2023-07-31-accounts

ANNUAL REPORT

To be presented at the Annual General Meeting 12 October 2023 at 8pm

St Michael and All Angels Church, Lonsdale Road, Summertown, Oxford OX2 7ES

1. Legal and Administrative Information

Registered charity number 900317 Principal address 118 Coopers Gate Banbury OX16 2WD Trustees and Officers 2022-23 Philip Booth (Chair) Keith Young (Secretary) Kirsten Smith (Treasurer) Maria Scott (Membership Secretary) Catrin Roberts (Concert Manager) Sue Palmer (Social Secretary) Julia Wigg (Publicity Coordinator) Branwen Ebsworth (Librarian) (Part of year) Jean-Louis Metzger (Webmaster) (Part of year) Emma Britton (Web Support – non-committee) Music Director Duncan Saunderson Accompanist Julian Littlewood Governing document The Constitution of Summertown Choral Society 2021 Bankers Nat West Bank, Oxford COIF Charities Deposit Fund 85 Queen Victoria Street, London EC4V 4ET Independent examiner Jacqueline Bowman 2B Sandfield Road Headington Oxford OX3 7RG

Objects (from clause 2 of the Constitution)

The objects of the Society shall be to educate the public in the Art and Science of Music by the rehearsal of choral music, the presentation of public concerts and other charitable activities.

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2. Treasurer’s report

This is my last report, after a challenging 5 years in the post. I have by now got to grips with the routine of the management of the accounts and it is pleasing that we have had a smaller loss than anticipated this year. I must thank Philip for his unfailing support and patience in the day to day business and particularly in the preparation of the accounts.

I should say that the bank balances at the end of this year are around a healthy £16,500, thanks to a timely rise in the subscriptions, agreed for the summer term. This figure is a prudent amount of working capital, necessary in the event of a disaster befalling us. You will notice that the concert costs were over £9,600 for Term 1, and £14,000 for the full year. The latest budget for the scheduled Mozart concert in February 2024 is £13,000. We are contractually bound to honour these costs whatever happens. We are also obliged, as a charity, to ensure that we are never in danger of being insolvent. Hopefully the increased subscription charge for Term 1 and ticket sales will ensure a healthy financial position is maintained.

As we are all aware, prices for everyone and everything have been rising relentlessly, and this has been the case for us, most noticeably for our venues, with St Michael’s raising our fee by 257%. We had not paid an increase for more than a decade, so could hardly protest. We have saved money, by the splendid efforts of Philip in getting us free heating, the benefit of which we welcomed last winter. Philip too was the instigator of ordering more staging, thus providing more raking for the choir, and this was a good use of some surplus capital.

The sell-out concert in February was loss-making, as it usually is, but the expense of the professional orchestra justified. The summer concert was profitable, helping our overall financial situation. I would like to thank Julian in his anniversary year for his amazing contribution to that concert. This year we made a little extra from bringing back the provision of drinks and programmes at concerts, much to the audiences’ delight. Again, we have cut down on the costs of publicity and that seems to have had no adverse impact on attendance.

Thanks are due to our Independent Examiner, Jacqueline Bowman, for again auditing our accounts this year.

Kirsten Smith August 2023

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	2021-22 TERM 1	2022-23 TERM 1	2021-22 TERM 2	2022-23 TERM 2	2021-22 TOTALS	2022-23 TOTALS
Receipts
Subscriptions	8,925.00	9,252.50	7,477.50	8,304.00	16,402.50	17,556.50
Concert Tickets	3,121.60	4,731.16	2,251.33	2,280.43	5,372.93	7,011.59
Gift Aid			3,165.00	3,348.23	3,165.00	3,348.23
Concert Refreshments		272.35		200.05		472.40
Programme Sales		320.90		255.00		575.90
Bank Interest	0.91	141.97	20.57	222.85	21.48	364.82
Advertising
Misc.	10.00	5.00	12.37	18.50	22.37	23.50
Total Receipts	12,057.51	14,723.88	12,926.77	14,629.06	24,984.28	29,352.94
Payments
Rehearsals:
Professional Fees	4,265.00	4,433.00	3,880.00	3,689.00	8,145.00	8,122.00
Hire of Hall	809.60	1,445.00	490.00	1,430.00	1,299.60	2,875.00
Music Purchase/Hire/Printing	219.00	652.00	654.25	713.00	873.25	1,365.00
Rehearsal refreshments		57.75		16.90		74.65
Total Rehearsals:	5,293.60	6,587.75	5,024.25	5,848.90	10,317.85	12,436.65
Concerts:
Soloists and Instrumentalists	6,584.75	7,725.07	3,035.00	2,775.00	9,619.75	10,500.07
Hall and Staging	1,160.76	1,192.24	503.16	745.60	1,663.92	1,937.84
Refreshments, Gifts for soloists	209.95	215.50	133.79	241.90	343.74	457.40
Printing, publicity, programmes	218.79	566.00	443.37	559.00	662.16	1,125.00
Total Concerts:	8,174.25	9,698.81	4,115.32	4,321.50	12,289.57	14,020.31
Capital Purchases:
Staging		1,806.99				1,806.99
Sundries	50.04	57.14	82.80	43.80	132.84	100.94
Total Capital Purchases	50.04	1,864.13	82.80	43.80	132.84	1,907.93
One-offs
Duncan's Party, 25years: Gifts, food and drink			453.28
Duncan's Party, 25years: Hall hire and other costs			195.00
Julian's 25th Gift				250.00		250.00
Total One-offs:			648.28	250.00	648.28	250.00
Administration:
Stationary, postage, photocopying	16.05	18.99	0.00		16.05	18.99
Additional/replacement music			19.98	4.90	19.98	4.90
Social	50.87	359.45		121.00	50.87	480.45
Retiring Committee gifts	124.50	36.00			124.50	36.00
Subscription N.A.C.	40.00	53.00			40.00	53.00
Insurance	137.35	175.84			137.35	175.84
John Fletcher	240.00	220.00			240.00	220.00
Sundry, Web	107.09	183.23	184.24	254.63	291.33	437.86
Total Administration:	715.86	1,046.51	204.22	380.53	920.08	1,427.04
Total Payments:	14,233.75	19,197.20	10,074.87	10,844.73	24,308.62	30,041.93
	2,176.24	4,473.32	2,851.90	3,669.78	675.16	688.99

