A new age indeed, the dawning of the 1960s. And this date, the second of April, was the earliest day of the year that our Annual General Meeting or our Card Convention has ever been held.
The earliest mention I have found of this event was its rather hidden appearance in the "Society Meetings" diary on the inner front cover of "The Cartophilic World" for January-February 1960 (Vol.13 No.145). This simply says "ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING - SATURDAY 2ND APRIL, 1960, AT 2.30 p.m." - but there is a small mention in the Editorial directly opposite, which adds :
The Annual General Meeting is on Saturday, 2nd of April, 1960, at 2.30 p.m. It is hoped that as many members as possible will attend. This is the time when you, members, decide who shall administer the Society for the following year and the only chance you have of expressing your opinions. So lets have a bumper meeting.
The meeting itself was discussed in "The Cartophilic World" for May-June 1960, (Vol.13 No.147), on the front page, under "Editorial". This reads :
THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING was duly held on Saturday, 2nd April at 2.30 p.m. at Caxton Hall. In spite of ample notice of the meeting being given very few members attended, only some 20-25, half of which were the Council. All I can say is don`t grumble if the Council do things that you don`t agree with. You`ve had your chance (at least for a twelve-month)
It was a great shock for members, not on the Council, to learn that Mr. C Glidden-Osborne had resigned from the Presidency of the Society. He felt that living so far away and beginning to feel the effects of that insidious disease "Anno Domini" he could not give the Society so much attention as before.
It was with very great regret that the Council accepted his resignation and have persuaded him to accept the honorary post of President Emeritus so that we shall still have the benefit of his experience and guidance while he will not feel the Society is becoming a burden.
Ever since the Inaugural meeting of the Society, way back in the dark ages, Mr. Glidden-Osborne has been our enthusiastic guiding spirit and the Society owes its present position as a world-wide cartophilic authority to him.
We can only say "Thank You" and hope that for many years you will still be our guide.
Mr. W. M. Wright has been elected by the Council to the Presidency. He has a difficult task in following such a past-President , but he has great cartophilic knowledge, is a business-man, and I feel sure will make his mark in this new undertaking. Good luck to him.
The business of the meeting was carried through expeditiously, after which the members devoted themselves to the auction.
The major shock to the members attending (the committee having known of his decision for a few weeks prior) was that resignation from the Presidency of Mr. C. Glidden Osborne, who had been President since the Society began. Into his chair stepped Mr. W. M. (Wilf) Wright.
The same magazine included a report on that auction, written by W. M. Wright. This says that :
THE BUSINESS of the Annual General Meeting held on April 2nd will have been reported elsewhere in this issue, but following the formal business , we had an auction of some 46 "Lots". Mr. E. C. Prior very kindly gave his time and skill to us in wielding the gavel, Mr. Piper and Mr. Knight helped by displaying the items, and the balancing and clerical worjk was ably attended to by Mr. Pitts.
The items offered were varied, but there were no outstanding rare items. Top price realised was .£5 for a number of the Society`s Reference Books, and £3 4s. 0d was paid for a set of Felix Potin`s "Flowers, Plants and Fruits" (84 in set). A box of 128 different periodical specimen cards made £1 16s. 0d., whilst a set of "Speed" by Barratt (a set of 20 and quite scarce complete) fetched £1. A few rare types were on offer and made £4 for the eight.
Some lovely postcards (in albums) of the Trade variety were put up , but failed to reach the reserves placed upon them . A set of 12 Suchard cards "Gullivers Travels" commanded 21/- whilst 12 type cards of Suchard made 20/-. A small parcel of Maltese (Cousis) Celebrities was broken down into 8 lots and made 42/-. Total realisation for the 46 lots was £38 2s 0d and a commission amount of £16 0s 8d goes to the Society. Expenses were NIL.
You may be interested at the Treasurer`s report, which contained a comparison between 1958 and 1959. Subscriptions had fallen, by 2/6d (£213 7/6d in 1958 and £213 5/- in 1959) Reference books had done very well though, rising from an income of £37 18/3d to £52 11/9d. And a new book was announced – Reference Book No.24 “The Guinea Gold Booklet”. Profits from auctions had also risen, by just over £6. However the cost of producing the magazine was up by £15 10/- a year and General Expenses up by £2.