AGM Report
2010
President’s Report
By Roy Peacock
My strongest impressions of the year concern
‘The Blackcountryman’ and the Committee. Our magazine
is a remarkable quarterly production and Mike Pearson, the Editor,
is to be thanked for what is an unending responsibility. No sooner
is an edition sent out to members than another has to be set up!
However, a magazine can only be as good as its contributors. In
this respect we can all be pleased that the quality of the articles
continues to reveal fascinating stories about the Black Country:
its people, its industry and its environment, both past and present.
So, we thank all our contributors, together with the magazine
sub-committee.
The Society’s main committee has no less
than twenty members. This might seem unduly large, but the point
is that these are all hard-working people. So large is the membership
and so broad are the interests of the Society that a great deal
of labour is required. A glance at the many reports for this AGM
suggests some of the time-consuming responsibilities carried out
so willingly. Just think of the size of the membership, the scale
of the finances, the number of publications for sale, the organisation
of walks, visits and talks, and the links with other organisations
like the Black Country Living Museum. Our thanks are due to them
all, but especially to Judith Watkin, our Secretary. The unexpected
calls on her time are usually considerable, but she never flinches
- at least, not in my sight! And, of course, it has taken
the steady control of Charles Hanmer, to keep a degree of control.
So we thank him for his many years in the Chair. As for me, I
am very pleased to be asked to stay as President for another year.
I have been able to do so little as a result of major surgery
last Summer but I now have a second chance to promote the project
on the Black Country War Memorials.
Secretary’s Report
By Judith Watkin
The Committee of the Black Country Society has
continued to organise events for our members. James Morgan has
provided us with a series of interesting and informative speakers,
the recent talk by Helen Lloyd being particularly well attended
and received. We are grateful to Graham Beckley, the Society’s
photographer, for also ensuring the smooth running of the programme.
Both the walks and excursions programmes have been well supported
and our thanks are also due to Dave Galley, the walks co-ordinator,
and the excursions programme organisers, Linda Button, Lance Warren
and Joan White for all their hard work in finding places to visit.
The unexpected sometimes does happen, the closure of Stowe School
by a swine flu outbreak leading to a diversion to Claydon House,
the home of Florence Nightingale, where the Black Country Society
was welcomed with a hastily erected sign. We must commend particularly
Lance and his wife for their persistence in rescuing the excursion
and the National Trust at Claydon for their warm welcome.
The fifth Black Country History Day in October,
organised in partnership with the University of Birmingham, was
enjoyed by 150 participants and we are grateful to Dr Malcolm
Dick from the Centre for the Study of West Midlands History for
Chairing the Day School, due to our President’s illness.
Despite this, the President continued to organise the annual Carol
Concert and Roy was able to lead the service at St Mary’s,
Oldswinford at an early stage of his recovery.
The Black Country Society has welcomed the new
Chief Executive of the Black Country Living Museum, Andrew Lovett,
courtesy of the local hospitality provided by the Pie Factory
at Tipton. The Society continues to be represented on the Museum’s
Board by Ron Julian and we are also represented on the West Midlands
Canal Partnership by Keith Jeavons, another of our committee members,
himself a canal boat owner. Without the efforts of our Treasurer,
Tony Copson, Membership Secretary, Linda Button and Alan Pilkington,
who co-ordinates the sales of our publications, the Society would
not be able to function, and we are grateful for their efforts.
Finally, our Chairman, Charles Hanmer has announced his resignation,
after ten years of service to the Black Country Society. Charles
is going to take on the new challenge of leading the regeneration
of Dudley Town Centre and we wish him well in this important new
endeavour. During his time as Chairman he has influenced, particularly,
the updating of the appearance and layout of the magazine which
continues to flourish, under the editorship of Mike Pearson, with
Martyn Round as the assistant editor. We are pleased that Charles
has agreed to continue to serve as a committee member, in spite
of the new demands on his time.
Membership Secretary’s Report
By Linda Button
Current membership stands at 1777 and we were
pleased to welcome 91 new members to the Society during 2009.
Thirty five members gave gift subscriptions to family and friends.
We have a number of overseas members but we would like to recruit
more as there must be many people with an interest in the Black
Country. We encourage all members to take part in our various
activities and to tell their friends about the Society.
Treasurer’s Report Year Ended 30 June 2009
By Tony Copson
The accounts have again been prepared by Yates
& Co (now part of the Siviter Greenfield group of accountants
and business advisors) and a copy signed by the Chairman and Treasurer
is available for inspection. Financially the Society has again
had a successful year, although there are three worrying trends
of which the Committee is aware - the income from subscriptions
continues to fall because of our failure to attract sufficient
new members and the half price membership offer to new members
is not generally being followed up by second year renewals; magazine
production costs and postage will inevitably increase but these
are manageable within our present income; the surplus from the
sale of publications kept up with last year but cannot be guaranteed.
Donations included £1,500 to the Black Country Living Museum
( made up of £1,000 to the Streets Ahead appeal to secure
and dedicate a bench in the new Folkes’s Park, inscribed
‘The Black Country Society, Founded 1967’, and £500
as a donation towards bricks for the Workers Institute ) and £150
for an advert in the Mary Stevens Hospice calendar. Website expenses
include an upgrade to the editor’s operating system and
a contribution towards the cost of a new computer. The new equipment
shown under Fixed Assets is £1,740 paid for a display stand
and mounted photo quality prints purchased in August 2008 A sub-committee
is currently in the process of improving the layout of ‘The
Blackcountryman’ which we hope will attract new members
and advertisers, and we are seeking to widen the variety of speakers
at the Dudley meetings. To conclude, our financial position gives
the Society a solid base for the future and to reverse the decline
in the membership on which it depends.
