THE LEWIS CARROLL SOCIETY
52[nd] ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING •
Friday 17[th ] December 2021 6.30 pm UK online
Minutes
-
Welcome and Introduction. The Chairman, Steve Folan, welcomed members.
-
Apologies for absence: Tony Levene
-
Minutes of the 51[st] Annual General meeting held on Friday 13 November 2020 (online) were accepted as a true record.
-
Annual reports
-
Elections
-
Motion on non-Sterling cheques (Tony Levene)
Chairman’s Report 2021(Steve Folan)
This year has been challenging for the Lewis Carroll Society. We continued on from last year’s Zoom meetings to arrange further events and speakers. This has allowed us to connect to people around the world and hear people who would not normally be able to attend a meeting in person.
Zoom Events
There were a number of Zoom events. These included:
-
Richard Kopley, Paul Fagan, Caroline Luke, Edward Wakeling and Daina Almario-Kopp all gave talks that gave different perspectives on Lewis Carroll, his life and his characters.
-
The Nonsense Poetry Evening that was led by Brian Sibley and supported by Mark Richards. This had contributions from LCS members and covered nonsense poetry including and beyond Carroll such as Edward Lear and Spike Milligan.
-
The Roger Lancelyn Green lecture was given by Alberto Manguel, where he shared his love of the Alice stories and their impact on himself. Alberto is currently setting up a Centre for Reading in Lisbon and has invited the LCS to be involved in an international celebration of Lewis Carroll once it is up and running.
Jane Skelly was instrumental in making the connection to many of these people and Sarah Jardine-Willoughby shared the technical support burden for the presentations throughout the year.
Anniversary of 150 Years of Through the Looking-Glass
We worked with partners and friends to celebrate this very important year.
-
Franziska Kohlt did a fantastic job by creating and hosting a 2-day conference with a ‘Through the Looking-Glass’ theme. Mark Richards and Justine Houyaux were part of the team. She included a musical contribution from Tim Hunter. Tim Hunter has written an album about a time travelling Lewis Carroll going into the future and writes a lot of music about the area where Charles Dodgson was brought up.
-
The LCS ran a writing competition about a ‘Missing Chapter’ of the Alice stories that was judged by Caroline Luke, Brian Sibley and Will Brooker with a lot of input from Kevin Fernandes. We worked with the V&A and Macmillan on the competition and they both donated prizes. One result was a selection of eight stories that were read and discussed at an online event. The youngest attendee was eight years old and there were readers from India, America and even London. The competition was commended by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
-
Mark Davies and Caroline Luke have given talks on Lewis Carroll to a number of societies. They are great evangelists for the LCS.
-
Jane Skelly chaired a session for the Royal Society of Chemistry Historical Group that had chirality as its topic. Chiral forms are mirror-images and it is a topic in Chemistry and Mathematics.
In addition, Tony Levene, stepped up and took over the responsibility for ‘Bandersnatch’ as well as being Treasurer. Without Tony looking after the newsletter, I could not have devoted so much time this year to support the various activities we have been involved with. Mark Davies, Tony Levene and Lindsay Fulcher have been working through our items that we think should be enjoyed by readers instead of being in LCS storage. Prices have been reduced and ‘Everything Must Go! - https://lewiscarrollsociety.org.uk/shop/ for more details.
Partnerships
We are in regular dialogue with the US (Linda Cassady) and the Netherlands (Bas Savenje) and sharing ideas and plans.
The V&A, MacMillan and the Royal Society of Literature have all provided support throughout the year and we should make this sort of activity ongoing and not wait for the anniversary of the Hunting of the Snark.
What’s next in 2022
We will continue to do some Zoom events next year but I do request that if you have suggestion/ideas that you contact us. If you are interested in serving on the committee let us know. Some committee members have multiple roles and it would be good to share the load.
There will be fewer Zoom meetings but we need to develop more ways of (1) engaging with the general public and making them aware of the LCS and (2) getting broader participation from LCS members and (3) making the meetings more about performing, sharing and responding e.g., The Nonsense Poetry evening.
Conclusion
Despite all the constraints the LCS was very active and we need to build on this for next year.
Secretary’s Report 2021 (Jane Skelly)
During 2021 the Committee considered it necessary to continue to hold meetings online, with the added benefit of global participation. It was hoped that this year we could return to ‘live’ meetings with on-streaming at the Art Workers’ Guild, but now, owing to the emerging Omicron variant, this is again being put on-hold.
The second year of the Covid restrictions has presented further logistical considerations. During lockdown publications in our stored facility were not accessible, so requests for articles were supplied where possible (if not by post) as scanned copies. We are currently digitising our back catalogue, which in future should obviate the need for printed material.
