Minutes of the meeting of the Suffolk Concert Band held on
Thursday 3rd May 2007 at The Rectory, Days Road, Capel St. Mary
Those present were: Angela Bates, Toby Pratt, Mark Cheadle, Sarah Scott, Gordon Scopes, Trevor Daldry, Marion Singleton, Simon Pulham, Ray Wilson.
30. Apologies for absence
These were received from Roger Jones.
31. Adoption of minutes of meeting held on Thursday 5th April 2007
The minutes were adopted with the following addition:
20) The committee agreed to invite Bernard Reader to conduct at the Spa Pavilion and the 6 rehearsals before.
32. Matters arising from meeting held on Thursday 5th April 2007
There were no matters arising.
33. Chairman
Nothing to report.
34. Musical Director
Nothing to report.
35. Secretary
i) We received a letter from the IAA reporting that the music forum is in danger of going under for lack of support. They requested that this was brought to the attention of our committee and gave us a survey to complete with our views on the forum.
ii) The IAA music forum annual quiz will take place on Friday 8th June at the Co-op Education Centre Hall, Fore Street. It costs £6 to enter a team of 6. Add to May newsletter.
iii) Paul Blofield has asked if the band would like to play at Otley College in May 2008. He will pass on more information in due course.
iv) The BASBWE International Wind Band Festival takes place on June 29th – July 1st in Glasgow. The committee has previously agreed a £200 bursary for any members wishing to go the festival and feel that this should be offered to members once again this year.
v) The two concerts at Holy Trinity raised a total of £340. Angela has written to the church asking how much their expenses were. The second concert had a good attendance and it was suggested that this might have been because of the lighter evenings.
36. Treasurer
i) £1000 has been deposited with Scottish Widows Bank plc in a Treasury Tracker Call account, as approved by the March 2007 committee meeting.
ii) Income and expenditure 2007 to date:
· Income to date £1490 of which £1346 from subs
· Expenditure to date £1025
iii) Ray has made a claim to HM Revenue and Customs for £659 as a tax refund from Gift Aided subscriptions made during the tax year 2006-7.
iv) Ray has received a ‘thank you’ letter from Andrew Toomey.
v) Band insurance cover has been renewed with BBIS at a cost of £625.73.
· Cover (theft, accidental loss or damage) (new for old)
· Instruments (less than £5k each in value) £150,026
· Equipment – music, unforms £42,139
· Public liability - £5 million
vi) Ray received a letter from Ashton Graham Solicitors saying that the band has been left a legacy of £500 in Colonel Dean’s Will.
vii) Angela has paid the biennial payment for the website hosting. This was £82.23 and the committee agreed this ongoing expense.
viii) Toby has found some suitable magnets for the music stands for outside jobs. These cost approx. £15 for 100. The committee agreed this expense.
37. Membership Secretary
i) The band had received a thank you card from Tony’s parents.
ii) Gordon reported that he is finding the job of Membership Secretary more and more difficult, due to the fact that people do not tell him whether or not they can do engagements or not. However, the committee did feel that this job was still important and the following suggestions have been made to help the problem:
· A role call should be made two weeks before an engagement to make sure people commit to the engagement
· Section leaders should be made more responsible for their section.
· It should be reiterated to the band that the rehearsal before a concert is for members playing the concert only.
iii) Denise Cotterell (Flute) has decided to leave the band due to work commitments. She has returned her jacket via Mandy and will no longer need a room for Nottingham.
iv) Helen Wright, Alex Tostdevine and Claire English are still members of the band despite their lack of attendance at rehearsals. They have all been busy with work and school commitments.
38. Librarian
i) Sarah has been in contact with Gary Glover regarding music for the Nottingham concert.
ii) Sarah reported that once again she turned up at FADOS house to find that the garage door was unlocked. Simon is still pursuing potential storage at Holy Trinity. The offer of a trailer is still available from Alstons but we would need somewhere to store it. Mark and Gordon will make some enquiries.
iii) Sarah has purchased Stephenson’s Rocket.
39. Concert Manager
i) Trevor would like to see more people help clear the kit away at the end of a concert. He will remind the band at the next concert that he would everyone to take down their own stand and put it on their chair at the end of the concert.
ii) Gary Glover would like to know the instrumentation for the Nottingham concert as soon as possible as Volvo are sponsoring the concert with £4000 towards lighting.
iii) To get ex-uniforms from the army would cost £250. No sub-committee has yet been formed for the new uniforms. Ray will investigate lottery grants.
40. Publicity
Nothing to report.
41. Recording
Simon will liaise with Roger, Michael and Adrian to ensure that this project is kept moving and we meet our deadline of the OCA.
42. Forthcoming Events
· Friday 4th May – Mistley Church
A number of people will not be able to make the 6.45pm rehearsal and the question was asked if this is worthwhile. This is something we may want to consider at future concerts.
· Sunday 29th July – OCA
Angela has not been able to get in contact with Colonel Taylor at the OCA. We do not have a big enough band for a lunchtime concert so the committee feel that, as we have not yet had confirmation of this that we will only do the usual church service.
· Saturday 8th September – Battle of Britain Concert, Stowmarket
This has now been confirmed. Peter Nash, the organiser, and his sub-committee would like to meet with our committee and Musical Director. Angela will invite them along to a rehearsal.
· Sunday 21st October – Spa Pavilion
Bernard Reader has agreed to conduct this concert in Roger’s absence. Angela will write to Bernard confirming the details.
42.1. Other Events
i) The response from the band was very poor for the Little Bentley Waterways Garden Show so it was decided not to go ahead with this engagement.
ii) Shotley Village Hall is not available on 1st December so this concert will not go ahead. Instead they would like to book us for next year, either November 29th or December 6th 2008. The committee agreed to November 29th.
42.2. Trip 2008
Toby had collated the results of the survey and the general conclusions were as follows:
· For the budget that most people will find acceptable, we might find that Nuremburg is too far to go.
· We there are enough members interested to make a band.
· A number of members would like the trip to be subsidised by either the band fund or the social fund.
Ray suggested that this could be possible use for the money from Colonel Dean.
Simon reported that John Whelton might have a link that we could investigate further.
43. Any Other Business
i) The Treasurer reported that a reply had been received from the Charity Commission in response to our submission of a new constitution based on the CC model (GD3).
The proposed constitution was acceptable apart from clauses 4(5) and (6) which deal with remuneration to Trustees. If the trustees are prepared to drop these two sub-clauses, the committee can call a General Meeting of the Band, recommending the members to approve the revised version, ie a version without clauses 4 (5) and (6). If this proposal is accepted by the members in accordance with the requirements of the present constitution, then this revised constitution can be forwarded to the Charity Commission who would find it acceptable.
The treasurer pointed out to the committee that under clause 4(2) of the proposed constitution a trustee may be paid reasonable expenses properly incurred when acting on behalf of the Charity and by virtue of clause 4(7) a Trustee must absent him/herself from any discussion and not take part in any vote on a matter where he/she will benefit from a financial resolution of the Trustees.
In light of these provisions which would remain in the proposed constitution, the treasurer proposed that the committee approve his recommendation that the revised constitution, as outlined above, be submitted to an Extraordinary General Meeting of the band as soon as convenient. A copy of the revised constitution would need to be circulated to all members in accordance with the requirements of the present constitution.
The committee agreed to the treasurer’s recommendation, nem. con.
ii) Marion would be happy to take on the role of wardrobe mistress but she does not have any space to store the jackets.
Date of Next Meeting
Thursday 7th June