THE LECTURE PROGRAMME FOR THE 2020/21 SESSION HAS BEEN CANCELLED
TO EXPLAIN THE WAY FORWARD FOR THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE, OUR CHAIRMAN HAS SENT THE FOLLOWING TO ALL MEMBERS:
July, 2020
Dear Members,
The Committee and I hope that you are well and have been able to appreciate having time to contemplate; pursue some of your interests and do all those outstanding jobs! This letter is being sent to advise you of the plans for the future of our local Arts Society.
After considering the implications of the pandemic and the uncertainty of the future, we have decided, with great regret, that we are going to cancel our complete programme of lectures from September, 2020 -June, 2021. This decision was taken on a number of grounds, including:
- the uncertainty of the availability of our lecture theatre during the crisis
- the inability to ensure appropriate social distancing and the prohibitive cost of extra hygiene, even if the venue does become available
- the ever changing situation and guidance which are unlikely to provide us with any stability before next summer at the earliest
- the prediction of a further spike in winter and the demographic of our members, which might make many of us reluctant to take the risk of being in such an enclosed situation and the costs of trying to organise a lecture for a much reduced audience
The welfare of our members and maintaining our ability to have the finances to re-start our society in September 2021 have taken priority in our decision making process. Our aim is to restart when there is reasonable confidence that there will be no further interruptions to our programme. We have enclosed a copy of the proposed lectures to whet your appetites.
The Societies, with whom we share our lecturers, will also not be meeting in 2020 but have yet to reach a conclusion about January to June, 2021. Currently, we are trying to negotiate cancellation fees with the September to December lecturers. We have already incurred some costs for the cancellations in the last session but we have tried to reduce these to a minimum. It is hoped that early cancellations or re-booking of the impending sessions might reduce the future costs involved. There are of course no precedents for this situation but we are trying to be firm but fair. We do not intend offering online lectures as we decided they are not financially viable and might possibly not be welcomed, as there are so many wonderful offerings on the media from museums, theatres and our own national society
Meanwhile, we are not intending asking you to renew your membership(s) but we shall continue this, at no extra cost, for a further year. This will allow you to retain the benefits of being a member of the national society, such as the magazine, the electronic newsletters and the online contributions from Arts Society registered lecturers. We value your support and want you to remain in touch with our Society and intend paying the affiliation fees to the national and area society to keep you connected. If, however,you do not wish to receive these communications, please let our membership secretary at memsec@tasgrampian.org.uk know, as we do not wish to waste our reserves or send information which you do not want. Will you please also let her know if your details have changed since you last registered and if you have seen or heard anything on the media which might interest other members. The information about items of interest will then be posted on the website.
We will keep in touch with you. Our next communication is planned for Christmas. To keep you informed of any developments, it would be helpful if you read any electronic communications from us. We need your support and hope that we shall be able to welcome you back in person in September, 2021. Our lectures are outstanding and we all need to support the Arts in this current climate. Being a member of TASG is one very enjoyable way of offering this support.
If you have any queries about anything in this letter please contact lilianfenn@googlemail.com or 01224 311417.
We hope that you enjoy the rest of the summer and have managed to stay safe and can re-connect with family and friends as the restrictions are diminishing.
Best wishes,
Lilian Fenn and the TASG Committee
TO SEE THE PROPOSED LECTURE PROGRAMME FOR THE 2021/22 SESSION, PLEASE CLICK HERE
For a virtual tour of Aberdeen Art Gallery click this link: ART GALLERY
Or for a series of on-line talks by society-accredited lecturers, click this link: ONLINE LECTURES