An excellent turnout

The First Annual General Meeting
of the Wainwright Society
Saturday 24th January 2004
at 2.00 pm
In Kendal Town Hall

Eric Robson in the chair, Peter Linney, secretary, and 113 members.

1. Our chairman, welcomed all to the meeting, giving special mention to the presence of Jenny Dereham, Wainwright editor, John Nichol, owner of Frances Lincoln - New Wainwright publisher, and Derry Brabbs, photographer and our speaker for this afternoon.
   
   
2. The notes of the Inaugural meeting had been published in the first Newsletter and on the Internet and having had no objections to those notes our chairman proposed that they be accepted as a correct record and the meeting signified its agreement.
   
   
3. The Chairman reported that the first year had been full and active. He said that many initiatives, such as this was in November 2002, started with a great burst of enthusiasm and then fizzled out, but this has not been the case with the Wainwright Society. There meeting at Rheged was oversubscribed, the first walk, in April, was over subscribed, we have published four Newsletters and have run a most encouraging photographic competition. We have plans to double the size of the Newsletter and have designed a new image for the Society which is now to be seen on the 2004 membership cards. These are now available for those present to collect at the end of the afternoon.
   
   
4. Finance Report   The chairman directed members to the annual report which members received on arrival and which would be published in the next Newsletter. The bank account stood at about £3,000 before the expenses of the afternoon were taken into account and that revenue was flowing in from the current year's membership fees. He thanked John Pulford for his work as Treasurer and David Pitt for auditing the accounts. Val Wilkinson proposed, Ossie Hopkins seconded that the accounts be adopted and this proposal was unanimously agreed.
   
   Eric Robson proposed that the Society might donate a sum of, say, £100 to Kapellan, the animal rescue charity founded by Alfred Wainwright, and this was agreed.
   
   Val Wilkinson proposed that we might consider helping to fund footpath repairs or some such project. Eric suggested that we might approach the Lake District Tourism and Conservation Board, who undertook such work and it was agreed to explore this and the committee is empowered to make a donation of £100 (proposed by Peter Linney, seconded by Roger Hiley) towards a project.
   
   
5. Election of Officers   Peter Linney read out the names of the committee, established following the inaugural meeting in November 2002. They are:
   Eric Robson, John Burland, Morag Clement, Peter Linney, Robert Jackson, John Pulford and Andrew Stainthorpe.
   
   Eric has acted as Chairman, John Pulford as treasurer, Peter Linney as secretary, Morag Clement as membership secretary, John Burland has dealt with publicity, Robert Jackson is web-master and Andrew Stainthorpe at graphic designer and production of printed material. David Pitt was co-opted late in 2003 to act as auditor. The committee have all signified that they will be available for the coming year.
   
   The meeting agreed that all six committee members should be asked to remain and that they should co-opt others as became necessary.
   
   Peter Linney proposed and David McAvoy seconded that Eric Robson should be appointed Chairman. Morag Clement proposed and Robert Jackson seconded that John Pulford should be treasurer. Stuart Marshall proposed and Jenny Dereham seconded that Peter Linney should be secretary. David Pitt was appointed Auditor for a further year.
   
   
6. What is it that the Members of the Society wish to do? Eric posed this question to the meeting and the following were the ideas brought forward:

• There should be more walks, particularly for small numbers and possibly some specifically on the 'Outlying Fells'. Eric asked for the names of those prepared to organise and lead such walks should give there names to Peter Linney.
• The Memorial Lecture should continue. New names were being considered.
• Short (weekend say) residential meetings with speakers and activities. Contact was being made with Alston Hall and other places were being considered.
• The Newsletter is to be expanded to 8 pages.
• The Web-site is to have the Wainwright bibliography added and a 'guestbook' page specifically for members to sell or exchange Wainwright books. The Society would not become involved in any of the sales but simply be a forum for the exchange of addresses.
• The Photographic Competition would be continued and the closing date is now agreed as the 1st of September 2004.
• Wainwright's work as literature, say evening or half day sessions.
• Competitions such as 'where is this', crosswords etc.
• Publish a list of all members. Whilst we have details of all members on our database we will need the permission of each and everyone before such a list can be published, either in print or in the web-site.
• Supplements to update the walks. This was asked for at the inaugural meeting. John Nichol of Frances Lincoln, the publishers, announced that updates were currently being prepared and announcements would be made when they are ready, meanwhile they would welcome suggestions.
• Exhibition of original drawings. Kendal Museum is organising such an exhibition, people wishing with suitable examples, should contact Morag Clement at the Museum.
• Publishing member's reports of walks recently completed, on the web-0site and in the news letter. Send in your report to John Burland (email publicity@wainwright.org.uk) or to the secretary by email secretary@waibwright.org.uk or 3 Beech Close Farnham Knaresborough HG5 9JJ.
• A pen and ink drawing competition.
• More links with Lake District websites. Robert Jackson is pursuing this.
• Car Sticker (eg like the new membership card) and enamelled badges of just the new AW logo. This will be closely examined.
• A collaborative walk such as one which follows the route of Wainwright's Pennine Journey. Members would be asked to research, walk and write up individual 'day' sections of this route and then they would be brought together to form a whole.
• Education and Wainwright, lectures for schools, museums etc. Educational advice would be sought as to how this might work.

Thanks to Derry Brabbs (right) from Society Secretary Peter Linney.

The formal business of the annual general meeting being completed the meeting closed at 2.50 pm.

There now followed at 3.10 pm a slide illustrated lecture by Derry Brabbs, renowned photographer, who worked on the majority of colour books with AW. Derry gave us the benefit of his huge experience and skill in describing how to get the very best out of landscape, light and shade in many and varied conditions and all accompanied by anecdotes of his experiences whilst on photographic 'shoots'. The membership gave Derry a lengthy round of applause and we have received many messages of thanks.