Trustees' Annual Report for the period
From
Period start date Period end date 1[st] Sept 2023 To 31[st] Aug 2024
Section A Reference and administration details
ReSound Communit Choir y
----- Start of picture text -----
|||||
|---|---|---|---|
|Charity name|y|
|Other names charity is known by|ReSound|
|Registered charity number (if any)|1138352|
|Charity's principal address|42 Mill Dam Lane|
|Burscou|h|
|g|
|Ormskirk, Lancashire|
|Postcode|L40 7TQ|
|——|
|Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity|
|Dates acted if not for whole|Name of person (or body) entitled|
|Trustee name|Office (if any)|
|year|to appoint trustee (if any)|
|1|Sarah Monteith|Chair|Whole Year|
|2|Helen Thompson|Treasurer|Whole Year|
|3|Liz McBride|Whole Year|
|4|Polly Brown|Whole Year|
|5|Vicky Murtagh|Whole Year|
|6|
|7|
----- End of picture text -----
Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)
Type of adviser Name Address Bank The Co-operative Bank P.O. Box 101, 1 Balloon Street, Manchester, M60 4EP ~~——=—~~
ReSound TAR
August 2024
1
Section B Structure, governance and management
Description of the charity’s trusts
Type of governing document Constitution, adopted 9[th] March, 2010. (eg. trust deed, constitution) Amended 7[th] March, 2016.
How the charity is constituted (eg. trust, association, company)[Association with seventy- six adult members ]
-
Trustee selection methods A third of the Trustees are to be elected by the membership
-
(eg. appointed by, elected by) each year at the AGM in September. Each will stand for three years.
Additional governance issues (Optional information)
You may choose to include There is a safeguarding policy in place. All trustees and additional information, where volunteers who have direct contact with or responsibility for relevant, about: any young voice members are required to be DBS checked. policies and procedures The choir are members of Making Music, an association adopted for the induction and training of trustees; which works directly with not for profit music organisations, the charity’s organisational providing advice and guidance. They also broker public liability insurance from RSA for our events. structure and any wider network with which the charity works; ReSound are also members of West Lancashire Council for relationship with any related relationship with any related Voluntary Service, who are an excellent source of advice and parties; community liaison.
-
relationship with any related relationship with any related parties;
-
trustees’ consideration of All trustees are volunteers who give their time without
-
major risks and the system and procedures to manage financial or other recompense. them.
Section C Objectives and activities
To advance, improve, develop and maintain public Summary of the objects of the education in, and appreciation of, the art and science of charity set out in its music in all its aspects by any means the trustees see fit, governing document including through the presentation of public concerts and recitals;
ReSound TAR
August 2024
2
In planning our activities for the year, we kept in mind the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit at our trustees meeting. The focus of our activities remains the weekly meeting of our members to sing together. This provides not only opportunity to learn new skills and improve on musical ability, but is vital in the building of community amongst the members.
Summary of the main activities undertaken for the public benefit in relation to these objects (include within this section the statutory declaration that trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit)
Membership is open to anyone in the community, and is not restricted in any way. The choir members go out of their way to ensure that everyone feels involved, including collecting people from their homes and providing resources in a variety of accessible media. This approach has definitely benefited all in the choir members who are gaining valuable life experience through mixing with a broad cross section of people.
The public performances that have resulted from this activity have been available to a broad cross section of the community. In the past, the choir have endeavoured to take part in a variety of activities, from specific fundraisers to free, large scale public events and private performances at local nursing homes. This ensures that as many people as possible can benefit from the experience of hearing live choral music.
Additional details of objectives and activities (Optional information)
Unlike many community choirs, ReSound has a live band, and we are extremely grateful to our musicians who give freely of their time and expertise.
You may choose to include further statements, where relevant, about:
-
policy on grantmaking;
-
policy programme related investment;
-
contribution made by volunteers.
The choir themselves also give their time and energy in supporting events and ensuring that things run smoothly.
