Present – Alan Potter (Chair), Peter Firth, Roger Mitchell, Bob Neate, John Sharp
The meeting took place via Zoom.
Minutes
The minutes of the Committee Meeting on 12th February were approved.
Matters Arising
The Secretary reported that, as agreed at the previous Committee meeting, Peter represented the Society at Hazel’s funeral, a tribute to her had appeared in Forum and a letter of condolence had been sent to her niece.
Financial Update
There have been no significant changes. Bob will check that the Bank Mandate has been updated. The Society will receive a further few hundred pounds as a final settlement of the Wilde bequest. There will be a further payment for website development but this is not expected to be large.
It was agreed that Version B should be used for the presentation of accounts for the year to February 2021. This format is consistent with accounts for previous year. Bob was thanked for his hard work.
Forum Update
All editions of Forum are now available on the website and John has a sufficient amount of material for the next two or even three editions. These include articles on the Scarisbrick Family, Pomegranates, Comments on a Tennyson Poem, a short story on the 17th Century Plague and the Window Tax. Further contributions, especially from new contributors would be welcomed.
Appeal for New Committee Members
No volunteers have come forward and Roger was asked to contact several potential committee members to see whether any or all could be persuaded to join.
Future Programme Including Date of AGM
Assuming that restrictions ease, we hope to move from Zoom to Real Meetings at All Saints.
Friday 14th May – Zoom Presentation given by Tony Bell on The Hubble Telescope.
June – Alan to lead a Lichen Walk in Victoria Park (Alan suggests Friday, 18th June pm as provisional date for confirmation at next Committee meeting).
Friday in Late July – Details to be confirmed nearer the time but the hope is that this would be at All Saints and would include the AGM, a short history of SUES and a ‘cream tea’.
The April Edition of Forum should include details of May meeting and plans for June and July events.
The May Edition of Forum should include details of June and July events as agreed at Committee Meeting on 7th May.
2021 – 2022 We hope that it will be possible to resume the normal pattern of the Society’s activities including the postponed visit to Scarisbrick Hall, one or two Friday afternoon meetings in both Autumn and Spring terms and three Monday Morning courses. The Friday afternoon meetings should include a science talk by Alan in Autumn and some Maths in Spring. We hope to use at least one lecturer from Liverpool University CE. The three courses would run as follows.
Autumn (Sept-Dec) – Peter on England under Norman Kings (10 Sessions)
Early Spring (Jan-March) – Roger on Country House in 20th Century
Late Spring (April-May) – Alan on The Brain
It was agreed that John should send out an email reminder to members approximately one week before meetings took place.
Website Refresh
It was agreed that we should purchase a HTTPS Certificate (c£50 per year) to increase confidence in the security of the site.
Improvements were welcomed and there was agreement that the general feel of the website was appropriate and welcoming. We need to make sure that it is being used by members and potential members. Future Activities and Archive Material should be clearly labelled.
There was useful discussion about whether Minutes of Committee Meetings should be included and whether they constituted ‘archive’ or ‘future’. The principle of Transparency was supported but it was recognised that published minutes would be more circumspect and bland and that they would not be made public until they had been approved at the next committee meeting and had therefore become ‘archive’ rather than ‘future’. The matter will be kept under review and previous minutes will remain on the website, but for the moment new minutes will not be added.
AOB
It was agreed that the next committee meeting should be at 4.30pm on Friday 7th May – a week before the May Lecture. An item for consideration at that meeting should be our future relationship with Liverpool University CE. It might be appropriate for a representative of CE to join the SUES Committee.
Roger Mitchell
April 2021