Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the Suffolk Concert Band held on
Wednesday 7th February 2007 at 7.45pm, at Holy Trinity Church Hall, Ipswich
Chair: Mr Barry Salmon (VP)
Members Present: 41
Others: Mr John Whelton (VP)
1. Apologies for absence
These were received from; Julie Troupe, Vince Steensma, Ruth Symington, Andrew Farthing, Denis Kensett, Lisa Cheadle, Helen Wright.
2. Adoption of minutes of meeting held on Wednesday 8th February 2006
It was proposed that the minutes be adopted by the meeting:
Proposed: Ray Wilson
Seconded: Toby Pratt
The vote was unanimously in favour of the proposal.
3. Matters arising from meeting held on Wednesday 8th February 2006
There were no matters arising.
4. Proposals for Vice-Presidents
There were no proposals for Vice-Presidents.
5. Proposals for Honorary Members
There were no proposals for honorary members.
6. Officer reports
6.1. Chairman – Toby Pratt
“Last year was my first as Chairman and being involved with the SCB has been a rewarding experience.
I’d like to start by thanking the whole committee who have put in a tremendous amount of work behind the scenes over the year to ensure everything runs smoothly.
There have been a good number of concerts over the past year, thanks to Trevor and Russell for shuttling percussion backwards and forwards to the various venues and thanks to Sarah for shuffling through our pads, purchasing new music and keeping Roger under the thumb – a position I know he enjoys. Gordon always does a great job in difficult circumstances to organise lists of band members and organising necessary deps – not an easy task when people change their minds at the last minute! Please keep the membership secretary informed if your concert availability changes.
The Corn Exchange concert was a great success so thanks again to Trevor and also to Ray for all their efforts in organising this. I’m sure we all hope this relationship continues over the years and that you’re all looking forward to the return match in July.
Raymond has done a tremendous job of gathering subscriptions and investing our capital. He has also been instrumental in simplifying many of our decisions at committee level, for which we’re all grateful.
Raymond and Simon and Barry have all spent many long and painstaking evenings looking through the constitution – more on that later. I hope you like the results.
Simon has always been ready with good advice in some of the difficult moments over the year, as well as possessing a legendary memory for previous committee minutes.
Angela continues to be a great support to the whole band. We should all be thankful for her organising and hard work over the year. Keeping all our correspondence up to date, minuting the committee meetings, printing and distributing documents to the membership in general, updating the band’s website… …Just some of the things Angela manages to achieve without even breaking a sweat – so I expect no less than outright victory in the London marathon later on this year.
Thanks also to Roger, not so much for his jokes at concerts, but as our Music Director, he’s been responsible for keeping everyone enthusiastic and more or less in tune over the year. His Del-boy style flogging of our CDs hints at an alternative career, if music ever loses its appeal.
Lisa has again done a sterling job in producing our newsletters on a monthly basis – they are an important means of communication for the band and the new personality profiles I know are very popular, if fiendishly difficult to fill in…
Ian Bickers has very kindly agreed to audit our accounts, and has spent a considerable time posing many tricky questions to Ray and Jill. Thanks for this Ian.
As well as the many successful concerts, the band has the results of our recording session to look forward to; it will be ready prior to the OCA concert in July. So with this, Nottingham and the other engagements, 2007 should be a great year for the SCB.”
6.2. Secretary – Angela Bates
Nothing to report.
6.3. Treasurer – Ray Wilson
“Comments on 2006 Accounts.
1) There has been an overall reduction in income of £2579 or 32% compared with 2005. Most of the fall can be attributed to the fact that we did fewer engagements in 2006.
2) There was a slight increase in expenditure in 2006 if depreciation of tangible assets is included in the calculation. The increase was 3% or £194.
3) There was a small increase in the amount received from subs - £284 or 11%.
The funds are in a healthy state – we have £8700 in the bank.”
It was proposed that the statement of the accounts be adopted by the meeting:
Proposed: Trevor Daldry
Seconded: Mark Cheadle
The vote was unanimously in favour of the proposal.
“Subs for 2007 were set at last year’s AGM. The full rate is £60 pa but if you can sign a Gift Aid form, which will enable the band to recover tax of about £13 then you only need to pay £48. Anyone in full time education as a student pays the reduced rate of £20. This year, after representations from some members, the committee have introduced a scheme, which will allow people to request a reduction in the subs they pay. A form has been designed for this purpose and I have copies of it if anyone wishes to see me at any time. I also have Gift Aid forms for anyone who hasn’t already signed one who wishes to do so. It is only necessary to sign the Gift Aid form once.
