ROYAL NAVAL WRITERS’ ASSOCIATION (RNWA)

COMMITTEE AND MEMBERS MEETING

HELD 1900 THURSDAY 19^th MARCH 2026

Present

Colin Hughes (CH)               Life President

Ian Freegard (IF)                  Chairman

Pat Prior (PP)                       Treasurer

Lyn Gannon (LG)                  Secretary

Brenda Ryan (BR)               Membership Secretary

Martyn Cornish (MC)           Webmaster

Jim Donaldson (JD)             Committee Member

David Spicer (DS)                Committee Member

Colin Redstone (CR)           Member

John Glover (JG)                  Member

Gill Orchard (GO)                 Member

Judi Bushell (JB)                  Member         

Committee Apologies

Tony Webber (AW)

Member Apologies

Brian Wead, David Scott, Kathryn Simmons, Alf Parr and Adrian and Vicky Hamilton

Crossed the Bar

Details provided since the last meeting:

Christine Barlow, David Kelly, Jane Walsh, Doris Kemp, Frederick James, Elizabeth Toomey, Katrine Wreford and Norman Davies. A one-minute silence was held.

Minutes of the last meeting 15 January 2026

The minutes of the last meeting were approved – proposed by BR, seconded by PP.

Actions from the last meeting

Chairman to be added as a signatory to the bank account – done. CH asked to be removed now form the authorised list, which has been done.

Rules and Regulations – IF said that this would be called the Constitution going forwards; work to revise the document was nearing completion and would be sent out to the committee after Easter for comment. Ongoing

Newsletter – IF asked for feedback, ready for the next issue.

Annual Dinner 2027 – LG said that she had received a quote from HMS President, it was quite expensive (around £90 per person, without any RNWA subsidy) for a 3-course seated dinner in the Wardroom but would be seeking ways to try and reduce the cost, as it may prohibit attendees. There was also an option for a hot buffet that would reduce costs.  Clearly, attending a dinner in London is relatively expensive and LG asked if members would indicate whether they were prepared to support this special 140^th anniversary reunion. Or would members prefer to keep the dinner in the Portsmouth area next year?

LG said she would seek comparative costs from the UJC.

POST MEETING NOTE – Information received from the UJC Tuesday evening with their costs  – similar overall, but HMS President would be a nicer venue – feedback required please.

ACTION – Feedback on the Annual Dinner 2027 required from all members by the end of April 26 – to  gannons1@virginmedia.com

1. go to HMS President for a dinner.
2. go to HMS President for a hot buffet.
3. go to the UJC for a dinner.
4. Stay in Portsmouth.
5. Consider another area.

(AW had contacted LG prior to the meeting, suggesting RNWA funds could be used to heavily subsidise members tickets. This would be considered once members feedback had been received).

Grand National Draw – to date, 757 tickets had been sold – down on last year.  There is still time to apply for tickets as the deadline is 1200 Wednesday 8 April. The draw will take place that evening once the runners are finalised.

Chairmans Report

Constitution – IF said he had been busy working on the Constitution and outlined some of his proposals to be presented.

Visit to DSLA – IF reported that he and CH have been invited to visit the Writer School on 24 March.

Guest of Honour – Contact has been made for this year’s dinner – to be confirmed shortly.

Treasurer’s Report

PP said that the balance in the current account was £857.23 with a small liability of a charity donation in memory of David Kelly. She said that the funds moved into a savings account now held £7783.73.

There had also been a £500 deposit paid to the hotel for the dinner in October, plus £497.70 ringfenced for bench repairs. With payments credited for dinner tickets, the overall funds were £7158.26.

PP reported that the audit had taken place with no issues. The report has been placed on the RNWA website.

Membership Report March 2026

New Members since Last Meeting Update

Total Membership (After allowance for those that have lapsed/resigned or CtB since October 2023):

Subscriptions/Standing Orders

Email reminders have been sent to those members whose subs are due Dec 2025 and January/February 2026.

Where those whose subs are still outstanding for 3 months or more, as per the Association rules section 6 and letters sent in 2025, membership will be lapsed, if however those members wish to reinstate please just contact BR at bnr1@btinternet.com

Please follow this link to the website, which will show if your subs are overdue and if they are due for January 2026 https://rnwa.co.uk/members/renewals-due/

Digitalisation of Records

CH said that he had forwarded examples of the records, which were mainly carbon copies, to JG to digitalise and see if the results were still legible.  The results were good but as the paper size was foolscap and not A4 an A3 scanner would be required. CH stated that he would weed the records case by case (there are 6 cases) and ask that AW, PP would check to see if they agreed with his selection to be kept and those to be destroyed before we started the digitalisation process.

Items for Discussion

RNWA Website Committee photos. IF highlighted the fact that a number of photographs on the website are a little out of date, and given that the committee will not meet in person until later in the year for a group picture, he suggested it might be better to have individual head=shot photos above each bio, old or new. This was generally agreed.

ACTION – Committee members were asked to let MC have their chosen photo by 20 April.

Committee WhatsApp Group. IF proposed the use of a WhatsApp group to assist Association management communication, All agreed this was a good idea.

ACTION IF to set up a WhatsApp group.

Lapsed Members IF suggested that a RNWA Chairman’s letter to lapsed members might help with retention of members.  BR thought this could help and would provide the details, starting with 2 members  due to be lapsed in April.

ACTION – IF to write to members due to lapse.

Any Other Business

Cenotaph Marchpast 2026 LG said that she had just this evening received an email from the RBL, asking how many tickets we would like for this year’s Cenotaph marchpast. 25 have been applied for and we will find out on 10 June how many will be allocated to us (as we did not use all last year’s allocation, it’s unlikely we will get 25).

Instead of waiting, the list is now open, and it will be first come, first served, to allow attendees to book accommodation and travel early. Names to Lyn Gannon please.

Memorial Benches CH said that the memorial benches in Southsea were due to be put back, and he and IF would be going round to check them as soon as practicable.

Information Request on a Former Writer IF thanked CH for the extremely comprehensive email reply to a family member requesting information on a former member of the Writer branch dating back to 1914. CH said he had received a lot of help from Lester May.

There being no further business the meeting ended at 19.51.

Date of the next meeting

Thursday 21^st May 2026.