The last 12 months have been very busy and successful for the Society. Membership is at an all time high and still rising, the finances are in a healthy state and we have been represented during the year at a number of events.

I have moved during the year from the role of Project Co-ordinator to assume the vacant position of Chairman while also conducting the role of Strays Co-ordinator.

Our Secretary, Barbara Ward has, as ever, been busy, continuing in this role as she has done for several years now. This role is always low profile but a necessary one and I offer my thanks to Barbara for her sterling efforts.

Our finances are healthy, thanks in no small part to our Treasurer Alan Brearley. As well as keeping track of expenditure and income, he has sought out the most advantageous accounts in which to keep our funds and has been tireless in seeking every advantage for the Society that he can. To aid our overseas membership we introduced payment by dollar cheques for Australia, U.S.A., Canada and New Zealand and it is no small thanks to Alan and his negotiations that we are not charged by the bank for this exchange.

Russell Palmer has been our erstwhile journal editor for some time now and we have brought him up to date with the latest word processing software, which he hopes is reflected in the improved Journal format. He states that he has been pleased by the way the Society has continued to progress this year. The main task being to keep the Journal well balanced between articles for those who are involved with the latest technology and those who have a much more traditional approach. A further balance has to be struck between items reflecting people's family history research and the background material of family history. In many ways the membership decides the style of the Journal through the articles they submit. Russ would like to emphasise that just because a member does not have access to a computer in no way means their submission is not as valuable. Please continue to submit articles of every kind. Increasingly we are able to illustrate many articles and the quality of these illustrations is improving rapidly. We are now able to print many pictures, which just would not have been possible with former technology. In a little over 20 years we have moved from typewriters and stencil sheets to desktop publishing. The Journal takes many hours to produce even though technology is making it much easier, and as Russ works full time, like many other committee members, he cannot promise that the odd error will not creep in. Russ hopes everybody enjoys the Journal and welcome suggestions to improve it.

The role of Project Co-ordinator was left vacant with my move to Chairman but I am pleased to say that Dr. Patricia Gardener has ably filled that role. I managed to pass a heap of unco-ordinated information to Patricia who has spent many months sifting through this trying to make sense of it. Currently Patricia is administering the transcription of the 1841 Census, a full time job, and is currently being assisted by Carol Noble and Wendy Doyle who between them are dealing with the other project work.

Penny Close has been our representative at the Federation of Family History Society's meetings and has kept us informed including the Hampshire meeting in Winchester last year, which she attended as Federation Representative.

Vera Cardinal was coerced into taking over the role of Programme Co-Ordinator from Laurie Jackson and ably filled our schedule for last year. Vera is currently building a programme for this year and we thank her for her efforts. This has left Laurie as Vice-Chairman which in many ways has been a blessing as I have been unable to drive until recently and therefore could not make all the committee meetings at which Laurie deputised. For this I am eternally grateful.

Wendy Doyle has exceeded herself in several roles this year but her main task is that of Membership Secretary, although you would not believe this from the amount of work she puts in for the Society. During the year 1st January 1999 to 31st December 1999 membership rose from 1034 to 1225, an 189 extra members. But this does not take into account the 109 members who did not renew or died during 1999, their replacement means we actually acquired 298 new members. Forty new members joined at the two SOG fairs we attended and a handful as a result of the article in Family Tree and exhibition at Burwell. Roughly half came as a result of the Internet. Overseas membership went up from 119 to 186, and 237 members actually live in Cambridgeshire. As previously mentioned overseas members are very appreciative of being able to pay by foreign cheque, Renewals are coming in fast with 1130 members paid up for 2000 already including the 50 new members who have joined the Society since 1st January.

We have a great deal to thank Gill Shapland for as our Record Office Liaison member. Gill not only makes sure that we have somewhere to hold our Committee meetings but also provides an invaluable interface between the society and the staff of the Record Office. I am sure there are other ways in which we benefit as well. During the year we have also established a good rapport with Liz Stazicker, the Head of Heritage and County Archivist and we hope to build on this relationship throughout the coming year. We are now in discussion over ways in which the Society can help her department and visa versa. I am sure the outcome will be of benefit to all.

Carol and Philip Noble have performed outstandingly this year. The stock has grown beyond all proportion with the introduction of new microfiche such as the monumental. It appears that, from comments we have received, that the issue of parish registers on microfiche has been the major hit. They have worked tirelessly throughout the year for the Society attending functions in various places. It has now reached such proportions that what required one table at a genealogy function now requires two plus the various stands. Carol has also been relentless throughout the year chasing down copyright agreements and the consent of the clergy to publish various transcripts. This task itself is full time let alone the management of the bookstall. The income from the bookstall has been in five figures when a year or so ago it was in the low thousands. The pricing regime has been re-addressed and a two-tier structure introduced to cater for members and non-members and the postage re-appraised so that charges are from this year by weight and not a global sum. This actually works out cheaper. The price lists have now been prepared so that our next stage will be join GenFair, a Genealogy Shopping Centre on the Internet, which will allow us to take credit card transactions.

Thanks must be extended to Pam Kynoch and the ladies who spend endless hours filling envelopes with the Journal and our apologies for adding too much weight to those envelopes forcing a period of stamp licking onto them.

No report would be complete without thanking Alan Bullwinkle and his team of monumental inscribers for their tireless efforts. I am sure Alan will make his own report but it is nice to see him rejuvenated after his operation.

We have had good attendances at our monthly meetings, especially at the last one and this is due in no small measure to Margaret Bone's efforts as our Publicity Officer. It is very heartening to get good attendances and we are grateful to Margaret for her efforts, not only in publicity but also in being responsible for refreshments at meetings.

With Les Muriel's retirement from Member's Interests we had to search out a new resource. Mike Blacktopp has assumed this role and you will recently have seen the results of his labours. In addition to this Norman Dannatt has remained on the committee lending his experience to us newcomers and he will be making his own report.

One other significant step is the now regular meetings of the sub-committee which has tried to deal with the projects, the one day conference which is taking place at the same time as this A.G.M. and other tasks that cannot be achieved in the evening committee meetings. Reports are passed back to the main committee from these meetings. We have also sort advice from other, experienced members and to this end we have been glad to see Janet Hurst, a founder member of the Society, giving up her time as well as David Jordan who is advising on computer affairs.

Finally I cannot close without mentioning the fact that we have seriously improved our presence on the Internet. Robin Drayton to whom we are extremely grateful hosts our Society webpages. These pages have expanded quite rapidly to encompass many facets of the Society and to make researchers globally aware of our existence and what we have to offer which is reflected in the membership figures. To this end I have taken over the two major sets of Internet information available for Cambridgeshire which has allowed us to inform the public at large about Cambridgeshire records and information and in itself attracted new members. Our presence on the Cambridgehire mailing lists and the introduction of the Monthly Internet Newsletter has also improved communication and our presence.

In closing I would like to say that the year ahead looks very promising for the Society. We will be attending the SoG Fairs both in London and Birmingham, our publications look to grow even more and I would also like to thank the membership as a whole for their interest, which makes this a lively and thriving Society.