Notes from the UK Coloured Pencil Society AGM

UKCPS Annual General Meeting 1st October 2010

The Annual General Meeting of the UKCPS took place at 5pm on Friday 1st October.

This is an edited version of the Chair's note which summarises key points in advance of the publication of the full minutes to all UKCPS members.  It broadly follows the order of items on the agenda

Society Finances / Sponsorship / Membership

The current economic climate is generating pressures on two important sources of future UKCPS revenue.  It is proving increasingly difficult to gain sponsorship and also to retain members who are having to review their outgoings.  The latter particularly affects those who are retired and/or whose income is increasingly squeezed.  It's therefore essential to keep the Society's running costs under control.

However, the good news is that the UKCPS has accumulated a significant reserve which currently provides:

• the equivalent of a year’s running costs which acts as a buffer against any financial difficulties or insolvency.
• an opportunity to invest funds to take forward both the aims of the Society and to add value to members.

Annual Exhibition / Venues for future exhibitions

Changes have been agreed to how UKCPS exhibits in future.

In order to maintain maximum accessibility for members, the new plan is to hold the Annual Exhibition at a venue in London and a suitable venue elsewhere in the UK in alternate years.

• The 10th Annual Exhibition in 2011 will be in London.
• The venue for 2012 has not yet been decided.  Prestigious galleries outside London are being sought and any help identifying suitable locations is most welcome.

10th birthday celebrations / a new mixed media class

The occasion of the first Annual Exhibition by UKCPS in London will be used to promote the use of coloured pencils as a fine art medium within the capital and to figures in the fine art establishment.   Invites will be extended to the latter re attendance at the Private View and involvement with the judging.

The 10th exhibition will be a larger event.  It provides an opportunity for members to get involved in running workshops and demonstrating.  Members are also invited to make suggestions for new ways of how to use the Exhibition to communicate coloured pencils to a new audience

A new mixed media class has been proposed and agreed.  The AGM agreed that UKCPS should pilot a judged 50% mixed media class alongside the pure coloured pencil workls in order to extend the scope of the Society and to enable keen users of pastel pencils to participate.  This does not mean that the Society is losing its primary focus of being the Society specialising in pure coloured pencils.

UKCPS Committee 

There have been a number of changes in committee membership during 2009/10 which have resulted in fresh ideas coming to the fore.  The spreading of roles between more people is working well.  This has relieved pressures on existing committee members and enabled more attention to be given to the development of new ideas.

Currently there are urgent outstanding vacancies for:

• PR and marketing
• Co-ordination of the UKCPS annual attendance at Art Materials Live at the NEC

Anyone interested should contact the Chairman.  You don't need to be proposed - you can volunteer.

If better forum webware can be found (given the current way Yahoo displays artwork separate from threads) a volunteer is also needed to make this happen and then run the forum.

Forward notice was given that the following roles will be vacated in 2011

• Chairman
• Exhibition Director
• Sponsorship

Communication with Membership

The Annual Committee Meeting enabled discussion of new ways of improving communication to members using a variety of channels.

In future, the plan is to:

• Create a membership area on the web.  This will include a searchable set of resources based on articles in Talking Point and useful threads in the Forum
• Develop a new approach to Local Groups to create a more geographically based approach to the provision of information and workshops at a local level.
• Develop an interim newsletter for members who do not use the web to provide top tips from the Forum inbetween editions of Talking Point

Timing of Annual Committee Meeting / AGM

It has been customary to hold the Annual Committee Meeting on the same day as and just before the AGM.  It was agreed that this is not working.

Next year a revised timetable will create more opportunity to develop ideas for consideration by members in advance of the AGM

It was also noted that the change of day on which the AGM was held had also prompted many members to ask that the UKCPS AGM returns to being held at a weekend so more members can attend. 

Exhibition Awards

Pat Heffer presents the Derwent Award to Peter Woof

The Exhibition Director distributed the following awards to those prizewinners able to attend.

• Caran d'Ache Award for Best Picture in Show (£400) ‘Loire Valley Harvest’ by Jane Pirie (Mrs Thorogood)
• UKCPS Award for ‘Reserve Best in Show’ (£200) ‘Daydreaming Tiger’ by Sue Clinker UKCPS 
• The President's Award (£100) ‘Challenging Stereotypes’ by Kate Clarke UKCPS 
• The Peter Weatherill Award for Best Landscape (£75) ‘Surrey Spring Elstead Moat Pond’ by Jean Canter UKCPS
• The Staedtler Award (£50) ‘Strawberries’ by Irina Garmashova-Cawton
• The Faber Castell Award (Large box of Polychromos Pencils) ‘Ross’ by Brian Ainsworth
• The Derwent Award (£100 of art supplies from Derwent catalogue) ‘Japanese Still Life’ by Peter Woof UKCPS Silver
• The Lyra Award (Large Box of Pencils) Plum & Blossom 'Marjories Seedling' by Jane Pirie (Mrs Thorogood)
• The Ann Swan Award for Botanical Art (copy of her new book)  'Pear 'Conference' by Jane Pirie (Mrs Thorogood)

Prizes were also awarded to those Highly Commended.

Following the close of the meeting, an enjoyable social gathering was held.

After that, volunteers (and partners) dismantled the exhibition and packed up artwork for despatch back to members. 

NOTE:  Distribution of artwork:  “The postman” is away next week on a course so there will be a short delay before pictures are returned to artists.

Pauline Longley, Suzie Herbert and Malcolm Cudmore pack up the exhibition
assisted by members' partners