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| Exco- European Branch |
| Chairman and Secretary: |
Mark Pillbeam |
| Vice Chairman and Treasurer: |
Martyn Hudson |
| Padre: |
Revd. Clive Larrett |
| Legal Advisor: |
Shaun Ryan |
| Artefacts Officer: |
Neill Storey |
Minutes of the RLIRA
8 August, 2009 – ramada jarvis hotel, Hatfield |
Mark Pilbeam opened the AGM at 14:00 by
welcoming members and guests to the third Annual
General Meeting of the Rhodesian Light Infantry
Regimental Association.
World-wide
address by Chairman of ExCo
The Chairman
of the ExCo, Ian Buttenshaw said that the RLIRA
world-wide had grown to more than 600 members with
approximately 100 members in Australia, 200 in the
RSA, and 300 in the UK. He applauded the growth in
membership but stressed that it was important that
closer links between the 3 Associations should be
forged and maintained in order to ensure the long
term success of the world-wide Association.
He then read out a message from the Marques of
Salisbury who wished the Association well and
apologised for the fact that he was unable to attend
in person.
Ian thanked all of those who had
contributed so graciously towards the Trooper
project with donations which had helped to make the
memorial site something to be proud of.
Financial report of the UK RLIRA
The financial history of the UK branch of the RLIRA
was presented by Martyn Hudson. Martyn provided
details of income and expenditure for the
rededication ceremony and the repair and mounting of
the Trooper statue at the Hatfield house location. A
total loss of £450 was reported, but that this loss
recovered through the sale and donation of members
since the
Martyn identified that members of the
UK Association were not paying their membership fees
with only 50 out of the more than 300 members paying
up and that this was a serious issue.
Summary of UK RLIRA progress for year 2009
Membership in the UK RLIRA continues to grow with
more than 320 members, 19 joining in the last six
months. Mark said that there was a number of issues
with membership, the first being that members e-mail
addresses had either changed or become defunct and
as a result contacting them was proving difficult.
Secondly, a more rigorous process of membership
identification and management was required in order
to improve the process.
Membership fees were
not being paid with only 50 members out of the total
having made their contributions. Mark stressed that
projects could only be carried out if there were the
finances to do so. He asked if the members present
wished to continue with the membership subscriptions
and the floor agreed. It was also agreed that an
inability to pay membership fees would not exclude
anyone joining or remaining a member in the UK
RLIRA.
Mark asked if the members could assist
by providing ways in which the existence of the
Association could be better advertised as it
appeared that there were many potential members who
were still unaware of the Association’s existence.
Museum project
Neill Storey
and martyn Hudson summarised the progress of the
museum projects. Martyn explained that memorabilia
for the museum in the Rifles club in Davis Street in
London was going well, but that the exhibits for the
museum in Bedford, above the Royal Air force
Association Club, was not.
Unless there was
an improvement on the collection the second museum
would have to be scrapped. Martyn explained that
memorabilia could either be donated or loaned and
that any loaned material would be returned on
request.
Neill Storey, who had collected
artefacts from the shooting down of the Puma
helicopter at Mapai and who had set up a
presentation of them in the main foyer, said that it
was important that the projects continued and that
some memorabilia was being handed in, but not
enough.
Martyn said that funds were needed
to purchase an appropriate cabinet for the storage
of the artefacts in the Rifles Museum. He said that
it had to be a specific type of cabinet, one that
would match the standard and quality of the ones
already in situ.
John Thompson from the
members pledged £1000 for this, but said that he
would be happy, should the project not go ahead, for
the money to be used for other RLIRA associated
projects. Mark thanked John for his very generous
pledge.
Martyn explained that the Bedford
museum would house the “working” RLI and that he had
received offers of assistance from the RAF to help
put the museum together. The RAF team had experience
and expertise in this, having already completed a
similar museum project.
A decision as to
whether the second museum in Bedford should continue
would be taken at a later date, after the AGM and a
further review of donations.
New
committee members and special thanks for donations
Mark explained that there was a need to expand the
committee to take into account the new requirements
and demands that the expansion of the UK RLIRA had
created.
Mark first of all thanked Martyn
Hudson for all of his work as the Chairman of the UK
RLIRA and his strenuous efforts in the completion of
the rededication project.
Mark explained that
Martyn was now to become the Treasurer of the UK
Association.
Ewan Fleming who served in the
British Army during the take-over period in
Zimbabwe, has a strong interest in the Regiment and
has worked hard on her benefit to assist in the
provision of accommodation and resources for
Association meetings and get-togethers. As a result
of his interest and his friendship to the Regiment,
Ewan was invited to join the committee as the
Liaison Officer to the British Army. Ewan accepted
the offer to join the committee.
Moira
Taylor was invited to join the committee as the
Membership Secretary. Moira is an enthusiastic and
motivated member of the Association with close
family links to the Regiment. Moira accepted the
invitation to join the committee.