The choir have continued to use their fundraising to provide free, accessible events for local care homes, and to hold affordable concerts for the community. Our ticket income allows us to keep the amount we charge to a minimum, providing uniform etc for new members as needed. The Trust are continuing to review the financial direction the choir takes in order to adapt to needs as they arise.
ReSound TAR
August 2024
3
Section D Achievements and performance
| Summary of the main achievements of the charity during the year |
After singing the same songs for nine months now, by the time the September concert came we were thoroughly sick of them and vowed never to do the same songs for that long ever again! But we mustered every last ounce of enthusiasm and to a packed Civic Hall we delivered an evening of Glamour that had been in the planning stages since 2019! We kicked off with the nineties classic, Let Me Entertain You, and followed it with a few back in time magic moments. Lullaby of Broadway from the thirties was followed by Reflect singing the Hoagy Carmichael classic, The Nearness of You. The choir put their best shoe shuffle forward with Putting on the Ritz, and ReMix followed that with the Cole Ported classic Night and Day. The choir invited the audience to Come Fly with Me, then we sang the Rio Megamix, a mix of songs from a few decades, with a lively Brazilian feel. The audience participation number was Ballroom Blitz, and we glammed it up a notch with Barry Manilow’s Copacobana. The dramatic Bohemian Rhapsody rounded off the first half as we let the audience recover! The king of Glamour himself, our own lovely Tom Dawson kicked off the second half, with Minnie the Moocher, added brass from Shaun, Lotte and Tim, and the girls proved equally sassy with the classic Hey Big Spender. The boys tried to keep pace with them, with Billy Joel’s Uptown Girl, and Madonna’s Like a Prayer, complete with gospel style solos from the young voices kept things moving along. A more laid back form of glamour was reflected in Lou Reed’s Perfect Day, with solos from almost all of the choir, then we brought things more up to date with Mika’s Grace Kelly- a favourite with both audience and choir despite them hating it from day one! The incredibly haunting and beautiful No Time to Die proved that glamour was alive and well in the twenty twenties, but we took it back in time for the ultimate prize- Let’s Face the Music from 1936. We rounded our evening off with All Will Be Well by Will Todd, a beautiful, reflective, reassuring piece of music which had helped us all year as we’d grappled with difficult memories stirred by the revisited set. Overall it was a wonderful evening, and we loved having a proper full audience for the first time in ages! Our AGM was delayed this year, so we’d actually started the Christmas set before it happened for the first time ever! We met at Scarisbrick Village Hall, and after the meeting we had a delicious dinner from Pauline Hot Pot and danced the night away to the wonderful Rag Tag Misfits. It was a fantastic evening, and we had a great time together. After the usual attempt to squeeze two and a half years of rehearsals in to ten weeks, the first outing of our Christmas set was a Monday night, at the Civic Hall, for the Queenscourt Hospice Lights of Love remembrance service. We were delighted to have been asked to take |
|---|---|
ReSound TAR
August 2024
4
Section D Achievements and performance
part, and were honoured to be able to accompany the lovely readings and the role call of names with carols and Christmas songs. Somewhere in My Memory was particularly special, and their own lyrics to Silent Night, Lights of Love, was equally moving. We finished the evening humming Silent Night, supposedly to accompany people as they were leaving, but the atmosphere was so lovely that no-one moved and we had to stop or we’d have been there all night! It was a really special evening, and a lovely way to start our Christmas season. Tech arrived all too fast, and we found ourselves at St John’s before we knew it. Sadly, Trevor’s Mum had died that day and so we had no drummer. Our sound engineer Toby gamely stepped up, so tech had to have a slightly different focus than usual as we rehearsed songs he didn’t know! It was an eventful evening but we felt we were ready for the concert, and as Cheryl always says, a bad tech means a good show!! The day of the concert was as blustery and stormy as the previous two days had been, which made hair and make up an issue! Mostly for the boys though. We had to do quite a big set up as the church had been in use that day, so there was a lot to do, but we got there just in time, and our audience were welcomed in from the wind and rain, filling the main body and balcony of the church. We kicked things off with the classic Paul McCartney number, Wonderful Christmastime, with Paul and the boys doing a sterling job of the lead vocals. It was a lively celebratory number and the perfect way to start the evening. Phil Marshall from St John’s opened in prayer for us, his Sprout jacket from previous years having been augmented with some glorious flashing shoes, and we led straight in to the beautiful Do You Hear What I Hear, a plea for peace in our