AGM
You will read a report on the AGM elsewhere in Call Sign, however I am personally quite pleased at the way things went and I would like to thank all the members who stood for election to the BoM for their input. The sitting Board were returned together with Allan Evans, who has now filled the position on the Board left vacant by Aubrey Siteman's retirement last year and I would like to take this opportunity to both congratulate and welcome Allan. I have known him for several years whilst he has been employed by the Society and I am sure he will do a good job for us.

Board Positions
We have decided to keep the Status Quo with Board Members fulfilling the same duties as in the previous term with the only exception being, of course, Allan Evans.
   Before Allan was elected as a Board Member, he was responsible for organising our Marshalling facility. He was also a trainer for our new members, so we have decided to keep him fulfilling those duties for the time being whilst he slips into the role of Board Member.

Car Giveaway
The incentive scheme for winning a car was drawn at the AGM with the three lucky winners having taken delivery of their 

vehicles by the time you read this report. You will be able to read a fuller report elsewhere in this issue.
   Depending on the number of trips individual subscribers completed in the required period was what decided how many entries there were in the draw for each member. I believe that the highest number of entries that any one member had was thirty-eight.
In total there were 13,531 (yes, thirteen thousand five hundred and thirty one!) entries, so congratulations to the three lucky winners.

Job Figures
January got off to a slow start, something that is quite normal and expected. But then suddenly we started processing as many trips as we were doing in September/October - an absolutely remarkable achievement. Although last year was a record year in terms of our turnover, so far this year our turnover is up by just over 21% on last year! That really is quite amazing and long may it continue.

Upgrades
For those of you who attended the AGM, you would have heard

me mention about the various upgrades that we are doing to our systems. For a start we are upgrading our V6 despatching system in order to quadruple the memory. Our business has expanded so much in recent times that this has now become a priority. Hopefully, by the time you read this report, the new hardware would have been installed and everything will be functioning as normal. If you have not noticed anything out of the ordinary, then everything went according to plan!
   Secondly, we have renewed all the PC's in the Call Centre together with new 'flat screens'. With regard to the old PC's, monitors and keyboards, we will be offering them to staff and members in the near future at an extremely favourable price - on a first come first served basis. You will get plenty of warning when these go on sale, so there is no need to inundate us with queries regarding the PC's.

Internet Booking System
Finally, as most of you are aware, we have an Internet Booking Facility that enables our account clients to bypass the Call Centre and order their own taxis. This system is going to be enhanced and upgraded so that in the future our account clients can extract data via our web page. All types of information will be available regarding their usage; this can be translated to management information, which will then suit their own specific requirements.

Brian Rice