Walsall Symphony Orchestra (Charitable Incorporated Organisation Reg. No. 1173311)
Trustees Report from the Annual General Meeting of Trustees and Members held on Monday 21[st] March 2022
Introduction
The meeting was chaired by Ian Summer (Trustee)
This report covers the period from the previous AGM that was held via zoom on 30[th] November 2020
The Orchestra’s accounting year is from 1[st] September to 31[st] August.
Trustees and Committee
At present the orchestra has four Trustees: Ian Sumner, Caroline Moore, Ros Jacom and Rosemary Cripps. Sheila Bailey and Chris Edwards both stood down at the AGM in November 20 when Rosemary Cripps was elected as a Trustee and Secretary and Ian Sumner was elected as Chair.
These Trustees can be re-elected in 2022 in accordance with the rules specified in the CIO governing document.
After the November 2020 zoom Annual General Meeting because of the covid pandemic the orchestra did not meet again in person until October 2021.
During the year there were 5 meetings: All bar the recent AGM were held via zoom
Committee Meeting on 7[th] January 2021 Committee Meeting on 2[nd] August 2021 Committee Meeting on 6[th] September 2021 Committee Meeting on 18 November 2021 AGM on 21[st] March 2022
New rehearsal venue
In the summer of 2021, we were informed that Forest Arts Centre was no longer available as a rehearsal venue
(in particular: because it would be closed on Mondays).
The committee looked at two new rehearsal venues. Both of these were viable alternatives.
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Bluecoats academy in Walsall had a room available at a cost of £37.50. Ian Sumner (chair) and Caroline Moore (treasurer) visited on 12[th] August 2021.
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The Wolverhampton University Performance Hub in Walsall had a choice of three rooms available at a cost of £50 per rehearsal. Ian Sumner (chair), Caroline Moore (treasurer) and Clive Allsopp (conductor) visited the hub on 20th August 2021.
We chose the Performance Hub.
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We have the largest of the three available rooms (The others are a backup if the usual room is not available.)
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The hub’s management were very helpful and enthusiastic and welcomed the opportunity to cooperate with a community organisation.
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They offered to store timpani and music elsewhere in the building and to bring them out for rehearsal as requested by us. However, we now have a very adequate storage cupboard in the rehearsal room.
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We have access cards to the building and the room and so are able to use the room on Monday evenings without any active input from hub staff.
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University music students at the hub are able to join our rehearsals with no membership fee.
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We acknowledge that some members are not totally happy with the room’s very flat acoustic. We assume that this is by design.
Leader
We enthusiastically welcome Dawn Watson as our new leader. (Carol Edwards was the orchestra’s leader for many years and has left the orchestra. We have formally thanked her for her long service as leader.)
Librarian
We are most grateful to Mike Skinner for taking on the Librarian job from Sheila Bailey who has now left the orchestra. (We have formally thanked Sheila for her long service as librarian)
Website
The orchestra’s original website was created by violinists Stephanie Watkins and her sadly deceased sister Katie.
It was hosted by Weebly. Its management was taken over by Joy Askew who is now our website manager.
At the end of 2021, Weebly notified us of increased costs and then the website went down. Joy was unable to contact the helpline.
It was agreed to setup a WordPress web hosting with Fasthosts. I had used Fasthosts for 20 years and found their support services to be excellent and rapidly accessible. I created a new site. WordPress was a learning experience with excellent help from my IT friend Tony Verrall in the Isle of Man. Joy has now taken over this new site.
I contacted Stephanie Watkins to explain why the previous website had been replaced. The new site has a password protected member’s area where minutes etc can be viewed.
Rehearsing again – concert
After a 20 month covid break, rehearsals resumed at the hub on 4[th] October 2021. Initially we played through a selection of items.
When the concert and repertoire were fixed for March12th, we concentrated on the seven items for this concert.
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The concert at Streetly Church on 12[th] March was in fact our first concert for 27 months. The church were very enthusiastic and supportive to us. They enthusiastically promoted the concert sold over 50 tickets in advance (cost was £5). The audience numbers were over 100. The total takings were £735 (This included £200 from raffle ticket sales) The orchestra performed very well.
The repertoire’s origins spanned 250 years.
(Haydn - symphony 104, Verdi – Grand March from Aida, VW – Folk song suite, Les Misérables, Scheherazade 3 movement, Lion King and Pirates of the Caribbean.)
Our next concert is scheduled for 18[th] June 2022.
Ian Sumner
Walsall Symphony Orchestra Chair 13[th] March 2022
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Account Summary
1st September 2020 - 31st Augus
| Total funds at 31.08.20 | 9028.71 | |
|---|---|---|
| Money Market | 5616.94 | |
| Deposit Account | 1417.30 | |
| Current Account | 1994.47 | |
| Total funds at 31.08.21 | 8822.64 | |
| Money Market | 5646.79 | |
| Deposit Account | 1417.42 | |
| Current Account | 1758.43 | |
| Loss for the year | 206.07 | |
| Expenditure breakdown | 2020/21 |