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THE DENTDALE CHOIR
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING MINUTES
Held in St Andrews Church Dent Tuesday 17th
May 2011.
Members present. 24.
Neville Allen, Pat Allen, Sally Blackburn, Anthea Boulton,
David Boulton, Monica Cleasby, John Cooke, Wendy Cooke, Susan
Cox, Chris Dyer, Linda Fawcett, [Conductor] Sally Jeffery, Bill
Lake, Judy Lake, Pauline Lawton, Doreen Mulliner, David O’Brien,
Jenny Pilgrim [Chair] Tony Reed-Screen, Jenny Robinson, Eileen
Stavley, Catherine Sugden [Secretary], John Sugden, Chris Taylor
Apologies
received from, Jock Cairns, Bill Corpe, Rita Corpe, Ellen Kirton,
Jim Kirton, Janice Little, Dorothy Vernon, Helen Winn.
1.
Minutes of the AGM held 25th May 2010
accepted as a correct record. Proposed by David Boulton,
seconded by David O’Brien. Any matters arising were included
with current agenda items.
2.
Finance and accounts.
Marjory Glover gave members a print out of the financial statement for the year ended May 7th 2011
[Copy attached].
This showed a healthy balance of £4,196. 49, the income for the
year being greater than the expenditure. A grant of £500 had
been received from Sedbergh and District Neighbourhood Forum
towards music and the setting up of a website; this would need
to be ringfenced for those purposes. We applied for a grant
from South Lakeland District Council but have not heard whether
we have been successful.
Most of the expenses had been for the concert, with
miscellaneous expenses for church heating and gifts. Bill Lake
expressed thanks to Marjory for her excellent work. All present
agreed. Susan Cox said that everyone had enjoyed performing the
Armed Man and thanked the committee for agreeing the extra
expenses involved.
3.
Secretary’s Report.
Catherine Sugden read out her report [copy attached]. Ian
Davidson-Walton had been elected Chair at the AGM in 2010 but
resigned in August. Jenny Pilgrim was co-opted in October until
the AGM 2011. The full committee had held 6 meetings. From its
members a Finance sub committee had been elected; members were
the Chair and Treasurer of the choir committee, the members that
dealt with grant applications and two other full committee
members. The finance sub committee fed back to the full choir
committee. Helen Winn had acted as librarian for the choir and
was thanked for her continuing work during the previous year.
Carol Services and The Armed Man were successful and Catherine
gave thanks to Linda and Phyllis for their help with serving
refreshments.
Members had enjoyed a trip to Richmond organized by Anthea and
Linda.
4.
Finance Sub Committee.
David Boulton as convenor reported that the committee had done
their work “ in cyber space” with agreements reached via email
so eliminating the need for more meetings [full report
attached]. There had been a number of requests for extra funding
which had been difficult to fully consider as the work had
already been set in motion; he therefore proposed that in future
the year’s concert programme should be fully budgeted and
approved in advance, rather than piecemeal. A budget to be
agreed on at the first committee meeting once the programme was
known. Any unplanned expenditure over £25 would continue to be
referred to the sub committee for prior approval. The
sub-committee proposed a choir committee resolution to this
effect for 2011/2012, and the meeting accepted the proposal.
Pat Allen said that the £500 for instrumentalists had been well
worth it.
Chris Dyer asked about their expense. Linda said that local
players were free. Cellist and trumpets £100 each.
5.
Conductor’s Report
[Attached] Linda reported that we have had a
good year both financially and artistically. Jenny Robinson had
secured a grant to enable us to build up our music library and
we had a good workshop prior to The Armed Man. The choir had
worked hard with much time spent between rehearsals listening to
and practicing The Armed Man resulting in an excellent
performance. The soloists and Roger had been very good. The men
had been impressive and the altos a strong part. She thanked the
committee and Helen Winn. Liz Nuttall has agreed to be the
librarian.
The members come because they enjoy singing and are helping to
keep music ALIVE.
