SYP Scotland AGM 2021 Round-up

Posted on April 30, 2021 in Scotland

SYP Scotland AGM 2021 Round-up

The SYP Scotland AGM 2021, which took place on 10th April, was a brilliant opportunity to reflect on the challenges and successes of the last year, a year like no other, and to look forward to the future of the SYP with the new committee. The AGM was structured with the outgoing committee making their reports on the previous year, followed by a panel on Work/Life Balance, and continuing with introductions from each of the new committee members. It ended with a networking session where outgoing members, new committee members, panellists and viewers could chat using Zoom’s breakout rooms feature.

Outgoing Committee

Yasmin, our lovely outgoing Events & Inclusivity Officer, started off the AGM and got us going with an introduction of the committee’s achievements. The outgoing Co-Chair Sarah Barnard shared the chair’s report (with a beautiful presentation). Over the last year, SYP Scotland has seen an increase in membership and geographical variety across Scotland, making us less Edinburgh-centric. We ran our largest mentorship scheme yet (since 2015, at least). For the first time, all SYP branches offered a mentorship scheme. In Scotland we connected 55 mentors and mentees and received over 100 applications, making it a very successful scheme. We ran a wide variety of accessibility-focused events, reflecting the general direction the book industry is (hopefully) heading towards. Additionally, we gained closer ties with the other regional branches and the SYP UK and have done well, financially, and our coffers are looking very healthy.

Sarah then shared some touching sentiments with regards to her final year on the SYP Scotland committee and expressed her gratitude to Sonali and Rebecca for their brilliance.

Sam Johnson, the outgoing Membership Secretary, gave his thanks and acknowledged some of the challenges the committee faced this year. 83 members at the start (lowest since 2018) meant he was fairly confident it would be a bad year for membership due to the lack of physical events. However, membership has gone up to 123 (highest in a while) and branched out from the central belt with pockets of membership across Scotland and numbers doubling in Glasgow.

Our Events and Inclusivity Officer Yasmin Hackett began her report by remarking that it has been an interesting, but fruitful year for events. It started with the 2020 Visibility panel in June (originally a conference panel) which was highly successful and well attended. We hosted Insta lives, including a bookselling event which might not have been possible without the virtual format. Some of our usual events, such as 6×6 with PublishEd, moved successfully to a digital format. Most recently an event about libraries as publishers. The committee adapted to circumstances & picked up lots of new skills throughout this learning experience.

Kathryn Haldane, staying on as Communications Officer, remarked that although the last year has been challenging with all events moving online and social media being saturated with content, we have enjoyed a successful year. Twitter has been very successful with over 500 new followers since last April, and last month in particular was excellent with more than a million impressions on our tweets. The Conference Committee did some advertising and it would be interesting to explore if this is worthwhile trying again in future. We used Twitter to promote events & host #SYPChat (tried to do so on a monthly basis). The most attended ones were on publishing masters & getting literary representation. The chats provide a great way to attract people who feel less confident to attend other events or experiencing Zoom fatigue. In future, it would be great to build on previous Instagram content. There has been consistent growth on this platform and it would be great to capitalise on it. Facebook has been quite stagnant for us and has only been used to promote upcoming events. This could be a potential growth area.

Molly Drummond, outgoing Communications Officer, added that the committee did a great job in a difficult year and gave her thanks.

Keira O’Sullivan, outgoing Blogger, commented that the year was difficult to predict, with the pandemic lasting far longer than originally expected. Nonetheless, had a really good year: reading recommendation posts were successful and the EIBF post did well, as did the mentorship scheme one. Blog posts were used to cover our events, especially the 2020 visibility one, increasing accessibility. A potential missed opportunity (due to the year’s instability): guest bloggers. The blog created a great sense of community and we are keen to continue this next year.

Alice Bilger, our outgoing Conference Lead, on our first-ever digital conference: CTRL ALT REFRESH. It was a real challenge for the whole committee, but very inspiring — especially after last year’s conference had to be cancelled. The Conference Committee created a website specifically for the conference, blog posts & online shop instead of exhibition tables, with networking on Twitter instead of in a pub. There were 193 registered attendees from all over the world, inc. US, India, South Africa and Australia. Wider accessibility was a major focus for the committee. There were panellists from diverse backgrounds and discussions on inclusion and accessibility integrated throughout conversations (rather than as a token diversity panel). Free tickets for lower socioeconomic backgrounds, sessions all captured using OtterAI, summarised key points in blog posts, recordings available online until 31st of May. She expressed joy at a wonderfully rewarding conference with an amazing committee and shared her excitement at seeing how the spring conference continues to grow!

Work/Life Balance Panel

After the 20/21 committee had finished with their updates they then passed over to Alastair Horne, Lecturer in Publishing at Stirling University, who was the chair for the panel on Work-Life Balance and he was joined by Anna Doherty, Scottish Illustrator and Author, Jeda Pearl Lewis, Scottish-Jamaican Writer and Poet, Eilidh MacLennan, Sales and Marketing Co-ordinator for Luath Press, and Niamh Anderson, Publicity Assistant, Hodder Books.

To start Alastair asked the panel how they had each found the last year; it’s safe to say that everyone had to adjust to a different way of working and didn’t always find that easy. Two of our panellists, Anna and Jeda, already worked from home but told us that it was very different having to cope with being in the one place all the time and not having the reprieve of getting to leave the house or having to find the balance between work and family who also found themselves at home.

