CHAIR’s BULLETIN – August We are now veterans of the Zoom live remote lecture scene following two more lectures: in July, from Anne Anderson on Ikea and Scandinavian Design and, the first of two August lectures, from Nicola Moorby on the Italian Sketchbooks of JMW Turner. Nicola’s lecture in particular was an outstanding example of the kind of stimulating, impeccably presented lecture which we have come to expect from our accredited lecturers, remote or otherwise. Word is obviously getting around because, even in these circumscribed times, we are welcoming new members and our numbers are being maintained when we might have expected some reduction. I would like to thank our members for their loyal support and hope our programme of remote lectures will continue to reward your confidence - thanks again to the Programme team for sourcing replacement lecturers where needed and for putting together next year’s series of lectures (which will include some alternatives where lecturers do not do remote lectures). The next lecture, last of our ‘catch up’ series, will be on Friday 21 August at 11am by Max Jones, “The Glorious Dead: Grief and Politics in Memorials to the Great War”. Max Jones is one of the Society’s most acclaimed lecturers, so we are particularly pleased that he could complete our 2019/20 programme. It is also a pleasure to record that Events Secretary Charles Cornford has been able to negotiate with our November Study Day lecturer, Helen Rufus-Ward, that she presents what would have been a three lecture Study Day, on three consecutive Tuesdays in November, 10th, 17th and 24th. Lunch, which would have been included, will be up to you...THREE lunches! The good news is that we would normally charge for a Study Day with lunch, but the Committee has decided to offer all three lectures at no charge, which I am sure you will appreciate. Details later. We have also had discussions with another society who have not yet ‘Zoomed’ about joining us (and sharing costs! ), so will keep you informed if anything comes of it. You will have had all the documents for the remote EGM and AGM, including deadlines for responses, for which we have had virtual proposers and seconders for the relevant items. You will only need to respond by email if you disagree with any of the proposals, otherwise your approval will be taken as given. Results will be circulated shortly after. In the meantime, we hope you are staying safe and well and continue to enjoy our remote lectures. Don’t forget, also, that the Arts Society are offering online lunchtime lectures on a Friday at 1pm - visit their website to see what’s on offer. Nigel Harper, Aug. Chairman’s Bulletin - July Dear Members Your Committee were delighted with the response to our first ever live remote lecture in June - marvellous take up from members, thank you so much, an excellent lecture from Simon Seligman on Ruskin and universally positive feedback from you on the experience. Our second lecture from Anne Anderson last Friday on Ikea/Scandinavian design was equally well supported, thank you again - and I’m sure the technical glitches will be sorted for August!  Sorry, anyway, if it spoiled your enjoyment - we will probably stick to one host for the whole lecture in future to keep it simple, but we are all learner drivers at the moment and should improve. So, talking of August, our Programmers have sourced two more interesting lectures to make up our deficit from the missed Spring lectures: 1. Nicola Moorby “Looking over the Artist’s shoulder: The Italian Sketchbooks of JMW Turner“ on Friday, 7th August, 11am 2. Dr Max Jones  “The Glorious Dead: Grief and Politics in memorials to the Great War“ on Friday 21st August, 11am Both lecturers are highly acclaimed in their fields, so we’re delighted to get them. You will, of course get Zoom invitations to both lectures. Towards the end of this month you will receive a pack of information about the AGM and the EGM to precede it, as well as your next season’s Programme Card. To avoid your package becoming a large parcel, additional information connected to the General meetings, plus other news, will be on the website. We hope you will agree that our proposal for a remote AGM with email voting, likewise for the EGM concerning changes to the Constitution, is a right and reasonable approach in the circumstances. As we have said before, we will only contemplate and make plans for physical meetings when we are certain we can all be safe doing so. We do not anticipate this being in the near future, but we will, of course, consult with you first should it become a possibility. At a recent East Midlands Area Zoom Chairs’ meeting which I logged into (Zoom’ and ‘Chair’ are not often seen in the same sentence!) some societies are making plans to resume physical lectures while following social distance rules, but the general feeling was this would not be before Christmas at the earliest. How many of us would want to mix in large groups indoors even if we were allowed? At the moment we are planning to continue with live Zoom lectures into September and beyond - and I’m sure you will want me to thank our programmers, Gunta and Erica for an amazing job in getting replacement lectures and lecturers organised in such a short space of time, and getting next season’s programme card ready. On the same note, this is always a busy time for our Membership Secretary, Tony. This year the task has been vastly increased because of the circumstances, so our thanks to Tony for the reassuringly calm way he has appeared to take it in his stride. Stefan does not like being thanked publicly, so I won’t mention the obvious debt we have to him for managing the IT situation so admirably! Secretary Lidia has, of course, being even more tolerant of her Chair’s limitations during the crisis - many thanks to her and the whole Committee for their great support and hard work in bringing you these lectures. We hope you all stay well and continue to enjoy the lectures. Information and updates will be regularly posted on the website, so we hope more and more of you will access it to stay with the latest news. Best wishes Nigel Harper, Chairman July 2020