2024 PYA Report from the Chair and Finance Report
2024 Report from the Chair
2024 has been an interesting year for PYA as we grew our membership to nearly 400 from across Yorkshire and welcomed many new members to some of our book selling events. An exciting departure was that we were invited to attend the prestigious Spring and Autumn Harrogate Flower Shows, at the Great Yorkshire Showground and Newby Hall respectively. We have our fingers crossed that this can be repeated in 2025.
PYA held two book fairs in the Ridings Centre in Wakefield and we've scheduled two for 2025 - in spring on 17th May and our Christmas book fair on 6th December. Both were well attended and footfall was favourable despite the weather trying to scupper the December event.
Events like those above take much organising and we're grateful to our small team of organisers and helpers. The book fairs and flower shows wouldn't take place without them and ... you guessed ... we need more of our members to become active in PYA and shape its future.
We've continued our ZOOM sessions and are grateful to Helen Johnson for hosting the evening and afternoon sessions of the monthly Writers' Support Group which helps us all improve our authoring with a ten minute writing exercise against a theme. You'd be surprised what can be achieved in ten minutes and the techniques that you learn in these sessions help you improve your writing skills.
The other monthly ZOOM session is hosted by Linda Jones and is the Children's Author Group. We've had presentations from invited guests and discussed topics of interest to the group's members aiming to share knowledge and experience from our membership. Some of what we over is of interest even if the genre that you write isn't aimed at Children.
Expect more in 2025 and, if you haven't attended one of our ZOOM sessions please consider it. It's an efficient way of encouraging communication between our members from across the ancient Ridings of Yorkshire and we often have participants from as far apart as Hull, Doncaster and Thirsk - not something that would be possible face-to-face.
I met with the head at Knaresborough Library late in 2024 and I hope we can design some great events to be held at the library in 2025.
Finally, PYA were invited some time ago to link up with the writing group Thirsk Write Now (TWN) who meet by ZOOM every two weeks on a Tuesday at 7.30 pm during the year to read out a short story to a prepared theme. We've some regular attendees from PYA now so, if you are interested in attending, please let us know and TWN will add you to their distribution list to let you know of upcoming themes.
PYA Committee
The committee and subcommittees resign at each AGM and those who wish it can put themselves forward for re-election for a coming year. We are also seeking new members for the committee to replace those standing down and to add to the experience of the committee and sub-committees. The current members are:
- Core PYA Committee: Paul Smith (Chair and Treasurer), Linda Jones (Vice Chair), Jane Clack (Vice Chair), Kate Swann, Pam Golden, Ros Kind.
- PYA Advisory Committee: Heike Phelan, Helen Johnson, Phill Featherstone, Stuart Larner, Susanna Lewis.
- PYA Finance Subcommittee: Paul Smith, Ros Kind, Jane Clack, Linda Jones, Kate Swann.
- PYA Events Coordination Subcommittee: Paul Smith, Jane Clack, Linda Jones, Pam Golden.
PYA 4F
Promoting Yorkshire Authors for the Future - Discussion Document. Please take a look at our discussion document which you'll find on this blog. It proposes a way forward for PYA and we're seeking active members to drive PYA onwards. Please try to read it prior to the meeting.
Finance Report
Date: | 31/12/24 | |
Income since PYA Formed | ||
Donations | £341.07 | |
Initiatives | £2,114.16 | |
Interest | £0.00 | |
Membership Fees | £1,171.95 | |
Commerce | £0.00 | |
Other | £2.00 | |
Total Income | £3,629.18 | |
Expenditure Since PYA Formed | ||
Company Formation and Disposal | £230.00 | |
Marketing | £177.96 | |
Technology | £914.26 | |
Other | £716.27 | |
Total Expenditure | £2,038.49 | |
Income – Expenditure | £1,590.69 | |
Gross Current Assets | ||
Cash in Hand | £64.08 | |
Current Account | £1,573.61 | |
Paypal Account | £0.00 | |
Total Gross Current Assets | £1,637.69 | |
Current Liabilities | ||
Committee Loans Outstanding* | £47.00 | *Paul Smith £47.00 |
Expected Expenditure | ||
Accountant | £0.00 | |
Audit | £0.00 | |
Accruals | £0.00 | |
Total Liabilities | £47.00 | |
Net Current Assets | £1,590.69 |
