Wetherby Choral Society AGM 23 June 2023: Chairman’s Report
Looking back at my report last year, I can sense the Committee’s anxiety at that time about the future for the choir post-COVID. What would be the impact on the health of our members? Would people return to singing? How would our finances cope with fewer subscriptions and audience numbers? As it turned out, we are a resilient bunch, and I’m thrilled to report how well we are doing!
During our 22-23 season, our membership has continued to increase with both former members returning and new members joining each term. The mood of the choir is a happy one, with everyone doing their best to be inclusive and make our choir community a friendly and fun place to be. Our thanks to you all for supporting a wide range of fundraising activities. Our thanks to you also for a huge effort to sell concert tickets - hasn’t it been brilliant to sing to sell-out audiences for pretty much the whole of last year! And thanks to Kathy, our Treasurer, for spending many days getting to grips with Gift Aid, and submitting four years of claims to HMRC. All of these factors mean that the choir is now in a far healthier position, both mentally and financially.
Over the last year, the Committee has worked hard to update our paperwork, and I’m so grateful. Thanks to a herculean effort by Malcolm, our secretary, we have rewritten our Constitution and Members Handbook, and propose this for your approval at this AGM. We’ve also been modernising our approach to publicity with attractive posters (thank you Chris Bishop) and by widening our digital network for promoting concerts. We’ve reviewed local parish and church magazine contacts adding digital posters where Facebook pages are available, expanded our ‘Friends of WCS’ email group, and opened an Instagram account, which is also linked to our own Facebook page. Purchasing a card reader has also brought us into the modern age, and aided ticket sales, and we are currently in the throes of upgrading our website with the support of the music charity ‘Making Music’.
So, now we are at the beginning of our 50[th] season, and its all very exciting! To get us in the mood, we are planning to hold a mini festive social gathering with wine, beer and mince pies at the end of our rehearsal on Tuesday 12[th] December from 9-9.30pm, together with the BIG Christmas raffle! You’ll hear more about our fabulous Spring concert from John, but its going to be spectacular! We’ve plans to involve the RNLI in this sea-themed concert with a pop-up stall, and we plan to make a big SPLASH (sorry!) with a special 50[th] souvenir programme. For those of you who have photographs or funny stories from the past 50 years, we would love to hear from you so we can include these in the souvenir programme. Anne and her team’s famous Quiz will be as popular as ever in the Spring term, and a repeat of John’s inspirational organ recital together with a York river cruise are all being planned as part of our 50[th] celebrations.
Every single one of us is reliant on someone else doing their bit to help run the choir. There are so many of you involved, so please can I extend a huge thanks to each one of you. I’d also like to appeal to all members (well, not literally!) to ask you to consider ‘what can I do for my choir’? Some of you will have skills which would be oh so helpful on the Committee, so please don’t hold back as we’d love to welcome you on board. Fundamentally, the role of the Committee is to balance the books and promote activities which contribute towards concert expenses. Traditionally, we have made a loss of approximately £3,000 on every concert, but with your help in selling more tickets over the last year this loss has reduced significantly – hooray! Many of you have also kindly donated extra money above the subscription fee, and we thank you for this generosity. This is also the time to say if any of you would like to sponsor an orchestra member, or
Wetherby Choral Society AGM 23 June 2023: Chairman’s Report
are considering leaving a legacy in your will, please feel free to approach the Committee.
And finally, I must thank John for working his magic with us every week. You brighten our lives with your love of music and your talents as a teacher, and we are blessed by your energy, enthusiasm, and yes, even your sarcasm! And for willingly undertaking all the myriad of hidden but hugely appreciated back-room jobs we are forever grateful. A million thanks to you!
Heather Marsh
Wetherby Choral Approved Society Accounts - 1st May 2022 to 31 July 2023
| Income | 2022/2023 | 2021/2022 | 2020/2021 | 2019/2020 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £ | £ | £ | £ | |
| Subscriptions | 15,311 | 14,468 | 0 | 14,465 |
| Tickets and sales | 11,927 | 6,637 | 0 | 9,762 |
| Donations | 917 | 183 | 2,907 | 1,622 |
| Gift Aid | 9,210 | 0 | 0 | 5,334 |
| Fund Raising | 7,069 | 2,606 | 0 | 3,797 |
| Sundries | 0 | 255 | 0 | 92 |
| Gratuitycollection | 1261 | |||
| Dinner | 0 | 0 | 0 | 950 |
| Sponsors | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1,250 | |
| Total Income | 46,695 | 25,149 | 4,157 | 36,022 |
| Expenditure | ||||
| Concerts | 19,303 | 16,942 | 0 | 15,553 |
| Accompanist fees | 4,100 | 3,300 | 2,925 | 3,550 |
| Musical Director fees | 6,370 | 5,725 | 5,825 | 4,831 |
| Room and Music hire | 2,419 | 1,623 | 0 | 1,190 |
| Sundries | 38 | 0 | 0 | 18 |
| Gratuity payment | 1261 | |||
| Dinner | 0 | 0 | 0 | 950 |
| Insurance | 634 | 622 | 523 | 613 |
| Administration | 519 | 598 | 444 | 345 |
| PerformingRights | 372 | 0 | 0 | 426 |
| Fund RaisingCosts | 189 | 50 | 0 | 165 |
| Total Expenditure | 35,205 | 28,860 | 9,717 | 27,641 |
| ~~(Deficit)/Surplus~~ | 11,490 | -3,711 | -5,560 | 8,381 |
| Statement of Assets as at 30th April | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 |
| £ | £ | £ | £ | |
| Cash in Hand | 0 | 0 | 0 | 208 |
| Nat West Bank Account | 13,369 | 11,097 | 13,590 | 19,426 |
| Nat West Bank Account Total | 13,369 | 11,097 | 13,590 | 19,634 |
| Less unpresented cheques/ uncleared income |
0 | -1,218 | 0 | -48 |
| Nat West Account Total | 13,369 | 9,879 | 13,590 | 19,586 |
| COIF Deposit | 10,137 | 10,130 | 10,117 | 10,056 |
| Interest | 360 | 7 | 13 | 61 |
| Transfer from Nat West Acc | 8000 | |||
| CCLA Funds Total | 18,497 | 10,137 | 10,130 | 10,117 |
| Total Assets | 31,866 | 20,016 | 23,719 | 29,703 |
Notes relating to current year
-
1.15 month year due to change of financial year
-
Four concerts were held during the period
-
£8000 transferred from current account to deposit account
-
The Society had no liabilities as at 31/07/23
-
The Charity's policy is to have 6 months cash reserves
Independent examlnerfs report to the trustees of Wetherby Choral Sodety I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the Wetherby Choral Society (the Society) forthe 15 months ended 31 July 2023. Responsibilities and basis of report As the charity trustees of the Society you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 20111'the Act'}. I report in respett of my examination of the Sociews accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145{Sllbl of the Act. Independent examinerfs statement I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connertion with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect: . accounting records were not kept In respect of the Trust as required by section 130 of the Act-, or 2. the accounts do not accord wlth those records. I have no concems and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in orderto enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. Si8ned: tyj. o. Name= Neil Canwell Relevant professional qualification or membership of professlonal bodies: ACMA Address: 15 Gledhow Wood Avenue, Leeds. L58 INY Date: 18 August 2023