MINUTES of the EXTRAORDINARY GENERAL MEETING

held at the Cottage Road Cinema, Headingley, Leeds on Saturday 16 January 2010 at

11.30 a.m.

1. Apologies, quorum and proxies: Present: Kate Taylor (in the chair), Derek Atkins,

Dave Biscombe, Johnnie Cliff, Victor Alan Edwards, Gerry Glover, Ian Grey, Martin Hall,

Ian Houseman, Colin Jeffrey, Ian Meyrick, Charles Morris, Shaun Richardson, Harry Rigby, Edwin Robinson, Jim Schultz, Paul Smith, Colin Sutton, Derek Todd, Kathy Todd,

David Williams. (21)

Apologies/proxies: 75 proxy forms had been received from those apologising for absence.

The total of those present and proxies (96) was more than the 10% of the 210-strong membership required for the meeting to be quorate.

2. Introduction: Kate Taylor welcomed members to what was a sad, but – because of the attendance – also rather a gala occasion. She thanked members for coming and expressed particular gratitude to Charles Morris for hosting the venue.

3. Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on 12 December 2010 were circulated. One typo was corrected to confirm there was NO immediate need to relocate the archive or stock. Subject to this amendment, the minutes were approved.

4. Matters arising from the minutes:

4a Odeon Putney: Kate Taylor had written to the Odeon management and to the projectionist thanking them for hosting the AGM and showing us the projection facilities.

4b Archives and Stock: It was confirmed that the archives remained at Mervyn Gould’s home and that the bulk stock was stored securely in Doncaster. Some stock was held by the Chairman and Sales Officer at their homes.

5. Motion to Wind Up the Society

Kate Taylor, from the Chair, proposed the motion That the Society be wound up in accordance with the details set out in the Constitution.

She said that she was not happy to present the motion, but knew it was necessary.  It was a momentous and sad day; the Society had existed for 30 years and had many notable achievements to its name. Amongst these were persuading the Charity Commission to accept that MCS was performing a public service and was not just a private club, and obtaining a £5000 grant from the Foundation for Sport and the Arts.

Our publications stand as our great achievement.  Through Rosemary and Chris Clegg, then Brian Hornsey and herself, and for the last 15 years with design, typesetting and editing by Mervyn Gould, over 40 books had been produced. Mervyn’s voluntary work had enabled MCS to continue to produce books at a viable rate which would not otherwise have been possible.

We had been unable to find people with the combination of skills, time, the technology and the will to continue with our book and Bioscope publication programme; without these, we had nothing to offer our members.

Our membership of 210 was the highest we had been able to achieve, despite good publicity and excellent press coverage for our books, especially Coventry Picture Palaces, which had already sold out.  Comments on proxy forms had also underlined the aging profile of our membership.

In an email received from the Cleggs, Chris had written that it was sad, but we had to be realistic.  Looking at the past 30 years, he said that we could be proud that so much information had been published and so much achieved.

The Chairman concluded by saying we should close on a high note of success, rather than gradually fade away and on this basis she placed the motion before the meeting for consideration.

In discussion, it was suggested that we try and find a way in which we could get people to move over to the CTA (if not already members) in order to ensure continuity and to keep the name of Mercia CS alive in some way.  Kate Taylor said that this was one of the issues which would be discussed with the CTA Committee in due course; offering to give Mercia members a year’s CTA membership and perhaps ring-fencing some money for publications, with acknowledgment to Mercia, were two ideas we may put forward.

The Treasurer confirmed that Life Members would have any ‘unexpired’ portion of their subscription returned, and that there were sufficient funds available to meet all MCS debts.

The motion was put to the vote:

*including 2 votes left to the decision of the Chair

The motion was therefore carried with the necessary two-thirds majority required by the Constitution.

6. Any other Business

6a Charles Morris, a former Treasurer, expressed thanks to Kate Taylor for holding the Society together for so many years, which had included some very difficult times.  Members present warmly applauded his words.

6b At the AGM, members had appointed a Committee to take the necessary actions to wind up the Society subject to the outcome of the EGM; and to engage in discussions with the CTA over transfer of assets.  Kate Taylor asked if this were still the will of the members, and whether anyone wished to put forward other suggestions for potential recipients of funds, which would have to be disposed of in due course in line with the constitution.

No other suggestions were made, and the committee membership was ratified unanimously as below:

Chairman:                     Kate Taylor

Vice-Chairman:              Ian Meyrick

Treasurer:                      Ian Grey

Sales Officer:                Martin Hall

Committee members:    Johnny Cliff, Gerry Glover, Frank Manders, Paul Smith.

6c The Chairman closed the meeting by thanking all those past and present who had served the Society in so many ways over its 30-year life. She also thanked Charles Morris for allowing us to meet in his cinema.

The meeting was followed by the opportunity for members to visit the projection facilities of the Cottage Road Cinema.

MINUTES of the ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2009

Held at the Odeon Cinema Putney on Saturday 12 December 2009 at 11.15 a.m.

1. Apologies, quorum and proxies: Present: Kate Taylor (in the chair), Johnnie Cliff, Edwin Gilmour, Gerry Glover, Ian Grey, Martin Hall, Ian Houseman, Ian Meyrick, Ian Patterson, John Pilblade, Philip Roberts, David Simpson, Cathy Stevens, Ian Van Ryne, Sebastian Weber, Nigel Wolland (16). Apologies/proxies: 66 proxy forms had been received from those apologising for absence.

