The highlight of last year’s AGM report was a stop press item confirming our success in gaining the Awards for All Grant we had applied for. Much of this year’s activity has been putting that funding to good use.
      A significant portion of the award has been allocated to Kevin Cale, our partner and mentor who has guided us through the process of making our Trail documents, he will be continuing with us for a further period to complete the task. We shall be using the Trails as a starting place for future research too so they become a working document and not an end in themselves.
  We have also purchased a comprehensive equipment list which should enable us to progress our research and recording of local history as well of course as to display it to our members. We do now also possess a comprehensive list of early maps of this area and are in the process of obtaining  a final portfolio to complete our research.
   The meetings over the course of 2009 have followed the now regular mix of presenters old and new, you will see from your programme that the same mix is promised in the year to come. Please feel free to suggest presenters or subjects- we are open to your ideas.
   Amongst last year’s highlights was the partnership with our local primary schools under Kevin Cale’s Time Traveller project. This included a visit to the county Record Office where the children got a practical insight into the preservation and storage of historic documents. It represents the first time that the two schools have worked together on a common education project and resulted in a final exhibition at the Sports club. We hope that we have begun in those young minds an interest in history and local knowledge which will grow with them.
     Our finances are in good shape thanks in no small measure to the time and energy of our Treasurer David Ashton, both he and our Secretary Grant Frew put many unseen hours into keeping us on an even keel. We have committed £1,000 to a scoping study as part of our LEADER grant application for funds to celebrate and research the Rosedale Railway. I should add that half of this sum is from a generous donation by Keith Clarke and we would formally thank him here for his generosity. The scoping study will have been money well spent even if we do not obtain the LEADER funding as it will provide us with the website structure on which to pin our Rosedale research and bring it to the attention of a wider world.