Website Report
By Mike Pearson
Unfortunately the website always plays second
fiddle to the magazine. I have always had great plans for development,
but these require the time to carry them out. Wholesale change
is out of the question for the time being, but I do still have
plans to refresh how the site looks. In terms of content, I will
hopefully soon be able to add more material from projects I have
in my possession from a variety of sources, selected articles
from past issues of the magazine and photographs.
It has always been my desire to have a Black
Country Society photograph archive. I am aware that there are
many thousands of photographs of the Black Country, taken over
a long period of time. Some of these may be made available to
us in due course, but you, as members, may hold many unpublished
images. Any photograph collection must be properly organised and
ensure that the proper permission to reproduce images has been
obtained. I have been sent a number of images and have some more
that can be reproduced, but if you have photographs, digital or
printed, then please consider allowing them to join our collection.
If any are used, either in the magazine or on the website, full
credit will be given to the owner. I do not want to keep any printed
photographs, as the archive will be a digital one. Any images
sent will be returned once they have been scanned, and can be
returned either by hand or via recorded delivery.
I am also interested in historic documents. These
do belong in the local archives, but that does not mean that they
cannot be digitised, so they can be used and distributed through
the website or via CD-ROM. I am currently looking at the Dudley
Chamber of Commerce minute books and have photographed one volume.
I am also negotiating to obtain some other minute books as well
as a number of deeds, once digitised these will probably be deposited
in a local archive, where they can be preserved in their original
form. Again, please contact me if you have anything you think
might be appropriate to join our archive.
Magazine Report
By Mike Pearson
I hope you will agree that The Blackcountryman
goes from strength to strength. Despite another change of printer,
due to the economic downturn, we are hopefully giving you the
magazine you want. The Winter issue saw some “style”
changes to the magazine, feedback has all been positive so far.
We hope to be able to develop the magazine even further during
2010. One possible change will be to increase the number of inside
pages from 84 to 88, with the additional pages hopefully being
in colour. This gives us greater flexibility and a better ability
to include photographs, something I know that many of you are
keen on. We may also be able to move to full colour at some stage,
this will be partly dependant on advertising income, something
that we will be looking at throughout 2010.
We felt that it was time to have a small editorial
sub-committee to look at the magazine and how it could be developed.
Martyn Round has been Deputy Editor for some time now; he has
been joined by Judith Watkin and Frank Cox. This gives me a group
of people to assess how to improve the magazine, two proof readers
to spot my deliberate (and not so deliberate) mistakes as well
as three consciences for my decision making. The mix works very
well, Martyn has many years of experience in the printing industry,
Judith is a former teacher and Frank is a good judge of what looks
right. Whilst the Editor’s decision is final, I have always
sought and appreciate feedback on my way of doing things. We believe
that the magazine is as good as any professionally produced publications,
and looking at the price some other societies charge for membership,
very good value for money.
I cannot be at the AGM, but hopefully Judith,
Martyn and Frank will be there. If you have any comments to make
on The Blackcountryman please feel free to pass them on, or you
can always email me at editor (at) blackcountrysociety.co.uk.
Black Country Society - Kingswinford Branch
By Keith Jeavons
St Mary’s hand bell ringers with members of the Kingswinford
branch (awaiting image)
The Branch has enjoyed a very varied programme
during the year. Membership continues to be buoyant, but we are
always pleased to see new members and make them welcome at our
meetings at St Mary’s Church Centre, The Village, Kingswinford
on the third Wednesday each month at 7-45pm
Vic Smallshire took us through a detailed visit
to Baggeridge Pit. This was followed by a fascinating insight
of the development of Malvern as a Spa town. On other occasions
Ian Bott, a Society member, reminded us of the lost mansions of
the Black Country and Black Country Burials. These were just a
small selection of our evenings. Every effort is made to provide
a rich variety of talks and visits. We held the usual Mince &
Wine evening at Christmas. The New Year’s programme was
welcomed with an evening of music provided by the St Mary’s
Hand Bell ringers, who were hindered or helped by members of the
Branch practising their hand bell ringing skills.
In June we will hold our AGM followed by the
traditional buffet and all members are invited to join us.
The Industrial Archaeology Group
By Pete Glews and Keith Hodgkins
Members have continued to research and record
the activities of life and work in the Black Country region and
have enjoyed two ‘get-togethers’ for a meal Ma Pardoe’s
(The Old Swan) at Netherton. The Manchester Industrial and Science
Museum was the destination for the Group’s annual visit
last July. The IA Group is restructuring its activities for 2010,
launching a new series of evening lectures by Group members on
the first Wednesday of each month at the Pumphouse (HQ of the
Dudley Canal Trust), Peartree Lane, Dudley at 7.30pm. On Wednesday
5th May 2010 Keith Hodgkins will consider ‘The Last Days
at Round Oak’, using the photographic record he made during
its closure. For details of the rest of the programme see ‘The
Blackcountryman’ or the Black Country Society’s website
www.blackcountrysociety.co.uk. Both members and non-members are
welcome to attend.
email the web master Mick Pearson:
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