This was more than the required 10% of membership for the meeting to be quorate.

2. Chairman’s welcome: Kate Taylor welcomed all present and introduced herself and committee members present.

3. Mervyn Gould: Members stood in silence as a tribute to Mervyn, the Society’s long-serving and immensely dedicated administrator, who had died on 28 October. A number of members had been able to attend his funeral service at Loughborough Crematorium on 13 November and the Society had sent flowers.

4. Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on 13 December 2008 had been circulated in Bioscope (no. 110, February 2009). They were approved as circulated. There were no matters arising.

5. Officers’ Reports:

5a. Chairman’s Review

Kate Taylor said: Whilst this has in some ways been a most successful year, it has also been somewhat fraught with problems and has ended very sadly with the death of our Administrator, Mervyn Gould, on 28 October.

Membership has grown slightly with 23 newcomers against the loss of 19, and stands now at 210. The four quarterly Bioscopes have all been rich with interest, issued in excellent time, and, thanks to Mervyn’s skills and dedication, splendidly designed and illustrated.

We have again published two books, Frank Manders’s Cinemas of North Tyneside, and Coventry Picture Palaces from a manuscript written originally by the late Gil Robottom which has been updated and extended by Ian Meyrick and Mervyn. Both have been well publicized, with highly complimentary reviews in a range of papers and journals, and both are selling well.

Whilst we have continued to fulfil our objects in terms of promoting research and continuing publication, quite splendidly, we are also experiencing a deteriorating financial situation in terms of immediately available money although we have, of course, increased assets in the form of book-stock. Income from subscriptions and donations is barely adequate to cover the costs of printing and posting the Bioscope and our other running costs.

Our long-serving Sales Officer, Stuart Smith, resigned at the end of our last financial year and prolonged ill health has meant the loss, too, of our Publicity Officer, Derek Atkins. However, at the Committee Meeting in March of this year we were able to co-opt Martin Hall as the new Sales Officer, and Johnnie Cliff and Gerry Glover as joint Press and Public Relations Officers. We were grateful to them all for volunteering.

Unacceptable behaviour – at least in the view of the Society’s officers – by CCLA Investment Management, the body that handles the Charities Official Investment Fund, in seeking to identify our Membership Secretary, Colin Sanders, by searching for personal data on the internet, and a remarkably inept letter from them about his lack of any ‘financial footprint’,  led to Colin’s resignation from the membership role in August although he stayed on to provide the necessary data and labels for our November mailing. Our Treasurer, Ian Grey, has offered to add the role to his portfolio as an interim measure.

For many years the Society has benefited financially from our association with Fuchsiaprint, the one-man enterprise run by our member, and one-time editor, Brian Hornsey. Brian has given us the full income from sales of his numerous small books. There have been difficulties, however, in recent months resulting from a Committee decision not to advertise Fuchsiaprint books which seemed to compete directly with our own publications, and on Brian’s part with the greatly increased costs of printing and postage.

We learned only after last year’s Annual Meeting of the death a short while earlier of Committee member Frank Wright.

We have continued to deal with requests for information from students and from the media and some of us remain in demand for talks.

Our experienced team of officers has remained dedicated to furthering the interests of the Society, giving much of their time. They have met again as a committee once, in-March, in Birmingham and members have remained in contact regularly otherwise by telephone, letter and e—mail. We are most grateful to them.

Ian Grey has maintained our web site and richly extended it and has added a PayPal facility so that our books can be ordered on line.

And we are grateful, too, to Philip Hollins for again examining our accounts.

As I write this report, however, I take the view that without Mervyn’s superb commitment and immense voluntary work, the Society cannot continue. I have discussed this with other members of the Committee and shall put a motion to the annual meeting that it be wound up. It is for members to make the decision in accordance with the Society’s rules. I myself would wish to stand down as your Chairman if members vote for the Society to survive.

5b. Treasurer’s Report

Ian Grey introduced the audited accounts, which were circulated.  He highlighted that cash had reduced to £9,800 due to increased investment in publication of books and the reduction in bank interest rates. The subscription was very low compared with the value of receiving four editions of the Bioscope each year and having access to Mercia publications at a discount. Should the MCS continue, a rise in subscription level would be inevitable.  He confirmed the cost of producing Bioscope was £275 plus postage, a total of approximately £400 per issue.

The report and accounts had been approved by the Committee, and were unanimously accepted by the meeting.

Grateful thanks were recorded to the Honorary Independent Reporting Accountant (Philip M. Hollins FCA) for his continuing (voluntary) work.

5c.Membership Report

The current membership stood at 210, 22 new members having been recruited but 19 lost; we are often not aware of the reasons for the latter, although it is often through death.

75 members pay by standing order, and there are 9 Life Members.

5d. Sales Officer’s Report

Martin Hall reported that 514 books had been sold since he took over in April. Of our latest books, Coventry was now out of print and North Tyneside had sold 183. Borders, the booksellers, were in liquidation and owed us for 20 copies of Coventry. We have yet to hear from the administrators. The remaining stock of Cinema on a Roman Wall had been sold to the Forum at Hexham.

