I would like to welcome you all here today to our 2024 annual general meeting.
When I mentioned to someone that I was planning on standing for president again they asked me what my goals for the Guild would be. The question caught me off guard but has lead me to think about what my long term goal for the Guild is. The answer was actually simple—the longevity of the Guild, creating the connection between the craft of hand bookbinding and people.
THE BINDERY
I am constantly aware that the bindery is the hub of the Guild and our most valuable asset. This space makes everything else possible. Without it we would be struggling to achieve our primary goal of keeping the passion for bookbinding alive.
Courses
In laying out the schedule we try to keep the program varied with popular courses repeating and introducing new courses. To be honest it is to a large degree guess work, (we don’t do data collection).
The core of our program remains the Alchemy of Bookbinding four stage course series.
The Level 1 Beginners Courses are run every month except January bringing new people into the bindery. This influx of new people remains critical. Levels 2, 3 are skill extension courses, both case binding. These first 3 levels are designed to lead to Level 4 where we get to “real” bookbinding, laced on boards!
We have our core group of tutors, myself, Avril Makula, Ted Chapman, Petra Weber and Nicholas Beckett. Glenda Hutchinson has joined the team adding marbling to the course program. This is an exciting new addition.
Inviting interstate and international binders to teach brings in fresh classes and new skills. In this year Kathy Lobo from the US taught two classes, the origami portfolio and the Chinese thread book. She was ably assisted by Jean Kropper. Joy and John Tonkin from Canberra taught the Simplified Binding.
Next year Kathy Lobo will be back. We will also be partnering with Andersen’s Bindery hosting classes with international binders coming down under to the Bind 25 conference in Auckland in September.
Outreach
This year for the first time we partnered with the Sydney Mechanics School of Arts (SMSA) running a long stitch binding course at their premises in the CBD as part of an extensive Craft Week program.
A few weeks later we participated in Sydney Rare Book Week again in partnership with the SMSA. For our event, a Basic Book Repair Demonstration, Liliana and I used books from the SMSA library to demonstrate repair techniques. The event was fully booked and everyone actually showed up. Book Week events have to be free and often people book but don’t show up.
Partnership
We connected with the Penrith Museum of Printing. They ran an Adana press workshop and an Introduction to Typesetting workshop for 8 enthusiastic members. We are planning on arranging more workshop next year.
Members Open Access Days
Open access days on Wednesdays and first Tuesdays and second Saturdays are crucial for maintaining member engagement and providing a space, support and community for members to work on their own projects. There are members who do no courses but come regularly to the bindery on Wednesdays, first Tuesdays and second Saturdays. Monitors are always happy to welcome new members on these days. Without these access days the courses would be a dead end.
CONNECTION
Newsletter
I send out two newsletters. The members’ newsletter is goes out monthly letting members know what is happening. The second newsletter I think of as the ‘general newsletter’ goes to a mailing list of about 600 people and is sent sporadically. This list comes originally from the Bind 19 conference list and also anyone who clicks on the ‘stay connected’ button on the website is automatically added. I have decided to theme them and try to keep them short. So it might be an event or several events to a theme (book arts) or it might be equipment for sale.
Website
Obviously for any business or organisation these days a website is crucial. The new website will be born soon. We would like to thank Stefania Riccardi for all her work on the new site. It is a lot of work getting the whole thing together, proof reading, pre-empting glitches and that’s before it is even launched.
IN CONCLUSION
Any craft stays alive through the sharing of skills, through connecting with others also passionate about the craft. I like to think that our bindery is a place where skills, knowledge and also equipment and materials can flow through all to the benefit of the craft. To this I must add…
Don’t forget that next year in mid September Bind 25 will be happening in Auckland. Our colleagues in New Zealand are well ahead with planning. Please consider going. These conferences are a wonderful opportunity to expand your knowledge, skills and to meet other bookbinders.
Thank you
I would like to thank our tutors for their commitment to teaching the craft.
Special thanks to the committee for their contributions to the running of the Guild on whatever level that might be.
Lastly I would like to thank you, the members. Without you we wouldn’t be here.
Monica Oppen
