Promoting Yorkshire Authors

PYA Chairman's Report for the Annual General Meeting of 22nd March 2023 at 7pm

The AGM this year is at its new date of March each year and will cover the period between 23rd March 2022 to 27th February 2023 in this report.

Finance

First the finance report - see this Blog for the figures. We decided to cease membership fees and for events we undertook to be self funding and create a small surplus in PYA for contingencies and we've achieved this. Our finances have supported events undertaken during the year but loans provided by three committee members have also contributed. These are still outstanding and I propose that we now repay these loans as PYA has sufficient funds to be self supporting.

As always, if you can, a small donation to PYA each year would help keep our coffers full.

The Year in Focus

We've continued to use ZOOM for events during 2022 with positive results - attracting members we probably wouldn't have seen in the same room in face-to-face sessions. We've also teamed up with the Thirsk Write Now writers' group who meet by ZOOM every two weeks on a Tuesday and members are welcome to join in the fun.

Successful events have included our regular Writers' Support Group hosted by Helen Johnson, Children's Author Group hosted by Linda Jones and the Poetry Evenings hosted by Kate Swann.

All have been well attended and superb for developing the writer, trying something new and meeting other committed authors.

Two achievements organised by Jane Clack were Harrogate Book Fairs, a smaller Children and Young Adult genre fare at the Victoria Shopping Centre in May and a larger multi-genre one at St Peter's Church in October with the attendance of Yorkshire author Gervaise Phinn. The weather was inclement (foul is a better word) and the venue wasn't perfect but - nevertheless - sales were better than might have been expected considering the conditions.

PYA appeared at the Ilkley Literature Festival again - first time since the pandemic - (see the You Tube video if you haven't already) and Susanna Lewis directed our performance which stole the show (of course) and involved a number of sketches taken from the work of those members participating.

Edwin Rydberg has recommenced Books and Beverages at Harrogate Library (in person) and we're delighted to have this back. We're grateful for the support of the North Yorkshire Library service in supporting our events and to Edwin.

Finally, salient points from the notes of 2022's AGM, annotated to detail what has happened since the meeting, are shown below. Discussed and/or agreed by the AGM attendees were:

• ZOOM events will continue as they attract members across Yorkshire and are better alternatives for some who would find it difficult to travel to sessions across our large county.

• We agreed that we should also aim to re-open our contacts with libraries across the region and aim to create face-to-face events in addition to the Book Fairs arranged in Harrogate for May and October. Edwin has commenced the Books and Beverages events and more events are scheduled for 2023.

• Linda Jones and Darren Walker will aim to restart contacts for Wakefield and Leeds respectively if possible. An agenda item for this AGM.

• Susanna Lewis will investigate PYA being involved in FEVA (Knaresborough Art Festival) - even if it is only a token representation for this year - aiming for a good long term relationship. This is currently on hold.

• Susan Pape suggested creating a Finance Subcommittee (outstanding) to investigate fund-raising for PYA and to be considered are:

• Reinstating membership fees.
• Obtaining local grants.
• Funding from other sources - brainstorming ideas.

The Year Ahead

We were approached by the Director of the Huddersfield Literature Festival to hold a book fare in conjunction with the festival and a date of Saturday 1st April (not long to go now) has been agreed for the event.

It will be held in the foyer of the Lawrence Batley Theatre (sponsor of our book catalogue) between 10.30am and 4pm - plus Literature Festival Events will be held at the same time.

We're continuing with our ZOOM sessions for the Writers' Support Group, Children's Author Group and Poetry Evening and Edwin is arranging more Books and Beverages sessions at Harrogate Library.

The biggest issue is our lack of representation in East, West and South Yorkshire and we hope that this can be rectified this year.

Paul Smith
March 2023