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Annual General Meeting
22 April 2026

6.30pm start, held virtually via Zoom

 

Attendees

Committee:

Emily Harley – Co-Chair

Kirsty Smith - Co-Chair

Eddi Ireland – Treasurer

Charlie Roberts – Secretary 

Members:

Iz

Chair’s Report​

Welcome to our 2026 Annual General Meeting. We’re coming to the end of our 9th year running our book club and associated events. While we’ve still got another year of book clubs planned, the main news we’ll be discussing today is myself and Kirsty, my Co-Chair, will be stepping down in May 2027.

Before we get into the details of that, let's have a round up of how the last year has been.

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Treasurer’s Report​​

20260422 LGBT+ Lit Fest - Treasurer’s Report 2026.png

  • In overheads, ‘website’ covers our domain and hosting costs

    • These are charged 3 yearly, but the overhead represents the yearly cost

  • Our share of the Zoom account with another group in Leeds to split the cost

  • We received a discount with Mailchimp and so price is a little reduced

  • We had PayPal to pay people for events, but we don’t need this anymore

    • Look to close down PayPal account & put money into bank account

  • Petty cash can go into bank account

  • When we formally close, committee will need to make decision about what to do with remaining monies

  • Since last AGM, committee looked to change provider of bank account but this was a challenge, most financial services require some level of official registration e.g. a charity 

  • Going forward, if someone picks up book club side of this, they shouldn’t need the same type of bank account we required and so should not face issues we had

    • Unless the new group wishes to apply for funding which requires additional accounts safety in the future

  • We want to keep functionality of bank account until we have completely closed 

  • Ongoing work to add additional committee members to the bank account to safeguard functionality in the future

    • This may no longer be required, committee can discuss this later in the year

Over The Last Year

Social media:

  • We get many new book releases sent to us via email and these are often shared via social media, if it’s felt appropriate

  • We continue to get good engagement on social media and new followers to the Instagram, even though we don’t share that much anymore 

  • At last AGM, we planned to create a Meet the Team post

    • This became difficult for committee members to provide necessary details, so wasn’t completed and now there is no need

  • Reduced the use of Meta - no longer have the Facebook Group and now have a Signal group instead

    • Signal group is relatively active and good conversations are had amongst members about books we’re reading for Book Club as well as other recommendations 

Newsletter:

  • Last year had 53 subscribers at time of AGM, now we have 62 subscribers

    • Not as significant increase as last year, but shows that there is still interest in what we do

  • Analytics show that around 30 - 40% open the newsletter across the year, about 15 - 20% click on the links

    • This is consistent with the numbers we see at Book Club that fewer would actually click through on the links 

  • Following discussion at Book Club meetings, we share surveys that are sent to us via email 

Book Club:

  • Continued to host this monthly via Zoom

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Going Forward

  • The future of our organisation:

    • It is Emily and Kirsty's intention to step down as Co-Chairs for the LGBT+ Lit Fest and Virtual LGBT+ Book Club in May 2027, with our last book club meeting being Wednesday 5 May 2027 – which is also the 10 year anniversary of our book club.

    • Our preference is for the Lit Fest and Book Club as we know it to fully close on this date. This has been really important to us all and we just feel it’s time for a fresh start if anyone wants to pick up the book club.

    • However, if anyone would like to come forward to continue with the book club meet ups, our suggestion is that this is done as a new entity, not as a continuation of the LGBT+ Lit Fest, with new socials, website etc.

    • Our proposal is that anyone who wants to come forward, we would need them to do so by our Book Club meeting on Wednesday 2 June this year to have a discussion about how to make that work.

    • That gives us plenty of time to help the person or people set up a new club and offer any help we’re able to.

    • One thing that is important to us is that if that happens, it will be someone who has a realistic expectation of the admin and organising behind running such a club, and be able to commit to that.

  • Website and other content:

    • We have a lot of virtual content from previous Lit Fest events on our website and YouTube channel. We would like this to stay available so would continue to have the website live for at least a further 2 years.

  • Money:

    • Passed forward to help with setting up a new book club or come together as a group to suggest which organisations we’d like to donate it to, with the final decision going to a vote

    • Eddi raises concerns that much funding now is project-based and for a deliverable service, not for overheads, so we likely would run out of money in a couple of years anyway

  • Second-hand books remaining from previous sales:

    • Donate to The Bookish Type for their 2nd hand book sales

    • We have had difficulty finding it second-hand book sales to sell books at

    • Iz offers we could sell books at Alternative Pride, but we no longer need the funds, so we can donate some books to the Alt Pride, if committee are available to do so 

  • In June, once we know if and how the Book Club will go forward, we will need to notify 3rd party stakeholders that we have worked with e.g. The Bookish Type

    • ACTION: make list and contact groups 

 

Vote for committee

  • All committee members retain positions 

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AOB?

  • Iz thanks us for running book club and is happy to have joined 

  • If no one takes on the book club, committee can put out a list of alternative groups for members to join

 

Final General Meeting

20 January 2027, 6 pm via Zoom

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© 2022 by LGBT+ Lit Fest

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