Harrogate Male Voice Choir
Minutes of Committee Meeting at Woodlands Methodist Church
10.00 am on Tuesday 7 th April 2026 Draft
Present – David Bayne( DB) , Ian Ibbotson (II), Tony Goodall (TG), Stuart Berry (SB), George Cross (GC),
Apologies Chris Dunn (CD) Copy to Lawrie Coulthard (LC), Richard Kay (RK)
Item Action
1 Apologies
CD is unable to attend this meeting however he advises that Richard Hayter has
resigned and his music folder has been returned.
SB
2 The Minutes of the March meeting were approved and signed off. TG
3 Project ”Sing when you’re winning”
Further grant applications. Applications are in preparation by David Healy for grants from
the Rotary club and the Bramhall Trust. DB has registered with the Lottery Fund but will
defer an application for a possible repeat of SWYW as applications take over 3 months for
a decision
Timetable for course. The course starts on Wednesday 22 nd April for 10 weeks with final
concert on Saturday 4 th July.
Number of applicants. At the time of the meeting 53 men had shown an interest
(however RK has since updated this to say that only 23 men have formally registered.)
Promotion of SAYW. In the meeting it was decided that flyers into letter boxes and
distribution at a football match would no longer be required. (however in the light of
RK’s feedback we need to redouble our promotion efforts and ensure that posters put up
in March are still in place)
Project Costs. RK has provided an estimate of £2705 for venue hire, music copies,
publicity, printing costs and accompanist fees. We will in addition pay RK for his
preparation work and his normal appearance fee for each SAYW session. We need to be
prepared to give up 50% of our reserves to this existential project.
4 West Park Centre
TG and GC will revisit West Park next week to look at seating and performance space.
Benches will be supplied by the schools for the Sing Out concert.
West park applied for a £150,000 grant from the N.Yorks mayors fund and has been
granted £100,000. We have booked West Park for 6 th June and 4 th July for a fee of £200
per event.
TG
5 Treasurer Report
II has paid the accompanists up to the end of March. The pro-rata sub of one new
member was agreed and if another member returns after Easter he will be asked for his
second part-payment.
II prepared a table of income and expenditure from concerts and festivals for the current
year. We made small profits from Whixley and Boston Spa but all other performances
involved only cash out. We would hope to cover the current estimated £633 deficit from
income from the Sing Out concert. II also questioned using both accompanists at
concerts , however for the Sing Out concert it was agreed to continue inviting both of
them.
There followed a brief discussion of our choir objectives regarding concerts, festivals, the
health benefits to members and fund-raising for charity, which was deferred to a future
date when RK can be involved.
II
6 Concert secretary report
The Harrogate Choir Festival on 21 st March was deemed to be a success by RK with an
“Honours” award and third place behind an outstanding young adults choir from Leeds
and a good rock choir. We fielded 25 members (including 2 new members) which was
adequate for the occasion.
Thursday 30 th April. 2.50 pm visit to Pannal primary, assembly followed by joint choir
practice.
GC
Saturday 9 th May. Harrogate Choir Festival (evening) in Royal Hall. Fees not yet defined.
Saturday 6 th June. Annual Sing Out concert at West Park Centre
Saturday 4 th July joint concert of SWYW with HMVC at West Park centre
Sunday 11 th October. Afternoon joint concert with Eastwood Collieries MVC at Starbeck
Methodist church
We were unable to sign up to the Jo Cox charity Family Fun Day on 20 th June as we have
no accompanist available. We may be invited next year if they have the funding to cover
our costs.
7 Members Secretary Report
Since the last meeting Paul Boothman and Stewart Radford have received welcome
letters, have joined the choir and paid pro-rata subs for 5 months. Uniforms are being
organised via Robin Wilkinson. SB’s audit of choir members details will start after the
Easter break.
The attendance statistics for the 12 weeks up to end of March compared to the previous
12 weeks are as follows:-
Basses 87.5% compared to 56.9%
Baritones 70.1% compared to 76.7%
Tenor 2s 87.2% compared to 66%
Tenor 1 72% (no figure available for previous period)
The following members who have not attended this choir year were discounted from the
figures: Richard Hayter, Roger Gill, Max Ford, Neil Duncan and Robet Bickford. John
Melanaphy and David Bainbridge were discounted for the last 12 weeks.
John Melanaphy and Neil Duncan are not expected to return until next choir year, Roger
Gill and David Bainbridge may return sooner.
SB
8 Social
The social scheduled for 20 th March was cancelled due to lack of interest. We will look for
an alternative date in the autumn when some new members may be available.
TG
9 Singing in care homes
This subject has been somewhat overtaken by SAYW and will be addressed next session
DB
10 Practice tracks and Google drive
Not enough members are using the practice tracks , sometimes due to lack of access to
Google Drive or confusion about how to use it. We need to issue some guidance for this.
