SHENFIELD OPERATIC SOCIETY

Transcription

1 SHENFIELD OPERATIC SOCIETY Minutes of the Annual General Meeting, which was held on Monday 21 st September 2015, in Ingatestone Hall by kind invitation of our Patron, Hon. Dominic Petre. The meeting commenced at 8pm. Present: Chairman: Kerry Cooke Secretary: Lynne Barry Treasurer: Steph Ironmonger Committee: M. Coston C. Green S. Gunn A. Harris C. Rose J. Sinclair S. Warrington Members & B. Davies D. Cormack J. Fudge. G. Godbold Guests D. Green D. Mobley Hon. D. Petre C. Reader P. Reader T. Richardson H. Sinclair J. Sinclair B. Ward L. Watts [24] 1: APOLOGIES WERE RECEIVED FROM: P. Bernardon M. Borthwick-Jones S. Brown L. Byrne W. Clark K. Davies S. Drew H. Hobbs M. Johnson M. Jones E. Morris J. Morris L. Miles G. Morgan K. Magowan L. Mumford J. Pether F. Reed J. Scott D. Ward R. Watson [21] 2: MINUTES OF THE LAST AGM: Everyone had received copies of the 2014 minutes so there was no need for them to be read aloud. The Chairman asked if there were any points to raise, and there being none, the minutes were signed as a true & accurate record. 3: MATTERS ARISING: There were no matters arising. 4: SECRETARY S REPORT & CORRESPONDENCE: Lynne Barry The Secretary said that much of her job varies little from year to year, but is by no means tedious, and she apologised in advance if anyone recognised phrases from previous reports. She said that once again she had received communications from far & wide, via snail-mail, , face-to-face conversation and telephone, but she confessed to a lack of skill in the areas of Facebook 1

2 & Twitter and will try harder in future! She commented that it was always a pleasure to write thank-you letters to all the people who have sent generous and much appreciated donations to the Society. Thanks have also gone to members who have hosted occasions, such as the infamous after-show parties & the annual BQ & Auction of most desirable goods and to those who have been tireless & ever present as Front of House. The after show correspondence takes a number of hours, but all the people concerned, who have given up their free time & have helped us to put on such successful shows, deserve our most grateful thanks. Get well cards have also been sent to members who have had the misfortune to have ended up unwell or in hospital. Sadly, we lost a prominent and long-standing member recently and we had to say goodbye to Graham Borthwick-Jones, who had been a stalwart of the Society as a mellifluous Tenor, gifted actor and man about stage, who had been a Follow Spot, set maker and general Stage-hand for many years. Our love and condolences were sent to his widow Meirwen. The Secretary has had endless chats by phone & concerning the booking of rehearsal halls, but she was delighted to report that all are booked up to the end of Oklahoma!, early next February. She asked that members continue to read the website as the Newsletter will be put on there regularly, advising of dates for the diary and putting on reminders of future events. The rooming for rehearsals is also on there, so anyone not in the show can see where we are & come along to sup tea &/or coffee & offer support & encouragement. It was pleasing to see that almost everyone is now on , but there are still 6 or 7 to whom we have to send out AGM material by post, which is increasingly expensive. She asked that any changes in address should be sent either to the Secretary or Membership Secretary. She concluded by asking everyone to remember to sign in, and then handed over to Kerry Cooke, the Chairman. 5: CHAIRMAN S REPORT: Kerry Cooke The Chairman started by commenting that although it was only her second year in office, she felt that she had been there for ever! She said that it had been an exciting & profitable year in many ways and thanked her Vice Chairman, Claire Rose, & all the Committee for their hard work throughout the year, and Dominic for hosting the AGM at Ingatestone Hall. After the auditions for Sister Act, the first Social event was the popular Christmas event. This took place at Friern Manor & had been organised by the Social Secretary, Caroline Green, and it was enjoyed by everyone. February saw our production of Sister Act and what a show that was! Not only did we sell an amazing 93.4% tickets owing in part to the fantastic publicity from Suzanne Gunn but it really brought the Society together, as members new & old learnt to Spread the Love and feel Fabulous under the superb direction of James Sinclair & Rob Miles, our MD. The figures were excellent, and will be explained in the Treasurer s Report, but certain elements helped, these being; terrific Box- Office appeal; large cast numbers & brilliant publicity. We Will Remember Them was our summer Concert, written by our own Stuart Brown & Jess Pether & performed at Blackmore Village Hall. Alli Smith as our new Director, worked hard to bring together the two halves, alongside the MD, Ian Southgate. Thanks must also go to the hardworking show committee & the volunteers backstage & in catering. It was a thoroughly enjoyable Concert and again, we made a substantial profit, which will be explained later. 2

