AGM Minutes: April16th 2007

Fenland Visual Art Collective - AGM April 16th 2007.

MINUTES:

Present: Joan Sandford Cook, Norman Ringham, Margaret Ringham, Diane Mainzer, Anita Davies, Yvonne Peace, Carol McEwan, Heather Kinnear, Rob Morris, Richard Edwardson, Jeni Cairns and Gillian Fradley.

Apologies : Sue Munden, Ruth Mason, Martin Megson, Vanessa Champion and Jenny Furlong.

The meeting was started at 7.40pm when a quorum was present.

Members were welcomed to the meeting by our Lady Chair, Anita Davies.

Minutes of the last AGM were agreed as being a true record of proceedings by Anita and this was seconded by Carol McEwan.

Matters Arising
Open Studio (Joan)
On the four weekends of September last year eighteen artists opened their studios in eleven venues to the public. 60-65 was the top attendance of any venue, though the more rural venues were less frequented mostly. It was decided to hold Open Studios in 2007 but that greater effort was needed with publicity. It was decided to keep September as the month to hold Open Studios.

Rose Fair (Joan)
In 2006, during the Rose Fair in Wisbech, members of Fenvac set up work and Fenvac membership information in the Museum Square, for 3 out of the 4 days. Seven members attended the sight over the three days and sketched, chatted to the public about Fenvac and their work. Sue Beale of the Rose Fair Committee has invited us to attend again this time for the full four days in the museum square. It was felt that this was a prime opportunity to publicise Fenvac and promote individual work. It was also decided to interact more with the public by inviting them to paint their own ATC’s of a Rose. These could then be mounted onto a large board and presented to the Macmillan Unit at North Cambs Hospital. Sue Beale is going to check the feasibility of this with her committee at the end of the month.

Christmas Market
Fenvac Members were given the Pump Room to display work for the Christmas Market. As it was away from the main market traffic this was not well attended and the same members as for previous events ended up having do all the work for little return, so an offer for use of the Pump Room was declined.

Charitable status
It was decided at a committee meeting midyear that taking up charity status was not warranted.

Chairwoman’s Report
13th Worldwide Sketch Crawl on March 17th. 2007
This was held in Chatteris, mostly at the museum. This was well attended and more information is on the Blog. Thanks to Jeni and other volunteers for opening the museum for us that day and thanks (as ever) to Rob for his hospitality at lunchtime. The next Sketch Crawl will be on May 17th or 19th (to be decided).

Fenvac Friends
This has been a great way, outside of meetings for members to work together and get to know each other.

Blog
Anita explained the blog, invited members to contribute and reminded everyone to subscribe to ensure they were kept updated.
As Richard Savage pointed out during his time as Chair, communication was a big problem in Fenvac. This has been addressed by starting a dedicated Blog linked to the Fenvac website. Unlike the rather static website which requires specialist administering, the Blog can be updated immediately without expense. Members can submit articles or adverts to post to the blog managers (committee members) and when the committee changes the running of the blog can be handed over without having to seek professional advice. This should ease communication between members.
Membership renewal mail shot
60 members responded to the mail shot sent to them requesting membership renewal.

Anita thanked the committee for supporting her during her year as Chairwoman.

Some members present swapped ATC’s

Treasurer’s Report (Heather)
Fenvac received a grant for the Open Studio’s from Awards for all of £4750 giving a balance of £4849 before expenditure.
Some equipment was bought for Fenvac with funds that were left after paying for leaflets to be printed and the project manager’s (Roger) expenses.
This left an end of year balance of £943.74
£740.99 will be left after renewing Fenvac public liability insurance with SAA and Fenweb were paid for hosting and maintenance of the website for the next 2 years.

Membership Update
There are currently 60 members of Fenvac
50 in response to mail shot
10 online
Of these 60, 17 live in Wisbech, 13 in March, 9 in Chatteris, 4 in Peterborough and 2 in Whittlesey.

Nominations for the committee
Nominations were received and seconded that the Chair, Vice Chair, Treasurer and rest of the Committee remain the same for 2006-7 with the exception of Chris Carr who only attended 2 meetings during his year on the committee and recently stood down.

Chair’s Brief for the coming Year.
Anita told the membership that Fenvac hope to be holding Open Studios again. Funding was acquired from the lottery last time but this is not possible as the same project cannot be funded twice by Awards for All. The committee would be looking into local funding. Nationwide and Coldham Wind Farm may be possibilities. Anita also said we would improve the brochure and publicity this year-approaching TV and radio. She also suggested that we may hold a promotional evening involving the press prior to the start of the Open Studios.

There will be a continuing involvement with March Town Hall with an upcoming exhibition from June 14th-27th to accompany a film festival being held there. Work submitted should be in the style of Movie posters. As it will be pinned to curtains it should be reasonably rigid yet light, and the subject matter somehow tie in with the movie theme.

During the Rose Fair participating members will hopefully engage the public in making ATC’s which will be displayed together on a large board. This is to be confirmed. Only attending members would be able to display work.

Fenvac Friend meetings would continue with meetings posted on the blog. Suggestions from the membership welcome. The first meeting will be at Mepal Outdoor Centre which adults can visit FREE.

The next worldwide Sketchcrawl will be on May 19th, notice to be given on the blog.

Members’ Meetings for 2007/8
All meetings will be held at Bar 23 in March at 7.30 p.m. on:
Monday July 13th, 2007.
Wednesday October 10th , 2007.
Thursday January 24th , 2008.
AGM Wednesday April 30th, 2008.