The minutes of the RPS Historical Group AGM 2010 are below:

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Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the Royal Photographic Society

Historical Group held in the Reading Room, Ruskin Library, Lancaster University

Saturday 26^th June 2010 at 10.30 am

 

 

1)      Present:  Mr. Geoff Blackwell, Dr. Carolyn Bloore (Chair), Mrs. Jenny Ford, Mrs. Avril Harris, Mr. Brian Iddon, Mrs. Maureen McDonnell, Mr. Roger Preston, Mrs. Gilly Read, Mr. Andrew Read, Dr. Donald Stewart and Mr. Graham Whitwham. 

 

2)      Apologies received from:  Dr. David Bruce, Mr. Richard Morris, Mr. Michael Pritchard and Mr. Jim Walker.

 

3)      Minutes of 2009 AGM:  The minutes of the 2009 AGM were accepted as a true record.

 

4)      Matters arising:  There were no matter arising from minutes of 2009 AGM.

 

5)      Chairman’s Report:  Dr. Bloore reported that three issues of The PhotoHistorian had been published during 2009/2010. The current issue has been seriously delayed and would be published as soon as possible.  Dr. Bloore stated that The PhotoHistorian provides a most useful record of the proceedings of the Historical Group. 

Events: The Chairman reported that the event at Birmingham Central Library, 17^th April 2010, was a well attended meeting. The visit to the British Library, 6th February to visit the exhibition, ‘Coming Into Focus’ was successful and thanked Michael Pritchard for arranging this event with John Falconer, Curator of Photographs and the India Office Collection at the British Library. 

Dr. Donald Stewart had arranged another successful visit to Paris in December 2009 which had included visits to Société Française de Photographie  and department des Estampes et de la Photographie, Bibliotheque nationale to view a selection of their collections and archives.

The Chair reported Historical Group continues to have close association with the RPS Collection at the National Museum of Media, Bradford (NMeM). There is a need to keep profile of RPS Collection raised at NMeM, as has been reported as part of the Science Collection of NMeM.

 

6)      Financial Report:  Mr. Graham Whitwham, Treasurer, explained that, in accordance with the requirements laid down by the Society, the Income and Expenditure Account for the 12 months to 31.12.2009 had been submitted to Bath in January 2010 in time for the annual audit of the Society’s accounts.

In commenting on the Group’s accounts, he made reference to:

Income: in 2009 Bath had changed the policy for the payment to the Group of Life Membership subscriptions so that during the year 2009 two sums, representing amounts in respect of 2008 (previously always paid in arrears in the following year) and 2009 (now to be paid in the year in question) had been received, thus inflating the apparent level of Membership subscriptions shown in the Group’s accounts by some £450. In future, one only such payment would be received each year, in December. 

 

Expenditure:  exceptional expenditure covered the questionnaire survey (actual cost £136.73) and the production of the Group publicity leaflet (net cost £572.00, after a grant had been received from the RPS), although these two non-recurring items could be regarded as investments in the future of the Group. He also confirmed that membership subscriptions continued to cover the costs involved in producing four issues of The PhotoHistorian per annum.  In conclusion, Mr. Whitwham expressed the view that, after taking account of the one-off expenditures mentioned above, he regarded the financial outcome for the year as very satisfactory and that the balance sheet revealed that the Group was in an even healthier position than a year earlier. 

 

Referring to Membership subscriptions in 2010 to date, it was explained that, despite subscriptions often arriving at varying times depending on whether or not members made prompt payment or decided to pay by monthly Direct Debit (only £1.66 per month), it was clear that the recent arrival of  a number of new members to the Group had had a beneficial effect on subscription levels, and he estimated that these were running some 10%  ahead of 2009 on a comparable basis i.e. ignoring the policy change relating to the payment to the Group by Bath of Life Members’ subscriptions.

 

7.        Election of Committee for 2010/2011:

 Mr. Whitwham had submitted his resignation from the post as Treasurer.  Mr. Whitwham  agreed to continue and hand over to the new Treasurer, once the next issue of The PhotoHistorian had been produced. The Chairman gave a vote of thanks to Mr. Graham Whitwham on behalf of herself and the committee members for his work since joining the committee in 2007 and ensuring that the RPS Historical Group continued to exist. 

 

The Secretary reported that completed Nomination forms had been received from the following members:

 

Dr. Carolyn Bloore (Chairman)                                       Mr. Michael Pritchard

Mr. Geoff Blackwell                                                            Mrs. Gilly Read

Mrs. Jenny Ford    (Secretary)                                        Dr. Donald Stewart (Vice Chairman)

Mr. Brian Iddon

 

The constitution allows for up to 10 committee members, thus all the above were elected unopposed.  A new Treasurer was to be elected and other roles of committee members to be agreed at the first committee meeting, to be arranged.

 

8.        Any other business

(1) Niépce Conference, NMeM, 13/14^th October 2010 - Dr. Stewart advised members present that the reduced fees for Historical Group/Scientific Imaging Group members, with concessions, would be £63. The Scientific Imaging Group/Historical Group/Colour Group had agreed to make donation of £1,000 each towards purchase of a climatically controlled display case for the three Niépce plates. Stuart Blake, Secretary, RPS, would ensure that the donations were available for NMeM. The Historical Group/Scientific Imaging Group will jointly publish papers from the conference.      

(2) Dr. Stewart stated that he was delighted that Michael Pritchard  FRPS, had come onto the HG committee. DS congratulated MP on his diligence in updating the RPS/HG web pages.

(3) The Chairman stated that she felt that upcoming events, across the RPS and all special interest groups, should be indicated on the first page of the RPS website.

(4)  The Secretary reported that 13 new members had joined the HG as a result of the publicity leaflet that had been distributed with a recent mailing of the RPS Journal.

(5)  Mrs. Harris reported that the Contemporary Group would publicise HG events on their own website. This is to be reciprocated.

(6)  The Chairman thanked Dr. Stewart for publicising HG events within the RPS Journal’s ‘Members’ Matters’ section.

 

9.        Date and Venue of 2011 AGM

This would be arranged in conjunction with the timing of the RPS end of year. The venue in 2011 will be Birmingham, which is one of the three preferred locations that were indicated by  member’s in their responses to the Members’ Questionnaire.

 

The Annual General Meeting closed at 11.12 am.

 

There followed a presentation given by Professor Wildman about the origins of the Ruskin Library at Lancaster University and an introduction to the current exhibition of Ruskin Daguerreotypes.