EDITORIAL

Copyright © South West Maritime History Society 2021.

Views expressed are the authors’ and not necessarily those of the society or editor.

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Annual Subscriptions: Due 1st April. £20.00

WELCOME ABOARD

Julie Williams Devon Maeve Roberts Devon Judith Ellis Norfolk

EDITORIAL

Phew! The society has been extraordinarily busy over the last few months, and many important decisions have been taken which will help to keep the society ‘afloat’. One of the most important is the agreement by the membership for the society to change to a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO); this will limit the financial liability of trustees in the event of any litigation. A new constitution will be drawn up as a result of this but services to members will not be affected.

For the first time in over two years there has been an Annual General Meeting; from a personal perspective it was a real pleasure for me to finally meet the people I have been working with since September 2020 face to face, as well as some of the members, although many of us felt we didn’t have enough time to talk to each other for as long as we would have wished. I also enjoyed the presentations enormously.

A new website has been built and will provide a much better service to members, for a lower price to the society. For instance there will be new resources, updated archives, an improved news section, so members can find out what’s on in the south west sooner than waiting for information in Soundings (although this will continue); it is frustrating for me to find an event that members may be interested in only for it to happen between issues, for example.

The member’s survey also occurred and is reported on later in the newsletter; the full results will be available on the website (which may have already been ‘fired up’ before you receive this). Many respondents also said they would be willing to write for the society, so please contact Clive Charlton, me or Mike Bender if you want to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboards).

Finally we have lots of news, now that more activities are taking place, and have three new members, all women (yippee) and I extend a warm welcome to them all.

Maggie Watkinson