Vivace
..
Chorus
Vivace Chorus Annual General Meeting Agenda
Monday June 26TM 2006 at 7:30pm at Onslow Village Hall, The Square, Wilderness Road, Guildford
(immediately following a buffet meal)
Apologies For Absence
2.
Minutes Of The Previous Annual General Meeting
Held on Monday June 20" 2005 at 7:30pm at Christchurch Hall, Waterden Road, Guildford
Consideration and adoption of the minutes, if agreed as a correct record.
3.
Conductor's Report
4.
Chairman’s Report
5.
Treasurer's Report & Presentation Of The Accounts
Consideration and adoption of the accounts, if agreed as a correct record
6. Election Of Officers: Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer & Membership Secretary
The retiring officers are John Trigg, Miranda Champion, Bob Cowell and Noreen Ayton respectively. Nominations
must be received in writing, duly proposed and seconded, including confirmation of the nominee's willingness to stand,
by Monday June 15" 2608. A form for this purpose has been posted on the Vivace Chorus notice board.
At his sole discretion, the Chairman may accept additional nominations up to the time of the election
7.
Election Of Additional Committee Members
Neither more than eight nor less than four additional committee members are to be elected.
The following are the retiring Additional Committee Members: Jackie Alderton, James Garrow, Stephen Jepson, Alison
Rawlinson, Rosey Storey, Michael Taylor, and Hilary Trigg. Nominations must be received in writing, duly proposed
and seconded, including confirmation of the nominee’s willingness to stand, by Monday June 19" 2006. A form for this
purpose has been posted on the Vivace Chorus notice board.
At his sole discretion, the Chairman may accept additional nominations up to the time of the election
8.
Appointment Of Conductor
Jeremy Backhouse has indicated his willingness to continue.
9.
Appointment Of Accompanist
Jeremy Filsell has indicated his willingness to continue.
10. Appointment Of Independent Examiner Of The Accounts
11. Any Other Business
Which must have been notified to, and accepted by, the Chairman, at least 48 hours prior to the meeting
11.1
Date of the next Annual General Meeting
11.2 Draw for two free concert tickets - from responses to audience questionnaires
Registered Charity No. 1026337
Chairman: John Trigg, 13 Vicarage Gate, Onslow Village, Guildford, Surrey, GU2 7QJ & 01483 566341
1 01483 810817
Secretary: Miranda Champion, End House, West Flexford Lane, Wanborough, Surrey, GU3 2JW
770896
01483
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&
&
4HP.
GU21
Surrey,
Woking,
Road,
Shores
Penhurst,
1
Treasurer: Bob Cowell,
Membership Secretary: Noreen Ayton, 51 Garrick Close, Hersham, Walton on Thames, Surrey, KT12 5NZ & 01932 221918
AGM Agenda 2006.06.26.doc
Vivace Chorus Annual General Meeting Minutes
Monday June 26" 2006 at 7:30pm at Onslow Village Hall, The Square, Wilderness Road, Guildford
.
*
Apologies For Absence
Apologies received from: Valerie Adam, Roger Barrett, Deborah Bayliss, Mary Broughton, Norman Carpenter,
Jane Crane, Val Edwards, Josephine Field, Lucy Foster, Mike Golden, Barbara Hillder, Sheila Hodson,
Stephen Linton, Mary Moon, Brenda Moore, Jean Munro, Penny Muray, Kate New, Penny Overton, Rosalind
Plowright, Ann Sheppard, Maggie Smith, Phil Stanford & Pamela Woodroffe. 73 people attended.
RS
3.
Minutes Of The 2005 Annual General Meeting
Minutes had been circulated prior to the meeting
Minutes were signed as a true record and copies placed on file.
Matters arising: the Publicity Team is now taking responsibility for articles/critiques in local press.
