January 2009 Page 2


MINUTES OF AGM 2009

(The AGM followed lunch in the Maiden Pavilion in Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens).

Minutes of the DH Lawrence Society of Australia held at the Maiden Pavilion, Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney, at 2.30 pm on 3.1.09

PRESENT: John Lacey (President), Rob Darroch (Vice-President), Sandra Darroch (Secretary and Acting Treasurer), Kerie Hooke, Roger Hooke, Peter Jones, Greg Baran, Tiffany Baran, Sam Baran, Beverley Firth, Andrew Moore.
MEETING COMMENCED: The meeting opened at 3 pm and the Minutes of the previous meeting were approved.
PRESIDENT'S REPORT: The President reported on the previous year's successful Lady Hopetoun harbour cruise and proceeded to events planned for 2009. He then outlined an event to be held at the Tramways Museum, (details to be provided later), and a lunch in the upstairs room at Minh's Vietnamese restaurant in Dulwich Hill, the date, subject of a talk and the speaker to be decided.
TREASURER'S REPORT: (see below). The Treasurer's report was delivered by the Acting Treasurer.
VICE-PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS: The Vice-President next addressed the group on D.H. Lawrence's bodily sources of inspiration and evidence for this in Physics. The Secretary also addressed the group on the subject of creative matters relating to Lawrence's main themes.
The President thanked the previous committee for their hard work.
ELELCTION OF OFFICE-BEARERS FOR 2009: An election for the new committee members was held. Their nomination was approved and seconded.
The following office bearers were elected; John Lacey (President): Robert Darroch (Vice-President): Sandra Darroch (Secretary): Kerie Hooke (Minutes Secretary): Greg Baran (Treasurer)
MEETING CLOSED: The meeting and talk concluded at 4 p.m.

PRESIDENT'S REPORT
  
TREASURER'S REPORT

The President of the DH Lawrence Society of Australia, John Lacey, gave his report on the Society's progress and future plans. He mentioned in particular the succesful Jacaranda Cruise on the steam yacht, Lady Hopetoun, on November 8, 2008, when Sydney put on a spectacular sunset for us.

The Lady Hopetoun cruise is an annual event of the Society and is its main fund raiser. John said another cruise will be scheduled for Autumn 2009.

Other forthcoming events for 2009 will include a visit to the Sydney Tramway Museum which will be holding its 19th Vintage Tram Festival on Sunday, February 22, 2009. The tram Lawrence took to Narrabeen in 1922 may still survive.

Another event for the diary will be a lunch at Minh's Vietnamese restaurant in Dulwich Hill where a speaker will give a talk on Lawrence. Minh's food is truly delicious. More details soon.

Summing up, John Lacey said the Society was in robust shape and other events would also be planned.

 

  

The acting Treasurer, Sandra Jobson, reported that in 2008 we decided to make some big changes.

We scrapped subscription fees for membership and made it free. This increased the number of people coming to our events and saved a lot of money in printing and postage of reminder notices.

We also decided to end the printing of our journal, Rananim, in hard copy and mailing it out - our greatest annual expenditure over the years.

We have now produced our first "virtual" Rananim (see www.cybersydney.com.au/dhl ) and have subsequently posted updates on Society activities and some new articles.

Making Rananim "virtual" has not only saved the Society a lot of money, it has also allowed us to be more immediate and relevant in our communications.

We now aim to raise funds by holding events such as picnics, trips and lectures, as outlined by the President, John Lacey.

The annual Lady Hopetoun harbour cruise - this time held in Spring, 2008 -our Jacaranda Cruise - produced a profit. After paying $1870 for the cruise, we made a profit of $580.00.

The bank balance of the Society currently stands at $4205.39.