Annual General Meeting

7.00 pm on Monday 26 July 2021, at Toll Gavel Church, Beverley

• Apologies for Absence

  Peter Stevens

• Minutes of the last meeting and matters arising

Minutes of the last meeting were agreed as a true record and signed by the Chairman. There were no matters arising.

• Chairman’s opening remarks

The outgoing Chairman (David Cross) reiterated what he sent to all choir Members in his regular online blog, namely his thanks to all the Committee members, Elizabeth Wilson (Musical Director), Nigel Clarke (Assistant Musical Director), and Amy Butler (Musical Accompanist) for all their help and support over the two years of his tenure. (David Cross then handed over the Chairmanship to Nicholas Hart for the next two years.) The new Chairman chose to give his opening address towards the end of the meeting.

• Officers’ Reports

            Musical Director – Liz Wilson emphasised how difficult it has been during the Coronavirus pandemic (the choir being unable to meet for rehearsals, no concerts to perform, little, or no, social contact between choir members). Liz thanked both Amy Butler and Nigel Clarke for all their help with the continuation of rehearsals, via online means, particularly Amy’s fortitude. This was greeted with much applause from those gathered for the meeting! She also thanked all the choir members who took part in these rehearsals. Liz did, however, express concern, following the resignations of David Cross and Steve Horner (former Chairman and Secretary respectively). The latter’s reasons for this centred on their feeling that the repertoire was insufficiently seeded with up to date numbers, in order to encourage the recruitment of younger members and retain the interest of potential audiences. Liz took this as a personal criticism of her, and proceeded to outline why, in her opinion, this was not the case.

            Liz finished by stating how proud she was to be Musical Director of BMVC.

            Patrons Coordinator/Public Relations Officer – Julian Musik informed the meeting that the choir had lost a few Patrons, unsurprisingly, during the Coronavirus pandemic. Julian was ready to resume normal PRO activities now that there was the likelihood that the choir could begin meeting again with the loosening of Government restrictions being imminent.

            Hon. Librarian – Chris Szafran expressed his reluctance to be the choir’s Librarian, but would continue until such time as a replacement could found.

            Hon Secretary – It has been a difficult eighteen months for choirs throughout the country, and BMVC is no exception. He thanked all choir members for their support over the years, the last two years as Secretary, and previous stints as Patron Coordinator/PRO. He also thanked Liz Wilson, Nigel Clarke and Amy Butler (MD, AMD and Accompanist respectively) for continuing to conduct rehearsals online during the Coronavirus pandemic, and felt that this went a long way in keeping the choir together. He stated that everyone was well aware of his decision to resign from the choir, and the reasons why, and felt there was no need to go over those again. SH thanked Terry Lynn for stepping up from Assistant Secretary to fill the post of Secretary on a temporary basis. He was sad to be leaving the choir because of the friendships he has formed over the years, and thanked everyone once again for their support. He wished the choir well for the Future.

• Receive the Hon. Treasurer’s Report and Examined Annual Accounts

The Hon. Treasurer’s reports were sent by email to all Members prior to the meeting, but is summarised below.

These are the signed-off accounts for the year ended 30^th June 2021 (thanks to Tom Danter for the audit). Full accounts at the end of these minutes. Some notes follow:

• PM was late making Nigel’s second payment last financial year and it slipped into this year so he’s had a total of £750 but of course it evens out across the 2 years.

Received is a £350 grant from ERYC for last calendar year against receipted expenditure for rehearsal costs and £995 from BTC for this year. Our application for a further £750 was approved by ERYC and we can claim that early next year. We may be able to make further grant applications under a ‘covid recovery’ fund that East Riding are operating.

• Chris Szafran gave PM the ticket receipts for last year’s ill-fated social bash – a total of 47 tickets @ £10 each = £470. Of these 6 have now been refunded – outstanding refunds can be made upon request.
• Last financial year was obviously very unusual so it made no sense to do a comparison with previous years’ full figures. PM, however, shows you how subs, patrons/donations and grant income compare:

               *includes £350 sponsorship

The choir is registered with 2 schemes by which your future purchases can add contributions to choir funds at no cost to Members. These are Amazon Smile and Easy Fundraising.

