lights and keep running the event, we will need you to be generous!  So if you've never attended a Beetle Drive before, or haven't done so for many years, you'll soon have the chance.  Not a game for the faint hearted!

I'd like to say thank you to my fellow directors for all their hard work, and sadly say goodbye and best wishes to some of them who are stepping down today – Bill Preece, Alan Thompson, Robin Baldry and David McPhee.  Thanks to all of you for everything you've done for Vision Buxton.  And I'm delighted to say that four members have stepped forward and expressed an interest in joining the board.  We'll sort out the formalities at the next Board Meeting and announce their arrival properly in due course!  If anyone else is interested in joining us, please don't be shy – we need to have a board that represents all of our members.

Do keep an eye on the newsletters and websites for forthcoming events.  We hold Members' meetings regularly, sometimes in the mornings and sometimes in the evenings, plus networking breakfasts, lunches, evening events plus special presentations and workshops from time to time.  We hope that there's something there for everyone!  

Please don't hesitate to contact me, or any of the directors, if you have any suggestions for Vision Buxton going forward.  We are always happy to hear from you, as we want you to get the most from what is your organisation.

Thank you so much for being here today, and good luck with everything that you are involved in!