Teignmouth Art Society

TEIGNMOUTH ART SOCIETY

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

7.00pm, Friday April 22nd 2016

Teign Heritage Centre, 29 French Street, Teignmouth, TQ14 8ST

MINUTES

1. Apologies– Barbara Nolan, Mike Wall, Yusuf Khan, Sarah Khan, Colin Selly, Julie Sharp, Roy Page, Tony Homer, Chris Foweraker, Angela Valentine

Present– Terry Hughes, Felicity Hughes, Elaine Best, Ray Gratton, Jane Gratton, Pearl Rudge, Richard Juniper, Keith Bowcock, Andy Tapper, Diana Kleyn, Margaret Hunt, Clare Jenkinson, Geraldine Sebastian, Pat Simmonds, Pat Garner, Sheila Coldrey, Ann Ward, Jeanne Girling, Shan Ford, Jean Alexander, Maureen Fayle, Des Maxwell Clark, Anna Grayson Clark, Martin Dutton, Cynthia Fox, Dorothy Simmons, Barbara Chavasse, Gillian Wiseman, Rob Parrish, Jane Branch, Jane Christian, Maxine Adams, John Moroney, Chris Pitman, Martin Poole, Jill Harrison, David Harrison, Sue Williamson, Joyce Boyne, Barbara Watkins, Deborah Welland, Simon Wakfer, Rob Smith, Ann Lunn, Alan Gregory, Shirley Brokenshaw, Denise Mills, Pat Ferns, Eric Haynes, Paul Jeffries.

2. Approval of Minutes - AGM2015– 2015 AGM minutes were made available to members by email and as hard copies at meeting. They were subsequently approved, Proposed: Pearl Rudge, Seconded: Diana Kleyn

3. Matters Arising- none

4. Updates to Society Rules–Revisions made to the rules were made available to members on the website and were outlined by the chairman Joyce Boyne at the meeting. They were subsequently adopted, Proposed: Deborah Welland, Seconded: Pat Ferns

5. Adoption of Accounts – End of year accounts were made available to members at the meeting, and the Treasurer Felicity Hughes gave the main points: Current and savings account balances, exhibitions have been self-funding and generating a slight profit, Friday meetings are increasingly expensive however the Society wants to maintain the quality of demonstrators. There is no need at present to increase membership fees or charges for meetings, and the Society is solvent, keeping a balance in the savings account for future needs and projects.

6. Chairman’s Annual Report

I would like to thank everyone for coming tonight, always good to see so many members at an AGM.

The Society website has been up and running for over a year now, I hope you all find it useful. We do try to keep it right up to date with all the activities and news. There is also a gallery of member’s pictures if you would like to have yours put on just send me a photo. The contact us section, lands in my email I try to read them daily. Barbara Nolan has got our Facebook page set up posting some interesting articles, if you are a Facebook member just like our page.

The gallery at Teignmouth hospital continues to be popular and recently we have had a few sales of members work. Members work is hung for 9 weeks at a time, a percentage of each sale comes to the Society, and some to the League of Friends. If you are not already on my list of exhibitors and would like to be, let me know. Thank you to Alan, Keith and Andy for doing the hanging.

The three exhibitions during the year were very successful, I am always being told about the high quality and standard of your work which just gets better and better, so well done to you all. Thank you to the team who put up and take down all the stands, the hangers and the members who put posters up, and all the members who steward and also Diana for organising the Allenby award. There is one change we are making at the end of the Shaldon exhibitions and that is the collecting time, in future you will not be able to collect your pictures until 6pm.The exhibition will close at 5pm the doors will be closed so that the committee can get the cards and last sales sorted out. Hopefully this will help with the car parking and the mad rush. Please do not come early.

Outdoor sketching was popular last year, more so when the weather was kind, on a couple of occasions it was wet and windy but still a few brave souls turned up and managed to produce some good work. This year’s program stays close to home; we start the season at the popular Powderham castle. Thank you to members who have let us come to your gardens.

The Friday evening demos have been very well attended we have had some really good artists showing us how they do it! There have been 2 workshops this year both were sell outs and some of the work done at them I have already seen in TAAG exhibitions. Thanks to Des for arranging the program, Andy for sorting out the projector, Clare and helpers who make the tea and coffee and Deborah on the door.

Wednesday afternoons at TAAG have proved as popular as ever, with a core group attending most sessions, I know that new members just beginning their journey into art are made very welcome with tips and ideas shared with them. Many thanks to the members who have taken these sessions it can be quite daunting. Thank you, to Margaret for organising the tea, coffee and biscuits.

The Xmas lunch was very popular last year, nearly 70 people came and it was a lovely start to the Xmas season, thanks to Felicity for organising the dinner and getting the draw prizes.

The Pavillions is now open and I think we must continue to wait and see if it will be of any benefit to the type of activities that the society runs. In the meantime we fully support TAAG in its endeavour to secure a more permanent lease from Teignbridge.

The society has had fantastic coverage in the press this year; I must thank Anna for her sterling efforts, they have certainly paid off. I am frightened to open the Teignmouth post on Fridays in case there is another picture of me. I know Anna would like me to remind you, if you are successful at getting into exhibitions or have something big coming off please let her know.

