Carmel Shute, who helped co-found Sisters in Crime Australia in 1991, stood down as Secretary at the 2024 Annual General Meeting on Friday 25 October, following its TV Noir event at South Melbourne’s Rising Sun Hotel. She is being replaced by former President, Moraig Kisler, who is fresh from a year’s break.
In the absence of President Kelly Gardiner, Vice-President Lindy Cameron chaired the AGM with a committee of eight convenors elected unopposed: Moraig Kisler, Lindy Cameron, Lesley Gillis, Carmel Shute, Kelly Gardiner, Ruth Wykes, and Leslie Falkiner-Rose. Official positions were also elected unopposed with the following results: President: Kelly Gardiner; Vice-President: Lindy Cameron; Secretary: Moraig Kisler; and Treasurer: Lesley Gillis. (Photo: convenors – Carmel Shute, Lesley Gillis, Leslie Falkiner-Rose, Sara Hood, Sara Hood, Moraig, & Lindy Cameron. Kelly Gardiner & Ruth Wykes were absent.)
Carmel reported that nationally Sisters in Crime now has 577 paid-up members. With supporters, the mailing list for the monthly newsletter, A Stab in the Dark, is now 4082.
Carmel will still be working on programming but is aiming to hand over a lot of responsibilities to others on the committee and, hopefully, a raft of volunteers.
“Over the next few months, we’ll be working out who is doing what and where volunteers could assist,” she said.
“It’s 33 years since I helped co-found Sisters in Crime at the Feminist Book Fortnight in Melbourne. We had no inkling that we’d still be going decades later and have members and chapters in all states. I am wont to say that I am a tired old tired tart. Others are keen to take up the cudgels.
“As for me, I am hoping to clear the decks so that I can write up my late father’s life story, improve my photography, do more reading, and maybe even travel. I joke that usually I am lucky to make it from St Kilda to South Melbourne.”
The report concluded with thanks to the convenors who have served over the past 12 months and the many volunteers and supporters who keep Sisters in Crime ticking over. To read the full Secretary’s report, go here.
Lindy Cameron presented Carmel with a large bunch of peonies. She said, “As the next longest-serving Convenor, it’s my honour to thank Carmel for her endless optimism and over three decades of ridiculously hard work.
“Despite her intention – by giving up the Secretary’s role – to step back a little from the organisation, she is still a Convenor and therefore remains vital to the organisation. The current committee members know full well that without her driving force Sisters in Crime would not have lasted for 33 years.
“To use a phrase from another fandom we’re fond of, Carmel Shute is the warp drive of Sisters in Crime Australia and we’re not letting her go anywhere.”
(As you will note from the pics here and on Facebook, all sorts of silliness ensued.)
The report from Treasurer Lesley Gillis said that, for the period 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024, reflects that we had a total operating income of $76,817 and an operating expenditure of $71,285 giving Sisters an operating surplus of $4,672 . “Overall, I believe the funds of Sisters in Crime are in a reasonably healthy shape to proceed into the forthcoming financial year.”
To read the full Treasurer’s report in full, go here.