Sisters in Crime’s Annual General Meeting was held on 24 October at Melbourne’s Rising Sun Hotel, following the engaging and entertaining On the Beat event. Nationally, Sisters in Crime now has 612 paid-up members plus six life members – which meant 61 people were required to be quorate and between members who were present and proxies, that number was easily achieved.
The major decision was to lift membership fees by $5 but leaving concession rates the same. The fees have not been increased since 2018.
Treasurer Lesley Gillis reported that this financial year Sisters in Crime suffered a loss of $11,239.
“This is partially due to an unexpected large increase in website costs and redesign. During the period Sisters in Crime, due to the sale of its provider, changed the provider and is now facing current market costs in line with other organisations.”
The new fees apply from 1 January, 2026, so if you join or rejoin now, it will be a smidge cheaper.
For Lesley’s full report, go here. For the financial reports, go here, here, and here.
A committee of eight national convenors was elected unopposed – current convenors Lindy Cameron, Kelly Gardiner, Lesley Gillis, Moraig Kisler, Carmel Shute, and Ruth Wykes plus two new convenors – Christina Lee, and Maryanne Vagg.
Christina Lee’s introduction to Sisters in Crime was in 1992 when she won the Scarlet Stiletto, much to her surprise. When she won it again in 1994, Sisters in Crime stopped letting her enter the competition, and she has been on the judging panel every year since then. Weirdly enjoyable, she says. She is also in her second year of judging the Davitts, and contributes book reviews to the website.
Christina has been writing a long time. Decades ago, she co-authored two crime novels, set in an entirely imaginary Melbourne tertiary institution (Unable by Reason of Death, 1989; Not in Single Spies, 1992; Penguin Australia). Both sold and reviewed well, earning enough for the two authors to share a (small) celebratory pizza. The first was an ABC book reading (1990), and was optioned for screen but went nowhere, as these things do. After that, an all-encompassing academic career seriously got in the way of writing for about thirty years, but she’s an emerita professor now, and she’s back. When not engaged in crime, she enjoys long walks in the Japanese countryside.
Maryanne Vagg has spent a career curating literary events, festivals, and experiences and was the founder of Geelong’s successful Word for Word Nonfiction Festival which ran from 2014-2018. She is currently the manager of the multi-award-winning Warrnambool Library and has been a reviewer for Good Reading Magazine for over a decade. Maryanne loves a good crime read and even more than that enjoys a great conversation with crime writers. She is delighted and very honoured to join the Committee.
In her AGM address, President Kelly Gardiner also thanked two convenors who had recently withdrawn – Sara Hood, our communications coordinator, who is now enjoying a trip to Europe, and fundraising guru Lesley Falkiner-Rose, who is taking a step back to focus on family (though she has agreed to run the auction at the Scarlet Stiletto Award ceremony on 21 November).
She also acknowledged the initiatives of the Queensland Chapter and the Western Australian Chapter, which was relaunching the following day at the Big Sky Readers & Writers Festival in Geraldton.
Kelly pointed out that in the past year Sisters in Crime has been under siege by publishers, libraries, festivals, other organisations, and some keen authors to provide more and more opportunities to connect readers and writers.
“With the exception of the years when we held conventions, we’ve never held more events . . . A few behind-the-scenes preoccupations last year include setting up a new structure and processes for volunteer recruitment and management – and our first Volunteer Coordinator – at present, Ruth Wykes. That meant creating a raft of position descriptions, writing a handbook, and thinking through all our priorities and how best to approach them. We applied for and were granted a nonprofit suite of Microsoft programs that will make online collaboration and record-keeping much easier.”
For Kelly’s full report, go here.
Two convenors were to, their great surprise, promoted to life membership – Carmel Shute, co‑founder back in 1991, and Lindy Cameron, a founding member in 1991 and convenor since 1993.
“When Sisters in Crime launched, I had no long-term ambitions for an organisation. It’s turned out to be life-changing, not just for me, but for crime authors and fans more generally, I think. I’ve had a varied career, but Sisters in Crime is by far the best thing I’ve been involved in,” Carmel said.
Lindy said that she was deeply honoured that her fellow convenors have given her a life membership.
‘Sisters in Crime has been my life since 1991. Working to help the organisation grow, educate and entertain alongside the flourishing of women’s crime writing in this country has been one of my greatest pleasures,” she said.