Where would I be without the committee members, we have a great committee and during the year Barbara Nolan, Julie Sharp, Shan Ford and Barbara Watkins have joined us. Thank you for all your support. Deborah our membership secretary who has been on the committee for the past …… years is stepping down, we shall miss her and wish her well with her new role at the Ramblers our loss is definitely their gain.

I want to say thank you to the committee for all your hard work and time, alsoto everyone that has helped during the year, be it at exhibitions other events or just putting the chairs away on a Friday evening. This is what makes our Society the success that it is., and thank you all for supporting me as your chairman.

7. Press Secretary’s Report

It has been a very successful year with placements almost every week (certainly an average exceeding three a month) in the Teignmouth Post and Teignmouth News. We have also had three pieces in Devon Life, including a full page spread in their December edition for our Christmas exhibition in TAAG.

In fact there has been so much coverage that I am completely behind with sticking the cuttings in the scrapbook! Sorry!

At the moment the coverage is slightly lower-key, but I am guessing it will pump up again in the summer when outdoor sketching gets underway.

Thank you to everyone who has kept me posted of their successes and stories.

But there is more work to do:

It became apparent to both Des and myself at the launch of the Pavilion (I refuse to add the S on the end as there is only one of them and I have respect for proper English Grammar...) that a false impression still persists that we are merely a group of amateurs. So we must continue to plug the achievements of our members, some of whom are definitely top notch artists, not least our very own president who is also an active member.
The press coverage is only part of the publicity story. ALL members can help by displaying posters and telling friends about exhibitions. Also at events please make sure you talk to new faces and make them feel welcome – the press coverage does seem to have brought in a good number of new faces. Slowly, very slowly I am putting names to those faces. But we all get that wrong sometimes, and need to make sure we try harder.

There is one important matter arising and that concerns individual members asking me to arrange publicity for events that are not TAS events. After discussion with the committee it has been decided that I should be allowed a life, and time to get on with my own art, and that my role is for official TAS events only. My main advice to those of you organising exhibitions with the primary objective of selling pictures is to take out an ad with the local paper – they may be prepared to run a feature alongside. In fact taking out an ad is the way we may have to go for our exhibitions in the Vic Hall, judging by the increasing numbers of red dots!!

Also, for members news Barbara Nolan is now running a facebook page, and for your own events this is the best place to spread the word.

Having said that, I don’t do facebook (there is a history there), so please, please do keep me posted about events you are taking part in, particularly if you have achieved something big like the Royal Watercolour Society or the South West Academy.

8. Election of Officers and Committee Members:

The Chair and Committee step down, and President Martin Dutton took the chair, thanking Joyce and the committee for all her hard work. Chairman and Officers elected as follows:

Chairman – Joyce Boyne, Proposed: Marin Dutton, Seconded: Jane Branch

Committee – en bloc, with Barbara Watkins standing as Membership Secretary, Proposed: Chris Pitman, Seconded: Pat Ferns

Programme Secretary – Alan Gregory -Proposed: Anna Grayson Clark, Seconded:Shan Ford

TAS Committee following 2016 AGM:

ChairJoyce Boyne

Vice ChairDes Maxwell Clark

TreasurerFelicity Hughes

Membership SecretaryBarbara Watkins

Admin SecretaryClare Jenkinson

Programme Secretary Alan Gregory

MembersDiana Kleyn, Barbara Nolan, Julie Sharp, Shan Ford,

Non-committee Officers:

President Martin Dutton

Vice-PresidentEric Haynes

PublicityAnna Grayson Clark

Joyce welcomed the new Committee Members and Officers: Barbara Watkins, Alan Gregory, Shan Ford, Julie Sharp and Barbara Nolan

9. Any other business

Keith Bowcock thanked Anna Grayson Clark for the work she has done with Society publicity and picked up on the point she had made regarding press adverts, asking whether paying for press adverts could be an option for the Society? eg Herald Express (Keith’s suggestion), Western Morning News (Anna’s suggestion) free local events directory (Jill Harrison’s suggestion) Rob Parrish noted that Dawlish Painters had placed an advert for £16.20 in the local paper which was felt to be worthwhile, and also mentioned the coverage that can be achieved through social media. The Chairman agreed to discuss this at the next committee meeting.
Anna Grayson Clark raised the point of copyright issues when members exhibit work with the Society, particularly that when using photography for source material. Copying photographs that have not been taken by the artist themselves is not acceptable, photographers can however be contacted for permission to use the image, which would then be credited in the art work, although Anna did acknowledge that photographs can be used for reference.
Ann Ward asked if it was possible to provide information on buyers of members work at exhibitions to the artist. This should be possible, although Eric Haynes raised the point that the sales book is not always filled out legibly by exhibition stewards. The Chairman agreed to discuss at the next committee meeting.
Joyce Boyne mentioned that the new exhibition labels for the Society were available at the meeting, and outlined other ways that members can access them as they have been printed in bulk and are no longer available for members to print themselves.