Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the WPA
Held on Saturday 21st March 2015 at Plymouth College of Art
Attendance
There were 46 members present at the meeting including 9 committee members
1. Doreen introduced the committee and their roles within the association
2. Apologies for absence
Apologies were received from Nicola Crocker, Jeanne Gimblett, Tim Andrews, Brian
Norton, and John Mather
3. Minutes of the previous AGM
The proposal to accept the Minutes of the AGM 2014 was made by Cristina Peters,
seconded by Jax Williams and accepted by the meeting. The Chair then signed the
minutes.
4. Matters arising from the Minutes
There were no matters arising from the minutes.
5. Annual Report from the Chair
The Chair welcomed members to the 2015 Annual General Meeting and thanked them
for attending.
She reported that although the Association had increased the subscription rates there
had been very few cancelations. Membership was still very good value compared with a
seat at the ballet or Opera at a local theatre.
She drew attention to the amazing selection of interesting and informative
demonstrations including a studio visit to Svend Bayer and a talk by Peter Hayes that
have been organized by the Activities Team led by John Watson. There have been
opportunities for a hands on approach offered at the tile decoration day at Penny
Simpson’s and the social firing day.
There have been three chances for members to exhibit their work. The Potters Market
took place on Exeter Quay in July and then the Association had a double stand at the
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Contemporary Craft Fair in June at which sales totaled £1347. A new opportunity for
members to exhibit their work occurred when Glastonbury Abbey offered the Association
space in their very pleasant gallery in November. Sales totaling over £1200 were from
the exhibition plus sales from the shop.
A new Handbook and Directory was produced in October by the combined efforts of
Sally who updated it, Norma who proof read and Livia who put it into InDesign format so
that Adrian could print it and mail it out. The Newsletter goes from strength to strength
under Adrian’s editorship.
Doreen reminded members that she would be stepping down from the Chair this year
and that the committee has chosen Lorraine Gilroy to take over after the AGM. Lorraine
is a retired head teacher, practicing potter and ceramics teacher who had shadowed
Doreen for the last six months, a process that will, hopefully, result in a seamless
transfer.
Lorraine has generously offered to carry on with the website after taking on the role of
Chair. She has, in the last year, widened the scope of the website in many ways to
include a lot more information on news and events, nearly all of the Association’s
published newsletters from 1993 and many other interesting facts and video segments
popular with site visitors.
Last year several committee members had to retire due to ill health. The Membership
Secretary Sally is expecting a baby in July and will not be able to carry on. Jeanne
Gimlet has also found that she is unable to continue in her role due to increased
commitments. Doreen expressed her concern that it will be impossible to run the
Association without some other members volunteering to serve on the committee. She
reported that there is a specific need for some able-bodied committee members as there
are three disabled committee members who are unable to help with practical jobs at
demonstrations. She suggested that members might volunteer for just a year or with a
friend.
She thanked the committee for all their support and dedication throughout her term of
office, pointing out that without them she couldn’t have done the job and the Association
could not have maintained such high standards in every area.
6. Treasurer Report
The Treasurer, Norma Harris, thanked Tim Gee and Eric Saxby for auditing the
accounts.
The Treasurer referred the members to the copy of the 2014 accounts, which had been
issued to all.
She pointed that we had made a surplus of £236.01 over the year. She informed the
members that the total assets were £6663.71, which gave a surplus of £1663.71 over
the agreed minimum reserve of £5000.
She asked if members had any questions about the accounts. Elaine Hughes asked if
there had been any problems or adverse comments since the subscription increase in
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2014. Norma replied that all seemed satisfied. Following a question about possible
increasing the charge to exhibit in exhibitions, the reply was that the charge is kept low
in order to attract more exhibitors.
She said she hoped the funds would remain healthy in 2015 due to the increased
subscription revenue.
Rod Pike proposed approval of the accounts and seconded by Chris Wyatt. The
accounts were approved by the membership.
7. Membership Secretary Report
A busy start to the year for Membership Secretary and Treasurer with the introduction of
the new membership rates and standing order changes, etc.
At the end of 2014 WPA had 295 members – a decrease of 1 when compared to the end
of 2013.
As at 16th March 2015 our membership was 248, down 19 on this time last year. This
could be due to the membership fee increase. However, there were still a few late
renewals expected.
We continued to attract new members – 13 since Jan 2015. A good sign that WPA still
represented great value for money.
All members should have received their new handbook at the beginning of the year.
Sally announced she was standing down as membership secretary after the AGM and
thanked all the committee members for their help and guidance. She was looking
forward to staying on as a general member of the committee and helping out where she
could.