Christmas music to include ‘The Shepherd’s Farewell” by Berlioz,
and carols. Linda proposed that next year’s spring concert would
be on 28th April, although the date had yet to be
confirmed. She was hoping it would be in the Memorial Hall with
Roger and drummers. The theme was to be “Love and Marriage” ,
possibly using music from West Side Story and pieces by Bob
Chilcott. She would welcome ideas from the choir. As hiring
music is becoming so expensive she would like to consider
buying Bob Chilcott’s book for our library.
Sally Jeffery said it was important to keep music alive and that
the Armed Man had been very moving. She felt it helpful to start
learning the music for the spring concert in September to get a
feeling of continuity.
David Boulton thanked Linda for all her hard work. There was
applause from the members.
6. Publicity /grants Jenny Robinson. The grant we
have received is to help set up a library. The Dent Music and
Beer Festival committee gave us £65 which helped bridge a gap
for expenses for printing the programmes for The Armed Man.
We need to encourage younger people to join the choir and come
to the concerts. Jennie suggested we appoint a member of the
audience to give feedback and to give a report to the
Westmorland Gazette on our behalf. She also suggested that we
give a report to the people who gave us a grant for the music
library. The Committee will discuss this proposal.
John Cooke complimented Jennie on the posters she had designed
for the Armed Man. John was thanked for the sketch he has done
for the programmes. Everyone agreed that both had been well
received.
7.
Communications. John Sugden reported
that we now have most choir members’ email addresses. He is
going to look into other sources for contacts and ways of
widening our field for publicity. Some members said they were
not able to access the attachments to emails.
Neville said the choir is on the website under Dentdale.com/choir
and we could add minutes and photos to our report on the site.
Susan Cox suggested we use the Music and Beer Festival to
promote the choir and get people to join in the singing with the
choir at the festival. There was also a suggestion that we could
have a day of singing with other choirs.
8.
Chairman’s Report.
Jenny Pilgrim thanked Ian for getting grants rolling and for the
delicious food he had provided at our first rehearsal last
September. She also thanked Rita for her work as accompanist and
for Helen as librarian. The music library is now in her basement
at Cowgill Grange. Copies of The Messiah had been bought towards
our library. She thanked Neville for the recording he had made
of the Armed Man.
Our finances are fine even though the costs for the concert were
high.
We have to think ahead as we need an accompanist for September,
who is very likely to require funding. As next years concert
will be on a smaller scale she suggested we should not consider
increasing the subscription this year.
The committee were thanked for their work.
Pat thanked Jenny for standing in as chair.
9.
Election of Committee and Officers.
All the present committee members were willing to stand and were
re-elected by the members. The officers for the year 2011/2012
to be Chair Jenny Pilgrim, Secretary Cath Sugden and Treasurer
Marjory Glover. Liz Nuttall will join as librarian.
10.
Appointment of independent Auditor.
All were agreed that Gwyneth Cheetham be asked to be our
examiner for the coming year 2011 / 2012 and that since she
makes no charge, to give her a voucher for £25 to thank her for
her time. Marjory will see her and give her the gift on our
behalf.
11. AOB. Dorothy Vernon asked about plans for hiring music
due to cutbacks on libraries. Linda said that the circle for
borrowing is widening.
Pat Allen made a request for the choir to sing at the start of
the Christmas Fayre in the church in December2011. Members were
in favour of taking part.
Monica invited choir members to a party to be held sometime in
July by members who had reached a “certain age” during the year.
Tony Reed-Screen gave advanced notice of the Music Festival in
Sedbergh 2012, when Tamsin Little will be coming. The climax was
to be Mozart’s Requiem, and members were encouraged to take
part. Details will be on the website in June.
Members were informed that rehearsals for the Autumn term will
start on Tuesday !3th September and will be in Dent Church.
Rehearsals for the Dent Music and Beer Festival would take
place on Tuesday May 31st, June 7th and 21st
at 7.30 at Linda’s house on the Green. A final rehearsal would
be at 11.30 on Sunday 26th at the Festival Marquee.
Jenny thanked everyone for coming and the Church wardens for the
use of the church for the meeting.
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