3 Social events & Raffles have gone well & the Chairman thanked Steph Ironmonger for hosting the annual Barbecue & Caroline Green for organising the events especially the raucous Barn Dance, which was very well attended. The profit we have made during the last twelve months was very much needed. Recent years have seen an overall loss, so our success this year means we can continue to perform in the professional theatres like the Queen s and also support our local Brentwood Theatre. Our next production, Oklahoma! is almost cast and we look forward to strutting our way back to the Queen s early next February, under the leadership of Louise Byrne our Director & Adrian Ure our MD. Brentwood Theatre has been booked for June 2016, when we plan to do Jekyll & Hyde ; the first time Shenfield has tackled this musical. The Chairman began with thanks to her Committee & finished by reiterating those remarks. She explained that James Sinclair, Sophie Warrington & Jess Pether were stepping down from the Committee & thanked them wholeheartedly for their amazing work. She also hoped that others in the meeting were ready to step into their shoes! Her final comments were that we were very fortunate to be such an active & efficient Society; it is our hobby; we have fun together week in & week out; we nurture each other s talent & the shows we put on are a reflection of our strong community and she was proud to be its Chairman. 6: CONSTITUTION & APPENDIX Points for discussion Proposed amendment to the Constitution: In order to simplify the Membership structure as it stands at present, the Committee would like to propose that all current Vice-Presidents become Honorary Life Vice-Presidents & the category of Vice-President be removed from the Membership structure. The Chairman explained the amendment to the assembled members. She proposed the amendment, which was seconded by Jamie Fudge and the proposal was carried unanimously. Byron Davies suggested that everyone concerned should be informed in writing, and the Secretary will do this at her earliest convenience. 7: TREASURER S REPORT: Stephanie Ironmonger a] Presentation & approval of accounts Steph had prepared copies of the accounts & these were available for everyone to see at the meeting. Income & Expenditure: The Society made a fantastic profit this year of 13,741.55, which the assembled company applauded. This is largely due to the proceeds made on Sister Act, our We Will Remember Them Concert and the Social events, so capably organised by Caroline Green. A slight loss was made at the Christmas meal, owing to the Society paying up-front & a few people not turning up. Consequently we paid the shortfall. Membership subscriptions had gone up owing to the increased numbers in Sister Act and we had 64 members on our books. Sadly some of them left after the show & have stopped paying their membership. Friends subscription appears to have decreased from 9 members in 2014 down to 3 in 2015, as a number of them became full members in 2015, so we are still getting the subscriptions. There has also been a significant increase in the joining / re-joining fees. Banking interest is still disappointingly low owing to the current economic climate & as we don t want to put our funds into anything too risky, we will leave it in the Base Rate Tracker. 3

4 Sadly, we no longer receive a grant from the Brentwood Arts Council as they have restructured their way of working & are not giving out grants any more. We have had numerous very generous donations to the Society over the year, for which we are always extremely grateful, and there have also been donations sent to be put towards specific shows. In total, we have received about 1,400:00 in donations this financial year. The expenditure was self-explanatory, but Steph did point out the increase in hall hire, owing to increased number of rehearsals and the Church had increased its hire charges, too. The Society s insurance was increased as well. Maria noticed that we had not paid for storage this year, but Steph had the cheque ready to pass over to Dominic at the meeting. It had not been obvious when the accounts were being prepared so does not show on the expenditure sheet this year, but will appear as double charge in Balance Sheet: The balance sheet shows just where all our monies are. She is keeping a float of 100:00 at home for raffles, FOH float, programmes etc so this appears as petty cash. The prepayments are for Oklahoma! & for hall hire up to the end of October. Our Current Account stands at 3, and the Base Rate Tracker at 31, Our Current Assets are 36, Profit & Loss account for: i] Sister Act : There were 2 pages in this section. The first page was the Sister Act profit & loss, & the second page showed the variances with the budget displayed against the actual profit & loss. Our income on Sister Act was far higher than we had budgeted for as our ticket sales were a fantastic 93.4%, which exceeded all expectations. Our publicity was great & we had superb advertising, which all helped towards the huge profit we made. Show fees were high as there were so many in the cast! We also had donations [ 614:00] given specifically for the show. Preparing a budget for a show is not an easy task and the expenditure lists will show this. We over-estimated some costs & underestimated others, but we finished with a Sister Act profit of 7, ii] Concert; We Will Remember Them : Ticket sales were 83%, which was higher than expected & the raffle made far more than we anticipated. We didn t charge for the programmes, which had cost us 21 to produce, but the donations we received for them came to 146:00. The Director refused payment, he just asked for expenses, so his fee effectively came back to the Society & is recorded as a donation. The Concert made a profit of 2, The accounts were approved by the members. b] Membership subscriptions: Annual membership subscriptions had been increased to 120:00 & 60:00 for students & for Friends was 30:00. As far a Steph is aware, everyone is up to date with membership fees, although we have fewer paying members this year. It was proposed by the Committee, that the Membership Fee stays at 120:00 / 60:00 pa and a vote was taken. The proposal was carried unanimously. c] Nomination of Independent Examiner Roy Scott has offered his services as Independent Examiner for a further year and there were no objections to this proposal. 8: ELECTION OF OFFICERS: Position: Member: Proposed: Seconded: Carried: Patron: Hon. Dominic. Petre K. Cooke A. Harris YES President: Enid Morris L. Barry M. Coston YES 4

