Organisation has bowed to pressure to meet members following spate of high-level departures
The Poetry Society has bowed to pressure from its members to explain the series of departures that has left the organisation in turmoil and put the award of a �360,000 Arts Council grant in jeopardy, calling a general meeting next month.
With members including the poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, the national poet of Wales Gillian Clarke, and poetry publishers Neil Astley and Michael Schmidt adding their names to a campaign for the board to explain recent developments, the society has announced that a meeting will be held in London on July 22.
According to a statement published on the society's website, the meeting will "outline the future strategy" and "receive members' input".
Speaking to the Guardian, Carol Ann Duffy welcomed the news, saying that it was "fantastic" to hear that the society is organising a meeting.
"As poet laureate, everywhere I'm going people are asking 'What's going on at the Poetry Society?' and I don't know," she said. "We need some clarity, we need to know what is happening." She added her name to those campaigning for a meeting out of "love and concern" for the society, she continued, which she described as "hugely important", explaining that she wanted the meeting to focus on "what the future holds, and the use of the grant".
"We all want to be proud of the Poetry Society," she said.
But some members are concerned that a meeting focused on the society's future will leave important questions unanswered.
The writer Kate Clanchy, who has led the campaign for a meeting, said she was "glad the board was moving in the direction of openness and transparency", but suggested that "in order for the society to move forward, we also need to examine the recent past".
Even though the campaigners now have more than the 10% of members required to force the board to arrange a meeting, the collection of signatures will go on, she continued. "We welcome openness, but we want to make sure that the meeting really is open. Anyone who has behaved like that needs to give an account of themselves."
Clanchy has written to the board's new chair, Laura Bamford, calling for the meeting to include a statement from the board on recent events, an opportunity for questions and an independent chair ? which she called a "crucial point". With 356 signatures already on the requisition, if the board declines to accept these suggestions, a meeting more to the campaigners' liking can still be arranged, she continued, and more speedily than the one which has already been called.
"If they can't help us, we will print out our requisition, and wheelbarrow it round," Clanchy said. "They will then be obliged to hold an extraordinary general meeting earlier than the general meeting. We have already secured the use of the wheelbarrow."
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/01/poetry-society-calls-general-meeting-resignations
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