I now come to the matter of the subs for 2008. As you may be aware the committee is considering how we can appropriately celebrate the 40th anniversary of the founding of the band. We are currently exploring the possibility of an overseas trip in 2008. Without going into more detail at this stage, one of our discussions has centred on whether or not we should reduce subs for 2008 in order to make the financial burden of a trip more bearable for members. The sensible thing to do, or so it seems to the committee, is to defer the decision on 2008 subs until we have a definite proposal to put to you in the light of any proposal about an overseas trip. The two things go together. Since we have a resolution from a previous AGM that effectively requires this AGM to decide the tariff of subs for 2008, the committee wishes me to put the following recommendation to you – ‘that the requirement for the 2008 subscription tariff to be agreed and approved at the 2007 AGM be suspended.’ The committee will bring a proposal about 2008 subs to the band once details of an overseas visit have been sorted.” The meeting agreed with Ray’s proposal.
6.4. Membership Secretary – Gordon Scopes
Gordon welcomed all the new members and welcomed back Tony. Membership currently stands at 61 members. Clare, Ruth, Sally, Toby, Angela, Gordon have the best attendance. Otherwise attendance is at 70%. Gordon requested that members return their replies for engagements and the Nottingham trip as soon as possible. He also thanked those members that help putting chairs out, put stands up and make tea and coffee at rehearsals.
6.5. Librarian – Sarah Scott
Nothing to report
6.5. Concert Manager – Trevor Daldry
Trevor reported that he has now been Concert Manager for a year and very much enjoyed it. He thanked all those that have helped over the year especially at the Corn Exchange. He feels that appearance of the band is very important and would be addressing this if he were re-elected.
7. Musical Director’s Report – Roger Jones
“Mr Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen. I will try to make this as short as possible. To reflect on a year is not always easy, particularly if like me you don’t keep a diary, but suffice it is to say that I continue to enjoy working with you all very much. If I didn’t then I would not be here. I know I was away for most of the summer in 2006 on school business, mainly touring Sri Lanka, tough I know but somebody had to do it! I should like to add that work is the only reason I will never be available to carry out an engagement. I never pick and chose a job as I believe each one is as important as the other, which I hope demonstrates my commitment to the band. That said I am very grateful to John Whelton for directing you during my absence last year, particularly the concert in Felixstowe, which I know was a great success. I recognise its good for you to occasionally have different conductors and this is something, particularly during the Holy Trinity series, we are looking to do.
I enjoyed very much our trip to Eastbourne last August and playing on the bandstand: I hope we can do the same again sometime in the future. Also the joint concert with the Nottinghamshire Police Band in September was a very enjoyable occasion. It was great to work with Gary, and his band and I hope that came through during the day we had together. Thanks to Trevor Daldry for initially setting the concert up. I look forward to next July’s concert with them.
Audiences are still a concern to me. Despite our best efforts I was disappointed with the number in the Corn Exchange, as I know many of you were too. We need to get to grips with this aspect and we can all help, particularly with the free concerts in Holy Trinity. It’s never too late or too early to put up a poster advertising one of our concerts. Toby and I have talked about this regularly, but it has to be collective task.
The Trafalgar 200 CD will I hope reap benefits to the band financially and promote it further in a positive way. So far I have taken just over half the initial production costs and once these expenses have been cleared I will hand over half of the remaining CD’s to Ray and what money is then made will be the bands. One little disappointment is overhearing one or two putting the recording down. I know its not perfect but in view of the market, Royal Hospital School parents and audiences attending Holbrook Music Society concerts and our own concerts, there was, I believe, enough good recorded material for a professional presentation to be produced. If there had not of been then I would not have put the bands name to it. I hope you all appreciate that and will promote it positively.
The ‘studio’ recording we made last October in Felixstowe is still under wraps due to Michael Simmonds being taken ill over the Christmas period, but I am gently nudging him into getting something on disc over the next couple of weeks so we can get it produced.
Repertoire wise I continue to listen, search the catalogues and borrow from known and legitimate sources new, or music I think we might like to perform, but as always, I can not please everybody!
Finally thank you once again for your support and friendship. I do value this very much. I think I know all of you now, character wise and instrumentally, which does have a bearing on how I conduct rehearsals. For the future we must continue to encourage young musicians to come to our concerts or attend rehearsals, they are the bands future. As I have said in previous years do not be too self critical, we all make mistakes, remember we do this for fun. My thanks to Toby for his encouragement and patience and to the committee for all the hard work they do on your behalf.”