Conductor’s Report
This has been an unsettled year, some of which was due to Jeremy Backhouse trying to balance being
conductor of two choirs (Vivace Chorus and Vasari Singers), family life and a new job. For example he was
not being able to do auditions before rehearsals, and has been taking fewer rehearsals. Jeremy's
enthusiasm for the Vivace Chorus is undiminished and he has tried hard to find the right balance between the
various calls upon his time. He has, on occasions, felt under-prepared for rehearsals and concerts and it is
difficult to find time for audition reports and programme planning. The Francis Pott concert was a casualty of
these problems. For various reasons it was not possible for the Vasari Singers to sing with the Vivace
Chorus and Jeremy communicated this too late to the Committee. There was also insufficient time to prepare
the score to conduct the Philharmonia Orchestra and this was another reason for the postponement. The
Committee has been very supportive during this period and has been very helpful in finding ways around the
problems. Many thanks are due to the Committee, particularly John Trigg. We are over the worst of the
problems now and Jeremy is resolving the issues of insufficient time.
some of the rehearsals in future and next year should be more stable.
diminished - in many ways it has improved!
*
This means that Jeremy Filsell will take
The standard of singing has not
2005-2006 Season Review
*
Vivaldi Gloria at St. Martins in the Fields, June 2005 - This was a valuable association with
Brandenburg Sinfonia and a good opportunity to sing in a London venue.
Last Night of Proms at Fairfield Halls, September 2005 - Very beneficial to the choir to get its name
known outside of Guildford
*
Hymns and Psalms at Guildford Cathedral, October 2005 - On reflection this was not a good title
because it did not accurately convey the musical content of the concert. We need to think carefully in
future about concert titles.
marketing the choir.
*
We have been advised that having concert titles is beneficial in respect of
Mayor’s Christmas Concert at Holy Trinity Church, December 2005 - Holy Trinity is a wonderful place
to sing, with a great acoustic, and the concert is an opportunity for the audience to hear the choir voices
with minimum accompaniment.
*
Pillars of the Baroque at Guildford Cathedral, March 2006 - Zadok the Priest was wonderful. Bach
Cantata came off very well and was very exciting. Bach Magnificat was sung well despite the number of
semi-quavers! The soloists from the Royal Academy of Music were excellent and we will repeat the
invitation next season.
Trials & Tribulation at Guildford Cathedral, May 2006 - Evening Hymns, Mozart Requiem and Haydn
Mass. Including the Humphrey Clucas Evening Hymns maintained the strand of CCCC and suited the
programme well. Humphrey Clucas was very pleased with the choir’s performance of his work.
Registered Charity No. 1026337
Page 1 0f6
AGM Minutes 2006.06.26.doc
*
Future Concerts
«
November 2006 - a romantic German programme.
Bruckner Te Deum, preceded by Schicksalslied by
Brahms and Hugo Wolf's Der Feuerreiter, Elfenlied and Morgenhymnus. Brandenburg Sinfonia will play
Brahms Violin Concerto and there will be soloists from Royal Academy of Music.
*
December 2006 - The Mayor’s Christmas Carol Concert at Holy Trinity.
*
March 2007 - Concert entitled Music Makers: Blest Pair of Sirens by Parry, Vaughan Williams Serenade
to Music and The Music Makers by Elgar.
We will be accompanied by the Forest Philharmonic who will
play Vaughan Williams’ Lark Ascending.
Elgar Sea Pictures (for contralto and orchestra) will also be
performed.
*
May 2007 - Contemporary Choral Classics Cycle: Will Todd's Mass in Blue (a Jazz Mass with a gospel
style soprano solo). There will be a jazz trio who will also perform some instrumental music.
We will sing
John Rutter's Gloria in the first half. There will also be three of Will Todd’s Church Anthems with piano
accompaniment, and A Little Jazz Mass by Bob Chilcott will start the programme.
*
Thank You's
*
Thanks to Jeremy Filsell, as ever, for his superb support both playing and conducting.
*
Thanks to the committee and John Trigg and to the choir for responding so well to Jeremy Backhouse as
Music Director.
«
Jeremy Backhouse feels sure next year will be a success.
He will liaise with Jeremy Filsell before rehearsals
to ensure both agree about breathing, pronunciation of words, dynamics etc.