5e. Bioscope Editor’s Report

The Bioscope had continued to be published on time and to a very high standard; issues had been produced in February, May, August and November. Kate Taylor said that Mervyn Gould had played the major part in its production, soliciting articles, providing illustrations, undertaking the design and typesetting, and carrying out the distribution.

6. Motion to Wind Up the Society

Kate Taylor, from the Chair, proposed the motion That the Society be wound up in accordance with the details set out in the Constitution.

Introducing the motion, she said that the Society had been operating for 30 years, originally with the enthusiasm and skills of founders Chris and Rosemary Clegg.  Then had followed a period of chequered fortunes until in 1993 Mervyn had taken over as Secretary (later redesignated Administrator). Since then, he had worked almost fulltime for the Society, pulling us together, insisting on quality, efficiency and punctuality in publications.

The recent appeal for officers had produced some welcome offers and help, but it remained that no one had come forward with the knowledge and skills to design and produce Bioscope and Mercia’s books. Without such a person, the Society could not continue; in addition, many of those responding to the notice of the motion had stressed the aging profile of our membership. It was with great sadness that she proposed the motion and invited comments from the floor.

Main points made by members in discussion were:

• A hope that we could have carried on, but felt after hearing the explanations, it looked pretty bleak and does seem inevitable;
• Totally agree that finding a replacement to undertake all these duties would be impossible.
• What was the position over archives and stock? Ian Houseman, Mervyn’s Executor, confirmed to the meeting that both stock and archives were securely held and that there was no immediate need to relocate them.
• Could we go on as a corporate entity, with a willingness to aid publishing by providing funds?
• A number of members had suggested a merger or handover of funds to the CTA, but  some members might not wish to join CTA, and therefore should be given the option. This point was agreed.
• It would be a shame to carry on if we couldn’t hold the quality of our publications.

A vote was taken as follows:

The motion was therefore carried.

Under the Constitution, an Extraordinary General Meeting must be called as the next stage in the winding up process.

This was set for Saturday 16 January at the Cottage Road Cinema, Headingley, Leeds, by kind invitation of the proprietor, Mercia member Charles Morris.

7. Election of Officers and Committee

In view of the vote detailed above, a Committee was appointed to oversee the winding up process.  The following were unanimously elected:

Chairman:                     Kate Taylor

Vice-Chairman:              Ian Meyrick

Treasurer:                      Ian Grey

Sales Officer:                Martin Hall

Committee members:    Johnny Cliff, Gerry Glover, Frank Manders, Paul Smith.

Edwyn Gilmour proposed and John Pilblade seconded the motion that The membership would wish to give the Committee authority to discuss future association with the Cinema Theatre Association with CTA representatives.

Carried unanimously.

8. Any other Business

There was no other business.

The meeting was followed by the opportunity for members to visit the projection facilities of the Odeon Putney.

Kate Taylor paid tribute to all of the current and former members who had played an active role in the society over the last thirty years.  Particular thanks were given to former Membership Officer and Treasurer Charles Morris who had generously made the Cottage Road Cinema available to us for the meeting.

The Committee will now work towards an orderly winding up of the Society accounts and assets in line with the constitution.

No further Memberships will now be accepted and Members who pay by Standing Order are requested to cancel such arrangements in the interim period whilst the bank account is still active to avoid unnecessary administration.

MERCIA CINEMA SOCIETY

Registered Charity no 1001524

From the Hon President

19 Pinder’s Grove,

Wakefield WF1 4AH

01924-372748

kate@airtime.co.uk

21 December 2009

Dear Member,

Extraordinary General Meeting, Saturday 16 January 2010, at the Cottage Road Cinema, Headingley, Leeds, at 11.30am

At the Society’s Annual Meeting on Saturday 12 December 2009, a clear majority of those present voted in favour of the motion that the Society be wound up. The smaller majority of those voting by post also supported the motion.

In accordance with our Constitution, we shall now hold an Extraordinary General Meeting on 16 January 2010 when the motion to wind up the Society will be put forward for ratification.

This is, of course, a very sad step but it became clear in the weeks before the Annual Meeting that, without Mervyn Gould,  it was quite impossible to continue with a viable team who could undertake the Society’s work, and who could, in particular, handle the hugely demanding  task of creating the quarterly Bioscopes and designing our books. Without Mervyn, we should have ‘folded’ a long time ago; indeed there were serious moves to merge the Society with another organisation as long ago as 1992.

Ours is a minority interest. Despite advertising via a number of appropriate journals and our web site, and despite the excellent publicity we have had for our latest books, we have attracted very few new members in recent years and have never recruited many in the past. Rather a number of our members, getting in touch before the Annual Meeting, referred to being in their seventies or even, on one case, being 88. It seems to your officers very clear that the only sensible course of action is to close down.

At the Annual Meeting members authorised a slimmed-down committee to negotiate with the Cinema Theatre Association in particular in disposing of the Society’s assets.

If you are unable to attend the General Meeting, you may wish to indicate your response to the motion on the enclosed proxy form.  I expect to write to all members again once details of the anticipated winding up are settled.

