At the 2019 AGM held in Bath, members elected a new Chairman to fill the vacancy left by the outgoing Chairman, Sarah Burns.
Angela Sutton is a bookbinder, book restorer and teacher. She ran the weekly bookbinding classes at Malvern Hills College for fifteen years, and now teaches small groups in her own bindery, as well as the regular classes at Dillington House in Somerset. Her textbook Bookbinding in Picturessells widely.
She has been active in the West Midland region since 2002, taking over as Chairman in 2007.
Below you can read her statement of support for her candidacy.
I am willing to serve as Chairman of the Society of Bookbinders when the post falls vacant in August 2019. I have been a practising bookbinder for over 40 years, and have been an active member of the Society since 1996. I teach regularly in my own bindery and run occasional workshops for the SoB regions and elsewhere. My main interest is in repair, restoration and conservation.
I was Secretary of my local region (Birmingham, now West Midlands) for several years, and have been Chairman since 2007, becoming Trustee in 2010. I was Conference Organiser of the Society from 2011-2017, and am a member of the sub committee setting up the new website.
If elected Chairman I would like to concentrate on two things: first, continuing to make the new website a really useful tool for dissemination of information both for Society members and for those outside, and second, developing ways in which bookbinding can be taught at different levels. The loss of so many bookbinding educational facilities in recent years poses a real challenge, and it is up to us to meet it as best we can.