Annual General Meeting
28 April 2025
6pm start, held virtually via Zoom
Attendees:
Emily Harley – Chair
Ed Ireland – Treasurer
Charlie – Secretary
Kirsty Smith – Lit Fest Volunteer
Chair’s Report
Over the last few years of running our LGBT+ Lit Fest, we’ve been gradually reducing the number of events we put on, in most part due to illness and availability of our committee. In the last 12 months, we have made the decision as a committee to put a hold on future events other than our monthly virtual book club, though we are still hoping to run our second hand book sale once a year. All of our online content from previous events will remain available for free in our blogs and on our YouTube channel.
A huge thank you to our team of volunteers who keep us running.
Treasurer’s Report
Eddi shares the overheads and costs for the website and money in the bank account and confirms that money in the bank matches the books.
Overheads:
Mailchimp - £152.67
Website - £219.95
Zoom - £77.94
Total - £450.56
Current Group balance - £1,076.59
Paypal balance - £96.64
Website hosting – Wix plan VIP 3 years October 2025 to October 2028.
£734.40 on 12 October 2025 to be paid.
We will need to make payment for website renewal. We have enough money for the next three years. Agreement that it would be a good idea to keep the website due to the blogs we have there. Emily currently covers this cost and then is paid back by Lit Fest, but would prefer the money didn’t come from their account going forward. This will need to be discussed further in September when the payment is due - it’s possible that Eddi could make the payment.
Bi+ Leeds Social Group is still using our bank account but currently has no funds in our account. They are now looking into their own account.
Money in the Paypal account is for Mailchimp. Currently comes out of Emily’s account and then Eddi sends money from Paypal.
Our bank account only has Eddi and Emily set up as signatories. As our account needs duel sign off on any payments, it would be good to organise additional signatories as Emily is not always available to verify the payments.
As discussed at last year’s AGM, Eddi looked into moving to another bank as the committee and volunteers don’t want to bank with Barclays. Setting up a bank account with another bank appears to be complex as we are classified as a social group or club, not a registered charity or CIC. Eddi feels we are lucky to have the bank account we do have this type as it seems difficult to come by now and so whilst we would like to move banks, this does not seem possible, currently. A suggestion given recently by a member was to use the bank account of another charity or group, but this could cause issues with funding requests. The committee also would not feel comfortable with another group controlling our money.
We’ve had an offer from a volunteer to help with the bank account and Eddi feels this would be useful. Kirsty and Charlie are happy to be added as signatures on the bank account. Kirsty offers for money to come out of her bank account if necessary in future.
ACTION: Eddi to email volunteer for more info and then add volunteer (and potentially rest of committee) to bank account so that we can all confirm payments.
Secretary’s Comments
Charlie has two points to raise.
Firstly, Charlie checked last year’s AGM minutes, we had 39 subscribers to our newsletter. We now have 53. Usually upwards of 60% of people open the newsletter.
Second point is that Charlie has been trying to create a ‘Meet The Team’ post for the last year. Photo from Eddi still required. Following discussion with Emily, it was decided to wait until after this AGM to be completed so that all positions/roles are confirmed. Once we’ve agreed to those today, Charlie can then resume creating the post. Then we all need to think of a quirky question we want to answer.
Eddi does not want their face shared on social media and so the option is offered for them to obscure their face in some way, such as wearing sunglasses. Emily offers they can choose no photo.
ACTION: Eddi to think if they want a photo for post, and let Charlie know either way, then send a photo if this is what they chose.
ACTION: Charlie to share on social media a request for quirky book-related questions for Meet the Team post we can each answer.
ACTION: Charlie to finish Meet the Team
Social Media
Emily explains the concerns of the committee regarding Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, as the company is becoming like X (Twitter). Meta moderation no longer recognizes transphobia as an issue. Facebook is the worst of the two. We get the most engagement through Facebook but actually not a lot of discussion. We have details of the events and things there. The Facebook group has always had potential but a lot of the posts on the are from people promoting their own books or newsletters, which are unrelated to Book Club. We’ve worked really hard to get the Instagram page where it is. This matter was raised at April’s Book Club. Emily asked if anyone really uses Facebook anymore to get the links to the book club and most people said they used the newsletter or website, actually.
Facebook is used for polls, but we could still do the polls through Google Forms. People want a space to talk about queer books but would prefer a space that is limited to book club members.
What do we want from a social media presence, somewhere to chat? WhatsApp is also owned by Meta, so maybe move to Signal? We could have a group to talk about books. This platform would mean that you can see each other’s phone numbers though. Could check to see if they have any safeguards for that. People would know that before they joined. Committee would need to keep an eye on if someone hasn’t been to the book club for 6 months or so, to remove them from the group. We want a place where people can chat.
We can look at doing socials again. Flamingo's isn’t open in the evenings anymore so finding a dry space will be more difficult. Emily wouldn’t be able to commit to them all. We could do online socials, and not necessarily just for us to organise - people can arrange things through the group chat.
MeetUp was also mentioned in addition to Signal. Google Chat is offered as a suggestion, but this would require a Google account. If we come off Facebook people would need to sign up to our newsletter. For people to find us who don’t know about us, what other option do we have? Instagram – we get a steady stream of new followers with our posts. Currently in favour of keeping Instagram, losing Facebook, trying Signal and then reviewing this in 6 months to a year’s time.
Emily doesn’t want to make a decision today, put out a poll and ask Book Club attendees. We also don’t want to join lots of social media channels - Discord, MeetUp, maybe BlueSky. Generally, the committee is in favour of moving off Facebook and trying Signal. However, some of these would be more difficult to set up, for instance none of us know how BlueSky works, and Meet Up requires a payment; Signal seems easiest to start with. Charlie in agreement of moving from Meta and asking followers what they want.
A poll will be created as Facebook post and Google Form with the options:
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Keep Facebook
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Lose Facebook and start Signal and post events here
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Lose Facebook but not join another (keep Instagram and have newsletter)
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Recommend another platform other than Signal, if people want a group chat but not Signal
We can use poll results to discuss in a further book club meeting. If we set up Signal, we can share in book club meet ups and make it clear that people can’t use the data shared (people’s phone numbers) and by joining they agree to not sharing data. We would not share the Signal group details publicly, and would have a post in the chat to remind people of rules, which we could share periodically.
ACTION: Charlie to create Google Form and Facebook Group poll
Book Club
We have books chosen for next year. It is agreed that Charlie will run June’s book club on her own and Kirsty is to run the October meeting. Emily raises that there is an issue with one of the books - like we had for Tamlin - in terms of availability, Managing and Other Lies. Emily will speak with The Bookish Type about it, but that’s for the September book club so we have time to look into it and give people notice.
Second Hand Book Stalls
There is the potential to do this later this year. It usually coincides with Council’s market, not yet been contacted by Council about this.
AOB?
No.
Roles
Emily is happy to stay as Chair, but with Kirsty’s support and knowledge. Vote passed for Emily and Kirsty as co-Chairs. It is agreed and voted on that Eddi and Charlie will stay on as Treasurer and Secretary, respectfully.
Agreed roles:
Emily – Co-Chair
Kirsty – Co-Chair
Eddi – Treasurer
Charlie - Secretary
Next AGM
6.30 pm, Wednesday 22nd April 2026
Emily notes that the Treasurer’s report has a typo, it should be 2024 to 2025 rather than 2024 to 2024. Just raising in case this is going into the public domain with the minutes.
ACTION: Eddi to edit the Treasurer’s Report.
We will remove AGM 2024 minutes from the website to be replaced with 2025. The records of the minutes are retained on the Google Drive, which all committee have access to.