Yours, with considerable regret,

Kate Taylor

Extract from the Society’s Constitution:

24 Dissolution of the Society: A resolution to dissolve the Society shall be presented at any general meeting and, if passed by a majority, it shall then be laid before an extraordinary general meeting convened one month later with a provision for those members who are unable to be present to submit their votes in writing. In the event of an extraordinary general meeting confirming the resolution by a two-thirds majority, the executive committee shall thereupon, or at any such future date as shall be specified in the aforesaid resolution, return any articles upon loan and after discharging fret the funds of the Society all liabilities divide the remaining assets among such charitable research organisations devoted to the history and the advancement of the cinema in the United Kingdom as the executive committee shall decide and when such assets have been divided as aforesaid the Society shall be deemed to have been dissolved.

You may like to know that the Cottage Road Cinema is the oldest cinema in Leeds and has been showing films continuously since 1912.  It is now part of the Northern Morris circuit. Its web site is www.nm-cinemas.co.uk/leeds.phtml

MERCIA CINEMA SOCIETY

Registered charity no 1001524

From the Chairman

19 Pinder’s Grove

Wakefield WF1 4AH

kate@airtime.co.uk

9 November 2009

Dear Member,

Mervyn Gould

It is with very great sadness that I have to report the death of our Administrator, Mervyn Gould, on 28 October.  The funeral is at Loughborough Crematorium on Friday 13 November at 3.30pm.

Overleaf you will find details of our Annual Meeting on 12 December. Mervyn’s death is a massive blow to the Society. He was wonderfully dedicated to it, giving a great part of his time and all his talents, in design and writing, as well as in ‘networking’, to its success.With the death of Mervyn, cinema and theatre history have lost a major player.

I do not myself believe that we can carry on without him although I know he would have wished us to do so.

I shall propose from the Chair at the Annual Meeting that the Society, which was founded in 1980,  be wound up in accordance with the details set out in our Constitution.  Members will, of course, have the opportunity to debate this motion fully.

Yours sincerely,

Kate Taylor

MERCIA CINEMA SOCIETY

Registered Charity no 1001524

Notice of Annual Meeting 2009

The Annual Meeting of the Society will be held on Saturday 12 December at the Odeon, Putney, at 11.15am (Committee meeting at 11.00am)

Agenda:  1) Apologies for absence

2) The Minutes of the Annual Meeting held on 13 December 2008

3) Matters arising from the Minutes

4) Reports from officers: Chairman’s review of the year,

Treasurer’s report

Membership officer’s report

Sales officer’s report

Editor’s report

5) Motion from the Chair that the Society be wound up in accordance with the

details set out in the Constitution

If the motion fails:

6) Election of officers for 2009-2010

The refreshment facilities in the Cinema Foyer will be available and we are promised an opportunity to see the projection facilities.

This is, obviously, a critical meeting and members are urged to attend or, if unable to do so, to send the completed proxy form to the Chair, Kate Taylor, 19 Pinder’s Grove, Wakefield.  WF1 4AH

The motion that the Society be wound up follows the death of the Administrator, Mervyn Gould, but is presented also in the light of the Society’s deteriorating financial position and the need for new officers at least in terms of a Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary, and Membership Secretary,  We have 210 members and, although the committee meets only once a year, overall expenses, including the costs of room-hire and the production and mailing of the Bioscopes, outweigh subscription income.

But we must bear in mind that the Society is the principal publisher of research into the history of picture houses.

If you feel strongly that the Society must continue, it is important that you indicate what you can do yourself to sustain it. It would need, at the least, an able new Chair and Secretary, and someone with design and typesetting skills and the time to use them in a voluntary capacity for the benefit of the Society.

Kate Taylor

Lifting the threat of having to frame a closure motion for the next AGM to consider, the three offered their services, not only as way of averting close-down, but in a belief that Mercia and our publications are worth promoting.

Press & Public Relations

Johnny Cliff and Gerry Glover are going to act as a team to raise our profile nationally, increase our membership, and show our books to a wider audience, thus aiding sales. We’ll let Gerry introduce the two of them –

I co-founded the British Music Hall Society with the late Ray Mackender in September 1963, and Johnnie was the inaugural Hon. Treasurer. Johnnie was box office manager of the Garrick Theatre, London for twenty-odd years and then No.2 at the St. Martin’s Theatre – The Mousetrap. He is terrific with money (my life!), orderly (he always knows where everything is) and loyal.  I am untidy, open-minded, humorous and handsome!

I have been manager of the Fortune Theatre – The Woman in Black; briefly ran a theatrical agency – City Management; was co-lessee of the Westminster Theatre; and ended up as Corporate Affairs Officer at City & Guilds. I emigrated to Perth, Western Australia in 1966 and returned to UK in 1985 to look after my mother who was 85.

In Australia (Perth, Sydney, Melbourne) I was the first Administrator (CEO) of the West Australian Ballet Company, and first Tours & Promotions Officer of the West Australian Arts Council. In Sydney I was Public Relations Officer at the Arts Council of New South Wales and, for eighteen months, lessee of the Mayfair Theatre, Castlereagh Street. In Melbourne I was Tour Manager for Clifford Hocking Enterprises – Ravi Shankar, Cleo Laine & John Dankworth, Barry Humphries’ ‘At Least You Can Say That You’ve Seen It’ amongst others.

We are both retired, in our early 70s with plenty of spare time.  Both of us are members of the British Music Hall Society, CTA, the Theatres Trust, and the CAA (Concert Artistes Association), as well as the Mercia Cinema Society. At our Malpas Road base we have an office with storage space, desktop computer & printer, sound & vision gear, etc.