5 Chairman: Kerry Cooke S. Gunn C. Green YES V-Chairman: Claire Rose L. Barry K. Cooke YES Secretary: Lynne Barry C. Rose S. Ironmonger YES Treasurer: Steph. Ironmonger C. Rose J. Fudge YES Membership: Tracy Richardson G. Godbold S. Warrington YES Prod. Control: David Godbold * L. Barry S. Gunn YES Publicity Suzanne Gunn ** S. Ironmonger C. Green YES Social: Caroline Green K. Cooke A. Harris YES Committee: Maria Coston C. Rose G. Godbold YES Committee: Annette Harris M. Coston A. Smith YES Committee: Jack Lloyd K. Cooke H. Sinclair YES Committee: Libby Watts L. Barry J. Fudge YES *David Godbold was co-opted onto the Committee as Production Controller **Suzanne Gun is also doing Box Office, & Committee members without specific posts will help her with the job of Printing. 9: AWARDS: The Committee will stay as written for another year. Georgie Godbold has been with the Society since she was a teenager, and has now been with Shenfield for 50 years! The Committee felt that such loyalty & longevity deserved a special award and she was presented with a crystal vase inscribed with her name, the Shenfield Operatic Society logo and the dates : A O B: 1 Hon. Dominic Petre reminded the meeting that Jekyll & Hyde, which we will be staging next summer, will be on ITV in 10 x 1hour episodes from mid-october up to Christmas. One episode was actually filmed in Ingatestone Hall! 2 He also informed us that New Hall School in Chelmsford will be putting on Oklahoma! in the spring term & wondered if we might find a new audience there & perhaps get involved with the Drama Dept. in some way. The Committee will discuss this. 3 At this early stage in the proceedings, we were informed that we had already sold 42.1% tickets for the matinee for Oklahoma! There being no further business, the Chairman thanked everyone for attending and the meeting closed at 9:15 pm 5

6 The EGM was held in order: E G M held at St George s on 27 th November 2015 at 7:30pm 1] To vote in the Special Friends for this Operatic year; which had been omitted at the AGM in September. 2] To offer accolades to 3 long-serving members. The following members were present: L Barry: P Bernardon: L Byrne: K Cooke: D Cormack: M Coston: W Clark: B Davies: J Fudge: G Godbold: C Green: S Gunn: D Hill: A Harris: N Jarram: B Jaycock: J Lloyd: L Miles: K McGowan: R Morley: S Nuzum: D Pridige: R Phillips: C Reader: P Reader: L Ramshaw: A Smith : L Watts: E Watson: [29] Apologies were received from: Hon. D Petre Patron: E Morris President: J Bessell S Brown: K Davies: J Morris: J Pether: H Sinclair: J Sinclair: N Sturgess: B Ward: S Warrington: The following 12 people were nominated for the annual award of Special Friend: Nigel Bowdidge: Sue Bridger: Barbara Cormack: Susan Drew: Paul Galley: Keith Petty: Niki Roberts: Caroline Stubbs: Mark Reed: Fiona Warrington: Pam Wood: David Zelly: All have served the Society well in their particular capacities & the Committee felt that they should be rewarded for so doing. The vote was carried unanimously in favour. Special Accolade: Kerry Cooke, the Chairman, explained to the members that Georgie Godbold had been in the Society for 50 years; Christine Reader for 45 years & Phil Reader for 44 years. The Committee felt that they should be rewarded for their loyalty, hard work & dedication to the Society by offering them the award of Honorary Life Membership. The vote was carried unanimously in favour. This came as a complete surprise to all three; they were overwhelmed, but delighted to accept. The EGM ended at 7:50pm

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