The President of the DH Lawrence Society of Australia, John Lacey, gave his report on the Society's progress and future plans. He mentioned in particular the succesful Jacaranda Cruise on the steam yacht, Lady Hopetoun, on November 8, 2008, when Sydney put on a spectacular sunset for us.

The Lady Hopetoun cruise is an annual event of the Society and is its main fund raiser. John said another cruise will be scheduled for Autumn 2009.

Other forthcoming events for 2009 will include a visit to the Sydney Tramway Museum which will be holding its 19th Vintage Tram Festival on Sunday, February 22, 2009. The tram Lawrence took to Narrabeen in 1922 may still survive.

Another event for the diary will be a lunch at Minh's Vietnamese restaurant in Dulwich Hill where a speaker will give a talk on Lawrence. Minh's food is truly delicious. More details soon.

Summing up, John Lacey said the Society was in robust shape and other events would also be planned.

The acting Treasurer, Sandra Jobson, reported that in 2008 we decided to make some big changes.

We scrapped subscription fees for membership and made it free. This increased the number of people coming to our events and saved a lot of money in printing and postage of reminder notices.

We also decided to end the printing of our journal, Rananim, in hard copy and mailing it out - our greatest annual expenditure over the years.

We have now produced our first "virtual" Rananim (see www.cybersydney.com.au/dhl ) and have subsequently posted updates on Society activities and some new articles.

Making Rananim "virtual" has not only saved the Society a lot of money, it has also allowed us to be more immediate and relevant in our communications.

We now aim to raise funds by holding events such as picnics, trips and lectures, as outlined by the President, John Lacey.

The annual Lady Hopetoun harbour cruise - this time held in Spring, 2008 -our Jacaranda Cruise - produced a profit. After paying $1870 for the cruise, we made a profit of $580.00.

The bank balance of the Society currently stands at $4205.39.