Annual General Meeting 2016

Thursday 8 September 2016 @ Goring Methodist Church Hall, Worthing

We start our new season of meetings with our Annual General Meeting. This will include the results of the Novel Opening Competition, an overview of the forthcoming season with input from members and an extended Open Mic. A meeting not to be missed.

 

Review of the meeting

Last month saw our Annual General Meeting. This was followed by a planned Open Mic session.

At the AGM there was a wide exchange of view and thoughts for the future meetings and direction of the group. Thanks are expressed to the committee members who decided not to stand for re-election - Della Griffiths, Paul Witham & Alex Medwell. We have two new members of the committee - Dave Simpson and Phil Williams. Liz, Derek & Ian all stated they were willing to stand for re-election. The full committee for this year is:

Ian Black - Chair
Liz Eastwood - Secretary & Treasurer
Derek Eastwood - Membership Secretary
Dave Simpson - Programme Coordinator
Phil Williams - Publicity Officer

Feedback on the AGM

What an excellent 79th AGM ably led by Ian Black, our chairman. I’m getting used to his deadpan sense of humour which lightened the formal business of such a meeting.

There was a chance for everyone to give their views, and it was good to see newcomers to the club participating with fresh ideas or asking about the reasons for doing things the way we do. For example, someone asked if we could publish the winning competition entries in the newsletter. It was pointed out that this would prevent people from entering competitions with a piece of work (as they have to be unpublished) which was obviously of merit to have won the WSW competition. The survey showed that members would like a non-fiction evening and I can’t remember when we last had one. The discussion was animated so that we didn’t stop for a break until 9 p.m. We were gasping for a coffee and one of Alison’s delicious cakes.

People present felt that we should celebrate our 80th next year. WOW! It makes me feel very proud that the club has been going so long.

Ian encouraged us to use the Newsletter as a platform for our thoughts about the club, speakers and books read.

Thanks to the committee for all the hard work during the year and for the excellent Writers’ Weekend, I took full advantage of it going to many of the talks.

Rose Bray