SOCIETY OF CIVIL AND PUBLIC SERVICE WRITERS, ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING, ON 9 MAY 2026 AT 1.30PM, AT THE CIVIL SERVICE CLUB, 13-15 GREAT SCOTLAND YARD, LONDON, SW1A 2HJ AND ONLINE (ON ZOOM).

Attendees:  Ethel Corduff (Chairman), Gopi Chandroth (Editor), Alex Tyler (Competitions Secretary), Bernie Bickerton (Meetings Secretary) and members: Vivienne Orr, Michael Smith, Geoff Parkes and Mike Sedgwick and online: members: Zoe May and Tom Oulton.

1. Apologies: Jenny Chamier-Grove (Publicity Officer), Nimmi Channa (Treasurer), Mike Boland (PW Editor) and members:  Jean Pound, Joanna Crawford, Phil Cook and Tony Oswick.

2. Minutes of AGM held on 10 May 2025. There were no comments or updates on the minutes.

3. Reports from the Committee. Report from the Chairman – agreed. There was an update on the number of members in the Society: 67.  

4. Report from the Treasurer. Agreed. The Society was in a good position; it was operating with surplus funds. In view of the financial obstacles and setbacks Nimmi and Ethel had encountered over the last year one member commented “ it was a remarkable achievement” that accounts had been produced.       

5. Report from the Magazine Editor. Agreed. Gopi encouraged new members and members who hadn’t previously submitted material to the Author to send him contributions. Action. Members.

6. Gopi would complete three years as Editor in 2027 and would stand down next year; the Summer edition would be the last Author he would edit. However, Gopi would continue as Webmaster beyond that date. Gopi asked members to let him know about amendments that needed to be made to the website, for example, out of date information. Action. Members.

7. Alex suggested a “ways of working” feature in the Author on questions such as: editing; how to fill a blank hole and use of AI to help writing.

8. Report from the Poetry Workshop. Agreed. There were 25 members.

9. Report from the Meetings Secretary. Bernie had decided not to seek re-election as Meetings Secretary[1] as she no longer had the time to organise the AGM as she had health issues to manage. However, she offered to book the meeting room in the Civil Service Club for next year’s AGM. [Following the AGM, this has now been done as Bernie has booked the Trafalgar Room for 8 May 2027]. She also offered to continue poetry Zoom sessions and perhaps other Zoom meetings in her capacity as a member. Gopi cautioned this would need to be compliant with GDPR legislation. Ethel thanked Bernie for her work as Meetings Secretary and for her earlier work as Membership Secretary. Action. Bernie

10. Zoe May, a new member, asked if a membership survey had been done to find out what members wanted. Zoe would be happy to support the design. It was agreed it was a good idea to do a survey and Gopi would organise it. Action. Gopi

11. Report from the Publicity Officer. Agreed. Jenny had decided to stand down and not seek re-election following many years as Publicity Officer. At its earlier meeting, the Committee had agreed Committee roles could be job-shared and this could be done with the Publicity Officer role. 

12. To publicise the Society and recruit new members it was suggested working with existing groups including public sector organisations was the best option. It was suggested the Society contact the Civil Service Sports Council (CSSC) to get listed with them so CSSC members were aware of SCPSW and could join if they wished. Action. Publicity Officer

13. To encourage interest in the Society, Zoe suggested members could upload videos of themselves reading out their work onto Facebook/You Tube and Tik Tok. This had worked for other organisations. Zoe suggested a question could be put in the survey such as “would you be prepared to read out your work on video for social networks? ” Action. Gopi

14. Report from the Competitions Secretary. Agreed. Competitions had been managed very efficiently.

15. Ideas for increasing competition entries. Alex asked what motivated members to enter competitions and what prevented them. One member reported it was receiving feedback on competitions, another member said it was to be a better writer and third said it was to get critique and be published. Zoe suggested the survey could include a question such as “would receiving critique make you enter competitions?” Action. Gopi. In respect of what prevents members from entering competitions one member said it was being asked to write about a specific topic.

16.  A member suggested feedback on competition entries could include: plot construction and quality of characterisation. Zoe suggested there could be a guest judge for competitions, for example, an external person/Committee member/member. She also suggested the competitions could be advertised on Facebook, with entrants required to join SCPSW in order to enter SCPSW competitions.  Action. Alex

17. Ideas for capturing feedback. Gopi had worked on a potential IT solution for capturing feedback but had been met with GDPR constraints.

18. Increase in SCPSW subscriptions to £30 from January 2027. The AGM agreed to the increase. Action. Nimmi. Zoe suggested SCPSW could introduce ‘gift card membership’, for example, where a relative could purchase membership for a member of the family. Other organisations did this and it could be promoted on SCPSW’s Facebook page.  

19. Replacement webmaster. Gopi explained the offer is still open for members to work alongside him as an Assistant Webmaster. In the meantime, he would continue as Webmaster. Zoe requested the webmaster job description. Action. Gopi. 

20. Elections for Committee 2026. A new member, Zoe May, put herself forward for the role of Deputy Chair and agreed to be Meetings Secretary until a successor was found. Zoe also said she would do part of the Publicity Officer role while it remained vacant.

Chairman (2^nd term) 2nd of 3 years–  Ethel Corduff (no election required)

Deputy Chairman – Zoe May (proposed by Bernie, seconded by Gopi)

Treasurer – Nimmi Channa (proposed by Bernie, seconded by Ethel)

Membership Secretary – vacancy  

Magazine Editor – Gopi Chandroth (proposed by Bernie, seconded by Geoff Parkes)

Meetings Secretary – Zoe will do this as part of her Dep Chair role until the post has been filled

Publicity Officer – Zoe will do some of this, as Dep Chair, while the post is vacant

Competitions Secretary – Alex Tyler (proposed by Bernie, seconded by Geoff Parkes)

21. For the AGM in 2027 and beyond, the only meeting papers which would be printed would be those sent to members of the SCPSW who were not online. The survey could include a question on communications. Action. Gopi

22. Any Other Business. Gifts would be sent to Jenny and Bernie in view of their service to SCPSW and the Committee.

23.Readings, including stories and poems, were given by:  Ethel, Vivienne, Michael, Geoff and Mike.

24. The AGM finished at 15.45

Bernie Bickerton, Meetings Secretary, 28 May 2026.

For information. Bernie had resigned as ‘Secretary’ to SCPSW on 27 March 2026 in an email to Ethel Corduff