Posted by Alan Hakim on December 23, 2018 at 08:51:11 user awhakim.
In Reply to: Re: Mrs. Walker in Australia posted by Mike Dennis on December 23, 2018 at 00:14:42:
Thanks very much, Mike, for finding the articles. I've dug out that 1998 issue, and the amazing thing is that those articles could have been written today. I was well into my Treasurer stint by then, and I suppose the reason I had forgotten the articles was that they remain so relevant. Peter and I still discuss these subjects from time to time.
What then has developed in the last 20 years? First, we have lost a lot of members, and though there is a steady trickle of new ones, many of them drop out quite soon.
Also, the majority of the new members are on the Venture Scouts wing. TARS' Publishing wing, Amazon Publications, produces AR-related books, financed by advance subscriptions. Of the subscribers for this year's book, 36 had joined in the first two years of TARS. The 36 most recent members subscribing covered an 11-year period back to 2008. That shows that literary-minded members are thinner on the ground now.
The Moss articles mention the Literary Transactions, the record of the Literary Weekends. Regrettably, these have become less prominent, being produced only in time to be given out at the next Weekend, two years after the talks were delivered. I doubt that many members not attending the Weekends are aware of them.
I could go on, as I did at Board meetings, but that would probably be unwise in this forum. Feel free to contact me directly.
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