Harrogate Male Voice Choir
Minutes of Committee Meeting at Woodlands Methodist Church
10.00 am on Tuesday 12 th May 2026
Present – David Bayne( DB) , Chris Dunn (CD), Ian Ibbotson (II), Tony Goodall (TG),
Stuart Berry (SB), George Cross (GC Copy to Lawrie Coulthard (LC), Richard Kay (RK)
Item Action
1 The minutes of the April meeting were approved and signed off. TG
2 Project ”Sing when you’re winning”
There is no further news of grant applications by David Healy, but 2 are in progress. DB
will let his registration with the community Lottery Fund lapse as they will not cover the
current SWYW campaign. II is pursuing a grant of £1500 from an undisclosed source.
Response to SWYW
 RK reports that we had 70+ initial expressions of interest of whom 49 filled in the info
forms. Of these 49, 33 have attended at least one session, 5 never responded and 11
withdrew without attending.
 Of those who have attended, 31 are currently still committed, 2 have withdrawn 2 are
unavailable for the July concert, 2 are unsure about this date leaving us with a choir of
about 25 for the concert.
 Latest estimate of costs
 RK estimates £3697, not including purchase of additional copies of all of the planned
repertoire and assuming that the cost of the July concert will be covered by ticket
receipts.
 Organisation of July concert
 Promotion needs to start ASAP with a flyer which can be sent to all of our usual media
outlets. In view of the direct fund-raising for Andy’s Man Club, the committee were
agreed that a charge of £15 for over-16s was justified.
 Repeat Project
 The whole promotion and organisation needs to be analysed after July, but from this
time point, any repeat would have to be in 2 years time, certainly not next year.

RK

3 Treasurer Report
II questioned the drain on our resources posed by festivals of all types, where we pay
the music team, pay fees to appear (£813 this year) but receive no income from ticket
sales. The Royal Hall festival alone cost £210 for participation plus £150 for the music
team. Members who wish to appear in festivals could be asked to contribute.
We have received a generous donation of £1000 from a current member.

II

5 Concert secretary report
Satuday 9 th May Harrogate Choir Festival A good turnout of members and a
performance which attracted positive comment form both audience and another MD.
Saturday 6 th June Sing Out concert, 7 pm, West Park. RK’s promotional poster was
approved by the committee and will be used on-line and in the schools. LC has printed
200 tickets which will be allocated at rehearsal today. Benches for the children will be
sourced from both schools and transported by CD. Our own keyboard is also required.
As the children will need a meal break, the choir will need to be at West Park by 5 pm.
Saturday 4 th July. SWYW concert. Detailed planning and promotion begins now. Concert
to start at 7.30 pm with rehearsal at 5.30/6.00
Sunday 11 th October. Afternoon joint concert with Eastwood Collieries MVC at Starbeck
Methodist church
Saturday 31 st October. Concert suggested by mayor with Tewitt brass band.
(Since this meeting, contacts have been made for York Christmas festival in December
and another joint concert with the Ryelarks in Pickering in spring 2017)

GC

6 Members Secretary Report
SB will proceed with a confidential note to each member asking for confirmation of
contact details, as was done by his predecessor.
Robert Bickford has indicated he is unable to return to the choir and has returned his

SB

music. A framed photo of the choir will be delivered to him in recognition of his service.
David Bainbridge has not taken up our offer to return to the choir after Easter so must
be presumed to have finally left the choir
7 E-ticketing
RK urges us to implement e-ticketing in time for the SWYW concert. A previous attempt
in 2023 with “Arkevent” was not followed up and they have now ceased to trade.
Eventbrite was suggested by committee members but this appears to have higher and
hidden costs. RK has volunteered to set up an “event” on Ticketsource where booking
fees can be added to the ticket price.

TG

8 Singing without copies.
CD made a plea for relaxation of the “singing without copies” policy of RK. Older
members have great difficulty memorising large numbers of songs for a concert. TG will
ask RK to speak to the choir again about this issue.

CD

9 Parking
Since AA has been starting before us in the small hall, parking at the church has been a
problem. If we get new members in September this could be worse. TG will approach
Willow Tree school before we re-start to negotiate terms for parking there. Harrogate
Town will however continue to play matches on Tuesday nights when the school is
reserved for away fans.

CD/TG

10 Choir Re-start after summer break
We will resume rehearsals on Tuesday 8 th September

DB
11 Next Meeting. Thursday 16 th June (this should be the last of this session) DB