We were unable to get a children’s chorus for Hymn to Jesus by Holst as we were let down at the last minute.
*
We may do this work some time in the future.
.
Chairman’s Report
*
Thanks to Jeremy Backhouse who has done a lot of work on the programme for next year.
e
Itis good to see our name in London and in other venues outside Guildford, Fairfield Halls for example.
Although Vivace was originally a stand-in for this event last year, we are now their chosen choir and have
been invited to sing again in September.
As many singers as possible can sing at that venue
We need to continue to get the cathedral full and every member must do their best to sell the tickets.
Jeremy Backhouse has been candid about problems we have had this year, which led to some unsettlement.
Some people were worried that Jeremy was going to leave and others expressed their irritation about the
situation. The Chairman fully supports Jeremy who is a wonderful musician and makes our hobby interesting
and enjoyable, and the intention is to continue to maintain the choir and make further progress.
Jeremy is
very well thought of by various musicians both professional and amateur and we are fortunate to have him as
our Conductor and Music Director.
«
This is our second year as Vivace Chorus - all who have attended our concerts have said how good they
have been.
We have many positive and complimentary comments following each concert, so we have a lot to
be proud of.
*
Freiburg - We have made good friends with the group in the past and have felt that this is a worthwhile link.
However, the last time we attended was not such a positive experience. The Freiburg chairman made very
negative remarks regarding Vivace's standard of musicianship. There were other negative comments made
This does not bode well for the future.
We will continue to invite them to sing with us but it is important that
the choir membership know what happened.
(Other choir members said that they had had a different
experience and were made to feel welcome and had had a more positive experience.)
*
Thank You's - Thanks to all Committee members who do such a lot of work.
missed by the committee and we send him our best wishes.
finding gaps that he used to fill.
Stephen Jepson is sorely
He did such a lot for the choir and we keep
Noreen Ayton has retired as membership secretary after 11 years of very
hard work and we thank Noreen very much for all her efforts and efficiency. Noreen will remain as a
committee member and will take care of the Methodist Hall bookings. Miranda Champion is also retiring as
Secretary but would like to remain on the committee. Bob Cowell does a huge amount behind the scenes as
Treasurer and many thanks to him. Hilary Trigg does a lot of work on publicity and we thank her very much
for that. Michael Taylor does a great job selling the tickets. Hilary Minor prints the tickets and we need
someone to take over that job. Christine Medlow puts in a huge amount of work for us as Librarian and we
are very grateful to her. Lesley Scordellis did a lot of work writing to various people for sponsorship and Hilary
Minor made big efforts to get an Arts Council grant which unfortunately was not successful. Programme
production team - very good work on this. Chris Alderton does an excellent front-of-house job. Thanks to
everyone who helps the choir and who has not been named personally here.
«
Association of Surrey Choirs - organisation that manages the staging.
this and was instrumental in getting the staging made.
Stephen Jepson was a member of
John Trigg was elected chairman of this group and we
now have prime dates for cathedral bookings for next season and authorization to display a banner to
advertise our concerts near the cathedral. Concert dates are on the website, members are asked to put them
in their diaries to avoid clashes.
Registered Charity No. 1026337
Page 20f6
AGM Minutes 2006.06.26 doc
5.
Treasurer’s Report & Presentation Of Accounts
«
Acopy of the Treasurer's Report and the Accounts is on file.
«
Full copy of report appended to these minutes
*
We need to sell 600 tickets at each concert to break even.
We get a grant from Guildford Borough Council
each year but they have many organizations to support and we need to be self-sufficient.
*
Chris Robinson proposed that the accounts be accepted, Mike Dudley seconded and accounts were adopted
unanimously.
6.
Election of Officers: Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer & Membership Secretary
«
Officers were nominated, proposed and seconded via a Nomination Form which is held on file
*
Votes were unanimous, with no abstentions.
*
Elections were as follows: Chairman - John Trigg; Secretary - no nominations; Treasurer - Bob Cowell;
Membership Secretary - Jane Sweeney.
.
