Welcome to The Arts Society New Forest. As a society we are interested in furthering our knowledge of the fine arts. We meet on a regular basis to enjoy lectures on a range of topics, delivered by renowned speakers. Our interests are extended further when we study subjects in greater depth and go out on day visits and breaks away, both in Britain and abroad.
An important aspect of our society is our aim to offer the opportunity, within an artistic framework, to young people from the local community to explore and extend their personal knowledge. Conservation of heritage is important to us too. A group of our members regularly meet to record for posterity, the fabric and artefacts of local places of worship.
Our society is a local branch of The Arts Society , an international charitable organization.
Ideas and suggestions for virtual and real tours of exhibitions, lectures and cultural activities during the corona virus restrictions are on the Page entitled ‘NEWS’ These also include work from the Royal Ballet, the Royal Opera House and the Met in New York. They are regularly updated and open the door to so many wonderful experiences !
If you have any ideas or suggestions please email them to : ruth.conway@hotmail.co.uk
Dear members, it is very, good news that the rollout of vaccinations is going apace but we need to see how the Coronavirus variants are going to test them. With that in mind, we are carefully considering our future programme, keeping half an eye open for a return to ‘normality’ but also realising that it may still be some way off.
Therefore, the committee has decided to postpone the TASNF visit abroad to April 2022, which Janet Handley is kindly organising for us. But we are hoping that the September trip to Stratford upon Avon, which Sue Balfour is heading up, might still take place. Will hotel accommodation be available, will The Shakespeare Company be producing a play? We will keep you informed; the prospect is a promising one.
Due to restrictions from Covid, we are having to be creative about holding our AGM. The AGM will take place in April. We will Zoom the meeting before the lecture, using polling for the voting. Members will have papers sent out six weeks before as usual and will be offered a vote via email/post, should they choose not to Zoom on the day.
In what may be our only chance of a ‘trip to foreign places’ this Spring our lecture for March sounds intriguing: ‘Bhutan: The Kingdom of the Thunder Dragon’ by Zara Fleming. Many thanks to our members who helped us with the breakout room process after the lecture (the chat rooms), our target is to get members into the rooms and leave them there rather than whisk them off to another, just after they have settled in!
By the middle of March, Gill Baldwick, Membership Secretary will be sending you a membership renewal email. She asks that you make sure you have membershipnf@outlook.com in your Contacts list, please. If you don’t receive the email by the end of March, please would you check your “junk” email.
As I write this, the Beast from the East has brought bitter winds and sprinklings of snow.
With very, best wishes to you all, keep safe and warm!
Diana Heatly Chairman
THE ARTS SOCIETY NEW FOREST (Member Society of THE ARTS SOCIETY)
Forty Ninth Annual General Meeting to be held on Monday April 12th, 2021 at 10.15 am on Zoom AGENDA
Welcome to the 49th Annual General Meeting of The Arts Society New Forest
1 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
2 MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING
3 CHAIRMAN’S REPORT
4 TREASURER’S REPORT
5 ADOPTION OF THE AUDITED ACCOUNTS Proposer: Penny Witherick Seconder: Mike Matthews
6 ELECTION OF THE OFFICERS AND COMMITTEE The following nominations have been received: Chairman Diana Heatly Proposed by Pat Godwin Seconded by Judy Martin Treasurer Helen Bedford Proposed by Jackie Alcock Seconded by Jenny Peckham Secretary Sue Randall Proposed by Sarah Nield Seconded by Jane Pitts Re-election to Committee: Gillian Baldwick, Ruth Conway, Fiona Dinn, Janet Handley, Jill Meakin, Diana Stewart, Naila Webb. Proposed by Richenda Viqueira Seconded by Faith Joliffe Election of new Committee member: Inka Butler Proposed by Jill Meakin Seconded by Naila Webb
7. APPOINTMENT OF AUDITOR: Sue Garrod Proposed by Jenny Simpson Seconded by Mike Clarke
8. ANY OTHER BUSINESS
THE ARTS SOCIETY NEW FOREST (Member Society of THE ARTS SOCIETY) Forty Eighth Annual General Meeting to be held on Monday July 27th , 2020
The 48th Annual General Meeting had to be postponed due to restrictions imposed by the Government due to the Coronavirus. T
he committee decided to hold the AGM online and via a postal vote on July 27th, 2020. The AGM report was circulated to all members and members invited to vote on the following motions. (This section is in lieu of the Minutes of the Forty Eighth Annual General Meeting). Results of the Motions from last year’s Minutes. ‘Approve all’ :75. One member ‘approved’ items ‘3&4’ and ‘abstained’ from items ‘1&2’.
i) The Audited accounts were adopted.
