● BRS hold AGM,
PETER Wilkins has been re-elected as the chairman of the British Residents Society (BRS) for a second three-year term at their 2021 annual general meeting.
The AGM was held last Saturday at the Arkın Colony Hotel, Girne. The remaining nine committee positions will continue with the current postholders.
Mr Wilkins said that the BRS is trying to fill one vacant committee post for someone to act as their local government liaison.
“The meeting went very well,” he told Cyprus Today. “We had in total just under 80 people, which perhaps doesn’t sound like many but trust me that’s pretty good.
“If I do say so myself it was a very ‘quick and slick’ meeting. Effectively our year was 2020 but because of Covid and the lockdowns, we couldn’t hold our normal March-April AGM until July.
“We report about what was done last year and remind the members about the previous years’ activities.”
Mr Wilkins said the BRS currently has over 2,000 members.
“Our role is to support them in terms of information and knowledge, which we put on Facebook, where we have our own members’ group,” he explained.
“We also have our website, which is very informative. Plus we also send out regular updates, including changes to code regulations, notification of events like our upcoming big Summer Dance, organised meals, trips, basically anything that affects membership. Everything is sent to every member via e-mail.
“Aside from our monthly committee meetings, every week we also have several ‘clinics’ or what we call ‘surgeries’. These are the main information centres for us.
“We set up at various locations throughout North Cyprus to renew people’s memberships, take payments for events and provide advice and support to various members.”
Mr Wilkins added that the BRS annual Summer Dance will take place on September 5 at the Merit Royal hotel in Alsancak, after last year’s event had to be cancelled due to the pandemic. “Obviously following social distancing and safety guidelines, we are hoping to have about 180 people there,” he said.
“We have sold around 120 tickets so far. There is a real appetite for people to get out and be normal. It’s going to be a good time.”