Committee meeting

Felixstowe Scribblers Committee Meeting Tuesday 8th June 2010.

Present: Dick, Peter, Barry, Ruth and Dave.

This informal meeting was called to appoint a new secretary to replace Dave who retired from the post and to look at the structure of the group and the format of the meetings.

As we have not heard from Alex it was decided to reduce the committee strength by one, this being Alex’s post.

The position of secretary has been accepted by Barry who will take up his post on Tuesday 15th June at the next Scribblers meeting.

Ruth remains as Social Secretary, Peter as Treasurer, Dick as recorder and Dave, who remains a committee member, will take responsibility for the weblog(s).

We had a number of suggestions over the recent large drop in attendances at the meetings and each was discussed and then compared to a cross section of twenty-one other groups through the UK.

Most groups meet as we do, fortnightly (or twice a month), some meet monthly whilst the minority meet weekly.

Generally our meeting format falls in line with most, the main difference being that the majority of groups charge an annual fee up to £35 together with a meeting fee. The wealthier clubs then have the ability to book regular guest speakers, authors, editors and the like.

As far as Felixstowe Scribblers are concerned we seem to have a similar criteria inviting a guest speaker for the last two years and this, without an annual fee. However it has been agreed to increase the suggested voluntary contribution each meeting from 50p to £1 starting in July.

Despite attempts at the last three AGMs to find out whether our meeting format and programme needed altering, it seemed everyone was happy as it was. Now, though, comments have been made whereby homework assignments, voluntary as they are, have become too onerous for some. Discussing this at length the committee decided to change the programme of meetings. One meeting a month will be for homework assignments only, in other words no more than twelve assignments per year. These will be set at the end of the homework meetings thus giving a full four weeks to create the work. When attendances are low we may also use time for impromptu writing exercises.

The second meeting of the month will be altered to encompass the Bill Budner Trophy and creative writing sessions led by a member of the committee. Where it is possible then a guest speaker may be brought in, subject to cost and availability.

Comments concerning the lack of feedback seem to apply to other groups as well. Here at Felixstowe we have always fought against harsh criticism but will be supportive and provide constructive comment as time permits. We have also declared in the past that it is very hard to give full and proper comment just from listening once to a piece of work. We offered an alternative to those who wanted feedback for them to provide a copy of their work that could be taken away and read in leisure. The feedback could be given at the next meeting, passed direct to the writer or even remain anonymous. With many of us on the Internet there is also the possibility of stories being emailed to each other for comment.

One new facility that we will provide in the very near future will be a password protected blog where members can post and share their work and will be able to comment on and receive feedback.

Your committee hopes you will appreciate its attempts at maintaining our high standards and delivering many of the items which were asked of us. Felixstowe Scribblers writing group provides a unique experience and will remain open to constructive comment and maintain its keenness to be progressive.