The Leeds Philosophical
and Literary Society
Registered Charity: 224084

THE Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society LIMItEd
187^th ANNUAL REPORT FOR 2006-2007

The Council presents its report and financial statements for the year ended 30 September 2007. The financial statements comply with current statutory requirements and with the requirements of the Society's memorandum and articles.

CONSTITUTION

The Society is a company limited by guarantee governed by its memorandum and articles of association. Membership is open to anyone on payment of an annual subscription of £18 which is due on 1 October each year. Only those members who have paid or have been elected to Honorary Membership are entitled to vote at the AGM.

STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT

The members of the Council are considered to be both directors for Companies Act purposes and trustees for Charities Act purposes. One third of the members of Council retire by rotation at each Annual General Meeting (normally held in December), when appointments or reappointments are made. The Council has powers to co-opt to its membership. Membership of the Council takes into account the need to have members with expertise to cover the variety of activities of the Society.

All members of the Society are notified prior to the AGM of the names of the Council members who are due to retire and are invited to submit nominations. Of those members who retired at the AGM held on 6 December 2006, Dr C Hammond did not seek re-appointment, Drs P J Evennett and C J Hatton and Mrs P Wainwright were reappointed and Dr E Reed was elected to the Council.

The Officers of the Society are elected by and from the members of Council at the first meeting of Council following the Annual General Meeting; at the Council meeting on 18 January 2007, Dr Hatton was elected as President, Dr Lydon as Secretary and Professor North as Treasurer; Professor Seaward was elected as Vice-President.

Council met on six occasions during 2006-2007. Parts of its business were delegated to the following committees: Grants, Events, and Publications, chaired by Dr Hatton, Dr Jakeways, and Mr Hirschmann respectively. These committees are required to act in accordance with the Society’s Objects and Policies, and their recommendations are put to the Council for its approval.

Mr Norman Madill has continued as Assistant Secretary, managing the Society’s links with its members, the sale of its publications, and other necessary administrative matters.

THE SOCIETY'S OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES

General

The Society is an educational charity, whose principal objects are ‘To promote the advancement of science, literature and the arts in the city of Leeds and elsewhere, and to hold, give or provide for meetings, lectures, classes, and entertainments of a scientific, literary, or artistic nature’. In furtherance of these objects the Council’s policy has been to disburse its income as follows by:

· providing grants for purposes of research, publication, or artistic performance

· awarding prizes

· providing a programme of public lectures relevant to the Society’s objectives

· supporting the work of the City of Leeds Museums & Galleries

· supporting other activities in Leeds of a scientific, literary or artistic nature.

Grant-making policy

In making grants to promote the advancement of the Society’s objectives, the Council places particular emphasis on (but does not limit its grants to) support for citizens of Leeds engaged in academic and scholarly activities, especially those relating to Leeds and its immediate area. It does not normally give grants in general support of students on taught courses. The value of grants is normally in the range £100 to £2,000, although this limit may be exceeded in special circumstances. The Council is keen to support new endeavours by the award of ‘pump-priming’ grants.

ACHIEVEMENTS AND PERFORMANCE

During the 2006-2007 session, the Society continued its recent successes in fulfilling its aims as listed above, including a growing number of artistic and scientific events for members and non-members as detailed below. During the year the Society lost 6 members through resignation or death and welcomed 21 new members, so that at the end of September 2007 the total number stood at 156.

Events

The regular monthly events continued to be well supported and were clearly welcomed by those attending. The following events took place:

· An Evening with Prof. Duncan Dowson, preceded by dinner

· Pre-Bonfire Night Spectacular (Mike Hoyland)

· AGM, Dinner and Speaker: (Professor John Holman)

· Furnaces and Fuel: New perspectives on the mediaeval and early modern iron-industry of Bilsdale and Rievaulx, North Yorkshire (Jane Wheeler)

· Finding my feet as an MP (Greg Mulholland)

· The Move to the Left in Latin America (Richard Gott)

· Science Fair in ‘The Light’

· Great Art: Great Stories (Edward Reed)

· The Votes for Women Campaign 1905-14: Yorkshire’s Rebel girls (Jill Liddington)

· Between the Poles (John Lydon)

· Visit to Burton Agnes Hall and The Deep

· The Arts of the Post Reformation Church (Professor Graham Parry)

Prizes and Grants

During the year the following prizes and grants were awarded by the Society:

· Arthur Chadwick Prize (University of Leeds): Ryan Cawood

· Modern Language Prize (University of Leeds): Annie Ring

· Support of the Leeds Festival Chorus

· Towards the George Baxter Exhibition at the Leeds Art Gallery

· Towards the costs associated with a theatre play associated with Dorothy Squires and Maria Callas

· Support of publication of biography of William Turton, Leeds tramways pioneer

· Further support of interactive CD of the Leeds mummy by Thomas Small

· Support of a study of the early history of the Society

· Printing costs of four display panels in the Health Sciences Library of The University of Leeds

· Towards the second phase of the dragonfly conservation project at the Rodley Nature Reserve Trust

· Towards the Thoresby Society’s exhibition, The Borough of Leeds 1207-2007

· Support of the Ilkley Literature Festival

· Prizes for Leeds Peace Poetry Competition 2007

· Support of exhibition Form, Shape and Space at the University of Leeds International Textiles Archive

· Towards the publication costs of Weighing the World: The Reverend John Mitchell of Thornhill

· Towards costs of Arts to Share project

· Support for the creation of IT software to catalogue the historical science, medicine and technology holdings of the University of Leeds

· Support of Leeds Astromeet 2007

· Support of the Wetherby Arts Festival

· Towards the production costs of the satirical revue, Blackout, Blowout and Beyond by Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka

· Towards the costs associated with a conference devoted to the music of Emmanuel Nunes

Publications

The Society had no publications of its own during the year. However, it supported the publication by the Thoresby Society of The Monuments of the Parish Church of St Peter-at-Leeds. The Society has entered into an agreement with EBSCO Publishing, Ipswich, MA, USA whereby the Society’s publications will be made available online.

Leeds Museums

The Society continues its active involvement (together with the Friends of the Leeds Museums, the Thoresby Society, and the Leeds Civic Trust) in the planning and the development of the Leeds Institute building as the new Museum, and the preservation and conservation of the museum collections. Members of Council have had the opportunity to visit the new Museum following its handover by the contractors to the Museum Service prior to the fitting out phase. Council members have been impressed with the successful modification of this important Cuthbert Brodrick building. The new Museum is due to open in August 2008.

Council were also invited to the opening of the new Discovery Centre, the Leeds Museum’s accessible storage facility in Carlisle Road, South Leeds.