Notice is hereby given that the Annual General Meeting of the Oxford Branch of the Inland Waterways Association will be held as follows:

The Oxford Branch AGM will take place on Saturday 18th April 2026 10:30am for 11:00am at: The Boat Inn, Canal Road, Thrupp, Kidlington OX5 1JY

Agenda 

• Apologies for Absence
• Approval (following amendments if necessary) of the Minutes of the Branch AGM held the previous year
• Matters arising from the Minutes (and not under other Agenda items)
• Branch Chairman’s Report
• Branch Treasurer’s Report and Accounts
• Election of members of the Committee (Nomination no longer necessary). Simply contact the Chairman to apply to join the Branch Committee or do so at the AGM
• Depending on the outcome of the above item, if there haven’t been a minimum of 4 members elected to the committee confirmation of a decision to (1) close down the branch, and (2) that the balance of Branch funds be put into central IWA funds for general IWA purposes.

• Any item for discussion of which the Branch Chairman has been notified in writing at least 6 weeks prior to the date of the relevant AGM

Should you wish to attend, as the pub requires an idea of numbers (they provide free croissant etc!), then please confirm via email  numbers of people to [email protected]

Branch Chair’s Report

At last year’s AGM we discussed whether the branch need to be folded unless more people stepped forward to help run it. There were a couple of offers of help, that for various reasons we weren’t able to utilise in 2025, so, with Mark Rowan as treasurer the branch staggered on.

A stand was manned at the Banbury Canal Festival although the festival was a little curtailed by the closure of the canal due to water shortages and the resulting lack of boat movements. Huge thanks to the very small number of people that who helped put the IWA stand up and man it. This event is such a key opportunity to engage with potential IWA supporters I look forward to a few new faces volunteering to help out in 2026 especially as we hope to have stands at the Oxford as well as Banbury Festivals.

I continue to attend Thames Waterways forum meetings and represent the IWA even though I actually attend with a different hat on. The navigation team within the EA has begun to be transformed under a new director Bill Jephson and staffing numbers and activities are seeing a welcome increase. I am trying to re-establish better contacts with CRT regionally to represent the IWA branch’s view better.

But the issue of enough people to help run the branch, so that it undertakes meaningful stuff, hasn’t gone away. Mark and I are willing to stagger on, but we really aren’t delivering what an IWA branch should, and we won’t be able to going forward unless between 3 and 5 people are willing to put themselves forward to help out either informally or as committee members.

As IWA enters its 80^th year it would be great as a branch to be monitoring and responding to planning applications affecting the waterways in the branch area, continuing IWA’s campaigning fight in a more proactive and vocal way and manning stands at the Oxford and Banbury Canal Festivals in 2026. The Oxford festival is due to held on 19^th September, but at the time of writing this report the dates for the Banbury event hadn’t been announced.