East Anglian Writers

Minutes
of the
EAW AGM
held at
23 Oak Street Norwich on
9th October 2008

Committee members present: Vicky Manthorpe, (chair), Patricia Mullen,
Ann Thwaite, Tessa West, Hugh Aldersey-Williams, John Worrall.

Apologies were received from Charles Christian and Paola Trimarco.

Vicky welcomed all and gave a brief report on activities during the past year:

• the event at the Babylon Gallery, Ely in January, was well attended in a nice venue. She thanked Paola for organising and everyone who participated.

• - the Spring Lunch at Rosemary’s was very convivial.

• - the Summer Party was as successful as ever. Thanks again to Ann and Anthony for hosting.

• - the Forum, held at Diss which also went well despite some late cry-offs. Thanks to Hugh and all who helped.

• - the Christmas Party, to be held again at Antoinette’s, on 6th December from 12.30. Bring food and friends. Badges will be provided.

• - the Winter Quiz, to be set by Anthony, is fixed for Wednesday 11th February, perhaps in a room at the Playhouse, 8.00pm and no nosh. Vicky will speak to the Playhouse to try to secure the venue.

• - the Spring Jolly, to Ely next May on a date to be fixed. John is organising with Janet.

• - the Summer Party would will again be held in Ann and Anthony’s garden. Ann said that she would invite Mark Le Fanu from the Society of Authors to say a few words. We will fix a date at the January meeting.

Finance
      Vicky reported that we have £1792.91 in the Norwich & Peterborough but if we needed a more detailed report than that, we ought to get a treasurer. No volunteers appeared.

     Membership is somewhere between 160 and 180, 60 of whom are still not on email and mail-out to whom constitute the biggest single financial outlay.

Election of Officers
      Nobody resigned and nobody volunteered and so the meeting moved quickly on, but not before Tessa had proposed a vote of thanks to Vicky for all her continuing efforts as chair and indeed treasurer. The vote was seconded on all sides.

New Membership Leaflet.

     Vicky said that the general feeling was that the wording on membership criteria needed to be a little stronger. New members should have to demonstrate that they were making – or had made – some sort of regular income from their writing.

     But on EAW would stick with the one-off payment of £10 and no annual subscription because of the administration involved in doing otherwise, not least in the absence of a treasurer. We will develop this by email.

AOB

Ann said that at a recent Society of Authors meeting, they were asking for candidates for the Jerwood Awards, two annual awards, of £5000 and £10,000, for non-fiction writers who have book contracts and need financial help to finish the work. No one at the meeting qualified but anyone else who did would have to apply by the end of October.

There then being no OB, Vicky thanked Patricia for hosting the meeting and it closed at 8.47.