The Council meets on the anniversary

The Council of Associates met at the House on Saturday 14 March, a hundred and fifteen years to the day since the Articles were signed in Tobias Rosen’s shop, for its annual meeting. Thirty-nine of the forty-one Associates attended. Two sent apologies from the Penfield Works, where they were supervising the overhaul of the dial shop.

The Treasurer, Agnes Thorvald, presented the accounts for the year to 31 December 2025. Income was $251.8 million, of which $223.4 million came from the Penfield Mk IV. Expenditure was $236.0 million, of which $61.7 million was spent on the Nexus-6 recall: the recovery agents, the carriage of units from five licensed settings, the store at Everett and the reconciliation of the Works’ records. The reserve stood at $884.0 million at the year’s end, against a requirement under Article VIII of $612.5 million. The Council received the accounts without dissent. A summary of the accounts is published (PDF, 4 pages).

Josiah Pell, the eldest Associate, at the bench since 1961 and elected in 1983, proposed the vote of thanks to the Treasurer, as he has for twenty years. He observed that the reserve had been built for exactly this kind of year, and that the Associates who voted for Article VIII in 1946 would have been sorry to see it used and glad that it was there.

The Council also fixed the schedule of charges for heritage servicing for the coming year, unchanged except for bellows leather, which rises by $20; confirmed the 2027 intake of apprentices at between eight and twelve; and heard from the Master of the Atelier that the Copyist had written its 1,354th page on the first Monday of the month without error.

The next ordinary meeting is on 13 March 2027. The next election of a President is in March 2030.