AGM and Letter to Members August 2021
Dear Members,
WAG needs you! Please take the
time to read on:
Provided everything remains
unlocked Covid-wise, Warsash Art Group’s delayed 2021 Annual General Meeting
will be held as above. We will be using
the fire door to enter the hall and not the main entrance. Please attend if you
can. I know it’s holiday time and lots else happening. The timing isn’t ideal,
but this meeting is overdue, and we don’t know when will next have the opportunity.
We would have liked our first
meeting in person since March 2020 to have been a more informal one, but the
continuing existence of this Group is at stake - we need people to fill roles. Most
urgently, a new Treasurer to replace Jane who is standing down due to
ongoing health issues. She has done her best this year in the absence of anyone
else volunteering, but she no longer feels qualified to carry out this role
fully. She is willing to continue as an Ordinary Committee member and support
her successor, but WAG will be forced to close if we cannot replace her. I,
Joan Lee, need now to stand down as Secretary.
I no longer have the time or energy to do everything involved properly
or effectively. Throughout the pandemic it’s been very much a case of muddling
through on my own. I too am prepared to continue as Ordinary Committee member,
handling all things tech behind the scenes, including keeping members up to
date by email and maintaining the content of our website and social media. I’ll be cutting back
on everything else. It’s also on the condition that we have a full Committee
with all the vacant roles filled,
meaning no one is overloaded at any time of year. We will be needing at
least a Newsletter Editor and people to produce other documents such the annual
Programme Booklet and all the forms we use; print and post paper copies to our
non-emailing members. The timing of those has meant awkward clashes with other art
activities etc. Ideally too,
a back-up e-messenger to send out
emails with deadlines if / when I’m not available.
We have considered alternatives
to closure in the absence of a Treasurer, involving vague ideas about Members roping
in family members or employing a professional. Certainly, the latter would
involve considerable expense, meaning subscriptions would have to increase
accordingly. Someone from within our membership would also have a better understanding
of what we’re about (Art). It would be very sad if it was Game Over, with the
with the disposal assets: this Group is more than sixty years old, and we had
all been hoping we’d be back to normal by now.
Sarisbury Green Community Centre is booked for untutored Wednesday painting sessions for ten weeks from 15th September, 1.00 – 3.00pm. We also hope to resume tutored Tuesday the following week (21st September, for ten weeks). We’re sorry we haven’t been able to plan anything else.
It has been very difficult to plan anything amid continuing
uncertainty and constantly changing rules, but our activities don’t happen by
themselves. The cancellation of our
Annual Exhibition for the second year running was as much due to the lack of a
full team making it happen as the pandemic. When Rachael and Fi stood down
as joint Exhibition Organisers, Mike R took over the running of the show. Barbara C said she would continue to assist, and thank you to Diane H volunteered earlier this year, but there was no one to replace Rachael as
Entries Coordinator (handle the admin). Planning for the show normally starts
in January. This year, restrictions during the winter lockdown through to May precluded
them from meeting in person in good time.
Anyone with experience of running exhibitions will understand the
considerable amount of work involved before, during and after the event.
Modern digital technology (tech)
has taken the edge off isolation and has been very enabling for some people,
but not everyone. We organised two virtual demonstrations earlier this
year and the Committee have been meeting virtually since last November, but
it’s not the same as meeting in person, especially for those who are not
confident in using tech. One prominent member likened using Zoom to “walking on
the Moon” recently. Even relatively tech-confident people like me find tech
doesn’t always behave as expected and can be frustrating. This is partly why
the bulk of what you’re heard from WAG over the past 18 months has come from me
(Joan). If it has it’s seemed woolly,
incoherent or full of loose ends at times, it’s because I’ve become more tired
as the year’s gone on, with competing demands for my attention.
If you can step up, we’d really
appreciate it: a blank copy of the Committee Nomination sheet was emailed to Members on 30th July along with this letter as a separate file attachment. Normally this is displayed in
the hall two meetings ahead of the AGM, but as that hasn’t been possible,
please email me (Joan) your intention to stand, or contact any other Committee member via the contact details given in the above email. You will then need
to sign the form at or before the AGM. You can stand for any position: alongside
or against any of the current members who intend to continue.
Kind regards,
Joan Lee, Secretary, Warsash Art
Group
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