Johnny Cliff (left) examines the proof copy of Frank Manders’ North Tyneside, while Gerry Glover (right above) and Martin Hall (below) listen at the meeting

Book sales

martin hall has taken over Sales with enthusiasm; on a mission to get our sales graph to take a dramatic upward turn. Originally from Essex, now he is a school-teacher living and working in the Bradford area. Married with two young children, he is going somehow to find time in a busy life, not only to dispatch orders, but travel to find outlets, and possibly attend rallies and fairs with a Mercia book-stall. He can deal with e-mail orders and enquiries, and he and the web-master will work on a re-vamped home page for the web-site. There is a possibility of an on-line shop, and already he has established a dispatch point for the expected future bulk orders via our DHL account !

MINUTES of the ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2008

held at the Tyneside Film Theatre Newcastle-on-Tyne Saturday 13 December at 1.45

1          Chairman’s welcome : Miss Taylor welcomed all present, and as there were members who were attending for the first time, introduced herself and those members of the committee present. She then checked the quorum.

2          Quorum & Proxies present, Derek Atkins, Dave Biscombe, Mervyn Gould, Ian Grey, Ian Houseman, Frank Manders, John Prickett, George Reywer, Harry Rigby (CTA Bulletin editor-observer), Colin Sanders, David Simpson, Kate Taylor, Nick Taylor (12 members); proxies, Patrick Butler, Jack de Coninck, Victor A. Edwards, D. J. Gammage, John R. Hunt, Ian Meyrick, Philip J. Roberts, Peter Sagar, John G. Slater, Paul Smith, Frank D. Snart, D. T. Swaffer, Neville C. Taylor, H. V. Vahey, Ian Van Ryne, Victor Welland, David R. Williams (17) – more than the required 10% of membership.

2a        Sanction for present meeting : The chairman obtained the permission of the meeting to sanction this present meeting, as by constitution we had to hold the meeting in the first week of December, but could not get in here then.

3          Reading/adoption of minutes of 2007 meeting : The minutes were printed on the agenda sheet. Their adoption was proposed by Derek Atkins, seconded by Ian Grey, and they adopted nem. con.

4          Matters arising from 2007 minutes : There were none.

5          Reports : Chairman’s review of the year : see end The meeting accepted this on the proposal of Ian Houseman, seconded by Derek Atkins.

Membership : Colin Smith reported that we had 205 members at present. During the year, we had gained 23 new members, but lost 16, sadly, some through death.

Sales : Stuart Smith – read in his absence by the chairman : 366 copies of Mercia titles sold : double-digit sales were Barnsley 87, Basingstoke 163, Durham 22, Medway 44, Swale 15, and York 11. 14 other titles were sold in single digits. Together with other publisher’s titles (342), total 708 copies / 146 invoices issued.

Treasurer : The audited report was before members. We are solvent, and have a good balance with the Charities Official Investment Fund account (COIF). The printing & postage totals were up with two books published and sent out. We are very grateful for donations received with membership renewals from no fewer than 32 members. Gift Aid is yet to be claimed for the year, but clarification had now been received, and we would claim for it. No charge for the web-site this year, so next year will register as double, for the two years. The meeting agreed to write off the former old and out of date sales computer. Ian Houseman could not report on condition, but there is no book value for it : this write-off was agreed.

Editor : Paul Smith reported through the chairman that he would be taking a sabbatical until September to write up his M. Phil. He thanked the committee for their support. ‘The year has seen varied, and I think, interesting copies of the Bioscope. We have had to rely on members of the committee for articles. Once again we have had to withdraw an article when prepared for publication, due to it having appeared elsewhere. Presentation of the Bioscope is now of a very high quality and continues to benefit from the adminstrator’s unstinting efforts.’

Administrator’s report : see end Comments : David Simpson expressed his gratitude to the editor and administrator for his wife Diane’s Bioscope obituary.

6          Elections: Chairman: The vice-chairman took the chair, asking if there were any nomations for the post of chairman: there being none, he proposed Kate Taylor to the assembly. She was unanimously re-elected and resumed the chair.

Officers The chairman asked if there were any nominations. On receiving none, she proposed the following (en bloc) : Mercia Bioscope Editor: Paul Smith, Administrator: Mervyn Gould, Treasurer: Ian Grey Web-master: Ian Grey Membership Secretary & Vice-Chairman: Colin Sanders, Public Relations: Vacant, Sales: Vacant. There were no offers for the vacant posts, and the existing officers were unanimously re-elected.

Committee (en bloc) : Derek Atkins, Ian Houseman, Frank Manders, Ian Meyrick, Christopher Stacey, Frank Wright. No proposals were received to add to the members, so the above were re-elected. (Note: the day after the meeting the chairman was informed that Frank Wright had died.)

Honorary Independent Reporting Accountant : Philip M. Hollins, M.A. (Cantab.), F.C.A. The chairman said how grateful we were for his work and we would ask him to continue.

7          Constitution – all committee members to be of Trustee status – Charity Commission requirement

- alteration of AGM to any December day / date - Administrator

After explanations, it was decided to take no action on either of these points.