*
Election of Additional Committee Members
Additional Committee Members were nominated, proposed and seconded via a Nomination Form which is
held on file.
Votes were unanimous, with no abstentions.
Elections were en bloc as follows: Jackie Alderton; Miranda Champion; James Garrow; Michael Taylor; Hilary
Trigg; Rosie Storey.
.
*
Allwere in favour of appointing Jeremy Backhouse.
.
«
Appointment of Conductor
Appointment of Accompanist
Allwere in favour
of appointing Jeremy Filsell.
10. Appointment Of Independent Examiner Of Accounts
*
Janet James was proposed by Michael Dudley, seconded by James Garrow, with all in favour.
11. Any Other Business
Staging - see document in Appendix One. Chris Robinson proposed that the choir outsources this job to the
Yvonne Arnaud stage crew. Robin Privett seconded and all were in favour. Thanks to Events committee for
organising this.
«
Insurance - does not cover those over 65, but in any case only insures major injury such as loss of limb, eye
etc. or loss of life.
«
Post-Concert Party - With regard to the party held at the end of the 2006 season, members were not
impressed with food, there were not enough seats and there was a long queue for drinks. There is another
room at Wates House, which would be more conducive to conversation.
Members commented that the idea
of an end of year event was good if the various issues could be dealt with and improved. Wates House is a
convenient venue but Vivace Chorus needs to be more demanding in its requirements.
A vote on whether we
should continue with post-concert parties revealed as many members for the idea as abstentions.
The
Committee will consider this further.
«
Next rehearsal 4th September 2006.
The 11th September 2006 rehearsal will be for the Last Night Of The
Proms concert. Rehearsal for St. Martin in Fields is on 10" July 2006. Al at the Methodist Church
*
Many thanks to JT for all the work he does for the choir.
e«
Prize Draw - the winner of the prize draw, from responses to audience questionnaires, was Sue Waters of
Woking, Surrey.
Date of next AGM is 25th June 2007, to be confirmed
Meeting closed at 10.00 p.m.
Registered Charity No. 1026337
Page 30f6
AGM Minutes 2006.06.26 doc
VIVACE CHORUS
(Registered Charity No.1026337)
REPORT AND ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30TM APRIL 2006
Report of the Hon. Treasurer
1.
This will be a summary report on the accounts. A full version of the accounts and report to the Charity
2.
This year we had a deficit of £442 against a surplus last year of £1,850. This is mainly due to reduced concert
losses. Income from tax refunds was little changed at around £3,102. The Borough increased its contribution
to the Choir from £2,620 to £2,680 in line with inflation. Income from Patrons and Friends was fractionally up
Commission is available for anyone to view.
on last year at £1,465.
3.
The Concert Sub-Account summary is as follows:-
The Armed Man
Hymns & Psalms
Pillars of the Baroque
Expenditure
Income
£10,783
£11,025
£10,484
£10,456
£4,643
£9,588
Profit/(Loss)
(£327)
(£6,382)
(£896)
The concert programme therefore had a deficit of £7,605 (£10,927).
4.
Fundraising activities made a profit of £1,054 (£1,226).
The net fundraising proceeds were as follows:100 Club
Small Change
£580
£ 38
Socials
Goods
£131
£ 20
Drinks
£285
Many thanks to all those involved.
5.
Rebranding
The cost of rebranding is difficult to quantify. In previous years posters have been designed by a member of
the choir but this year we have outsourced the design. There have been no identifiable logo design costs
since these have been incorporated in the cost of producing the prospectus and posters. Direct rebranding
costs are £1,950 made up of £1,500 for designing and setting up the website, £270 for the new labels for our
music folders and £180 for new letterheads.
Total publicity costs have been £2,964 this year as opposed to £3,326 last, so the cost of rebranding has
been significantly lower than the £4,500 budgeted for the exercise.
6.
Looking to the future, the choir continues to be in a sound financial position with reserves slightly reduced at a
little over £55,500.
7.
Finally, my thanks to Janet James for her work as Independent Examiner of the accounts. Janet has agreed to
be our Independent Examiner for the next financial year.