ii) Elected Officers: Chairman: Diana Heatly Treasurer: Helen Bedford Secretary: Sue Randall Re-election to Committee: Gillian Baldwick, Ruth Conway, Fiona Dinn, Sue Randall, Diana Stewart, Rose Tainsh. Election of new Committee members: Naila Webb, Jill Meakin, Janet Handley.
iii) Appointment of Auditor: Sue Garrod
The Arts Society New Forest Chairman’s Report – April 2021
I had the privilege of being appointed as chairman of TASNF last summer. Thanks to the emergence of Coronavirus, Sue Balfour (outgoing chair) and I had an intriguing transition process. I should like to express my thanks again on behalf of the committee and all our members to Sue, because we did not have the opportunity to thank her properly for all she has contributed to our society during her tenure.
Due to the virus we had to cancel our April, May and June lectures in Brockenhurst Village Hall including our AGM. The Arts Society and our innovative CEO, Dr. Florian Schweizer, managed to come up with some solutions, which meant we were able to proceed with our AGM in July using online and postal votes.
These were challenging times, and it was reassuring to know that we had the advice of our President Penelope Chitty and our Vice President Mary Booth with their wide experience to call on at any time.
Sue Balfour was pro-active in the process of setting up Zoom and with her help a Zoom Subcommittee was set up. Alister Hutchin kindly offered to act as our host. The Arts Society provided training and a licence for us to enable our members to watch our scheduled lectures from September on Zoom.
The Arts Society also provided a Connected website, monthly online bulletins and managed to send out our magazines.
TASNF have been sending out a monthly newsletter to every member via email or Royal Mail. A major concern was keeping in touch with members who were not online users and members of the committee phoned them in person, in October and January.
Our October coffee morning for new members was held via Zoom. This was our opportunity for new members to meet our committee including our Vice Chairman, Naila Webb, who has provided invaluable support as we try to second guess the Covid impact on our society.
Some members of the committee have been kept busy, Diana Stewart our Lecture Secretary has been planning our lectures for 2022, Sue Randall has been working on our first Zoom Special Interest Day in February, Gill Baldwick has been updating our membership list and preparing for our subscription renewal, very time consuming. Rose Tainsh has been producing a most informative weekly email giving suggestions for arts-related home viewing available online, which has been much appreciated. Fiona Dinn, our Hall Manager has been liaising with Brockenhurst Village Hall, who have been extremely helpful over the cancellations and keeping our slot in their timetable for when we return. Helen Bedford, Treasurer, has been doing an excellent job managing our accounts, which I learned about as we went through them together, my first time. She has had to cope with all the changes thrown up by Covid. Thanks also to our Auditor Sue Garrod. All this within the limitations of lockdown! Sue Randall, our Secretary has been busy taking minutes for our committee meetings and keeping the committee informed about our meetings on Zoom.
Another project is the pending website re-design led by Ruth Conway. Our current website designer David Benham is retiring, he has done an excellent job and will be missed. This provides us with an opportunity to revisit our needs for tasnf.org.uk. and find another website manager. If any of our members have IT experience and would like to offer their assistance with IT issues, it would be much appreciated.
It has been a quieter year for our Visits Secretaries Rose Tainsh and Janet Handley, as they have had to adapt to the pressures of Covid, cancelling and rescheduling. The planned 4 day visit to Stratford which had to be postponed in 2020 is now scheduled for 15th – 18th September 2021. The planned 5day/4night trip to Bologna, Palma and Ravenna had to be cancelled in April 2020. Janet Handley is currently obtaining quotations for a trip to Lisbon in the latter part of April 2022, being the first opportunity when we are more confident of safe, overseas travel which does not conflict with our Stratford trip in Autumn 2021. It has been a quieter year also for Jill Meakin our Committee member without portfolio, for Margaret Porteus, who oversees the rota providing refreshments before our monthly meeting and for Penny Witherick who looks after our rota for the wonderful floral displays provided during each lecture in the Hall (we look forward to the time when this can happen again), also for our projectionists, Bob Rich and the team of Alister Hutchin and Nigel Lang, who have been supportive with the setting up of Zoom.
This has been a time of coming together of Societies as we try to find a way through this pandemic to support our members as best, we can. Ali Green, Chairman of Hampshire and Isle of Wight and her team have been a great help through this time. They were able to run the annual November study course (on Zoom), with the help of Penny Witherick. There was an illuminating session on Recruitment and Retention of Committee members, running alongside The Arts Society project on Recruitment and Retention, another challenge in these Covid times.
Finally, I would like to thank you, our loyal members for sticking with us through these extraordinary times; your presence and generous support is what this is all about.
Diana Heatly