The Chairman, David Walters, gave the following report at the Society's Annual General Meeting in September 2011 :-

Once again I am pleased to report on another successful year for your Society. Our membership has remained at approximately 150 with the usual pleasing influx of new members to offset a few who let their membership lapse. We welcome all the new members who joined last year and hope that you will enjoy your membership of the Society. You may think we could do some things differently or better, if so please do not hesitate to put forward your ideas to any committee member or at any meeting. 

Our meetings were well supported although overall attendances were slightly lower than the previous year.  Some highlights are worthy of mention.  In spite of heavy snow and freezing temperatures in December there was a good turnout for our Social Evening at the Millstone when, following an excellent hot supper the Leader Brothers with their Mystery Boxes provided first class entertainment. Our second Archive Evening in February was a great success whilst talks by David Templeman in November, Chris Barber in January and Sylvia Atkinson in May were also excellent. 

Last year I said that our summer evening visits had been poorly supported and we asked members for their ideas for the future. The most frequent suggestion was to change the format to a full day visit and so this year we did just that with a guided tour of Sheffield Manor Lodge and visits to Sheffield Cathedral and to the site of Sheffield castle. This trip was well supported and we will retain this format next year. 

Our Occasional Papers continue to sell well with the launch in April of a new paper on Tickhill Castle by Hazel Moffat timed well to complement the Castle’s public open days in April and June. It is also pleasing to note that for the first time sales of our “Treasures of Tickhill” booklet have made a significant contribution to our funds during the year. Hopefully this augers well for future sales of our more comprehensive Illustrated History of Tickhill by Carol Hill which is currently about 40% complete. We would still welcome a few more volunteers to work on specific items of research for this book. 

Our website continues to be well used with the number of viewings of the photo gallery alone passing the 250,000 mark in March. Our archivists have overhauled the archive index system and during the coming year we hope to be able to put an archive index on the website and make the archive material itself more accessible to members. 

Our finances are sound and with this in mind your committee will not be recommending any increase in membership or meeting fees for next year. However, all costs are increasing and we need to have cash ready for the publication of our new book so there is no room for complacency. 

I would like to thank all the members of the committee who have worked tirelessly throughout the year to help make your Society a success and I would include with them, Carol Hill, Linda Mayes of KSM, Hazel Moffat and Janet Sully who, outside the committee have also made valuable contributions to our work. Finally I would like to thank all the members for their support – without you the Society could not exist.