Bob Cowell, Hon.Treasurer, 26 June 2006
Registered Charity No. 1026337
Page 4 0f 6
AAGM Minutes 2006.06.26.doc
Appendix One
Vivace Chorus: Staging Proposal
This proposes new plans for handling the staging at Cathedral concerts. John Trigg wants to have a discussion of
the subject at the AGM, followed by a head count of opinions. Subsequently all choir members (including those not
at the AGM) would be canvassed for their views. According to our Constitution, the Committee must decide what if
any changes should be made.
The Events team has identified three possible approaches, as follows:
1.
Continue as we are,
2.
Increase our annual Subscription by £18 and pay professionals to do the staging for us.
3.
Ahybrid approach: increase the Sub by £10 and use the money to pay our own volunteers.
1.
Continue as we are
A heroic band of regular volunteers have been doing the job for us, led by John Trigg. He lays out the structure,
controls the various stages of the operation, and checks the structure for safety when finished. It takes about 90
minutes to rig or de-rig, plus travelling time to and from the Cathedral. We have to ask for additional volunteers
because there are not enough regulars. It is difficult to muster a full team, especially for the de-rig after the
concert. Not only is it often cold, wet and windy in the Cathedral car park late at night, when people are already
tired, but also many people have sold tickets to guests and need to get away to look after them, hold post concert
parties etc.
Many choir members dislike the process of calling for volunteers, especially being harangued on Monday
evenings. They feel they ought to volunteer but don't want to, or actually can't (e.g. time pressures or medical
conditions). The idea of requiring that every member of the choir must do at least one rig or de-rig during the
season is attractive, but would be impossible to execute fairly. People give so many excellent reasons for being
excused. Bad backs? Need to look after guests who bought tickets? Do a lot of other work for the choir? These
are genuine all right and there are many other variants. Sorting them out would take the Wisdom of Solomon, but
if they were all excused we would not be left with a fair rota for doing the work
However with a bit of a struggle we could probably continue as we are. We have recently found that enough
volunteers usually come forward if we put out an e-mail request. It is understood that Guildford Choral Society
work with volunteers much as we do.
2.
Pay professionals
Hilary Minor has found a team of professionals from the Yvonne Arnaud theatre who would do both rigging and
de-rigging for a cost of about £6 per choir member per concert (i.e. £735 incl. VAT divided between our 125
members). These people do this kind of thing for a living, and they appear thoroughly reliable. They would only be
interested in doing the whole job, both rigging and de-rigging, not half the job. We tested them for the
Clucas/Mozart/Haydn concert and the system worked perfectly. John Trigg had to supervise and Hilary Minor
monitored the process, but if we put the YA team on the job regularly, it seems likely that in due course they could
do it without any supervision. Several choir members have praised the system and think we should use it
permanently. It would add £18 to our annual sub, and we should be aware that the cost will rise slowly over the
years because the YA team are on the national BECTU pay scale.
It is suggested we should only use the Pros for the three cathedral concerts. The Holy Trinity concert should
continue to be staged by our own volunteers. The key reasons are our desire to keep the rise in subs down from
£24 p.a. to £18 p.a., and the availability of extra help from Rotary members (which should be made a condition of
our doing the concert).
3.
Pay our own volunteers
This is an ingenious idea thought up by Hilary Minor. The idea is that if people did not want to see their subs rise,
we should make it possible for them to win the money back by volunteering once a season for a rig or a de-rig.
Volunteers would be paid £15 for a rig or £15 for a de-rig. Assuming 20 volunteers per session, this would cost us
£600 per concert or £1,200 for all three cathedral concerts, paid for by a £10 rise in choir annual subs. Anyone
who volunteered could offset the rise in their sub by doing just one staging session. If they negotiated to do all six,
they could almost pay for the cost of their total annual sub. It is possible that there would be competition for
volunteering, and we might have to ration volunteers. A nice problem to have, but unlikely. It would be good to give
our heroic regulars a decent thank you for all their work. The Holy Trinity concert would rely on unpaid volunteers,
on grounds that the proceeds go to charity.
