Annual Report for the year ended March 31st 2023
The trustees of Fermanagh Writers are pleased to submit their report and accounts
for the period April 151 2022 to March 31 $1 2023.
Achievements and performance:
Meeting programme:
The group's weekly meeting programme is a core activity which contributes greatly
to the success of the group. In the year to March 31 st 2023 the group met weekly,
except during the period between Christmas Day and New Year's Day, to share and
peer critique our members, writings. From April until December the meetings
alternated between in-person and online via Zoom as our society recovered from the
restrictions imposed by Covid. From January to March weekly meetings had returned
to in-person every week. Attendance at meetings varied between five and fifteen
people.
Corncrake magazine:
Our biannual online magazine, edited by Jenny Brien, produced two issues during
the year. The autumn issue featured poetry, prose and images related to the theme
Peace and Quietness. The theme was chosen in a response to the changes people
experienced to their lives during the Covid pandemic. The second issue, Small
Beginnings, was prepared in March and released shortly afte￿ard. Both issue
received positive feedback and comments from readers.
CommunityArts Partnership Poetry workshops..
During October and November, the group hosted six hours of workshops led by a
CAP poetry tutor. The workshops provided instruction to our members and other
writers living in Fermanagh. Participants produced work that was eligible for
submission to Community Arts Partnership's Compass anthology.
RTE Radio's The County Measure:
The radio programme presented by writer and broadcaster Vincent Woods, who
travels across Ireland exploring county identity under the themes of art, community,
culture, history, music and sport, visited the group in August to interview members
and record them reading their work for a radio programme about Fermanagh. The
programme was aired in late August. The broadcast presented members, work to a
wider audience than they usually reach and they received many positive comments
about their interviews and performances from listeners to the radio programme.
Book Launches:
In December the group hosted a book launch for member, John Monaghan's debut
poetry collection, I Can Dream. Approximately thirty people, including group
members and members of the public, attended the launch. The group enjoyed a
chance to celebrate the success of one of their members and to meet other writers
from the area who attended the event.
Cultural Trips:
In December members of the group attended the Royal Ulster Academy's annual art
exhibition in the Ulster Museum in Belfast. The exhibition consisted of works of
painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, and video.

In March the group was invited to the Tribes and Tribulations solo exhibition by artist
Helen Merrigan Colfer at Strule Arts Centre in Omagh, County Tyrone. The exhibition
organiser, Noelle McAlinden, provided a guided tour of the exhibition, which
consisted of mainly resin and bronze figurative sculptures. The exhibition also
featured audio-visual work, including the artist's Covid Diaries, a series of paintings
and illustrations created during lockdown which express wit, humour and sensitivity
through a challenging situation.
Attending the exhibitions allowed the members to experience other art forms and
produce writings inspired by their responses to the exhibitions.
Websites:
In July the Corncrake magazine and Fermanagh Writers websites were
amalgamated to produce one streamlined, easy to access website. One page within
the website is dedicated to the group. The executive committee made the decision to
merge the websites for practical and economic reasons as the group's limited
income could not sustain web hosting fees for two websites indefinitely. One website
also focusses all the group's materials in one easy to find place.
Financial Review
Financial Performance..
The year ended with a general unrestricted fund balance of £370 and no restricted
funds.
Income: Income for the year totalled £16.
Expenditure: Expenditure for the year totalled £100.
The group usually receives most of its income from membership fees, but
membership fees were waived this year due to the difficulty of collecting fees when
the group was not meeting regularly in-person. One member voluntarily paid the
membership fee. As a result of waiving the membership fees, the group had a very
low income for the year and relied on funds in the bank account to cover
expenditures.
The group was also hampered in their activities by difficulty accessing their funds. In
July Nationwide Building Society, the financial institution where the group's funds
were held, closed all their Treasurers Trust accounts and returned the group's
monies to them in cheque form. Due to the length of the application process for a
new account at another bank, the group did not have a new bank account at the end
of the financial period. During the last eight months of the year, the group could not
engage in any activities that required funds as they could not access their funds. As
a result, the group met in a venue that did not charge for room hire, and did not
undertake spending for any purposes. Despite these difficulties, the group continued
to offer its regular meeting programme to members and any other writer who wished
to attend.
Reference and Administrative Details

Charity Name: Fermanagh Writers, which was previously known as Fermanagh
Creative Writing Group.
Charity Number: Registered Charity in Northern Ireland, No .106060.
Principal Address: 59 Raw Road, Derrycullion, Brookeborough, County
Fermanagh, BT94 4GH.
Charity Trustees as of January 16th 2024:
Ms Jennifer Brien
Mr Ken Ramsey
MrThomas McGovern
Mrs Dianne Trimble
Mr John Monaghan
Chair
Vice Chair
Treasurer
Secretary
Member without portfolio
other Charity Trustees in the year to March 31st 2023
Mr John James Resigned as a trustee and a member of the group in May 2023
Structure, Governance, and Management Governing Document and
Constitution
The group is an unincorporated association and is governed by a constitution
adopted March 2009 and last amended June 2017; this is available from the group
by email request to fermana
hwriters
aol.co.uk. The group is run entirely by its
members who pay an annual membership subscription. As of March 312023 the
group had a membership of 12.
Trustee Selection and Management
The group is managed by an Executive Committee which consists of all the
appointed trustees. These officers are noted in the list of current trustees above.
The Executive Committee meets typically quarterly., in the year to March 31 st 2023 a
total of three meetings were held.
At each meeting the Treasurer presents the latest accounts and the trustees discuss
other business that has arose since the last meeting.
The Annual Report and Statement of Accounts are approved by the trustees and
then presented to the members at the Annual General Meeting.
Objectives and Activities:
Charitable Objects
The object of the group is to provide opportunities for creative writers in the
Fermanagh area to have the resources and a sociable support network of writers
meeting weekly in order to improve their writing skills and publish their work.
Public Benefit statement
The trustees of Fermanagh Writers confirm that they have complied with their duty
under section 17 (5) of the Charities Act 2011 to have regard to the Charity

Commission's guidance on public benefit and that the public benefit requirement has
informed the activities of the group in the year to March 31 st 2023. In evaluating
public benefit, the trustees note that membership of the group is open to all who
share an interest in creative writing in the Fermanagh area. Whilst we would
encourage those with interest to join our group, we also strive to make our services
available to non-members in the Fermanagh area. Our meeting programme and the
workshops we organise are open to all.
Summary of Main Activities
The core activities of the group are..
Delivery of a weekly meeting programme to share and peer critique our members,
writings.
Production of the biannual online magazine Corncrake.
Organising professionally tutored workshops on a diverse range of topics of interest
to writers, including writing techniques for prose and poetry.
Approved and adopted by a meeting of the Executive Committee on January 16th
2024 and signed on their behalf
Dianne Trimble,
Secretary