A.G.M. 2018 VIRGINIA WATER ART SOCIETY

• COMMITTEE 2018
• PRESIDENT Marie Cook
• CHAIRMAN Jean McDonnell
• TREASURER Margaret Baldock
• PROGRAMME Pam Hawins
• SECRETARY  Marcia De Meriveles
• MEMBERSHIP Gabi Doering
• WORKSHOPS Doug Co
• OUTINGS Colin Deal 
• HOSPITALITY Patricia Lumly
• others Anne Williams, Kate Bull         

Virginia Water Art Society

Annual General Meeting

The Virginia Water Library Virginia Water, Surrey

December 3^rd, 2018

Chairman’s Report

After a slow start having had a two-year break from the Chairmanship I am back up and running. We have struggled this year with too many jobs and not enough bodies and I would like to thank those on the committee who undertook more than one job a time, without who’s help it would have been a very difficult year.

We have had offers of help for next year so the only outstanding issues are that of Programme  Secretary whose job it is to book the demonstrators.  Thanks to Kate for booking the last two years, and thanks to Pam for stepping in to book 2020 but we will need to look for someone next year as the bookings have to be done a year in advance.  It does not need to be an onerous task, we use an agency who can book Artists for us and supply details of these and we can book directly with an Artist, researching what they do and looking at Artists work can be enjoyable. Meeting and looking after the Artist when they arrive can also be interesting.

We could also do with some help with the advertising, so if anyone feels they would like to help they would be very welcome to join us. We do take every opportunity to promote the Society and I will continue to attend any invitations we receive to local events that would prove useful in promoting us.

Marcia has volunteered to take over the minutes of the meetings which will be another job share solved and will greatly help the committee.

Workshops

Our Workshops this year have been amazing and have all been fully booked. Many thanks to Doug for all his efforts. As this year’s workshops have been so popular, we decided to book 5 next year so happy painting.

Outings

We did manage a trip to the Mall galleries thanks to Pam, we always enjoy the SWA.  As Pam is now back on Programme  Colin has agreed to organize some coach outings watch this space.

Membership

Another shared job for some time has been the membership secretary and thankfully Gabi has come forward to fill this position. Members are down to only 50 members; however, more are attending the Wednesday evenings and workshops which is good news.  On our Wednesday evenings we see about 30 -35 members attending which is very encouraging.  We will be working on increasing the membership and encouraging visitors. It has been mentioned that we are a very friendly group which is very nice to hear.

Exhibitions

The Two Exhibitions were very good with the weather being kind to us, both however were down on our usual sales selling 22 paintings in the May and 13 in the August 35 in all which is down by about 30 % the Autum  one in particular  seeing much less visitors than we have had in a long time, possible because it was a bank holiday together with Magna Carta and Englefield Green Fare so we have decide to avoid the bank holidays in future and next year’s exhibitions will be 1^st June 2019 and 7^th Sept  2019 weather permitting as usual. Many Thanks to Alfred Lane who helped my husband John get the stands and equipment and return them at the end of the day to the community centre.  Also, thanks to Doug for the use of the Gazebo yet again this year,  I would like to thank Colin who help several of our members set up their stands at the exhibition which was much appreciated. 

Many thanks to Patricia for the warm welcome she gives on Wednesday evenings and for hosting the committee meetings.  Thanks to Marie and Pam for the support they have given me as Chairman and to Anne Williams for doing the minutes in the past.  Special thanks to Margaret for being such a constant steady hand on the till she has continued being Treasurer since I first took the Chair over 6 years ago and has agreed to continue again this year.

And lastly my thanks go to my husband John who not only supports us by operating the camera for us at the Wednesday demo’s but also for All the work he does on Exhibition days, getting all the stands out and returned for the exhibitions, putting up road signs on the day and generally doing a lot of the physical tasks without which we would all struggle.