8          Publication plans: Coventry is at the printer, and Frank Manders is about to deliver North Tyneside. Huddersfield: Paul Smith reported via the chairman ‘Progress is slow due in large part to my being unable to devote enough time to move the project on at a quicker rate; this is unlikely to alter until after September 2009 when the first year of the writing-up period for the M.Phil. comes to an end. I am hoping to finish it at this time and avoid having to enter the second year of the writing up period. I will of course keep Kate and Mervyn aware of the position.’

9          Publicity / web-site : We have now an e-mail order address, and are hoping to set up a web-shop. Perhaps a charity account with e-bay. One or two members have asked for leaflets to give out at gatherings, and we have supplied them with these and supplementary copies of the Bioscope. We have no specific knowledge of extra members recruited by this means, though.

10        Any Other Business (only by permission of the Chairman) : A member brought up the restoration of the Plaza Stockport, and asked if we should hold an AGM there. The chairmen replied we had indeed had an AGM there, and the administrator added that we hadn’t printed anything about it as they had not sent any information or press release.

11        Close : The chairman closed the meeting at 2.45, thanking Frank Manders for the arrangements: members then viewed the Classic auditorium.

Chairman’s Review of progress during the year The year has again been one of steady achievement. We have gained sufficient new members to balance the loss of others. The Bioscope has been issued each quarter with its customary promptness and with material from new, as well as quite regular, contributors. It has been well illustrated with photographs etc from a range of sources, not least from the accumulating archive of our own administrator, Mervyn Gould. We remain grateful to editor Paul Smith (who has himself contributed some very useful research studies of cinemas in towns in the Calder valley) and to Mervyn.

We have published two new books. Mervyn Gould’s substantial Basingstoke Entertained was published in December 2007, has been warmly reviewed and is selling well. Kate Taylor’s more modest Barnsley Cinemas came out in time to be issued to members as a freebie with the May 2008 Bioscope and is also being sold at outlets in Barnsley and Penistone. At the time of our March committee meeting in Birmingham, we were able to meet Chris Clegg, one of the founders of the Society, who passed on to us the manuscript of the late Gil Robottom on Coventry’s cinemas. Since then Mervyn and new member Ian Meyrick have given many hours to extending the research and the book is ready for sending to the printer. Other manuscripts are in preparation.

Our web site has continued to be updated frequently by Ian Grey and is a vehicle for sales as well as for the recruitment of new members. Colin Sanders has worked steadily on building up his archive of accounts of cinemas across Britain and has proved a useful source of information–at least for myself–in my work for the quarterly journal Screentrade.

We have been very pleased to welcome Ian Meyrick, author of the Tempus publication Oxfordshire Cinemas, onto the committee as well as Ian Houseman, who gave valuable assistance at all our former conferences. We were greatly saddened to learn of the death earlier in 2008 of our former treasurer, Anthony B Phillips, who had been a most dedicated officer and a loyal member. We have lost contact with our former publicity officer, Derek Atkins, who remains a committee member but who was, when we last had news of him, very ill.

The year has ended on a sad note with the resignation, after seventeen years of highly efficient service, of our Sales Officer, Stuart Smith. Stuart has dealt not only with the sales of our own considerable range of books but also with Brian Hornsey’s Fuchsiaprint publications which remain a very useful source of income for ourselves. Brian continues to produce new work with amazing frequency and most generously gives all his work to us. The sale of 333 items of his during the past year indicates something of the value of this contribution.

We can report that our finances remain in a very sound state and are very well looked after by our treasurer, Ian Grey. We have continued to deal with requests for information from students and from the media and some of us remain in demand for talks. Digital projection equipment and the Powerpoint program have meant that these can now be easily and well illustrated.

Our experienced team of officers has remained dedicated to furthering the interests of the Society, giving much of their time. They have met as a committee once, in March, in Birmingham and members have remained in contact regularly otherwise by telephone, letter and e-mail. We are most grateful to them. And we are grateful, too, to Philip Hollins for again examining our accounts.

Kate Taylor for, and on behalf of the Committee, December 2008

Administrator’s report A duck, perhaps, not a graceful as a swan, illustrates our year. As the chairman reports, we have published four Bioscopes, a booklet, and a small book. Our membership climbs slowly: books continue to sell. A calm glide on top of the water: but, underneath, the webbed feet are paddling madly. Coventry is at the printer; the web-site has been revised and enlarged; Frank Manders’ North Tyneside will soon be with us; Huddersfield is in creation; sales promotion through web-site e-mail and other plans are afoot; we have a re-invigorated committee; there are further book possibilities, such as Halifax; and still my own books to research, write, and launch on a (mainly) ungrateful world. And I’ve probably forgotten a few more things.

I value highly our links with other organisations and people. We get any illustrations we need from Clive Polden and the CTA archive, Harry Rigby will send his photos by return (and, in the case of Coventry, a memoir to go with them) Allen Eyles always gives a friendly hand in need, Richard Norman forwards requests from the Tony Moss collection, and Jeremy Buck and the CTA shop is our best regular customer. The PPT is supportive, and Steve Baker of Rewind advertises us and reviews our publications.

