With the start of ASTENE's second decade, the Association continues to fulfil its aims and objectives, notably in encouraging and promoting education and research into the history of travel and travellers in Egypt and the Near East.

Visits, conferences and study days
As part of its programme, ASTENE undertakes an annual tour to various parts of the Near East with a short conference, as well as holding study days in UK and conducting visits to appropriate institutions in the UK. Hence in October 2007, Elisabeth Woodthorpe, ASTENE Events Organiser, organised a tour of Syria led by John Ruffle, former Keeper of Durham University's Oriental Museum, and his Syrian counterpart, Fayez-Alass. The tour included a conference in Aleppo at which Paul Hetherington, Sonia Anderson, Maurice Bierbrier, Deborah Manley, Professor Malcolm Wagstaff and Dr Joahanna Holaubek presented excellent papers. For me, the tour offered a second opportunity to visit some the country's most famous sites, notably Palmyra, so much associated with Robert Wood and his influential publication (The Ruins of Palmyra, 1753) which introduced Palmyrian decorative designs to some of Britain's most famous country houses.

A visit to the British Museum Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan was organised jointly by Elisabeth Woodthorpe and Dr John Taylor. The visit enabled ASTENE members to view some of the Department's archival material not normally seen by the general public. And, with help from John and Drs. Patricia Usick and Henrietta McCall, we saw some of the paper records (including papyri) as well as frescoes, sarcophagi, monumental pieces of statuary, ceramic and jewellery.

Executive Committee Meetings
Three meetings were convened at which your committee discussed: changes to the format of the Bulletin (still to be resolved), our non-financial support for the Melville Society's conference in Jerusalem in 2009, European Union University Collaboration (as originally outlined by our Czech colleague, Dr Hana Navratilova), the need to update our own 'Yellow Pages' members' list (maintained by Neil Cooke) and the question of retaining lapsing members, the 2009 biennial conference at Durham University, visits, study days and exhibitions together with publications (past, present and future), a proposed dahabeeyah cruise on the Nile, a proposed research project based on the travellers' books at St Catherine's Convent, Sinai, for which we have unfortunately been unable to proceed, and, no less importantly, the Gourna Houses project (see below).

The Bulletin and Website
Four issues of the Bulletin (32-35) were published, thanks once more to the unstinting efforts of the Editor, Deborah Manley, and the Reviews Editor, Dr Edwin Aiken, together with reviews, news and articles by the membership. The spring issue was edited by Dr Robert Morkot.

The Bulletin and the Website represent our means of communicating news and forthcoming events to members across the world and enable them to be in touch and informed.

Study Days
Immediately before the 2008 Annual General Meeting we held a study day in Oxford's Department of Continuing Education on The Holy Mountains of the Near East, led by Professor Malcolm Wagstaff. Topics for future study days are under discussion: Orientalist artists at Leigh ton House in London; Travellers to the Monasteries of Egypt and the Levant, women travellers and travellers' reception of ancient sites are under discussion.

Gourna Houses Project, Luxor
Following a resolution proposed and adopted at last year's AGM (and subsequently supported by the Charity Commission), Dr John Taylor has sought to have "Yanni's house" at Gourna (Giovanni d'Athanasi 1798-1854) Greek excavator and collector) - possibly threatened with demolition -surveyed with a view to assessing its condition prior to restoration at some later date. The house is of considerable historical interest, having been used by early travellers and scholars intent on exploring the ancient Egyptian temples and tomb.

Unfortunately, while some progress has been made in contacting surveyors prepared to carry out the work (subject to an agreed budget), no final decision can be made until one of them submits a complete breakdown of expenses - and the ownership of the house and the adjacent land is known with certainty.

Committee Members
In September 2007, Paul Robertson was co-opted to the committee and agreed to oversee ASTENE's role in a European Union Universities Collaboration project. However, regrettably, Dr Kathryn Ferry and Thomas Rees and the Secretary, Lorien Pilling, will be leaving the committee after having made important contributions to the work and management of the Association.

Membership Leaflet
As a means of recruiting new members to ASTENE, a leaflet (designed by our Treasurer, Dr Diane Fortenberry) was proposed and adopted. This will be distributed to all members in the Bulletin. Please use it to recruit new ASTENE members.

Conclusion
I should like to thank all members of the Committee for their support and encouragement and for giving so much of their time and expertise on behalf of ASTENE. I should also like to thank Dr Diane Bergman of the Griffiths Institute, Oxford University for her work on the ASTENE Bibliography (a most valuable dossier covering the Association's members' ten years of publications) and the Association's web-master, Peter McConochie, for his continued work on our admired website which reaches out beyond the membership.

Brian Taylor

Treasurer's Report for Financial Year 2006-2007

Members will notice that it has been a quiet year, as the financial peaks resulting from conferences and study trips have not figured largely in this year's accounts. We continue to find ourselves the occasional victim of fraudulent direct debits, but the amounts debited, interestingly, have become quite small, and in all cases the funds are recovered very soon after their appearance on the monthly statements. The police and bank have been kept informed of fraudulent activity on the account.

An increasing number of members has chosen to pay subscriptions for up to three years in advance, which makes for simpler accounting at the beginning of the calendar year. As in past years, members are urged to pay their subscription fees promptly in January, thus saving the Treasurer and Membership Secretary much time and ASTENE the cost of posting out reminders. Standing orders can be set up at any time; please contact the Treasurer for a mandate form, or see our website. Membership has dropped slightly over the financial year, but we anticipate that the publicity engendered by the annual conference in Southampton and various cooperative measures being considered by the Committee will help to make ASTENE more visible. Members are increasingly signing up for Gift Aid, for which we are grateful; forms for Gift Aid donations are available from the Treasurer or can be downloaded from our website.

Publications income has dropped over the year, but we expect the appearance of the latest ASTENE book, Who Travels Sees More: Artists, Architects and Archaeologists Discover Egypt and the Near East, to engender a rise in this figure for next year. The hardback book, published by Oxbow Books, contains papers previously presented at ASTENE conferences and study days, and is illustrated with both black-and-white images and colour plates; it will be launched at the Southampton conference.

Reserve funds have been allocated by the Committee as shown in the final section of the accounts, to be approved or amended by the membership at the AGM on 15 July 2007. The reference to 'Yanni's House' is in respect to ASTENE's possible involvement in the preservation of the house of Yanni d'Athanasi in Qurna, details of which will be explained by Committee member John Taylor at the AGM.

I would like to acknowledge Peter McConochie for his unsung but sterling work over the year as ASTENE's webmaster; Lorien Pilling for his help as Membership Secretary; Pat Wagstaff for all her efforts in organizing the Southampton conference; Caroline Hartley, ASTENE's independent examiner, for her patience and meticulousness in the auditing of the accounts; and, most of all, Deborah Manley, editor of the ASTENE Bulletin, for her advice and encouragement.

Diane Fortenberry 13 July 2007