CHAIR’S REPORT: JUNE 19TH 2018
Following the 2017 AGM, I am pleased to report that most of the plans outlined in the minutes have been carried through and it was with a mixture of sadness and relief that the final edition of the printed Mardles magazine was posted to the membership on 24th October, 2017.
Our finances remain static and healthy now that all expenses associated with the production of the magazine have ceased.
Since then most of the SF committees attention has been focused on an orderly transition to mardles.org and I can record that we achieved everything we set out to do within the agreed timescale.
The new website was embryonic but up and running by the beginning of January and is beginning to be appreciated by those who know about it and then remember to look it up.
Minutes of subsequent SF meetings record detailed discussions about format, finance, constitutions, insurance and all the other wonderful things that have to be considered when setting up a new organisation. New Data Protection Laws had to be taken into account linking to the need and best means of contacting the current SF database.
An archive dating from 1983 has been retrieved from John Helliwell and if anyone has any opinions, suggestions as to what should happen to this (back copies of Mardles, minutes of meetings) I would be very pleased to hear them.
The committee agreed to fund the 2018 Suffolk Folk Day of Country Dance at Carlton and £450 has been set aside for this purpose.
Committee also agreed to donate £1000 to mardles.org to cover any initial costs of setting up the website.
Everyone on the current SF committee has been attending mardles.org ‘technical’ meetings in Mendlesham where we have been joined by John Heaser, his computer and Peter Rushmer. We were sorry that Julie Gittoes decided to resign from the post of ‘Folk in the Community/Education’ but thanks her for volunteering in the first instance.
The mardles .org steering group is set to meet once or twice a year but keeps in close contact with Skype conference calls and email.
The SF membership were contacted by post to keep them informed of all the latest developments and have been encouraged to subscribe to the mardles.org website. So far around 150 people have done this out of a total of around 200 names on the database.
This concludes my report.
Jill Parson
Chair
Final words
It only remains to thank the other members of all committees, past and present, for the hard work they have put into establishing SF as a highly respected part of the E. Anglian Folk Scene.
Whilst I am sad that it’s closure is happening under my stewardship I am proud that actually ‘the end’ has only become a change of name and format. SF has always been about Mardles and the spirit and ethos lives on in mardles.org.
So it is not ‘the end’ at all. It is a move into the 21st Century that should continue for many years to come and it feels good to be part of it.
Over the coming months and using the archive as a reference, I plan to research and produce a history of SF for the website.
Anyone with any memories/anecdotes of people, events, meetings and the like are more than welcome to contribute to this important project….just Google mardles.org to find my details – SF will always be present on the site and that’s where you will find me.
June 2018