Apologies for absence were received from Malcolm Crook, John Dunne, Mark Greengrass, Michael Jones, Detmar Klein, Bob Knecht, Gwynne Lewis, Pam Pilbeam, Penny Roberts, Jan Spurlock.

Minutes of the 16th AGM, held in Manchester on 10 April were approved.

Matters arising: there were no matters arising. arising:

Secretary's Report: The winners of last year's postgraduate research bursaries were: Kurt Ballstadt (Lincoln College, Oxford): 'The natural philosophical thought of Denis Diderot'; and Jill Maciak (York): 'Rural Politicisation in South-West France in the eighteenth century and during the Revolution'. Some of the unsuccessful applicants were still early in their studies, and they are encouraged to re-apply in the future. While the number of applicants for the conference bursaries was disappointing - with only five people applying for the five bursaries available. The recipients were: Ralph Kingston, 'Making marriage work: pre-nuptial contract and family alliance under the Napoleonic Code', for a paper delivered at the Western Society for the Study of French History's Annual Meeting at Indianapolis, 31 October - 3 November 2001; Detmar Klein, 'Becoming Alsatian: Anti-German cultural propaganda in Alsace 1898-1914', at the conference 'Nationalism and Identity in Third Republic France', held at Keele University, 6-8 July 2001; Jill Maciak, to give a paper, entitled 'Of news and networks: oral political culture in the French countryside of the 18th century', at the Sussex University 'History Work in Progress' seminar series, on 6 December 2001; Cathy McClive, 'Elle se laissa faire un petit enfant: languages of conception in early modern France', to be delivered at the Berkshire Conference of Women's Historians, University of Connecticut, June 2002; and Elizabeth Vlossak, 'Gender, Identity and Nationalism in Europe: From the Nineteenth to the Twenty First Century', read at the European Studies Institute at the University of Salford, 12-14 October 2001. The committee have agreed that no postgraduate should be eligible for more than one conference award in each year, but that the award of a bursary in one year would not debar the recipient from applying for a conference bursary in subsequent years.

The President, Joe Bergin, suggested that members of the committee produce a paper for proposals as to what else the Society could do to fund postgraduates. This paper would be discussed by the Committee at its meeting in London in October.

The secretary had also been invited by Professor David Bates to attend a table ronde, supported by the CNRS, at Glasgow University on 10-11 May 2002. Professor Bates had offered the Society an opportunity to publicise its activities at this event. Entitled 'Liens personnels, réseaux, solidarités en France et dans les îles Britanniques', it would be intended to foster and develop collaboration between French and British historians. A number of SSFH members would be speaking at or attending the table ronde and Professor Mark Greengrass, a Trustee, had offered to say a few words about the Society. The secretary offered to produce a flyer about the society to be distributed at the event.

Membership Secretary's Report: Tim Watson reported that numbers were stable, with 229 in the UK and 47 overseas. He had produced an e-mail contact list, which has made contacting members much easier than it had been in the past. The website domain name had been registered as frenchhistorysociety.ac.uk and Tim mooted the possibility that it might be launched at the table ronde in Glasgow. Tim appealed to anyone who knew of possible links with other websites to send him the relevant URLs or other significant information. Dave Andress, an editor of the H-FRANCE e-mail discussion group, was keen to establish a link with the SSFH website. Tim was warmly thanked for all his hard work.

Treasurer's Report: Geoff Watkins reported that the accounts were in a healthy state and the slight excess of expenditure over income could be explained by the timing of certain transactions. Income from 1 January 2001 to 31 December 2001 stood at £2830.75 while expenditure over the same period was at £2963.84. The current account was £1649.58 in credit, which included £1148.89 transferred from the closed Charities Reserve Account.

The Ralph Gibson Fund had earned £6313 from French History, with £2540.35 spent on computer equipment for the French Historian. The overall balance of the Fund now stood at £17087.32. There had been some problems with collecting the membership subscriptions of overseas members, due primarily to banking charges. Geoff was investigating the options by which these members could pay their dues without being stung by these excessive rates.

The Charities Reserve Account had been closed, because the interest earned was minimal and the money was better employed in boosting the current account. This was necessary because the new, and impressive, newsletter was more costly to produce. The Ralph Gibson Fund was in a very healthy state, but the current banking arrangements pose of problem of combining instant access with high rates of interest, both of which would be desirable. As of solution, Geoff suggested that a small amount might be kept in the Ralph Gibson Fund for current use, while the rest would be put into the INVAC account, which earns high interest, on the understanding that these funds would be ringfenced for the purposed of the Ralph Gibson Fund. Geoff was thanked for his work on the accounts.

Conference Officer's Report: The next conference was to be held at Nottingham, organised by Michael Jones and Colin Heywood. Professor Jones had assured the secretary that the theme 'France: Centres and Peripheries' should be sufficiently broad and would not overlap with the theme of the Newcastle conference as much as may have been feared. For 2004, the possibility of Cambridge was mooted.

Report from the Editor of French History: Malcolm Crook had e-mailed the secretary with his report. The journal is running late (now two issues behind) and it will take 18 months to catch up, but the flow of articles is now healthy and there should now be enough for Volume 16 once authors had made all their revisions. The reviews section is posing more of a problem and the Reviews Editor appealed for copy as quickly as possible, to allow the journal to catch up in this vital area.

Malcolm also made it known that he would like to try out some new ideas, such as debates, think pieces and perhaps themed issues. If members had any ideas for innovation, now is the time to propose them.

Statement of accounts for the year January 1st 2001 - December 31st 2001