8. Activities Officer and Potters Market Organiser Report
John informed the members that the Activities core team was himself, John Watson,
Jeanne Gimblett & Karen Edwards. They were supported by Jo Ponting, Jax Williams
and Marian Beresford and by a number of members writing articles for the Newsletter,
helping with logistics, firing etc. John thanked everyone who had helped but particularly
Jeanne and Karen. It couldn’t happen without their tireless work, support and
knowledge.
The overall aim was to provide a wide variety of stimulating activities for members. John
hoped the members would feel that we were doing this. Activities had all been well
supported by members with many at their maximum capacity.
John outlined the review of the year’s events as follows:
John started his report with a reminder of the Association Activities last year.
In January 2014 the social lunch was held at Broomhill Art Hotel. Everyone enjoyed
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good food and excellent company in these attractive surroundings.
Clive Bowen demonstrated at our AGM here in March. This was a wonderful
demonstration of throwing and slip decoration by a master potter with a lifetime of
experience.
In April there was a visit to Nick Mackman’s studio where she inspired members with her
highly skilled, fluent and rapid techniques for making and decorating her animal
sculptures which capture the character and moods of her subjects so beautifully.
May’s studio visit was to see Svend Bayer at work in his studio producing his superb
large thrown stoneware vessels and to see his arrangements for wood firing in his
anagama kiln.
There were no visits in June as the whole committee was involved in organising the
Association exhibition at the Contemporary Craft Fair in Bovey Tracey.
The annual Potters Market organised by Kat Jenkins and Sally Marshall took place on
the Quay in Exeter on 14th July. There were 18 stalls and members reported an
enjoyable and generally profitable day.
We had another busy and productive day at the Social Firing at Highfield Ceramics in
August with 29 members present, six kilns and new activities such as Karen Edwards
demonstrating the obvara technique and Giles Edmondston-Low’s Microwave Raku
process. Thanks were noted to Rosie and Giles Edmondston-Low for hosting us so
generously and to the sweaty, hard working kiln operatives.
In September members visited Yo Thom’s family home and studio and saw her
producing her attractive range of domestic ware.
In October a large number of members enjoyed Peter Hayes’ wonderful and inspiring
talk, his unique pottery and making methods and his total commitment to pottery and
potters in Africa and India.
There was another full house of participants for the visit to Penny Simpson’s studio in
November. Members enjoyed Penny’s demonstration of making and decorating her slip
decorated tableware and then tried their hand at decorating their own plates she had
made.
Except where mentioned otherwise these activities were organised by the core Activities
Team of Jeanne Gimblett, Karen Edwards and John Watson. John was enormously
grateful to Karen and Jeanne, as the events simply could not have happened without
them.
Sadly Jeanne has decided she must withdraw from the Committee and from the
Activities team. John paid tribute to her contribution to the Association as previous
leader of the Activities team and as a tireless, wise and wonderfully humorous colleague
on the committee.
During the year we had been helped by Jax Williams, Jo Ponting and Marian Beresford
but for various reasons they had been unable to continue on the committee.
The WPA had a full range of Activities planned for the year ahead and these are
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reported in the Newsletter. John mentioned in particular the forthcoming demonstration
by Gareth Mason in April and the visit to British Ceramic Tiles in April.
As ever, our overall aim is to provide a wide variety of stimulating activities for members.
John hoped the members felt we were achieving this. Activities had all been well
supported by members with many at their maximum capacity.
The good news was that we had plans in place for the rest of this year and were well on
in our thinking about 2016.
The more sobering news was, that with Jeanne’s departure, we were left with just Karen
and John on the Activities team and it would be very challenging, if not impossible, for us
to have such a full programme next year without recruiting another full member of the
team.
To end John’s report he asked that someone would come forward to join us. Members
could do so by approaching one of the committee members.
The year ahead had a full programme of activities and events organised. Details of
which would be in the newsletter and E/News.
The team were already thinking about activities for 2016 and would warmly welcome any
members who would like to join the team or contribute ideas.
9. Newsletter Editor Report
Adrian reported that the newsletter continued to be well received and submissions had
been good for the regular features of demonstrations and workshops organised by the
activities team. There had been some submissions by members visiting exhibitions and
venues, but these had come almost exclusively from committee members who already
contribute a lot to WPA in other ways. Disappointingly, contributions from the wider
membership continue to be almost non-existent.
The Members' Gallery feature, which had appeared for some months now, showing
pictures taken at the 20th anniversary exhibition, was intended to 'kick start' regular
submissions of members' work. However, there had been almost no contributions from
the wider membership of either photographs for this feature, or for anything else. This
was disappointing and it suggested that the membership was either not confident to
share their work and ideas or aren't aware that there was a need.
