Our beloved President has set the agenda as follows:
- The nominating committee will announce the choices for Treasurer, Recording Secretary, and Corresponding Secretary
- Discussion of how to ensure diversity in the authors and topics of the books we donate to the Hastings-on-Hudson Public Library
- Discussion about our residency policy: how/when to extend membership beyond Hastings-on-Hudson
- Discussion of the resumption of our traditional meeting format -- meeting in members' homes, with luncheon served
- Begin our discussion of next year's season, err... our topic selection for next year (!)
Christine's Minutes: For the momentous occasion that is our Annual Meeting, twelve members of the Literature Club met on March first, in the library’s august Orr room. Two members joined us via the miracle of Zoom.
Our president Constance Stewart rang the bell at 1 PM. Christine read the minutes of the February 1 meeting, featuring G B Shaw. Frances Greenberg read her excellent minutes of February 15, starring Tom Stoppard. Lori Walsh, our treasurer, reported that our treasury contains $129.50. (Am I the only one who misses those pesky eleven cents?)
And onto our annual business items:
1. Constance suggested raising our dues to $20 to enable us to give more money to the library. All agreed.
2. It was suggested that we leverage our donation to the library to help bring books to families in need, and yes, there are families in need in Hastings. One excellent idea is that we buy children’s books from the Friends’ Book Shop, for distribution to families, and thereby, also benefitting the Friends.
(As a diversion, as we deliberated, one member, with that admirable and possibly obsessive need to tidy, brushed away the cobwebs under the seat of the stool upon which rested that computer which is Zooming the meeting.
3. Pres. Constance thanked the nominating committee, for their Ho-Hum-No-News slate. Christine has agreed to stay on for another term as Recording Secretary; Jaquie has also agreed to continue as our inimitable Corresponding Secretary, and Lori will continue to maintain the audit-proof accounts as Treasurer. President Constance and Veep Joanna have another year of their term to go.
4. Then we arrived at the question we’ve been waiting to discuss. How do we get more diversity into the books we donate to the library? Should we defer to the needs of this specific library, as seen by Debbie Quinn? Given the fungibility of money, can we just assign our donation to whatever books by women and writers of color the library acquires? It would be nice to have our bookplates in books by women.
Linda sagely pointed out: We are not exactly diverse ourselves. It was agreed we don’t want to micromanage this. Sharon will liaise with the Friends, and Carol will speak with Debbie.
(Break. Admire the barge going upriver. And perhaps enjoy the exceptional banana bread brought by our president.)
5. Residency policy. Do we have one? Is it flexible? A careful reading of our Constitution, as amended in 2004, either clarifies or mystifies. There is exactly nothing is the constitution regarding who shall be a member of the club or where they should reside. (Nor does it specify the gender of members.) Perhaps we might want to amend the constitution* to reflect the current situation, and our current de facto policy: members should live in Hastings, or have lived previously in Hastings, or have some strong connection to Hastings.
6. Then comes the question we keep revisiting and presumably will continue to revisit until the coronavirus is a dead issue. Members decided that for the remainder of our 2022-2023 season, we will continue to meet in the Orr Room, or outside whenever possible. On days when the Orr Room is not available, and the weather is not agreeable, we will meet in the living room of any member whose living room is sufficiently large to allow for some distance. As for the fall: we will have to decide later when we see what’s happening, Covid-wise.
It is agreed that no one should do anything they are not comfortable with.
7. Now for the fun part: deciding on next year’s theme. We read and discuss the preliminary ballot distributed by Joanna, in order to decide what we can delete. We did manage to delete 3 or 4 topics, and perhaps added only one, so the list is somewhat reduced. One new idea was to visit the archives and see what the Literature Club was discussing 100 years ago, or what the topic was for the year of one’s birth. For instance, in 1952, the program was titled "The Genius of Eve"– for the first time a year was devoted to writing by women. Yet curiously, one presentation focused on G B Shaw’s Saint Joan!
8. Meeting adjourned at 2:35. Some lucky members took home some of Constance’s excellent banana bread.
Respectfully submitted,
Christine Lehner, Recording Secretary
Our president Constance Stewart rang the bell at 1 PM. Christine read the minutes of the February 1 meeting, featuring G B Shaw. Frances Greenberg read her excellent minutes of February 15, starring Tom Stoppard. Lori Walsh, our treasurer, reported that our treasury contains $129.50. (Am I the only one who misses those pesky eleven cents?)
And onto our annual business items:
1. Constance suggested raising our dues to $20 to enable us to give more money to the library. All agreed.
2. It was suggested that we leverage our donation to the library to help bring books to families in need, and yes, there are families in need in Hastings. One excellent idea is that we buy children’s books from the Friends’ Book Shop, for distribution to families, and thereby, also benefitting the Friends.
(As a diversion, as we deliberated, one member, with that admirable and possibly obsessive need to tidy, brushed away the cobwebs under the seat of the stool upon which rested that computer which is Zooming the meeting.
3. Pres. Constance thanked the nominating committee, for their Ho-Hum-No-News slate. Christine has agreed to stay on for another term as Recording Secretary; Jaquie has also agreed to continue as our inimitable Corresponding Secretary, and Lori will continue to maintain the audit-proof accounts as Treasurer. President Constance and Veep Joanna have another year of their term to go.
4. Then we arrived at the question we’ve been waiting to discuss. How do we get more diversity into the books we donate to the library? Should we defer to the needs of this specific library, as seen by Debbie Quinn? Given the fungibility of money, can we just assign our donation to whatever books by women and writers of color the library acquires? It would be nice to have our bookplates in books by women.
Linda sagely pointed out: We are not exactly diverse ourselves. It was agreed we don’t want to micromanage this. Sharon will liaise with the Friends, and Carol will speak with Debbie.
(Break. Admire the barge going upriver. And perhaps enjoy the exceptional banana bread brought by our president.)
5. Residency policy. Do we have one? Is it flexible? A careful reading of our Constitution, as amended in 2004, either clarifies or mystifies. There is exactly nothing is the constitution regarding who shall be a member of the club or where they should reside. (Nor does it specify the gender of members.) Perhaps we might want to amend the constitution* to reflect the current situation, and our current de facto policy: members should live in Hastings, or have lived previously in Hastings, or have some strong connection to Hastings.
6. Then comes the question we keep revisiting and presumably will continue to revisit until the coronavirus is a dead issue. Members decided that for the remainder of our 2022-2023 season, we will continue to meet in the Orr Room, or outside whenever possible. On days when the Orr Room is not available, and the weather is not agreeable, we will meet in the living room of any member whose living room is sufficiently large to allow for some distance. As for the fall: we will have to decide later when we see what’s happening, Covid-wise.
It is agreed that no one should do anything they are not comfortable with.
7. Now for the fun part: deciding on next year’s theme. We read and discuss the preliminary ballot distributed by Joanna, in order to decide what we can delete. We did manage to delete 3 or 4 topics, and perhaps added only one, so the list is somewhat reduced. One new idea was to visit the archives and see what the Literature Club was discussing 100 years ago, or what the topic was for the year of one’s birth. For instance, in 1952, the program was titled "The Genius of Eve"– for the first time a year was devoted to writing by women. Yet curiously, one presentation focused on G B Shaw’s Saint Joan!
8. Meeting adjourned at 2:35. Some lucky members took home some of Constance’s excellent banana bread.
Respectfully submitted,
Christine Lehner, Recording Secretary
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