We can be proud, I think, of the quality of our output – it looks good and reads well! Paul has increased the coverage of the Bioscope enormously, and we hope readers appreciate the range. For getting the Bioscope files to the printer, and then the Bioscopes to the post, time and time again either Ian Houseman or Terry Simmons takes me and the carrier-bag-fulls to the post office. Between them, they save the society many pounds a year in ferrying me instead of paying taxi fares. Q3 of Loughborough does all our work, and we thank them for their friendliness and the quality of work that they produce on our behalf. In addition, Ian Housemen has fetched two collections from Coventry for me, and transferred the Mercia sales stock from Sheffield to secure temporary storage. And, of course, his work is evident to all in the covers of Barnsley (which got a special appreciation in the PPT’s Rewind notice) and Coventry.

Membership rises, oh so slowly, but rises. Our finances are sound. But, and a huge But, in spite of the hard work of officers, we have two vital vacancies – sales and press. We don’t need more money, more members would be nice, but we can run as we are, however, the twin spires of publicity and promotion and sales of our products must be addressed. There is no longer any fat in the organisation (though the administrator and treasurer still tend to block the sunlight at meetings) – one more of us goes down and we’re out. Please, please, please, one or two of you – come over into Macedonia and help us!

I am delighted to thank all my officer colleagues for the work that they do, and the committee members for their support. I enjoyed working with Ian Meyrick on fleshing out Coventry, and am awed by the work Ian Grey does for us in a busy life in the matters of web-site and finance. I look forward to working with Frank Manders and Ian Houseman on North Tyneside. And talking of a busy life, we are, as always, fortunate and grateful that our chairman finds time for us in hers.

Mervyn Gould

Our new Sales Officer is Martin Hall who is busily working with our administrator for a seamless handover of the stock and process.

Our new press & public relations officer is two for the price of one- Johnnie Cliff & Gerry Glover. They can be contacted via publicity@merciacinema.org

Details were included as a flyer with the recent edition of Bioscope. However, should any Member have misplaced the flyer, a softcopy of the details (and map) can be downloaded as a PDF file.

MINUTES of the ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2007

held at the Prince of Wales’ Theatre on Saturday 1 December at 1.15

1 Chairman’s welcome: The chairman welcomed all present, and thanked everyone for coming. She said how much we had enjoyed the tour of the wonderfully re-furbished theatre, and thanked theatre General Manager Graham Sykes for the free hospitality.

2 Quorum & Proxies / apologies:
Present were: Kate Taylor, Frank Manders, Frank Wright, Paul Smith, Ian Grey, Philip Hollins, Mervyn Gould (committee); Victor A. S. Behrman, Dave Biscombe, Barry Chandler, Ray Deahl, Ryan Jefferies, Richard Norman, Ian Patterson, Philip Roberts, David Simpson, Fred Fullerton, Neville C. Taylor, Sebastian Weber, Nigel Wolland (members); Jeremy Buck, CTA Sales (observer). (21) Valid proxy forms have been received from: Maurice Brader, Patrick Butler, Richard Cooper, Jack de Coninck, Victor A. Edwards, D. Gammage, Brian Hornsey, Ian Houseman, John A. Hunt, Ian Meyrick (e-mail), Roy Pack, Ant Phillips, Ian Van Ryne, Peter Sagar, Terry Simmons, John Slater, Robert E. Small, Frank D. Snart, D. T. Swaffer, Victor Welland (19). These represent, together with attenders, far more than the minimum 10% of membership. Apologies from Edwyn Gilmour and Gerald Glover, and David Trevor-Jones and Harry Rigby of the CTA.

3 Reading/adoption of minutes of 2006 meeting: Printed on the agenda sheet. Their adoption was proposed by Paul Smith, seconded by Ian Grey, and the meeting agreed they could be signed as an accurate record.

4 Matters arising from 2006 minutes: No items were raised.

5 Reports:
Chairman : (see below)
Membership : In the absence of Colin Sanders, the chairman announced that membership now stood at 204. We had gained 36 members, but lost 19, including Len Davies, Gil Robottom, and Ken Osborne through death.
Sales : A total of 518 items were sold, including 320 Fuchsiaprint booklets, 88 Medway, 32 York, 15 Swale, 13 Essex, 11 Wakefield, and other titles in single figures.
Treasurer : Printing expenditure is down, as the year before we had published York; subscriptions and donations up. We are grateful to members for their donations.
Administrator’s report (see below)

6 Elections:
Chairman: Mervyn Gould assumed the chair. He had no nominations, and there were no proposals from the floor. He proposed Miss Taylor to the meeting, and she was elected nem. con. She then resumed the chair.
Officers and committee: re-elected en bloc. The chairman asked for volunteers to join the committee, but none were forth-coming.

7 Publications: We had published nothing except the Bioscope during the financial year, but Basingstoke Entertained was shown to the meeting as the printers had just delivered it. Kate Taylor’s Barnsley was still imminent, Frank Manders was working on Cinemas of North Tyneside, Mervyn Gould had resumed work on Crewe and Nantwich and Burton-on-Trent, and Paul Smith had started work with Peter Berry on Huddersfield.

8 Publicity / web-site: Ian Grey said the web-site is now hosted by a United States server, at better terms and much larger storage. We can have more photographic galleries. The url is now www.merciacinema.org .

9 Membership recruitment: We repeated our thanks to the PPT and Jim Whittell for the successful advertising for new members.

10 Any Other Business (by permission of the chairman): The chairman asked if anyone had a suggestion for next year’s provincial AGM. She wondered about an independent multiplex, such a Cleethorpes Parkway. Fred Fullerton suggested Liverpool, the chairman added Lutterworth, but the Administrator said it was inaccessible by train.