8. Election of Committee
8.1. Election of Officers
The following members have agreed to stand for re election this year:
|
Chairman |
- |
Toby Pratt |
|
Secretary |
- |
Angela Bates |
|
Treasurer |
- |
Ray Wilson |
|
Membership Secretary |
- |
Gordon Scopes |
|
Librarian |
- |
Sarah Scott |
|
Concert Manager |
- |
Trevor Daldry |
Proposed: Don Cheesewright
Seconded Mike Vorndran
The vote was unanimously in favour of the proposal.
8.2. Election of other Committee Members
The following members have agreed to stand for re election this year; Mark Cheadle and Simon Pulham.
Proposed: Gordon Scopes
Seconded: Toby Pratt
The vote was unanimously in favour of the proposal
The following member has agreed to stand for election this year, Marion Singleton.
Proposed: Toby Pratt
Seconded: Kath Sutton
The vote was unanimously in favour of the proposal
9. Member Donations for 2008
(See section 6.3 Treasurer’s Report)
10. Approval of Independent Examiner for Suffolk Concert Band Accounts
Ian Bickers has agreed to be the independent examiner for the accounts.
Proposed: Ray Wilson
Seconded: Trevor Daldry
The vote was unanimously in favour of the proposal.
11. New Constitution
“After many years, the committee decided to formally review our entire constitution. The reasons for this were that it was a little outdated, having grown by incremental amendments over the years and becoming somewhat disorganised as a result.
There have also been occasions in recent years when it has been necessary to seek rulings from the Charities commission about aspects of our daily operations. This is a time consuming and frustrating process.
The committee also felt that there was insufficient scope within our existing constitution to perform concerts in aid of other charities. The proposed constitution deals with all these problems.
The proposed constitution, which you have hopefully all had a chance to read, is based on a sample issued by the Charities Commission. We have adapted this to personalise it to our situation. We have kept amendments to a minimum, to ensure that we keep all of the legal and organisational aspects of running a charity in place.
The proposed constitution forms the top of a 2 level set of governing documents, the rules being the other part. In this case, the constitution deals with all of the legal aspects of running a charity and the rules deal with the day-to-day running of the Suffolk Concert Band and we have included much of our existing constitution in this document. Should we wish to make amendments to the rules, we are free to do so without involving the Charities Commission, as long as none of this document contradicts anything in the constitution. Constitutional amendments must be accepted by the Charities Commission to be adopted.
Following some very helpful comments from a band member, the committee have recommended some alterations to the documents you have been issued with, so I would like to bring these to your attention before we have a vote to decide whether to proceed with this adoption.
First and most importantly, is the alteration to the objectives.
The inclusion of the second part of our objects:
To assist and further such charitable institutions and charitable purposes as the committee shall from time to time determine…
The committee feel that this would be of great benefit to the band, but it is important to note that not all charities would be suitable benefactors of our efforts. To ensure that any assistance given is approved by the majority of members, the committee proposes an amendment to the following:
To assist and further such charitable institutions and charitable purposes as the committee shall from time to time determine having first consulted the members and honorary members of the Charity.
The committee proposes that a qualifying statement be added to paragraph 2 – to ensure that resolutions are communicated in due time as follows:
Any such resolution shall be given in due form to the secretary of the Charity at least 14 days before a general meeting.
The committee recommends that the phrase bye-law be removed from the documents and the word ‘rules’ be inserted in its place. This is due to the fact that the phrase ‘Bye laws’ is more commonly used by local government policy.
Membership Para (b) This paragraph re-states the definition of a member, which is already present in the Constitution. The committee recommends the following change:
The members of the charity are required to pay the annual subscription at the appropriate rate or rates as shall be determined by the members voting in general meeting.”
Kath Sutton asked what is meant by “due form”. This means “in writing”, which can take the form of an email.
The committee recommends that these amendments be added to the new constitution:
Proposed: Ray Wilson
Seconded: Gordon Scopes
The vote was unanimously in favour of the proposal.
The committee recommends that the meeting adopt the new constitution with amendments:
Proposed: Ray Wilson
Seconded: Simon Pulham
The vote was unanimously in favour of the proposal.
It was noted that the new constitution would now need to be accepted and approved by the charity commission. Simon thanked Barry Salmon for all his help and hard work.
12. Any Other Business
There was no other business.
Meeting closed at 8.15pm.