Our financial health

Taking the social tickets from our current balance leaves the choir with ~£7360 in the bank. On the face of it this seems quite healthy but the choir’s main outgoings: Liz, Nigel, Amy, Toll Gavel church hire and insurance will come to nearly £8700 over the next 12 months. This obviously means that the choir must maintain its income streams as far as possible from subs, patrons, fundraising and concerts.

PM stated that Gift Aid Declaration forms were available to all Members when Members subscriptions became due.

Key points raised at the AGM by PM were:

1. Information from ERYC has been received about the availability of Covid Recovery funds, requiring grant applications;
2. The choir need to have substantial income from Members’ subscriptions, Patrons subscriptions, and concert receipts to meet “running costs”. The choir fundraising events at Christmas bring in significant income, and now that the choir is a Registered Charity, extra income from Gift Aid will be most welcome;

• Thought by all the choir must be given to ways raising income.

• Adoption of Reports

All the above reports were adopted by the meeting after a vote.

• Annual appraisal of Member subscriptions

The annual subscription for individual Members is currently £100. The general consensus at the meeting was that this figure should remain the same this year, in the light of a difficult time the choir has had during the Coronavirus pandemic. This position was adopted after a vote in favour by the attendees to the meeting.

• Election of Officers

No nominations were received by the Secretary prior to the meeting.

            OFFICERS REMAINING ELIGIBLE AND/ OR STANDING FOR ELECTION/RE-ELECTION

(To be elected individually)

Hon Treasurer              Mr Phil MacMullen – re-elected;                            

Hon Librarian              Mr Chris Szafran – Re-elected and willing to continue until a replacement is found;

Honorary Secretary     Mr Steve Horner – resigning. Terry Lynn (Assistant Secretary) standing in until                   permanent replacement is found;

Public Relations Officer/ Patrons Coordinator – Mr Julian Musik – Re-elected.

Website Administrator     Mr Peter Goonan – resigning. Post vacant. Nigel Clarke standing in                       temporarily;

Recruitment Officer – Dave Williamson – resigning. Post vacant.

Welfare Officer – Terry Lynn – resigning. Post vacant.

COMMITTEE MEMBERS ELIGIBLE AND STANDING FOR RE-ELECTION

(An en-block proposal is acceptable)

Mr Dave Rutter – Bass Representative. Resigning. Post vacant.

Mr Ken Doran – Baritone Representative

Mr Jon Capel – Second Tenor Representative. Resigning. Terry Lynn standing in temporarily.

Dave Williamson – First Tenor Representative. Re-elected.

The post of President of the Choir was unanimously elected. Mrs Rona Dickinson succeeded Mr Paul Camm. The Chairman made a presentation to Paul. The latter gave his thanks and welcomed Rona, handing over the badge of office to her. Rona also said a few words and is proud to be the choir’s new President.

• Ratify appointments made by Committee

Where indicated in item 8), Officers were re-elected by majority vote. The posts remaining vacant will be the subject of an email to all Members, and be an agenda item for discussion at the next Committee meeting. The above course of action was agreed by a majority vote.

• Amendment of Choir Constitution if necessary

No items required an amendment to the Constitution.

• Elect Independent Examiner of Accounts

Tom Danter was duly re-elected by a majority vote.

• Conduct any business previously submitted by Members

There was no business submitted by Members.

• Present and future repertoire

Malcolm Matthias explained the process of adopting a new, or revised repertoire, for the benefit of newer Members attending the meeting. Elizabeth Wilson also explained the composition of the Music Committee as it stands currently. The Secretary then opened up the discussion to the Members attending the meeting.

• Address by incoming Chairman

Nicholas Hart gave his thanks and good wishes to outgoing Chairman, David Cross, and outgoing Secretary, Steve Horner. Also, thanks went to Peter Goonan for running the choir website until his recent resignation. He also thanked other members of the Committee, Phil MacMullan, Julian Musik, Ken Doran, Terry Lynn, Dave Rutter and Dave Williamson for all their work. NH especially thanked Liz Wilson, Nigel Clarke and Amy Butler for all their hard work keeping the choir singing, albeit virtually. He thanked outgoing President, Paul Camm, for his efforts, and welcomed Rona Dickinson as the choir’s new President. The Chairman outlined a three point plan: i) a recruitment drive; ii) repertoire revision; and iii) rehearsal enthusiasm regeneration!

The meeting closed at 8.30 pm.