Minutes of LVG committee meeting Castle Pub Farringdon, 26th March 2006 18.00

Chair of the meeting: Mick Smith
Note Taker: Rebecca Summers
Attendees: Derek Langan Dave Ludkin Darren Powell Martin Small Nancy Schumann Louisa Wright-Wastell Mick Smith Rebecca Summers
Apologies: Duncan Newham Claire Morphett Lawrence Brightman

1 Events 1.1 Requiem Events Positive review of first Requiem. Agreed that improvements could be made to venue regarding lighting, number of bar staff. There is a need to have people manning each door on a rota basis to deter 'voyeurs'. To support this, it was suggested we use a handstamp for all members and guests. Also agreed that we would have a 'Publicity' table at the next event to provide information and merchandise - magazines, t-shirts (the few we have remaining). The June and August events were discussed. The Penderels Oak will be the location of the June event. August to be discussed at a later stage. Proposed that the June event will have a quiz from 7.30- 9.00 pm, then a 'party' with DJ's until 1am. For August, Darren suggested Kamelyan - who has a contortionist act. 1. A Darren to revisit the Penderels Oak to discuss lighting, bar staff, use of screen for LVG footage Darren Powell 09/04/06 2. Rota to be set up for people on door and Publicity table Rebecca Summers 09/04/06 3. Hand stamp to be purchased Mick Smith 09/04/06 4. Infrared handstamp to be investigated and priced for future events Martin Small 15/04/06 5. Merchandise (past copies of magazines and t-shirts) to be collected and taken to event Rebecca Summers 09/04/06 6. Membership enquiry forms / flyers to be re-produced and present at event Rebecca Summers 09/04/06 7. Confirm Penderels Oak for June event Darren Powell 30/04/06 8. Prize(s) to be agreed and purchased for quiz Committee 28/05/06 9. Lawrence to provide committee with financial information from Requiem 1 Lawrence Brightman 02/04/06 10. Email to be sent out to all members and 'interested' parties re Requiem Rebecca Summers 29/04/06 11. Darren needs cash to pay DJ's& Belly Dancer on 15th April. Bank transfer of £120 to be put to Lawrence Lawrence Brightman 11/04/06 1.2 Other Events Agreed that more advertising for events to be done, plus events to be advertised earlier. Events will be advertised on the LVG forum, Myspace, Vein and the LVG egroups. Proposed and agreed that there should be a monthly events bulletin (hardcopy ) featuring all events (not just those organised by LVG): - incorporate some of the events Cecile's mail out. Other proposals included arranging a summer trip to Hever Castle, more Cemetery open days. In the future, Darren may require more support for events with flyering within clubs in London and also flyering outside London. He is happy with the current level of coverage for the Requiem events. 12. Events bulletin to be created and mailed out on a regular basis Rebecca Summers, plus others (to provide input) ongoing

2 The Chronicles Rate of material coming is slow. This needs to be worked on. We need more music reviews - if we start doing these, companies will begin to send us CDs to review The current situation is not ideal - in September there was an editorial team of 3; the idea being that team members would take it in turns to 'own' the production of an issue on a rotation basis. Due to unforeseen circumstances, 2 members of the team have had to withdraw their support. We now onl have one member of the editorial team. Distribution is currently to approx. 150 members. We now have a renewed distribution network to shops i.e. Forbidden Planet / Forbidden Planet International (2 different organisations) amongst others; There are approximately 200 magazines going via this route. Other sales routes include events such as WGW. Further opportunities are being investigated. Derek suggested the group use their friends / acquaintances to further distribute the magazine, for example the Bram Stoker Society in Dublin, maybe offering them a 'Dublin Scene' spot in the mag. There is a need for an editorial committee to be set up to take on the roles of overseeing the magazine production, distribution and advertising. Further resources are needed to edit and/or retype submitted copy. Louisa offered to support this need. The magazine is now paying for itself, however increasing advertising revenue would mean that the LVG does not need to pay for the magazine. 13. Copies of the magazine to be taken to Leipzig festival Nancy Schumann 14. Follow up distribution of The Chronicles in Dublin - Bram Stoker society Derek Langan 29/04/06 15. Editorial Meeting to be held on Sunday 23rd April in London All interested in The Chronicles team 23/04/06 16. Meeting Room to be booked - Central London (2 hour slot) - 2-4pm Derek Langan 11/04/06 17. Email re Editorial Meeting to go out to all members / interested people Rebecca Summers 02/04/06