Mark promised
that the names of the new committee would be
identified and distributed after the AGM.
It
was important that all communications to the UK
RLIRA was sent and forwarded to Mark, and not to
Martyn. This would ensure prompt reply and reduce
the amount of work that Martyn had to do. However,
any communication related to, or in respect of the
sale or otherwise of the DVD must be sent to Martyn.
Mark then thanked all of the members for their
contributions to the RLIRA.
Ian Buttenshaw,
assisted by Shawn Ryan then handed out certificates
in recognition of work done on behalf of the
Association, these were:
| Life member |
Martyn Hudson |
| Stalwart Award |
Clive Larrett, Mark Pilbeam |
| Honorary Membership |
Ewan Fleming, Richard Frost,
Tim Calvert |
Martyn Hudson said that he would
like to thank his wife, Maggie for all
of the help that she gave in the
execution of the rededication project
and the operation of the UK RLIRA; this
was applauded by the members. He also
thank mark and Clive for their
assistance too.
Any Other
Business
Concern has been raised
regarding the selling of RLI memorabilia by third
party vendors and whether the Association could
protect the copy write of the RLI badge and other
insignia. Shawn Ryan explained that it would be
impractical for the Association to copy write due to
the costs involved which would be prohibitive.
John Ashburner
sent in a question by mail regarding 4 paintings
that used to be in the Officers Mess and which he
had helped to pack and send over to the UK for
storage at the museum in Bristol. He asked if these
paintings were still being stored at the Museum.
Shawn Ryan said that as far as he knew there
were only 2 paintings being stored, but that the
intention was that he and Neill Storey would visit
the museum in Bristol and do a proper assessment of
the inventory. The results of the inventory would be
made available to members.
Rhodesian
oral history project
Any Other Business
was suspended in order to allow sue Onslow, who had
been delayed, to present a short explanation of an
oral history project which she is conducting.
The project
seeks to interview soldiers and administrators who
served in the nineteen sixty and nineteen seventies
in Rhodesia. The interviews will be carried out in a
face to face recording, or through a written
questionnaire. Sue explained that there were 10
standard questions and that all interviewees would
have the opportunity to amend or remove any of their
answers that they gave before publication.
Sue said that she required a another 60 interviewees
and Mark said that he hoped that the members would
respond to this request as it fitted in with the
Associations’ museum project and it was important
that a record of those who had served in Rhodesia
should be collected and maintained.
Mark
thanked Sue and said that information on the project
would be circulated via a newsletter as well as
being published on the RLI web site, and returned
the AGM to any Other business
Martyn
then outlined 3 proposals for the 50 year
celebration of the RLI:
a) Nothing
should be done - This was out of the question and
would be discarded;
b) That
an informal day would be planned;
c) That a
formal recognition of the importance of the
anniversary would be undertaken.
He said that
as this was an important celebration it should be
done in style and he thought that it was appropriate
that the evenings celebration should be a formal
affair.
The floor was asked for their opinion
and it was unanimously agreed that a formal
celebration should take place.
Mark asked if
he could put this to the membership by e-mail. He
said that all members would have a one week
opportunity to comment on the proposal. Unless he
received a negative response from the majority, the
decision of the members present at the AGM would be
carried and this was agreed.
A member asked
if RLI ties were available. Martyn said that there
was no stock at present, but it was hoped that ties
and blazer badges would soon be available for
purchase. As soon as this was the case, members
would be notified via a newsletter.
Ken Reid
sent his apologies for not being able to attend the
AGM and whished to thank the committee for their
work, a sentiment that was echoed from the floor.
Mark closed the meeting by thanking the members
for their support and enthusiasm and hoped that they
would enjoy the rest of the day.
The AGM
closed at 15:00
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Oral history project |
A two-year project funded by the British Arts
and Humanities Research Council, is being carried
out by Sue Onslow, a fellow at the University of the
West of England.
Sue wants to interview
approximately 120 former members of the Rhodesian
security forces and administrators involved in all
aspects of the security of the Rhodesian state in
the late 60s and 1970s.
This is designed to
establish an oral history archive for academic
research and educational purposes; and it is the
intention that, if at all possible, it will be
stored with the Rhodesian Army Association material.
How it works
The process
involves an interview, according to a standard list
of questions (provided beforehand), recording (with
the option of removal of material or comment),
transcription and verification/amendment by the
interviewee (of both the transcript and recording)
before the material is deposited.
So far the
project has gathered 65 recorded interviews, and
written answers, from former members of the BSAP and
RLI volunteers, and conscripted troops, and the
RhRAF.
Sue is very keen to get in touch with
as many people as possible to find out if they would
be prepared to be interviewed.
If you would
like to take part in this project, then please
contact Sue at:
S.Onslow@lse.ac.uk
The world-wide RLIRA
support this project and believe that it will help
to provide historical balance in the telling of the
story of the Rhodesian bush war.
We would
encourage our members to contact Sue to assist her
in her project
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