SEBEV Search & Rescue held their Annual General (AGM) meeting last night. The meeting was well attended by current and old members of the team.

During the meeting Ian Marshall, one of the last founding members of SEBEV was presented with a tankard from the team to thank him for 30 years service as a member and latterly as a trustee of the charity. His position of trustee was taken by Kris Manning late last year.

We are however sad to announce that Bob Hearne and Ian Bennett, the teams longest serving members and both ex-officio trustees have decided to step down from their trustee roles thus ending their day to day involvement with the team. They have selected Chris Cox and Paul Chapman to replace them thus joining Kris Manning on the board of trustees.

Sam Avery stepped down as Chairman in order to concentrate her time more fully on other roles within the team and was thanked for her notable achievements throughout the year and keeping a steady hand on the tiller.

Long Service awards were presented to Terry French (5yrs) Paul Chapman (10yrs) and Neil Knight (20yrs)

Amongst the various reports it was noted that SEBEV had recovered well from a recruitment lull which is part of a cycle seen every 5-10yrs, now with over 30 members, all of which are fully operational and another 5 in the pipeline, with plans to recruit a further 10-15 members in the coming months.

It wasnt all good news however, the team were shocked to learn of the death of one of their ex-members Neil Shepherd. Neil, who served with SEBEV for over 4 years and was the teams Webmaster, passed away in December following a sudden illness. Our thoughts and best wishes are with Neils family.

Elections for Committee and Executive Officers

Following the elections we are pleased to be able to confirm the following executive officers:-

• Chairman - Kris Manning
• Secretary - Paul Chapman
• Treasurer - Neil Knight

The following members were elected as committee members:-

• Sam Avery
• Sam Dines
• Chris Curry
• Tony Hine
• Gary Webster
• Jim Godman
• Kim Papenfus

The following members were chosen by the outgoing ex-offico trustees to serve on the board of trustees as ex-officio members:-

• Chris Cox
• Paul Chapman