Report of our meeting

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REPORT OF THE MEETING HELD 1st JUNE 2010

Apologies: Jane, Trish and Sue.

Present: Dick, Liliane, Rani, Tony, Barry, Peter, and Dave (chair)

SCRIBBLERS NEWS

Yet another extremely disappointing turnout that causes great concern amongst the few regulars who attend. It has been worrying to see our numbers drop from a top attendance of twenty eight down to a recent average of only seven or eight. Obviously there are holidays and other events that come up which is quite understandable but sometimes, when writers stop coming to meetings, we hope that we have helped them on their way to a successful writing career.

In the email sent advertising this meeting we asked for any suggestions that might improve our evenings or deliver what you want but have only received a couple of replies so far. We need to know what you want from our meetings, how we might improve, possibly with a new structure or a complete revamp of our programme.

It has been suggested we advertise for new members and circulate questionnaires to everyone who has attended in the past five or six months to find out why they have stopped coming along. Having attempted in past AGM’s to discover if members want format changes, but everyone seemed quite happy with the existing structure – so why the dramatic drop in numbers?

As a group we have always had a very high standard of writing from our members proven with publication of novels and short stories and doing well in competitions. That is success! We still aim to be progressive and deliver what our members want and remain, as always, open to suggestions of how to improve things - even down to how we have offered to help with the age old problem of feedback.

Any ideas, please email scribblers@btinternet.com by Sunday 6th June in preparation for the committee meeting next week. We really hope to hear from you.

On a positive note it was nice to see Rani again who had travelled down from London in the afternoon.

We all have a personal invitation from Geraldine Rose to attend the launch of her book ‘Feeding Strawberries to Pigs’ which is an anthology of short stories. The launch will take place at Cretingham Golf Club on Saturday July 3rd at 7.30. Tickets will cost £10 and will include a hog roast and strawberries. Profits will be donated to another worthy cause, The Meningitis Research Foundation so go to www.meningitis.org to read why this is Geraldine’s chosen charity.

As numbers will be restricted, tickets should be booked as soon as possible from Tickets4u2010@yahoo.co.uk. Raffle prizes would be very welcome.

On the subject of books, don’t forget that Barry’s novel ‘Strictly a Family Affair’ is available for sale. It’s a good one and definitely worth purchasing. Details from Barry.

THE PLATFORM

The two 1,500 word open themed topics were read by Liliane and Barry.

Liliane: Feng Shui
Barry: Divine Intervention

The 500 + word homework theme “Rainbow”

Dick: The Golden Rainbow
Rani: The Bear, the Book and the Boat
Tony: A Rainy Day in Plankton
Peter: Rainbow Fortune
Dave: Under the Rainbow

It was rewarding discussing each piece of original and entertaining work in so much detail, something that is only possible with such a low turnout.

The meeting ended in hilarity when reading a script of the children’s television programme ‘Rainbow’ which was banned for its double entendres. Each Scribbler was assigned a part to read but was honestly doubled up with laughter. The script was quite near the mark but so very funny. Tony even suggested that Rushmere Players might like to use it in a future production – apart from copyright issues, after the rejection of the play ‘The Crabby Arms’ this would surely be too adult for them!

Our Next Meeting will be on Tuesday 15th June at 7.30pm in the Room at the Top, Felixstowe Library. With recent low turnouts the homework assignment has been increased to 1,000 words with the theme this time on “Absent Friends”.

Committee members please note that next Tuesday’s committee meeting starts at 7.30.

Until then,

Keep Scribbling!


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