ALCS at 40: OUR MEMBERSHIP
In its 40th year, in terms of both geography and genre, ALCS has the broadest membership of any UK writers’ organisation. Read on to find out more about who – and where – you are!
NUMBERS
PLACES
ALCS has members resident in 111 countries. The top three countries besides the UK are:
- 13,172 members in the US
- 2,885 members in Australia
- 1,689 members in France
Among the countries where ALCS currently has one resident member are Bosnia-Herzegovina, the British Virgin Islands, Eritrea and Syria.
You only need to look at some of the feedback from our members to know that for the most part, it’s not all about the money. More important is the recognition and the sense of solidarity that writers get from membership, and you can’t put a price on that.
TONY BRADMAN, ALCS CHAIR
TITLES & AWARDS
The ALCS membership includes:
- 41 CBEs
- 70 OBEs
- 23 MBEs
- 24 MPs
- 2 Princes
- 48 Lords
- 74 Ladies
- 7 Knights
THE PROCESS
Below is a snapshot of the distribution process from March 2017.
MEETINGS WITH MEMBERS
With the majority of ALCS members based in the South-East region of England, the ALCS Annual General Meeting, held in November, has traditionally taken place in London. However, in an ongoing bid to meet members from all regions of the UK, the ALCS AGM is now held in a location outside the capital every other year. In recent years, this has taken in Edinburgh, York, Birmingham and Bristol.
The 2017 ALCS AGM will be held in Manchester on Thursday 23 November. Further details will be circulated to members in the near future.
ALCS also holds regular smaller Focus Group meetings with members across the country. These give ALCS staff the opportunity to meet members in person, and find out what they think about the way that ALCS is run. They also give members the chance to meet other members who live in their area.
Over the past few years, ALCS has held Focus Group meetings in Bath, Brighton, Bristol, Birmingham, Cambridge, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Exeter, Leicester, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich, Nottingham, Oxford and Sheffield.
SPREADING THE WORD (AND HOW YOU CAN HELP)
ALCS pays roughly £30 million a year in secondary royalties. While we have staff dedicated to tracking down the authors to whom these royalties are due, you, our members, are in the very best position to help us ensure that your fellow authors are receiving money which is rightfully theirs.
Please tell your writer friends who are not currently members of ALCS about us. Lifetime membership of ALCS costs £36, which is only payable when you receive your first payment.
