Kent YFC: AGM 2005: County Chairman's report

The past twelve months have been exhausting, manic and above all fun and now as the two years I've been county chairman draws to an end there feels like an awful lot to look back over.

At the beginning of this past year we welcomed Maidstone YFC into existence and now at the end we welcome North Downs YFC as well. It is a great shame we had to lose Astor of Hever along the way and that other school farms have also had a hard year but in general Kent YFC is a very good state - we are the largest county within the South East Area and soon should break the marker of 600 members that deems us as a large county.

Over the year there has been a range of competitions from public speaking and member of the year to bowling and the quiz. The rally day in April attracted a wide range of clubs with competitions such as blind sheepdog trials, cookery, recycled metal sculpture and tug-o-war.

Members of Kent have competed at area level in many comps such as aerobics, call my bluff and public speaking. At the beginning of October Kent was represented in two National Competitions in Warwickshire with Meopham YFC coming ninth in the club promotion and a mixed netball team from Westlands, Meopham, Mascalls School and Ashford coming ninth as well (photo below from drawn match against Wales B).

Back in February we held our County Ball with a difference. This year was Kent YFC's 60th Anniversary and we held a joint function at Detling Showground with KCAS. Thanks to the hard work of Fred and his team alongside Gill Collins and KCAS the evening was a superb success with money being raised for KFYFC and Astor of Hever YFC.

This year's Kent Show bash returned to its' origins with a disco in a field enjoyed by many members - some more than others!! Thanks to Karl for the disco.

I've always found it slightly bizarre that I became Chairman of a county where the main event was a huge agricultural show when I've been vegetarian for fifteen years and am allergic to most of the things at the showground (at one point I was allergic to my dad a dairy farmer who had to shower before he came into the house). However that has never stopped me appreciating all the hard work and dedication shown in the preparation for Kent Show along with the manic work actually at the show.

A huge congratulations to all clubs for taking part and especially to Steph and all her team for their months of hard work.

The publicity stand at the Kent Show worked extremely well and was constantly busy - having a bag of squidgy cows certainly seemed to attract a lot of people. Many new members were attracted by the decorative displays and money was raised through the selling of 'Keep Kent Farming' wristbands.

There has also been further work on the website with Stephen Paine from Astor of Hever/North Downs taking over the day to day running of the site, keeping it updated and relevant.

During the previous year Kent YFC had been awarded £350 from the 200 Club which was spent this year on a digital camera for county events and county T-Shirts which were worn by the netball team at the national final in October (see photo below). Huge thanks to the 200 Club for their continued support.

This year we were also awarded £14,000 from KCC which is the most for quite a while. This money goes to covering the wages of our three staff as well as continued costs for the website and storage.

My thanks must go to Philippa, Cathy and Toyin for all their hard work to run the county federation. It can often be a thankless job as we are not very good at remembering that these three are only part time and have a hell of a lot to fit into their hours. I would also like to thank Steph, Fred, Kate and Michael for their hard work in each of the sub-committees and to Talk and Andy for being my vice-chairmen. Finally of course I must thank all club officers, teacher/leaders and members for their continuous work in both their own clubs and county functions.

I have thoroughly loved my two years as County Chairman and consider myself very lucky to have the opportunities that have arisen from this. I wish the new officers all the luck in the world and hope to see you all at future events.