Minutes of Committee Meeting at Woodlands Methodist Hall

 10.00  am on Tuesday 13^th May                                                                                                            FINAL

Sat. 12^th April, Whitby Festival. Despite only 21 members coming to the festival, our results were judged as satisfactory and improved over last time by RK, Marilynne and contacts in other choirs.  Although we did not win any of the 3 classes we entered, we were awarded “outstanding (90-94)” in the MVC and recital classes and “honours (85-89)” in the Music from the Shows class. The committee consensus is that we should compete there again.

Thursday 8^th May Rossett Acre Primary School. The school visit was very successful with 2 assembly performances (lower and upper schools) plus a rehearsal with their 60-strong choir. We had a good report on their website.

Tuesday 10^th June. Afternoon visit to Oatlands Primary school for rehearsal with their choir. Numbers of members have been collected.

14^th June West Park URC centre. Concert organised by the centre promoters, probably with other solo/group performers. Arrangements and promotion by Chris Holland. TG has been able to engage pianist Duncan Goodwin, performer in Channel 4’s “The Piano” for this concert. He would like to have a trial with our keyboard some time before the concert.

5^th July Annual Sing Out Concert, Harrogate High School. Green room availability for HMVC and the schools has been discussed and a checklist for insurance, security etc. has been completed. All communication for this event should be through GC.  A door desk will be required for cash payments and late arrivals and it is expected that the card reader will be operational.

2026 concert in Boston Spa. (see LC below). RK has indicated a preference for February 2026 to allow learning of new songs.

The bank account balance stands at £10,460 after paying £5190 so far to the music team. The forecast for the end of the choir year is a balance of £7,700 (compared to £9200 in 2024 and £10,800 in 2023). All subs have now been paid except for 2 members who have been unable to attend rehearsals so far this year and are not expected to pay.

SB will complete attendance statistics for the next  months at the end of June. Attendances at rehearsals, the event in Ripon and at school visits has improved compared to the period before Christmas. Ian Brocket has provided a summary of the attendance of our current 12 basses, as RK has commented on their recent low numbers. 4 of these are long-term sick, and 2 will soon return to regular reheqrsals.

DB is requested to issue a reminder to all members to give any changes to addresses, telephone numbers or next of kin details to SB by 3^rd of June. DB will also assist in correcting the layout of the excel table passed on by Tom Holland.

II reports that former member Jim Rogers has died. A request from his widow to accept his uniform back was declined by DB.  Ian Brocket also reports vis Bernard |Hall that former member Tony Wren is in hospital.

LC has followed up the contact with Boston Spa Methodist Church (BSMC) for a concert on 27^th or 28^th March in support of Martin House Childrens hospice. There is also the possibility of using their new recording studio at £60/hour to generate a few tracks for our website and facebook page. LC is working on the programme for the Sing Out concert with an agreed forward from our president and has signed up 2 advertisers who will sponsor the concert with £200.

DB has delivered about 90 flyers to the “Linking Leeds” contact for distribution to surgeries and men being supported at home in the Wetherby area. TG is waiting for the appointment of a replacement “Living Well” co-ordinator for the Harrogate district.

In preparation for an in-depth discussion with RK about his feedback from the Peterborough MVC conference, DB has adapted the questionnaire from Peterborough for issue to our members. IT was agreed to delete “recruitment” from the questionnaire.

On 10^th June we will be singing at Oatlands school followed by a rehearsal in the evening. The committee members (minus DB) will meet RK after the school session to discuss our choir’s direction and recruitment strategy.

TG has revised our Sing Out prospectus for issue to potential participating schools, with updated photographs and an outline of the concert running order.

TG proposes to approach Pannal primary school who last participated in 2022 and Brackenfield prep school, which would be the first involvement of a private school.

CD reminded us of the need for disabled parking at participating schools

RK has written an extensive analysis of our website and has taken over from Bryan Holmes as webmaster. He has devised and installed a new logo, and will add a mission statement, updated photographs, and links to further pages. And suggests a re-think of our members page .Committee members should log onto our website and give RK feedback on the changes they find.

RK agrees that the minutes of our committee meeting should be posted on our website starting with the final version of these minutes.

DB has once again progressed payment of the promised £200 and has now been asked for reviews and comments from participating schools and from our MD.

A suitable document is now being prepared

The minister at Woodlands has asked why we did not use the keyboard stored in the small hall cupboard, however David Mawson would like us to continue using the Claviola from the large hall, which has now been repaired..

David Healey has volunteered for unspecified committee duty but cannot attend the next meeting. We need to replace both our treasurer and secretary at the next AGM.