During the anniversary year of Through the Looking-Glass there continues to be a growing interest in the Society’s early issues of Jabberwocky as well as requests for the LCS 1976 publication of Dodgson’s ‘ Three Letters on Anti-vaccination’ . We are very grateful to members, Bob Cole and Mark Richards, who stepped in by scanning and posting out their own personal copies of Jabberwockies and The Carrollian.
Our membership has remained fairly constant with approximately 230 fully paid-up members. During the year Bob Cole and I have been continuing to share the temporary stop-gap role of membership secretary. We are now delighted to say that one of our members, Jill Treasure, who has experience with spread sheets and personal data bases, has very kindly agreed to take on the role of Membership Secretary in future. Last year the Committee voted for the annual subscription to run from October 1 to September 30 with effect from October 2020. Notice of this change with a reminder for overdue subscriptions was sent out in Bandersnatch . There has been no increase in the subscription rate this year.
We have introduced a new student rate of £10
The Lewis Carroll Society became a Charity Incorporated Organisation (CIO) on the 30 January 2020. Our new registered charity number is 1187658. In July 2021 the Society submitted the Trustees’ Annual Report and Accounts 2020 to the Charity Commission which is published on their web site.
We are grateful to all those who have contacted us particularly with historical and personal stories enriching our knowledge of Lewis Carroll. As always, I am enormously grateful to all our members who so kindly helped by answering questions and helped with finding sources of material generously sharing their knowledge of Carrollian matters, especially Caroline Luke, Selwyn Goodacre, Edward Wakeling and Mark Richards.
Treasurer’s Report 2021 (Tony Levene)
Accounts of the Lewis Carroll Society
Accounts and treasurer’s report for the LEWIS CARROLL SOCIETY for the twelve months to September 30 2021
Our total cash balances on September 30 2021 stand at £20,221.40 (£20.795.34 in previous year).
This is made of NatWest £5908.98 (£3221.32) Capital & Counties £11.659.36 (£11,548.10) PayPal £2653.06 (£5911.92)
This fall in total cash balances is explained by higher than normal expenditure, in particular on the redesign of online offerings.
The Virgin Money account with £114 was closed during the year and the proceeds transferred to NatWest. The account had never been used.
The £600 Ellis Hillman account now stands at £200 after £400 was paid out to winners of a writing competition.
Only 23 UK members sent back new GiftAid forms which allow us to increase each subscription from a UK taxpayer by 25%. This turns each £25 into £31.25 – a gain of £6.25. As the Society has changed from a registered charity into a CIO (Charitable Incorporated Organisation) new forms are required.
The Society does not have a coherent list of members (there is still no membership secretary) but the treasurer finds it hard to believe that just 23 are UK taxpayers.
A new form will be sent with the next Bandersnatch mailing. When the numbers of forms returned reaches a realistic level, an application will be made to HMRC for GiftAid.
If you still have the form, please return it. If you have lost it, then there will be another sent out early next year.
Please remember that all UK income counts – salaries, pensions (both state and from other sources), dividends, property income.
During the year, the society sold a large number of books from storage which helped to reverse other falls in income.
We introduced a £10 reduced membership fee for younger people who were happy to receive publications electronically. So far, there has been no take up of this but it is too early to judge.
SPENDING
Due to the pandemic, we no longer hold meetings in central London. Our Zoom expenditure is £47 thanks to a share with another literary society. Our total expenditure was £8,994.83.
Our biggest single item of spending is our website etc. This amounted to £3,542 – a sum largely due to a one-off redesign of our website.
This is followed by printing and postage of our various publications. This amounted to £3,333.24.
Other expenditure
Insurance £142
Storage (in 2020-21 we kept storage in both London and Oxford). This came to £366.67 (London) and £800 (in Oxford). During 2021-22, we shall rationalise this spending. Association of Literary Societies (two years’ payment) £30 Postage – mainly of books etc in storage - £458.92
Other items (clearance of old material from storage labour etc.) £322.
PLEASE CONTACT TREASURER TONY LEVENE FOR QUERIE S
tony.levene@gmail.com
5. Elections for 2021 – 2022
Chairman: Steve Folan
Secretary: Jane Skelly Treasurer: Tony Levene
Members: Lindsay Fulcher, Mark Davies, Judith van den Berg, Justine Houyaux Brian Sibley was confirmed as President
Sarah Jardine-Willoughby retired from the Committee.
Following the elections to the Committee chairman, Steve Folan thanked Sarah Jardine Willoughby for her long-term service to the Soclety. As well as many other skills she was especially appreciated for the catering at the LCS Christmas parties at the AWG.
The President, Brian Sibley, and members thanked Sarah for all her commitment to the Society as committee member over the years.
6. Motion from Treasurer Tony Levene
‘The Lewis Carroll Society should no longer accept non-Sterling cheques’ was passed by the members.
There being no further business the meeting closed and was followed later than 7pm by