Minutes of May Committee meeting

 

Harrogate Male Voice Choir

 

Minutes of Committee Meeting at Woodlands Methodist Hall

 10.00  am on Tuesday 13th May                                                                                                            FINAL
Present  –  David Bayne( DB) , Chris Dunn (CD),  Tony Goodall (TG), Lawrie Coulthard (LC), Stuart Berry (SB), George Cross (GC) Apologies Ian Ibbotson (II) copy to Richard Kay (RK)
Item   Action
1 The  minutes of the April meeting were approved and signed off, after the number of members singing at the Walle Garden event was corrected to 26. TG
2 Concert Secretary Report

Sat. 12th 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 8th 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 10th June. Afternoon visit to Oatlands Primary school for rehearsal with their choir. Numbers of members have been collected.

14th 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.

5th 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.

 GC
3 Treasurer’s report (sent in advance and extended by e-mail from II)

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.

 II
4 Members Secretary Report

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 3rd 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.

 SB
5 Marketing and promotion

LC has followed up the contact with Boston Spa Methodist Church (BSMC) for a concert on 27th or 28th 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.

 LC
6 Social Prescribing

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.

 TG/DB
7 Questionnaire “What does our choir mean for us?”

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.

 DB
8 Next meeting with RK

On 10th 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.

  
9 Sing Out 2026.

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

 TG
10 Website update (comments from RK)

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.

  
11 NAC legacy fund

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

 TG
12 Keyboard at Woodlands Methodists

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..

  
13  Committee Members for 2025/26

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.

  
14 Next Meeting. Tuesday 24th June at Woodlands Methodists. (This should be the last committee meeting of the current session)  

 



Programme for Annual Concert 5/7/25

Annual Concert programme, 5th July 2025

 

Song of the Jolly Roger

Shall we gather at the river

Just a Closer Walk

 

Oatlands School – 2 songs

 

The Rose

Angels

Count on me

 

Rossett Acre School – 2 songs

 

You Raise me Up

Here and Now

 

Interval

 

Bring Him Home

Rune of Hospitality

Tell my Father

 

Oatlands – 2 songs

 

Portrait of my Love

The Impossible Dream

76 Trombones

 

Rossett Acre School – 2 songs

 

Harbour

The Wellerman

 



Programme for West Park 14/6/25

West Park Concert 14th June 2025

 

When the Saints

Gwahoddiad

Let there be peace on Earth

Just a closer walk

 

Duncan – piano

 

Tell my Father

For the Fallen

Rune of Hospitality

You’ll never walk alone

 

INTERVAL

 

Portrait of my Love

The Rose

Angels

Count on me

 

Duncan – piano

 

Impossible Dream

Bring him home

Anthem

76 Trombones



HMVC – Concert Dates for 2024/25

HMVC – Concert/Events

MAY

Thursday 8th – Visit to Rossett Acre School in the afternoon.

Tuesday 27th – No Rehearsal (Half Term).

JUNE

Tuesday 10th – Rehearsal with Oatlands School Choir.

Saturday 14th – Concert at West Park URC.

JULY

Saturday 5th – Annual ‘Sing Out’ Concert.

Venue:  Harrogate High School.

A date for a visit to Rossett Acre Primary School has still to be agreed.

 

 



Policy on Uniforms

HMVC  Policy on Uniforms

This document explains the position of members who received new uniforms in 2019 for the 50 year’s anniversary concert, and summarises the discussions and decisions made by the Committee on this subject since August 2021.

Members who joined before May 2019

All members in 2019 received full new uniforms (trousers, jacket, shirt and tie). These uniforms are deemed to be the property of HMVC.  There are a number of spare items in each category which are being administered by Ian Ibbotson.

Some members who have left the choir since that time have returned the uniform suits and trousers which have been dry-cleaned, stored and added to our stock.

Storage has proved to be a problem however, and at a meeting on 25th January 2022 it was decided that uniforms should no longer be “recycled” but should be given to retiring members who could be asked for a voluntary donation to choir funds.

New Members since 1st February 2022

This has so far been administered on an “ad hoc” basis depending on whether  a “recycled” jacket and trousers fitted a new member, whether they came from new stock or had to be purchased.

