The Annual General Meeting of the Society was held at 2pm on Saturday 16th June, 2012, in the BP Lecture Theatre, British Museum, Great Russell Street, London WC11B 3DG. The President, Andrew Burnett, was in the chair and welcomed members and non-members.

The President reported on the activities of the Society for the previous year. He firstly noted that membership has remained stable and the finances sound (as the Treasurer subsequently reported in detail). He then referred to the academic programme of the Society which has continued to be successful through the publication of the two journals, Journal of Roman Studies and Britannia. He thanked the editors and review editors (Greg Woolf, Richard Brewer, Catherine Steel and Barry Burnham) for their continuing hard work, as well as Lynn Pitts for ensuring that their production went smoothly and to a high quality. The lecture programme included Hannah Cotton from Israel, who had delivered the M. V. Taylor memorial lecture, Professor Sir Barry Cunliffe, and an Oxyrhynchus evening event, held jointly with the Hellenic Society. A successful triennial conference had been held in Cambridge, organised by Stephen Oakley; the Roman Archaeology Conference had taken place in Frankfurt, organised by David Wigg-Wolf; and a conference on Septimius Severus had been organised by Sam Moorhead and hosted by the British Museum.

The President turned to the Combined Library which continued to be well used, with a twenty per cent increase in seat occupancy over last year. He expressed his thanks on behalf of the Society to the librarians and Michael Crawford, the Hon. Librarian, for their efforts. He noted, however, that the longer term future of the library remained uncertain, as the School of Advanced Studies of the University of London was being reviewed by HEFCE, whose report would not be available until spring 2013. A new Vice Chancellor had been appointed. He thanked John North, the new Acting Director of the Institute for Classical Studies, for his continuing work in relation to the future of the ICS and the Combined Library.

Lastly, the President reported on the Society's flourishing outreach programme. The Society has continued to award grants towards the costs of summer schools, and via the Schools’ Committee (chaired by Steven Hunt) to help schools, mostly in the state sector, to buy Latin text books and other teaching materials. The budget for this purpose has again been increased as it is such an important part of the Society's objectives. The new programme of museum bursaries continued to be massively oversubscribed and has attracted almost a hundred applications for a limited number of places, now increased to eight. A successful trip to Bath and the Cotswolds for members had been organised by Stephen Clews. Online, Imago (the freely available database of images) continues to grow, now having about 1,700 images; and the interactive Regina's Tombstone, organised by Sam Moorhead, went live during the course of the year. Finally the new electronic newsletter, Epistula, has appeared twice, thanks to the efforts of the editors Peter Guest and Fraser Hunter.

The President thanked all the officers of the Society and all Council and committee members for giving their time so freely for the well-being of the Society; and he thanked Dr Fiona Haarer particularly for all her efforts over the previous year.

The President then asked Dr Philip Kay, the Hon. Treasurer, to deliver his report. Dr Kay presented the accounts for 2011, and referred members to Larkings’ statement approving the Accounts. He noted that the accounts showed net incoming resources before other recognised (investment) gains and losses of £113,366, and of £97,285 after such gains and losses. The total net cash inflows to the Society were £60,410 (up from £25,372 in 2010). There were two main reasons for this increase. First, the University of London had failed to meet all its obligations concerning the Joint Library during the year with the result that the Society only paid its increased share of the Library rent from August. Second, CUP generated revenue of approximately £113,000 which included £16,377 from the new digital archive. He noted that, given the poor economic climate, the Society's investments now held by Newton Investment Management, were doing relatively well: in total the Society's reserves amounted to 1.04 million, including the cash deposits held in a CAF (Scottish Widows) savings account. Finally, he reminded members of the increasing space costs for the Library which would amount to c. £39,000 in 2012 (£18,000 in 2011, £7,000 in 2010).

The Report and Accounts for 2011 were approved on the proposal of Mr Graham Kentfield and seconded by Professor Greg Woolf. The remuneration of Larkings was proposed by Dr Tim Leary and seconded by Professor Eberhard Sauer, and the reappointment of Larkings was proposed by Mr Stephen Clews and seconded by Mr Mark Hassall.

Dr Clare Pickersgill proposed and Mr Tony Wilmott seconded the following nominations for Council: as President for 2012–13 Professor D. W. Rathbone; as Vice-Presidents for 2012–13 Professor A. K. Bowman, FBA, FSA, Dr A. M. Burnett, CBE, FBA, FSA, and Professor M. G. Fulford, CBE, FBA, FSA; as Hon. Treasurer and Hon. Secretary for 2012–13 Dr Philip B. Kay and Mr T. Sam N. Moorhead, FSA, respectively; and as Council members for 2012–15: Dr E. Buckley, Professor K. Cooper, Dr J.-M. Hulls, Dr C. Kelly, Professor D. J. Mattingly FBA, FSA, Professor S. Mitchell FBA, Sir Peter Stothard, and Professor M. Wyke. The Rev. Professor J. S. Richardson, FRSE became an Hon. Vice-President.

All the above Resolutions were passed nem. con.

Dr Kay then thanked the outgoing President, Dr Andrew Burnett as follows:

The AGM was followed by a programme of talks on the Olympics which attracted an audience of more than two hundred and fifty. The speakers were Mr Tony Wilmott: Different People, Different Games? Amphitheatre and Community in Roman Britain; Professor Charlotte Roueché: A Globalised Sporting Culture: Roman Contests in the Greek East; Professor Mary Beard: The Roman Olympic Games.