11 Close of meeting: The Chairman closed the meeting at 2pm., and Basingstoke Entertained was on sale at the member price.

Chairman’s review of the year
This has been a good year. Thanks in particular to the efforts of Mervyn Gould in placing advertisements in Rewind and The Veteran and in writing to former members our membership has passed the 200 mark. There have been some losses and we greatly regret the death of a very loyal supporter, contributor and committee man, Len Davies. The Bioscope has been issued each quarter, again with admirable quality and promptness, and we have seen an interesting range of contributions including the invaluable recollections of people like David Simpson and Dennis Hurst, who worked in the cinema industry. We remain grateful to the editor, Paul Smith, and designer. Mervyn Gould, for its interest and quality. Other than the Bioscope, we have published nothing further this year but Mervyn’s work on Basingstoke cinemas went to the printer in November and both Mervyn and myself have further near-complete manuscripts. As the major publishers nationally of picture-house history we should, as always, be pleased to consider well-researched work from other members and, indeed, non-members.
Our web site, maintained by Ian Grey has been a further source of new members and is now not only attractive and regularly updated but a very useful source of extensive information with the addition of Mervyn’s exhaustive compilation, the cinema gazetteer. Colin Sanders continues to build up an archive of more detailed accounts of cinemas across Britain and is another source of information not otherwise easily available.
The Society’s finances, now securely handled by treasurer Ian Grey, remain sound with a greater income from membership subscriptions, but book sales have been rather disappointing this year, perhaps because we have had had no new publication. We have benefited again from Brian Hornsey’s great generosity in giving us both his new and past Fuchsiaprint booklets to sell for Society funds. Most orders remain, as in the past, from private individuals rather than bookshops and our Sales Officer, Stuart Smith, has again responded promptly and efficiently to every request.
We have continued to deal with requests for information from students and from the media and some of us remain in demand for talks. Digital projection equipment and the Powerpoint programme have meant that these can now be easily and well illustrated.
Our experienced team of officers has remained dedicated to furthering the interests of the Society, giving much of their time. They have met as a committee once, in mid-March, in Birmingham and members have remained in contact regularly otherwise by telephone, letter and e-mail and, once or two of them, once or twice in person. We are most grateful to them. And we are grateful, too, to Philip Hollins for again examining our accounts.

Kate Taylor

Administrator’s report
You have heard that it has been a very successful year. For the first time since I joined the committee in 1992, membership has crossed the 200 mark. Being such a small society, one of our problems is the lack of advertising, but now, at least, we know that many more people have heard of us. Bill Stephenson and friends at the PPT circulated our handbill with an issue of Rewind, and Mercia life member Jim Whittell, then President of the Cinema Veterans, arranged and paid for an advertisement in The Veteran, which is still bringing in members. Amongst the cinema history ‘trade’, there seems to be an enormous groundswell of support for us. Our recent books have been much improved by illustrations from the enormous CTA Archive, made available by Clive Polden, and from the late Tony Moss’ collection, by the kindness of Richard Norman and his scanning helpers: the latest proof of this fruitful collaboration being Basingstoke Entertained. In addition, Harry Rigby, Editor of the CTA Bulletin, is ever-ready to send his photographs for the Bioscope, and Allen Eyles is also guaranteed to help with information and illustrations. We are grateful to them all.
The Bioscope, ably edited by Paul Smith, goes from strength to strength, and we are indebted to the contributors for what we hope and intend as a useful, informative, and entertaining journal. We have only published one work other than the Bioscope this year, but there are others in the offing. In my own case, work due to be resumed by visits to Crewe and Burton were postponed because of the poor summer – not, I felt, a time to stand around on railway platforms – and was over-taken by later projects. I used the kindlier autumn weather to resume work on these towns. Another project is rural Leicestershire, and this was given a fillip by attending David and Diane Simpson’s meticulously-organised CTA Easter trip, which also gave an opportunity to meet many well-known names.
We welcomed Kate’s work on Wakefield and district for Tempus Publishing during the year, and look forward to her Cinemas of Barnsley for us. Ian Grey’s web-site work draws attention to us: statistics show an average of 5,000 hits monthly, and some of those send contributions we use in the Bioscope. Some get in touch about my Gazetteer or one of the galleries; making queries, feeding information, and (occasionally) joining the Society.
We keep afloat by your subscriptions, but our publications bring in money to publish more – when we get the scripts. We thank Stuart Smith for so ably keeping trade and individual customers supplied. Ian Grey, as well as tending the web-site, also keeps the books – a time-consuming and essential task mainly unappreciated by us. Philip Hollins donates his time and professional expertise to our audit, while, in the background, Colin Sanders keeps membership records abreast of the times.
It seems obvious our success is due to the appearance of the Bioscope and our other books. For this, our printers are responsible: I wish to draw attention to and thank all staff of Q3 Digital Litho for their care, interest, and print standard. Their new digital technology investment has paid dividends for us in the quality of illustrations, and cleanness of text.
But our centre and mainspring is here before us today: we are fortunate that Kate Taylor devotes part of her enormous energy, scholarship, and reputation to us. She has kept us alive over several famine years! We congratulate and thank her.

Mervyn Gould