## **Portchester Community Choir** **Annual Trustee Report** ## **Period 28th February 2025 to 31st December 2025** Portchester Community Choir CIO www.portchestercommunitychoir.com phone: 07900 917054 email: chair@portchestercommunitychoir.com Charity Number 1212351 ## **Trustees Report 28th Feb 2025 to 31st Dec 2025** ## **Trustees:** Bronwyn Kirk (Chair) Christine Wilkinson (Vice Chair) Sally Langford (Treasurer) Tracy McEvoy (Secretary) Janet Hind (Membership Secretary) Ruth Knight (Assistant Musical Director) Janet Kensall (Tech Lead) Jacqueline Mitchell (Publicity) Dorothy Jackson (Outreach Lead) ## **Chair’s report** : It has been a fantastic year for PCC. We have seen the choir grow steadily and even had a waiting list of people wishing to join. We regularly see around 60 – 65 members attending each rehearsal and numbers participating in the summer concert were so large that we were somewhat squeezed into the stage space!! We will be using a wider venue for the 2026 concert. Our usual presence at Portchester Gala helped to spread the word about us, bringing in some new members and our singing at both the local Remembrance service and St Mary’s carol services was greatly appreciated. We have already been asked to perform again at the 2026 carols. In line with our objectives of bringing music and singing to our community, our Outreach Project really took off in 2025 with more care homes and dementia groups asking us to fit them in to our schedule. None of this would be possible without the commitment of our various volunteers and committee members who all give their time to ensure that we are safe, looked after and have fun. Of course, that commitment is just as strong in all our members, as is evident from the practice they put in to produce the wonderful sounds we make when we sing. We had a very emotional end to 2025 when our founder and Musical Director, Ruth Knight, stepped down and became Assistant Musical Director. Ruth has worked tirelessly to get the choir to such a high standard since she started it, in a tiny music room, at Wicor School in 2017. Thank you, Ruth, for giving us this fantastic family and for all the hard work that’s gone into it. The Trustees want to thank all our members for making 2025 such a good year for us. _**Bron Kirk, Chair,**_ _**12.02.2026**_ ## **Outreach Project Report:** Portchester Community Choir (PCC) Outreach Group is a section of the choir that sings to: - 5 Care homes - 1 Dementia group - 1 over 60s group called Primetime The visits last about an hour and are spread out over the year so that we attend each one at least twice. PCC Outreach Group sings a variety of songs from musicals to wartime pub tunes, to ordinary pop songs. And the point of all this? To be told by the care staff afterwards that “Joe or Joan Bloggs” who generally don’t speak much, hardly participate in anything, start to sing along with us. That’s what it’s all about. Oh, and, hopefully, groaning over my awful jokes! ## _**Dot Jackson, Outreach Project Lead.**_ ## _**12.02.2026**_ ## **Social Committee Report:** I am on the Social Committee. We come together to organise events that bring us all together outside of the Thursday singing time. We have been running as a team now for about three years. Our team has grown over the last year and we are now a team of 6 fabulous ladies. Savannah Middle, Sally Lawrence, Fran McEnri, Mel Arrowsmith and Debbie Sutton. As you all know, our choir is a warm, welcoming, and supportive community. We enjoy each other’s company just as much as we enjoy singing together every Thursday. Our social events give us the chance to spend a little more time together and try something different. Our priority for these events is simply for you to have fun, enjoy having time to chat with one another (without getting a telling off) and hopefully you get a chance to get to know familiar faces a little better — as well as meet choir members you may not have had the chance to talk to before. But mostly is……. about a bit of FUN! As always, if you have any ideas for future events, we would be happy to hear all about them. Do talk to any one of us on the team! Last year we ran a karaoke event for the end of year which was very well received. We intend to do that again for the end of our current year. We’ve also had another successful Christmas Quiz evening and we have a couple of new events coming up- a Murder Mystery night and a Skittle evening. Just a last note to say thank you for your donations at Christmas and for raising a bit through our games as we covered the costs for that evening and now have a little money in the pot to go towards costs for our next event. As you know, any money we make at our events always goes back into running another. _**Tracy McEvoy, Social Committee Lead 12.02.2026**_ ## **Health & Safety Report:** There are 2 trained Health and Safety representatives – Chris Wilkinson and Jan Hind. Both have relevant, in date qualifications. The Health and Safety policy was updated in October 2025 and is available on the website. All venues used by the choir (indoor and outdoor) are checked before use and risk assessments are completed. An incident at the Remembrance service on November 9[th] , involving a member of the public falling against choir members, was discussed by the trustees and measures will be put in place next time to prevent a reoccurrence. The annual fire practice took place at our regular venue, Portchester Methodist Church, on Thursday 29[th] January. The first aid team members – Heather Jones, Savannah Middle and Chris Wilkinson, all have current first aid qualifications. They wear badges at all practices and events to identify them. These are the only people who should administer any treatment to members. A first aid bag is available at all times. These were checked and restocked in November 2025. The Safeguarding team members – Olive Longyear, Savannah Middle and Brenda Walden have had relevant training. They are available to speak in confidence about any safeguarding issue and now wear purple lanyards so they can be easily identified. ## _**Chris Wilkinson, H&S Lead 12.02.2025**_ ## **Treasurer’s Report** : PCC Financial Report: accountng year - 28.02.25-31.12.25 |Balance carried over in bank@28.02.25|2099.26|includes
£819.34
restricted funds|||| |---|---|---|---|---|---| |Balance carried over in cash|0.01||||| |Petycash foat|15||||| ||||||| |Total held 2114.27 2114.27|2114.27||2114.27||| ||||||| |Income from all sources|||||| ||||||| |Subs & Badges|7972||||| |Subs in cash|71||||| |---|---|---|---|---|---| |concert tckets|895||||| |Uniform|236||||| |Sundries|596|collection for departingMD|||| |Social events|0||||| |Donatons received 416.62|416.62|£384.62 bucket collection at concert|||| ||||||| |Total income|10186.6
2||10186.6
2||| ||||||| |Total for balance|||12300.8
9||| ||||||| |Expenses|||||| ||||||| |Statonery (inclphotocopies)|93.91||||| |Hall hire costs|1594||||| |Sheet music/backingtracks|117.82||||| |Donatons|1324.49||||| |Uniform|330||||| |Equipment|717.03||||| |Fees & Insurance|1503.91||||| |Musical Director Fees|630||||| |Gifs|693.41||||| |Refreshments|229.95||||| |Total expenses|7234.52||7234.52||| ||||||| |Balance@31.12.2025|||5066.37||| ||||||| ||||||| ||||||| |Balance in Bank|5049.36|includes £157.97 restricted funds
from Outreach Project Grant|||| |cash in hand|2.01||||| |foat|15||||| |Total funds held@31.12.2025|5066.37||||| _**Sally Langford, Treasurer. 12/02/2026**_