time. Our audience joined in with Once in Royal David’s City, then after a reading by Liz, we started a very beautiful reflective choral section with Brittan’s challenging There is No Rose. The ‘second page’ version of Away in a Manger, chosen especially by Alice, was our next beautiful song, then ReMix stepped up to sing the Stopford Lully, a haunting, lamenting setting of the Coventry Carol with a glorious descant by Katie. Errolyn Wallen’s Peace on Earth, inspired by the previous Carols at Kings came next, with the unison melody beautifully challenging the circling chords on the piano. David read the story of the Shepherds, and ReMix sang the evocative Shepherd’s Carol. The tempo lifted slightly with the Sweet Chiming Christmas Bells version of While Shepherd’s Watched, and the band took things to a new level, finishing the first half with Glory to God in the Highest, with added Sax from Shaun and Lotte. After an interval filled with mince pies and Karen’s secret cordial recipe, now handed down to Liz, we kicked the second half off with Warm this Winter, a lively romantic tale of snowballs and skating! Somewhere in My Memory continued the nostalgic feel, with a lovely descant from Millie, then the choir took us with them as we went A- Wassailing around the houses! After that, the congregation joined us
ReSound TAR
August 2024
5
Section D Achievements and performance
for We Three Kings with an ever increasing Oh between verse and chorus. Christmas isn’t Christmas now without an Austin special, and this year’s was beautiful- It’s Only Christmas filled us with joy and memories. Then our closing sequence started with The Power of Love, sung by Reflect with a complex and intense arrangement, followed by Sarah’s poem, and the lights dimmed, candles were lit and the snow fell as Colin sang Silent as a Snowflake, and the choir hummed Silent Night underneath. Shaun’s lovely piano lead us beautifully in to Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, and the trumpet opening of Hark brought our evening nearer the end. Phil closed in prayer for us, and then Millie and Harriet refused to let us end things there, cuing Tim to kick off All I Want for Christmas is You! It was a wonderful evening, the perfect start to the festive season, and everyone left the church on a real high, ready to go back to their homes and get Christmas underway! After our usual brilliant January social at O’Briens, our next big event was our Training Day in March. This year we kicked off with a session on harmonising, resulting in a very creative and interesting version of Blue Moon, then in the afternoon we invite the amazing James Sills, a local choir and workshop leader (and an honorary UK Spooky Man) to come and work with us. Over the course of the afternoon he taught us several songs, some in different languages, but all by ear which was a real challenge to us all to retain the music in our heads and not rely on paper in front of us! We had a wonderful afternoon, then all ran home to get our glad rags on ready for our evening social. Paul from the Kicking Donkey provided us with a wonderful meal, and Shaun lead the live entertainment, with guest spots from Paul, and Lotte, Alice and Kate. We had a brilliant evening, and it was the perfect end to a wonderful day. There are few things that bring me more joy than the opening bars of Let the River Run, and this year’s A-May-Sing saw us open the whole concert with that song. It had been a long and complicated set, and we’d had to work incredibly hard to get to the point where we were ready for the concerts, so to have finally made it brought a sense of relief as well as pride! Morning preparations saw the Civic looking lovely for our first guests of the day, residents from local care homes arriving by minibus and taxi, being wheeled in to place by lovely carers and staff. Around forty invited guests enjoyed a shortened concert and a cup of tea and cake, allowing us to thoroughly soundcheck and warm up, and them to have the chance to see the choir in action. After a short break we found ourselves in front of our hundred strong audience, ready to launch in to Let the River for the second time that day. I don’t know if it’s because it’s one of the first we learned after lock down but that song just seems to resonate with us as a choir, and it’s always one we do really well. We followed that with a couple of Queen numbers just to work the band extra hardWe are the Cham ions and the livel Craz Little Thin Called Love. p y y g
ReSound TAR
August 2024
6
Section D Achievements and performance
Things took a darker turn with the men exercising their lower registers in the intense Daylight, which Kate had arranged for us, and we softened things off again with the beautiful and haunting Fields of Gold. ReMix were next, with the Stave’s Wisely and Slow, which Lotte and Alice had arranged for us, and we followed that with Sir Karl Jenkin’s Adiemus, and World in Union. Whitney’s I Wanna Dance with Somebody had the audience up on their feet, and we finished the first half with the Buggles Video Killed the Radio Star. As well as being extra hard work for the band, many of the first half numbers had small solos sung by choir members, and it was a real team effort.
