Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the Siegfried Sassoon Fellowship
Held on 12th September 2009 at Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge.
1. Attendance
Present:
Meg Crane (President)
Dennis Silk (Vice President)
Deborah Fisher (Secretary)
Sam Gray (Treasurer)
Peter Clinch (Publicity)
Christian Major (Publicity)
Phil Carne (Committee)
Kayleigh Fitzgerald (Committee)
Cynthia Greenwood (Committee)
Irene McCready (Committee)
Peter Rogers (Committee)
and a number of members. The meeting was quorate. There were several observers.
Apologies had been received from: Alice Burley; Phil Carradice; Michael Crouch; Philip Guest; Rupert Heath; Dr Ian & Mrs Kelsey Fry; Cynthia Miles; Collin Smith; and Adrian Wells.
2. Opening Remarks
The President welcomed all those present.
3. Minutes of 2008 AGM
The minutes of the 2008 AGM were proposed as a true record by Derek Jarman, seconded by Irene McCready, and agreed.
4. Matters Arising
There were no matters arising that were not covered in the agenda.
5. Secretary's Report
The Secretary gave a summary of the year’s activities, including the War Poets Concert organised by Sam Gray and Phil Carne, the golf day and cricket match at Matfield (which had for the second time been won by George Sherston’s XI), and the campaign to save the collection of Sassoon papers for Cambridge University Library. She outlined plans for coming events in 2010, including a possible dinner at Heytesbury and an organised tour to Ieper (Ypres).
Thanks were due to the committee and all those who had been involved in the organisation of the conference and other events. The Secretary also paid tribute to Aeronwy Thomas, President of the Alliance of Literary Societies, who had recently passed away.
6. Treasurer's Report
The Treasurer introduced the printed accounts, which had been audited and approved by Mr Jack Revell.
The Treasurer had been asked to look into the possibility of charitable status for the SSF. He reported that he did not think this was feasible at present, because the minimum income to qualify as a charity was £5000 per annum, although he did think that the SSF might well achieve this at a future date. He felt that the benefits of obtaining charitable status were limited. David Worthington commented that the War Poets Association is a registered charity, even though it does not have an income of £5000.
The Treasurer expressed concern at the shortfall between members’ subscriptions so far received for the current year and the cost of producing Siegfried’s Journal. Ideas for reducing the cost of the journal were put forward by several members, and included:
· Increasing annual subscriptions. It was felt this might be counter-productive, because it could result in a fall in membership (as had happened when the WOA put up subscriptions two years ago).
· Transferring the work to another printing firm. The Editor would look into this.
· Producing copies in electronic format or placing the text on the website. As well as the technical difficulty of achieving password protection, it was recognised that a reduction in the number of printed copies would also have the effect of increasing the unit price and making distribution more complicated. Kayleigh Fitzgerald suggested that we try to get the articles included in an on-line academic subscription service such as JSTOR. The Secretary would look into this.
· Sponsorship for the Journal had been attempted in the past and the Secretary and Treasurer would redouble their efforts to obtain advertising revenue from potential sources such as publishers. Suggestions from members would continue to be welcomed.
· Reducing the size of the Journal. The Editor said that this would make very little difference to the overall cost of printing and postage.
· The sale of spare copies had the potential to help subsidise the cost of producing the Journal. Opportunities for selling copies to non-members would continue to be sought.
It was noted that there was a discrepancy between the number of members on the books and the subscriptions received so far this year by the Treasurer. The Secretary would attempt to identify non-paying members and ensure that they either paid or were removed from the mailing list for Journals.
It was suggested that the SSF should continue to pursue other fund-raising schemes, such as Christmas cards. The Secretary said she fully intended to look for a new Christmas card design when stocks of the present card ran down.
7. Motions
Committee motion 1 (proposed constitutional amendment, to be taken as a single motion):
· That the administrative officer position of President be renamed Chair or Chairman or Chairwoman or Chairperson, depending on the preference of the individual holding the position at any given time.
· That the administrative officer position of Vice President be renamed in accordance with that of President.
· That a new honorary non-executive role of President be created, which shall not be subject to annual election.
The Secretary moved on behalf of the committee. She explained that the SSF had long wished to adopt an arrangement similar to that of other literary societies, with an eminent person taking a permanent non-executive role of President. However, at the formation of the SSF this had not been an option because there were so few members and no one obvious individual who could take the role.
The motion was carried nem con.
Committee motion 2: That Dennis Silk be appointed President of the SSF for life.
The President [later re-designated Chair] moved on behalf of the committee. She said that the committee wished Dennis Silk, CBE, to be appointed President for life, in recognition of his unique position as a closer personal friend of Siegfried Sassoon.
The motion was carried nem con.
8. Election of Officers
There having been no other nominations, the following slate of candidates was nominated en bloc by Derek Jarman, seconded by Sue Eagle, and declared elected unopposed:
Chair: Meg Crane
Vice Chair: Phil Carne
Treasurer: Sam Gray
Secretary: Deborah Fisher
Publicity Officer: Peter Clinch
Committee members:
Kayleigh Fitzgerald
Cynthia Greenwood
Chris Major
Irene McCready
Peter Rogers
9. Next Year's Conference
The 2010 conference will take place on Saturday 11th September at the St Alban’s Centre, Gray’s Inn Road, London. Speakers and other arrangements will be announced at a later date.
10. Other Business
Vanessa Davis reported that WPA plans were being made for a battlefield tour in 2010, to replace the one that they had been obliged to cancel in 2009. The Secretary added that she was consulting a travel agent to obtain assistance with the proposed trip to Ieper, and would aim to coordinate efforts with other societies.
On 2 November, the WPA are holding an evening of Second World War Poetry at the ImperialWarMuseum. Those participating will include Paul O’Prey, Jon Stallworthy, Fran Brearton and Owen Sheers.
The Wilfred Owen Association poetry award will be made on 21 November in London, and the recipient will be Dannie Abse.
Enid Wells had been interviewed by “South East Today” about Siegfried Sassoon and her connections with Weirleigh, and had appeared on the programme on the same evening, Wednesday 1 July. Many people, including Enid herself, missed the programme because they were already committed to other activities.
Peter Rogers outlined his ideas for the Stratford-upon-Avon conference in 2011. It was hoped to have a theatrical theme and deal, among other things, with Sassoon’s long association with Glen Byam Shaw. Kayleigh Fitzgerald suggested that a production of “Not About Heroes” might be a possibility.
Dennis Silk said that he is always ready to give his lecture on Sassoon anywhere within the UK, with proceeds from ticket sales going to charity.
11. Concluding Remarks
Richard Graham proposed a vote of thanks to the committee for their hard work during the year.
The Chair thanked everyone for attending, and declared the meeting closed.