On a cold and windy afternoon at the end of January we held our first Annual General Meeting (AGM) at the Town Council offices. On reflection, it was not a great choice of date and so although we tried to tempt people there with scrumptious cakes and biscuits and lots of tea and coffee (thanks to Morrison’s and Verwood Rotary Club), we were only small in number.
Nonetheless it was a really informative afternoon. We briefly reported our progress since we started last year and got the official AGM business out of the way. Then Carl Bradley, from Waypoints in Verwood led an open discussion about issues raised from the audience concerning living with dementia and being a carer. Topics ranged from how to prevent the condition to managing challenging situations.
Although we had further plans for the afternoon, this discussion was so useful that it ran for the whole session and by the time it concluded, all 20 people in the room felt that they wanted to participate. A clear theme to emerge was the desire for clearer financial and legal advice and the Steering Group has taken note of this for a future event. It was evident by the end of the afternoon that it had been ‘Good to talk’, to realize that we are not alone and help is out there. So although a smaller meeting than planned, as it happened small turned out to be beautiful.