The Annual General Meeting of the Society was held at 2pm on Saturday 8 June 2013, in the Woburn Suite, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU. The President, Professor Dominic Rathbone, was in the chair and welcomed members and non-members.
The President reported on the activities of the Society for the previous year, referring first to the programme of events and lectures. He noted the conference on Constantine and the Milvian Bridge held at the British Museum in collaboration with the Association for Roman Archaeology, and the Joan Pye Lecture, delivered by Roger Bland, hosted by the Society with the Roman Research Trust. He thanked those who had given evening lectures for the Society: John Creighton, Werner Eck, and Duncan Kennedy. He drew attention to a number of events which the Society was organising in the autumn: a site and museum visit to Vindolanda; a joint conference on Health & Medicine with the Association for Roman Archaeology; a joint conference with the Yorkshire Archaeological Society celebrating 150 Years of Roman Yorkshire; and a joint conference with English Heritage, Cotswold Archaeology and the University of Reading on the contribution of commercial archaeology to the study of Romano-British towns. Many of these events had been co-ordinated by the Archaeology Committee and the President thanked Peter Guest (Chair) and Fraser Hunter (Secretary) for all their efforts. The next edition of Epistula was shortly to be published, and the President thanked the current editors, Neil Holbrook and Andy Birley.
The academic programme of the Society continues successfully with the publication of Britannia and the Journal of Roman Studies. The President thanked the Editors, Richard Brewer and Greg Woolf, the Review Editors, Barry Burnham and Catherine Steel, and the Publications Secretary, Lynn Pitts. Special thanks were due to Greg Woolf for his sterling work over the years as he now stepped down as Editor of JRS: Catherine Steel would take over and she would be succeeded by Christopher Kelly. Since the reorganisation of the Journals Committees to allow the Britannia and JRS Committees to report directly to Council, the Editorial Committee had now been abolished. The President reported that the Council had approved the appointment of the Editorial Committee's Chair, Simon Esmonde Cleary, as an Honorary Vice-President, in recognition of his contribution to the Society over many years, including his work for the journals and his organisation of the 2005 Birmingham RAC.
The President also thanked all the officers, members of the Council and the Committees who gave up their time to help promote the Society's aims. He noted in particular the Society's debt to its Secretary, Dr Fiona Haarer, without whose efforts none of the Society's successes would have been achieved. He also recorded the Society's gratitude to Sam Moorhead, the outgoing Honorary Secretary. In the three years he had held the office, Sam had done much to advance the Society's outreach programme, initiating collaboration with the Association for Roman Archaeology and an annual conference at the British Museum, and playing an active role on the Schools Committee where he set up the Journeys in the Roman World website for schools.
Last, but not least, the President turned to the Library and expressed the Society's thanks to Colin Annis and his team, and to the Honorary Librarian, Michael Crawford, for all their efforts in looking after this great resource in difficult times.
The President asked Dr Philip Kay, the Honorary Treasurer, to deliver his report. Dr Kay presented the accounts for 2012, and referred members to Larkings' statement approving the Accounts. He noted that the accounts showed net incoming resources before other recognised (investment) gains and losses of £104,495, and of £134,418 after such gains. The total net cash inflows to the Society were £72,438 (up from £60,410 in 2011). There were two major factors affecting the net incoming resources and the net cash flow. The Society finally had to start paying its increased share of the Joint Library rent to the University of London which amounted to £52,852 for the financial year (£18,742 in 2011). It is anticipated that the Society's share of the rent in 2013 will be approximately £48,000. The publishing agreement with CUP continued to be a success, generating revenue in 2012 of £123,323 (£113,409 in 2011) and digital archive income rose from £16,377 in 2011 to £26,000 in 2012.
The Report and Accounts for 2012 were approved on the proposal of Mr Stephen Clews and seconded by Dr Andrew Burnett. The remuneration of Larkings was proposed by Dr Tim Leary and seconded by Dr Helen Cockle, and the reappointment of Larkings was proposed by Mr Steven Hunt and seconded by Dr Kathryn Tempest.
Dr Jean-Michel Hulls proposed and Dr Emily Gowers seconded the following nominations for Council: as Vice-Presidents for 2013–14: Professor A.K. Bowman, FBA, FSA, Dr A.M. Burnett, CBE, FBA, FSA, and Professor M.G. Fulford, CBE, FBA, FSA; as Hon. Treasurer and Hon. Secretary for 2013–14: Dr Philip B. Kay and Mrs F. Jane Fisher-Hunt, respectively; and as Council members for 2013–16: Dr Richard Hobbs, FSA, and Miss Katherine Murray. Professor A. Simon Esmonde Cleary, FSA became an Hon. Vice-President.
All the above Resolutions were passed nem. con.
The AGM was followed by a programme of talks on Virgil. The speakers were Dr Fiachra Mac Góráin: Vision in the Aeneid; Dr Llewellyn Morgan: Purcell's Dido & Aeneas: Virgil between the Whigs and Tories; Dr Michael Squire: Iliacas ex ordine pugnas: Ordering the Art of Virgilian Ecphrasis; Professor Philip Hardie: Aeneas in the New World.
