With 2005 behind us many of our members may say it is a good thing, as some of our members and their families have experienced very hard times during the year, I wish them well in the future and I trust 2006 will bring us together for a brighter future.

Many thanks to all members that took on a bigger job than normal during these times to ensure the library and our facilities were still available to the public it was a big ask & I certainly appreciate it.

With technology overtaking many of us the facilities that are available and are continuing to grow daily on the Internet, our research inquiries are noticeably reducing in numbers. I am not 100% sure that this is the case but I feel sure it is has a big influence on it.

This may be an area we need to explore in the near future if we can get someone that is computer literate that would like to take on this responsibility for our organisation, as we may be missing out because of our reluctance to embrace this technology. As I type this report I am experiencing problems and know only too well why we don't want to embrace it.

The last Pioneer Registers we had printed were considerably dearer than previous copies, printing is an area we are going to look at more closely this year, we may have to go to the electronic format for some of our publications. I understand that this is not what many people in our group want, however, cost to produce, smaller to store, are all advantages we can't ignore. You can see from the financial statement the amount we are turning over is not a great amount of money.

When we have new members join and we have had quite a few this last 12 months, please ensure you encourage them to become involved, we need new ideas to rejuvenate groups like ours and new ideas from new members is a great way to get it happening.

To the new committee thanks for accepting the positions for the next 12 months I have enjoyed working with you in the past, and I feel sure I will continue to enjoy our association into the future.

For the newer members information the receipts and membership cards are sent with the march Newsletter in an effort to reduce costs, if you supply a stamp self addressed envelope we will send it separately.

John Tindale