Our other two panellists, Niamh and Eilidh, started new jobs just before and during lockdown, they have both found challenges in changing to remote working, whether it be through small working spaces, wi-fi issues or having to juggle different types of work, on top of meeting a new team and finding their feet in their new roles.

Next the panel discussed their techniques for keeping work life and home life separate and provided us with some amazing tips that I’m sure a lot of us will be using from now on. Keep yourself on a schedule, so that you can properly switch off. Online project management tools, like Asana, can help you to break down what you need to do and check things off as you go. Put any work things like laptop or work phone or any books or papers away so that you can’t see them, so that mentally you are in a different space even though you might not be physically. Use a completely different browser for work and personal accounts. Create a community for yourself, online or in person, that is outside of work and make a habit of talking to someone about what’s been happening in your day, even if it’s a pet.

With working life being so different for so many people the panel then addressed if there was anything that they would hope to continue after lockdown. Being kinder and more forgiving to ourselves was mentioned by a few panellists, letting go of feeling guilty for not doing certain things, also not having to immediately respond to emails or messages, allowing time to answer when you want. Keeping the option of flexible working, so that even when people return to workplaces there is still a good balance between work life and personal life and knowing when to ask for help. With face-to-face communication limited and video calls, emails and messages are more the norm the panel talked about how they added screen breaks into their day. Looking out the window to see what was in the garden is something that a few of the panel do, but also smaller cups of tea so that they need to be replaced more often, setting reminders or setting the background on your laptop to change every half an hour or so to remind you to take a break.

To round up what had been an insightful discussion Alastair asked the panellists what the best thing to come from this year was for them. For Anna it was that her family and friends better understand what it takes to work from home, Niamh found she has been able to take on more responsibility in her new job quicker than she would have otherwise, Eilidh has learned to be more assertive in asking for when she needs help and Jeda hopes that the flexibility that has been taken on by companies will be carried forward for everyone as people return to workplaces.

Incoming Committee

After a short-break we reconvene to introduce the incoming committee!

We start off procedures with new Co-chair Grace Balfour-Harle (she/her). Grace was the former General Member, and is Editorial Assistant at the Beano. She remarked that she wants to build on last year’s success. The committee may not have ran as many events as they did pre-pandemic but the digital events were all very well received and attended. This year, events will probably be digital “unless something drastic happens”. Accessibility is important and the goal is to continue being accessible in the future e.g. the free tickets for those on low-income.

Sonali Misra (she/her): a returning Co-chair. Sonali is a PhD Researcher, The Selkie Co-founder, published author and previously worked in Indian publishing. She remarked that she will miss Sarah! This is also Sonali’s last year on the committee. Again, mentions accessibility: pronouns, Closed Captions and image descriptions will be continued. There is also the addition of a new Inclusivity Officer to the committee to help achieve a more accessible and inclusive upcoming year. Thinks that the next conference could be a hybrid digital and in-person event, especially since going digital has allowed for better accessibility for those outwith the central belt and for those with disabilities.

Beth Ralston (she/her): Treasurer. MSC Publishing Student at Napier, freelance copywriter. Mentions that she has found the publishing community warm and welcoming and wants to “pay that kindness forward”.

Bryony Rogers (she/her): Membership Secretary & Mentorship Scheme Lead. Formerly an undergraduate History student and now studying the MLitt at Stirling. Previously worked in recruitment (and still does this part-time). Actually found out about the MLitt through the SYP.

Joana Kalcheva (she/her): Returning Student Liaison Officer. Originally from Bulgaria, lived in Spain for a while and now resides in Scotland. Did her Publishing Masters in Spain, is a Submissions Reader for Sandstone Press, works on The Publishing Planet, alongside being a book-blogger, and this is her 2nd year on the committee.

Nuha Zulkernain (she/her): Inclusivity Officer. Originally from Edinburgh, MSc student at Napier, is a book reviewer on Instagram, and also a Submissions Reader for Sandstone Press.

Natalie Jayne Clark (she/her/they/them): Shadow Panel & Book Club Coordinator. Based in Perth and a part-time MLitt Publishing student at Stirling as well as a freelance editor and writer. Is excited to be back for another year on the committee.

Fine Mayer (she/her): Events Officer. Originally from Germany and currently undergoing a Gaelic immersion year in Glasgow. A former bookseller and English Literature graduate. Currently the Marketing Manager for Ringwood Publishing. Also, a contributing writer for The Publishing Post, The Publishing Planet and a contributing editor for Ta Voix.

Lauren McFarlane (she/her): Events Officer. MSc Publishing Student. Formerly a litigation lawyer who is interested in changing career and moving into publishing.

Hollie Monaghan (she/her): Communications Officer. Marketing Manager for The Selkie, freelance proofreader and copyeditor, MA/MLitt graduate. Has been able to attend more SYP events the past years as they have gone digital.

Kathryn Haldane (she/her): Returning Communications Officer. Publicity and Marketing Administrator at Birlinn in Edinburgh. Graduate of the MLitt Publishing course at Stirling.

Katy Gallacher (she/her): Communications Officer. Studied photography and cultural management. Retail/art background. Runs a book-blog.

Lola Gaztañaga Baggen (she/her): Communications Officer and intern at Ringwood Publishing. Dutch/Spanish. Has lived in Edinburgh for 4 years.

Frances Rowbottom (she/her): Conference Lead. Originally from the North East of England, in her 1st year of an American Literature PHD in Edinburgh.

Susie Butler (she/her): Conference Lead. Assistant Editor at the University of Edinburgh Press. Used to be part of SYP North.