After a short interval the plan was the choir hung around casually at the sides of the audience whilst the band did Geno. Which sort of worked! The band did indeed do Geno with Paul on vocals, and Lotte, Shaun and Tim on brass, it sounded amazing!!
The choir came back to do the ultra cool Feel it Still (hee hee hee ha ha ha ha ha!) followed by the absolute classic Mr Blue Sky, and Reflect kept the sunny theme going with the atmospheric Cape Cod! Stevie Wonder’s You Are the Sunshine of My Life had a laid back groove, and the celebratory theme continued with McFly’s It’s All About You.
What a Wonderful World is another absolute favourited of the choir, and we sang that leading in to the stunningly beautiful For Good from Wicked, with incredible solos by Kate and Lotte.
An attempt to keep our final number low key was thwarted by no less than eleven musicians taking part, enhanced by a plethora of flags and percussion, as the whole audience joined in with Those Were The Days. And we really felt that these were, in fact, the days, as we finished our day on a massive high!
Our season was (almost) rounded off by a lovely summer social at the very posh Ring O’Bells pub at Lathom. Excellent food was enhanced by excellent company, and we all had a brilliant and relaxed night. Then in May, during the Bank Holiday in weekend, a group of choir members set off on an intrepid trip to our Capital City! Meeting at various stations on the way, we found our way to Liverpool Lime Street and eventually to London Euston. A short walk to our lovely hotel, and we dropped our cases off an headed out for the evening. Our first meal was Pizza Express in Soho, and we went from there (via Ronnie Scotts!) to the Cambridge Theatre at Seven Dials where we saw our first show, the incredible Matilda. Our second day saw us at the Appollo for the breathtaking Wicked, then we raced across town for a lovely meal at Bill’s! Then our final day took us to the Royal Albert Hall for a fascinating tour round the stairs and corridors and even in to the Royal Waiting Areas! The afternoon took us to museums and parliaments and we met at the brilliant Riding House Café, on a giant table, for our final meal. We had a brilliant trip, we all loved every second of it and have memories that will last for a long time.
ReSound TAR
August 2024
7
Section D Achievements and performance
ReSound TAR
August 2024
8
Section E Financial review ~~ED~~
The Trust’s Reserve Policy is set to ensure that eight to Brief statement of the twelve months fixed costs can be met even if our income in charity’s policy on reserves the year is substantially reduced. These policy reserve levels are set at not less than £5,400 and not more than £8,500 and the Trustees propose that these remain unchanged. Due to our strong continued membership and close management of finances, we are comfortably within this policy range. Details of any funds materially Not applicable in deficit Further financial review details (Optional information) The charity’s principle source of funding this year has been from membership fees and ticket sales at three of our concerts.
~~OO~~ Section F Other optional information
Next year will see our September Concert, a lovely mix of choir songs and smaller groups, followed of course by our favourite time of year! Then 2025 a pretty big group of us will be setting off to Salzburg, where we will be teaching the locals how to really appreciate a set from the Sound of Music, something I know they will not have heard before! We can’t wait!
Section G Declaration ~~Se~~ The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.
Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees
Signature(s) Full name(s) Sarah Monteith Helen Thompson ~~a~~ Position (eg Secretary, Chair, Chair of Trust Treasurer etc) ~~po~~ Date 11/04/2025 11/04/2025 ~~ee~~
ReSound TAR
August 2024
9
----- Start of picture text -----
Resound Community Choir EW58473
Receipts and payments accounts CC16a
For the period from Period start date01/09/2023 To Period end date31/08/2024
Section A Receipts and payments
Unrestricted funds Restricted funds Endowment funds Total funds Last year
to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £
A1 Receipts
Ticket sales 3,340 - - 3,340 2,096
Subscriptions 10,498 - - 10,498 3,105
Donations 60 792 - 852 1,599
Miscellaneous 205 - - 205 30
Training 260 - 260 500
Choir socials - 3,910 - 3,910 4,525
London trip - 12,224 - 12,224
Austria Tour - 5,720 - 5,720 -
Paris Tour - 764 - 764 20,904
Sub total (Gross income for AR) 14,363 23,410 - 37,773 32,759
A2 Asset and investment sales, (see
table).
- - - - -
- - - - -
Sub total - - - - -
Total receipts 14,363 23,410 - 37,773 32,759
A3 Payments
Musical Director 3,200 - - 3,200 -
Venue hire/storage 3,466 - - 3,466 2,848
Insurance/subscriptions 417 - - 417 296
Collaborations 851 - - 851 1,508
Music 43 - - 43 272
PMLL 1,350 - - 1,350 -
Equipment/decorations 448 - - 448 819
Uniforms - - - - -
Training 762 - - 762 1,110
Refreshments 163 - - 163 123
Gifts/sundries 512 792 - 1,304 1,253
Choir socials - 3,908 - 3,908 4,459
London trip - 12,224 - 12,224 -
Austria Tour - 5,400 - 5,400 -
Paris Tour - 1,147 - 1,147 22,801
Sub total 11,211 23,471 - 34,682 35,489
A4 Asset and investment purchases,
(see table)
- - - - 0
- - - - 0
Sub total - - - - 0
Total payments 11,211 23,471 - 34,682 35,489
Net of receipts/(payments) 3,152 - 62 - 3,091 - 2,730
A5 Transfers between funds - - - - 0
A6 Cash funds last year end 5,233 594 - 5,827 8,557
Cash funds this year end 8,385 532 - 8,918 5,827
Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
Unrestricted Restricted Endowment
Categories Details funds funds funds
to nearest £ to nearest £ to nearest £
B1 Cash funds Cash at Bank 8,385 532
- -
- -
Total cash funds 8,385 532 -
(agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) OK OK
Unrestricted Restricted
funds funds OK
Details to nearest £ to nearest £ to nearest £
B2 Other monetary assets - - -
- - -
- - -
- - -
- - -
- - -
Details Fund to which asset belongs Cost (optional) Current value (optional)
B3 Investment assets - -
- -
- -
- -
- -
Details Fund to which asset belongs Cost (optional) Current value (optional)
B4 Assets retained for the - -
charity’s own use - -
- -
- -
- -
- -
- -
- -
- -
Fund to which Amount due When due
Details liability relates (optional) (optional)
B5 Liabilities -
-
-
-
-
Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees Signature Print Name approvalDate of
Helen Thompson HELEN THOMPSON 24/09/2024
----- End of picture text -----
CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examinerfs report on the accounts Section A Independent Examiner's Report Report to the trusteesl members of On accounts for the year ended Charlty no (If any) I l37J35£ Set out on pages I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above tharity (Ihe Trust") for the year ended 31 Responsibilities and As the charity trustees of the Trust, you are responsible for the preparation basis of report of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (Ihe Act"). I report in respect of my examination of the Trust's accounts carrFed out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carying out my examination, I have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act. I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention (other than that disclosed below ") in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect: accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or the accounts do not accord with the accounting records Independent examinerfs statement I have no concems and have come acxoss no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. Please delete the words in the brackets if they do not apply. Signed: Date: Name: Relevant professlonal qualification(s) or body (rf any): Address: 3 ar IER October 2018
Section B Disclosure Only complele rf the examiner needs to highlight matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and guidance for examiners). Glve here brlef detslls of any Items that the examiner wlshes to dlsclose. IER October 2018