The editor was concerned that if the newsletter was to continue to thrive, was to fairly
represent the membership, and not to become a burden that committee members alone
could not sustain, the membership must become more active. The editor and the
committee were ready to support anyone who wanted to contribute, and such
contributions did not have to be grand or elaborate - a picture of a recently completed
piece, a short account of a recent visit to a gallery or show, a recent purchase from
another maker, a potter's tip; all were valuable and can be enjoyed by others. If
Westcountry Potters was to remain a thriving community of people who share an interest
in the world of pottery and ceramics, there needed to be more members actively
involved in sharing their ideas and work with others in the Association, getting involved
in committee, and submitting material to the newsletter. The Association and all its
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activities, including it's newsletter, belonged to the membership and need to be
supported by that membership if it is to continue to thrive.
10. Advertising Officer Report
Advertising continues onwards and upwards with relatively little difficulty in securing
advertisers. It can be assumed that this is, in large part, down to a quality publication.
However, the Committee has decided to slightly reduce the amount of advertisements,
by not pursuing new ones, in order to retain a healthy ratio between editorial and ads.
This may well mean fewer pages from time to time. However, more articles from
members would overcome this!
11. Website Officer Report
Lorraine reported on the Online Members’ Gallery.
It had been a busy New Year, updating the Members’ Gallery section in line with the new
Membership spreadsheet. In February, a new Excel spreadsheet was created with
information derived from Sally’s 2015 WPA Membership one, to reflect the Gallery status
of our current Members. This made it much easier to check Members’ online Gallery
details, or whether they do not wish to be included in it.
All new Members had been contacted by email and a few by post, about having an
online presence. Information had been sent out in eNews and the newsletter, with
thanks to Nicola and Adrian. We now have over 90 Members in the online Gallery, with
more applications pending, encompassing leisure/hobby potters, part-time professionals,
fulltime professionals and a few corporate pottery organisations. This represented about
one third of the total Membership.
Gallery pages continued to be updated for Members as and when they needed this.
JPEG images shown on the WPA Gallery were useful:
a)
when visitors to the site looked at your style of making and learn more about you
the potter, also to contact you regarding possible commissions, where they can see your
work in shows, etc.
b)
They were also the first point of reference for show selection and demonstrate
the breadth and focus of the ceramic work achieved by our Membership
Lorraine was hoping to join a Photoshop course at Plymouth College of Art later this
year, to support the work involved on the website.
Updating the website.
Full details of WPA events and events of interest are highlighted in the News and Events
section of the website. Any feedback or suggestions are warmly welcomed on any
aspect of the website via email.
12. Membership Fees
Membership fees are to remain the same as last year.
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13. Election of Officers
Lorraine Gilroy outlined the posts available on the Committee, specifying which officers
were willing to stand again at the end of their terms of office, and she invited
nominations from the floor.
As none of the posts were being contested Lorraine asked the members present if they
were happy to vote en bloc for the posts and this was agreed.
It was proposed by Eric Saxby, seconded by Joanne Richards and carried by the
meeting, that the following members be elected to the Committee to serve for a period of
3 years: Sally Marshall, Tony Worthington.
14. Open Session
Adrian Bates repeated his plea for greater participation by the general membership in
sending articles, photos, short items, exhibition visits, etc. for the Newsletter. Elaine
Hughes suggested having a postcard pro forma to provide an ideas reminder to
members of suitable requirements for contributions.
Joanne Richards suggested maybe having a feature on our Favourite Teapot or
Favourite Mug etc.
Adrian will put something in the newsletter to remind members.
Jax Williams asked if there is any way of buying/selling equipment etc. via the website.
Lorraine replied that she was considering this but we already have the eNews and
Facebook which were more instantaneous so ideal for buying/selling.
Jocelyn Ponting gave a vote of thanks to all the committee for the superb activities
programme over the last year. Setting up a 'Buddies System' for sharing the organisation
of activities was discussed.
Tributes were made to Doreen's involvement with the WPA from its beginning, including
her nine years as Chair. President Tim Andrews spoke from Japan on video thanking
Doreen for her passionate, no nonsense common sense involvement in everything.
Founder member Joanne Richards outlined contributions made by Doreen and Tony
Smithers to the WPA ending with a standing ovation by all, a vote of thanks and a
presentation of flowers and a specially commissioned Cat Box piece by Alistair Neil
MacDonnell. Doreen replied saying her years as Chair had been most interesting and
throughout her involvement with WPA she had a thoroughly enjoyable time.
There being no further business the meeting closed at 1.15pm.
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