3 The Literary Supplement Decided to carry on with the present format. He last 200 copies cost £136 to produce. We almost have enough material for another one. The original plan was to do a production run at the end of May, however it was agreed to hold off until June - making the Supplement a twice yearly offering. The group stated that they needed to know what funds were available to produce another Supplement. Mick offered the view that producing the Literary Supplement would be an ideal 'training exercise' for anybody who wants to take over production of The Chronicles. 18. Information on funds to be provided to Committee Lawrence Brightman 02/04/06

4 Membership We are currently getting very few membership enquiries. Every time we have a meeting, i.e. at the Ben Crouch, we have approximately 2 membership enquiries. It was agreed that we need to have a mechanism to handle this, perhaps by having a membership representative at all meetings to help out with enquiries , provide flyers, and ,membership information. Darren said he would be happy to do this on a bi-monthly basis. Dave also volunteered. All potential representatives should be given a 'pack' to include flyers - A5 & A6, etc… A5 flyers for tables at meetings, A6 as handouts at meetings to interested people. All members to be given A6 flyers for distribution. 19. Produce Pack and issue to voluntary representatives Committee 30/04/06 20. Design new leaflets (DP) - A5, A6 . New wording (RS) and LVG 'Bat' logo to be incorporated. Costs (MS) to be investigated Mick Smith / Rebecca Summers / Darren Powell To be discussed further at next meeting

5 LVG Websites Revamped.co.uk is made up of 2 sites - one run by Mick, the other by Rebecca. We also hve the Vein site. Vein has a lot of hits and is rated highly in US search engines. 21. Archived documents to be moved to Vein Mick Smith TBD 22. Articles from Chronicles to be available to members on-line - investigate possibility of scanning all past magazines to PDF and making available in members-only area of site. Committee To be discussed at next meeting

6 egroups & Forum Vein egroup is virtually dead, however there are 300 members / 'lurkers'. There are people being turned away from the LVG egroup as this is supposed to be a members only site (however ex-members are still there). There was a comment that the LVG egroup is not serious enough and there is too much banter - however it was agreed, overall, that this egroup gives positive message, is fun and does not need to be formal. 23. Email to sent to Vein group encouraging each member to say hallo / intro themselves and get some activity started, or else Vein plug will be pulled … Mick Smith 30/04/05 24. Point 'turned-away' people to the LVG website forum Mick Smith Ongoing 25. Encourage use of forums for events / discussion etc All Ongoing 26. New areas on forum to be added - 1) Gothic Marketplace with pointers to eBay items for sale / items for sale / items wanted 2) Intro yourself Rebecca Summers 30/04/05

7 Merchandise We currently have copies of the majority of back issues of The Chronicles. We have a box of t-shirts, but unsure of sizes, designs. Agreed that we have new t-shirts designs and other merchandise. 27. Decide on LVG Logo / font!!!! Committee 15/05/06 28. Investigate design and production of LVG badge / brooch Mick Smith 16/05/06 29. Investigate design and production of LVG patches Louisa 16/05/06 30. Investigate design and production of LVG wrist bands Louisa 16/05/06 31. Sell what t-shirts we have - investigate new t-shirt designs and value Rebecca Summers / Committee To be discussed further at next meeting

8 PO Box / Mail Collection There was some concern over lack of mail received in recent weeks. Agreed that both Derek and Dave will collect mail between them at least once a week - especially due to the request for membership renewals. 32. Mail to be collected one a week Dave Ludkin / Derek Langan Ongoing

9 Treasurer Role Sadly Lawrence will be giving uo the role of treasurer as he is to move to the States for a while. A replacement needs to be found - in the past Duncan Newham has supported this role / offered advice. Rebecca has emailed Duncan asking if he would be interested in carrying out the role. Awaiting feedback from Duncan. It is important that we have more than 1 signatory. Currently there are 3 people who can sign. Suggested that membership secretary (Louisa), Treasurer (TBD), LVG Secretary (Rebecca), Events Organiser (Darren0 ,Chronicles (Mick) should be signatories, with 2/4 for all cheques. 33. Mandate to be changed. All signatories to complete document and return to secretary to send to bank… All signatories (R, D, M, L, ?) 11/04/06 10 AOB 34. An official font for the LVG logo needs to be agreed for all merchandise / material. Refer to Action #26 35. Meetings to be advertised earlier to members Rebecca Summers Ongoing