Annual Report 2010

 

 

The President's Report 2009-2010

It gives me great pleasure to present the President's report for the year 2009/10, particularly since the Society continues to flourish. Membership remains buoyant, and, despite the grim economic situation at national level, its finances are in remarkably good shape. It continues to be possible to consider making donations in support of appropriate Egyptological enterprises to the point where it has become necessary to revisit the Society's donation policy. Given that state funding for Egyptology is now largely a thing of the past in this country, the support both of individuals and societies like ours has become increasingly important, and the Society can feel a real sense of pride that it remains in a position to make significant contributions to research projects. What projects should be supported is, of course, a difficult question, and establishing priorities is no easy matter, but it remains as true as ever that fieldwork is of critical importance, and the funding of fieldwork should always be high in the list of activities to be considered.

The society has continued to offer excellent value for money in its programme. The ten formal lectures for 2009/10 covered a wide range of topics including archaeology, history, and major aspects of Egyptian culture. There was the odd glitch in that Karen Exell was prevented by Arctic conditions from delivering her January lecture, and Dylan Bickerstaff had to stand in for Toby Wilkinson in May. Fortunately neither lecture has been lost to us since both have been rescheduled for 2010/11. In addition to these formal lectures there has been much else on offer in the form of evening classes, study days, trips, and lunches. A particularly valuable development is the programme of Associated External 10-Week Courses which were run this year by Newbury College, Oxford University and the WEA, and it is good to see that this initiative still features in the programme for 2010/11. In all of these activities there has been a commendable breadth of geographical coverage involving not only the Delta and the Valley but also Nubia and the Western Desert, and it is particularly gratifying to an enthusiast for Late Period Egypt to see that the society has recently shown something of a focus on the Late Period in Tony Leahy's lecture on the Twenty-seventh Dynasty in March and Paul Whelan's ten-week evening course on the Late Dynasties.

In all, then, we have had a very good year, and all the signs are that the current year will be at least as successful. Very well done!

Alan Lloyd

Chairman's Report

It has been another busy and successful year for the society with a full programme of well-supported events. Particularly pleasing has been the success of the classes programme, with three terms of evening classes and three study days, essentially the full range of classes that the University would have been provided. This was supplemented in the summer term by our first class through the WEA, this brings Egyptology to new audiences and helps widen the scope of our provision.

The year has not been without challenges, our January lecture was sadly cancelled due to the adverse weather and we implemented a partial venue change in the course of the year. However I'm pleased to report the Oakwood Centre has proved to be a tremulously successful venue while meantime we do still continue our relationship with the University.

Membership and attendance both remain strong, and these together with factors such as the TVAES Store, surplus from the classes, raffles and the sale of Philip's pictures have all contributed to a very healthy bank balance at the end of the year, enabling us to both freeze subscriptions once again and consider a donation strategy. Finally I would like to thank our outgoing Honorary Secretary for all her hard work, Gill Woods took on the role at the tremendously difficult time after Philip's death and has been a beacon of knowledge, good sense and efficiency in the role which we will miss; still these are talents which I'm sure Gill will take to her full-time research work.

Chairman's Outlook for 2010-2011

Plans are already in place for a full programme of events in the coming year. In addition to the regular lecture series, key developments include a 30-week Hieroglyphs class and four study days including a major fundraising day with Derek Welsby in July 2011. The Middle Egypt Study Tour with Professor Barry Kemp in November/December this year has proven popular and we will be heading to Egypt with a full group, meanwhile we hope to run some more local trips in the course of the year. Electronic communication mediums have been very successful for the society (historically email and the web but we have also recently launched on Facebook) and are a key factor in our growth over the last few years, but we also need to continue to do more perhaps via traditional means to reach out into our local communities. We hope to develop a strategy for local community marketing, and would welcome any members who would like to be involved in this process.

Overall it looks like another busy and enjoyable year to come, but with luck without a repeat of last year's extreme weather.

John Billman

Secretary's Report

The Society has had quite an eventful year. In the autumn we launched an unanticipated venue search which resulted in our being able to make arrangements with the Oakwood Centre, which has better facilities, for the use of its accommodation for most of the meeting dates; the university being used on those dates when it could not. We are continuing to make use of the Oakwood Centre. A new logo was voted upon by members and there was a very successful sale of Philip Wicken's pictures and papyri.

The Committee meets on average every other month and members have worked hard in order to ensure the success of activities. The evening classes were successful as were the study days. A Members' Miscellany took place in early August at the Penta Hotel, after the lunch several members gave short talks on a variety of subjects ranging from Obsidian to Music in Ancient Egypt. All events are publicised in the Newsletter, for which there is now a new editor, Beth Asbury who, at present, is working for the SCA (Supreme Council of Antiquities) in Cairo. I think you will agree with me that she has vastly improved the format. I hope you enjoyed reading it.

Although our membership continues to grow, the Committee is looking at a variety of marketing strategies. Any ideas from members would be most welcome.

I am now standing down as the Honorary Secretary. I have enjoyed being the secretary and am sad at standing down but I have to concentrate on my research. I wish my successor every success. I would like to thank Committee members for all the extremely hard work they have put in over the year; I would also like to extend my thanks to Malcolm Butler for maintaining the Society's website but most of all I would like to thank you, the members, because without you, the Society would not exist.

Gill Woods

 

Annual subscription

Annual subscriptions became due on 1 July 2010. The current subscription is £15 for individuals, £20 for joint members and £3 for visitors.

Email Addresses

Where appropriate the Society would like to supplement postal mailings by making increased use of electronic communication. Whilst recognizing that some members do not have email access, this would enable us to rapidly communicate to many members advance notice of the extra events.

*** Please send an email to the programme secretary with your preferred email address. ***

Email addresses will not be passed to third parties, members are welcome to submit more than one email address.