As from 1st February 2022, new members will be asked to contribute half the cost of purchase of their uniform, the balance from choir funds.  Contributions may be paid in instalments over 2 years.

If the new member chooses to be issued with a part uniform recycled from a retiring member, there will be no charge for that item, any new pieces to be at half cost.

New items issued from choir stock will be charged at current replacement cost.

.



Personal data protection policy

Harrogate Male Voice Choir

Personal Data Protection Policy

What we hold and on who: Choir number, given and surnames, telephone numbers (land and/or mobile), address, emergency contact number (1 or 2), year of joining. (see the example at the end of this document).  To see what we hold about you now, simply ask the Membership Representative for a full print out of your data. This data is held for our President, Director, Accompanists and all Singers who pay a subscription.

Why we hold it: to let the officers of the choir contact members and efficiently run the choir’s business.

Who has access to your data:  The Membership Representative keeps and updates the choir’s recordselectronically and supplies all/parts of the data to officers of the choir as they need it to do their jobs – he is responsible for GDPR and reporting any breaches.  None of the data held is supplied to anybody outside the choir, in any form.

How your data is currently held:  currently the full data set is held in an Excell spreadsheet, password protected and encrypted.  It is on the hard-drives of the Membership Representative and Committee Secretary. The only formal paper record currently used is a list of all members’ names and their emergency contact numbers – this is held with the First Aid kit under the control of our First Aiders.  Other officers receive electronic information and have the discretion to print it to do their specific jobs.  

Updating personal records:  from time to time (currently annually) you will be asked to check the data that we hold for you, so that our records can be corrected and updated.  This Policy and the exact form of your records will be kept under review by the Committee, and updated to keep abreast of current technology and the Committee’s needs.

Data Manipulation: no manipulation of the data takes place other than extracting subsets of it to supply the needs of the choir’s officers.

How long we keep your data: your data is kept while you are a member.  When you leave, your name and all your information is removed.  The Treasurer is required to keep some of your details for 6 years after your last Gift Aid donation to the choir – but this is a legally required tax record separate from the choir’s spreadsheet.  Your details may by chance persist in saved emails and historic records (on memory sticks and such like) – but after you leave the choir, we will have no sure way of contacting you!

Committee’s Privacy Assumption:  the Committee assumes that none of the information the choir holds is of itself so private that it should not be shared with other members of the choir.  For example, in the membership section of the choir’s web site there is a full list of personal telephone numbers of all choir members. Ask us to remove any such sensitive information from our records.

Committee’s Assumption of Consent: the Committee assumes that all members who joined the choir before the GDPR came into existence (2018) agreed at that time that their records could be held and used.  Those joining since have signed the form to explicitly state that they also consent (and the year that they did this is in the data).  The Membership Representative will NOT keep the paper records of signatures, but simply enter the year into the spreadsheet in which assent was seen to be given.  If you do not consent to this, tell the Membership Representative so now.

YOUR RIGHTS TO YOUR DATA: you have a right to see what data we hold about you, to have any of it corrected and any of it removed from our records.  If you have any concerns about your data or the choir’s handling of any data issues, please raise them in first instance with the Membership Representative, and if you are not happy with the response, with the Chairman of the Committee verbally and/or in writing.

16th May 2023  Membership Representative Tom Holland    



HMVC Member Reviews

We hold a number of ‘Member Reviews’ which can be found in the ‘Join Us’ Section in the main body of the website.  We urgently need some new reviews to replace the existing ones which have been on the site for a long time.  Please send your reviews to Brian Holmes via e-mail to be checked before being placed on the website.



Website News

All future Concert dates and venues can be found in the main body of the website in the ‘Hear Us’ Section headed ‘Event Diary’ which is available to the general public.  Additional information relevant to members only e.g. pre-concert rehearsal times can be obtained by going to the ‘Members Only’ Section, Choir Diary and then clicking on the appropriate date for the concert eg 16th Dec:

For any faults or difficulties encountered whilst using the website, please E-mail (br_holmes41@btinternet.com) you don’t need to wait for a Tuesday night (you may have forgotten your problem by then! or I may not be there) and we don’t want anyone to have an excuse for not doing their practise!!!