Registered Charity No. 1026337
Page 50f6
AGM Minutes 2006.06.26.doc
The logistics would require the Events team to collect names of volunteers in advance, record the names of
people who actually turned up and did the full job, get a cheque from the Treasurer, cash it, pay out £15 per
volunteer in cash at the end of the rig or de-rig, and get signatures to prove the payments for the auditor. It's
messy but could be managed.
Other possible alternatives
The Events team has looked at many other ideas, most notably finding other volunteers either paid or unpaid,
such as boy scouts. None of these has been found practicable or reliable, and the Events team feels it has
exhausted the alternatives. If any choir member now feels there is a better idea which should be looked into, the
Events team respectfully requests that they should do the research themselves and come up with their own plan,
and not ask the Events team to do any more work.
Decision process
On balance, most of the Events team would recommend that we change to employing Professionals.
The de-
rigging is seen as a particular difficulty, especially if we want to repeat the end-of-season choir party. Using Pros
would be a total solution which eliminates all problems except the rise in Subs. However the Committee needs to
gauge the feeling of choir members before coming to a decision.
Please come to the AGM ready to express your
views. Itis hoped this can be done without acrimony. We simply need to know what the majority of people think we
should do for the best, but for choir harmony it needs to be a big majority.
John Britten (Chairman, Events team)
VCStagingAGMProposals
Registered Charity No. 1026337
Page 6.0f 6
AGM Minutes 2006.06.26.doc
VIVACE CHORUS
BALANCE SHEET as at 30th April 2006
Note
2006
2005
Unrestricted
Unrestricted
Funds
Funds
£
£
500
500
Fixed Assets
Assets account (Piano)
Current Assets
Stock
Debtors
Cash at bank and in hand
o~
919
1,134
4,116
4,019
54,010
56,004
59,045
61,157
within one year
(3,977)
(5.647)
Net Current Assets
55,068
55,510
Total assets less current liabilities
55,568
56,010
Net assets
55,568
56,010
55,568
56,010
Total Current Assets
Creditors: Amounts falling due
Unrestricted income funds
Total Funds
NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30th APRIL 2006
These accounts have been extracted from and are consistent with the full accounts of the
Vivace Chorus, which are available to members on request. The independent Examiner's
statement accompanying the accounts indicates that there are no areas of concern that
need to be drawn to the attention of the members.
VIVACE CHORUS
STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES FOR 2005/6
Unrestricted Funds
2005/2006
INCOMING RESOURCES
£
Borough Grant
Donations
200412005
£
2,620
35
40
26
Friends
Patrons
Subscriptions
1,430
10,030
Tax refunds (Gift Aid/Covenants)
3,102
Total Donations and subscriptions
12
1,381
10,380
3,180
17,303
Concert Income
£
2,680
24,686
Net. Music Account contribution
Total income from activities in furtherance of objectives
17,613
23437
45
24,686
23,482
Income from activities for generating funds
1,801
1,801
1,931
Gross Interest
2,836
2,836
2,117
46,626
45,143
TOTAL INCOMING RESOURCES
RESOURCES EXPENDED
Fund raising costs
100 Club prizes
680
Stock wite-off
27
Other fundraising costs
40
Sub-total
680
25
747
705
Direct charitable expenditure
Concert Expenses
30,169
32,666
Rehearsal Costs
10,703
9,455
Net cost of music
31
Sub-total
Concert Support Costs
Publicity
40,903
2,003
Sub-total
42,121
2,118
2,093
2,118
General Administration costs
Miscellaneous Admin costs
Presentations
2,133
471
877
1,208
56
General Publicity
Subscriptions to other bodies
65
259
Sub-total
306
3,325
2,050
47,068
46,994
(442)
(1,851)
TOTAL FUNDS BROUGHT FORWARD
56,010
57,861
TOTAL FUNDS CARRIED FORWARD
55,568
56,010
TOTAL RESOURCES EXPENDED
NET INCOMING RESOURCES FOR THE YEAR