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----- Start of picture text -----
Summary 2021-22 2022-23
Cash Funds brought forward 16,050.48 17,258.72
Add Gift Aid from 2020 899.10
Less o/s invoices 2020 366.02
Surplus/loss 675.16 688.99
Cash funds brought forward 17,258.72 16,569.73
Statement of Assets and Liabilities: July 31st 2022 July 31st 2023
Cash funds
CCLA Account 8,215 11,081.26
NatWest Account 9,042.78 5,488.47
Cash 0.94
Total Assets 17,258.72 16,569.73
Available Assets 17,258.72 16,569.73
----- End of picture text -----

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SCS Annual Report 2023 draft e

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3. Report from the Chair

This is my last report as Chair, after four years in the role. It is also Ki Smith’s last report as Treasurer, after five very efficient and reliable years, and this deserves particular mention. Also standing down at this AGM are Catrin Roberts, as Concert Manager – adding that to her roles over the years as Secretary, Membership Secretary and Chair – Sue Palmer, who has been our Social Secretary, and finally Bran Ebsworth, our Librarian. They all deserve our thanks, as does Jean-Louis Metzger, who stood down earlier in the year as Webmaster.

I hope that by the time of this year’s AGM we will have volunteers to replace all these in their roles. I mention this at the start of my report, because the choir could not function without a committee. This is an obvious fact, but an important one for all to consider. Please keep volunteering. We decided some years ago to set a limit of five years for membership of the committee, so that the committee did not become sclerotic. But it does mean that new blood is required on a regular basis.

Meanwhile thanks are due to the committee members who are remaining on the Committee. They all, as it happens, came fresh to the Committee last year: Keith Young (Secretary), Maria Scott (Membership Secretary) and Julia Wigg (Publicity Coordinator). It has been a pleasure working with them this last year.

Looking back over the year, there are musical and non-musical matters to record.

An important event was the celebration of Julian’s 25 years as our accompanist. We asked him to ‘play for his supper’ at our last rehearsal in St Michael’s when, in exchange for the gift we gave him, he delighted – and, I would say, stunned – us with his rendition of Liszt’s Transcendental Etude no.10, which he went on, two weeks later, to play to great acclaim, along with a Liszt organ piece, at our May concert. He has been a loyal, reliable and expert presence over the years and we are very lucky to have him.

Another notable event was the ‘Invite a Friend’ evening we held at the last rehearsal before Christmas. 20-25 members brought along a friend to rehearse and sing with us Handel’s Zadok the Priest and several Christmas Carols. This was followed by drinks. It was a very enjoyable evening and one we are likely to repeat as an annual event, partly in the hope of recruiting some new members.

The January concert – of Haydn’s Nelson Mass and Handel’s Coronation Anthems – was well attended and well received. It was a pleasure as ever to be accompanied by the Instruments of Time and Truth and our excellent young soloists. The May concert – of Liszt and others – was with a reduced choir but a typically-sized audience for a summer concert. In spite of some misgivings among choir members about some of the music, the final performance was enjoyed by all as the music came alive with the addition of the soloists, both in their own right and when they sang among the choir for the Liszt Mass. As mentioned earlier, Julian’s performances were also memorable.

That our finances have remained strong means that we can afford an expanded Instruments of Time and Truth for the winter concert of Mozart and Purcell, as well as an outstanding soloist in Gareth Brynmor John for the summer concert of Brahms and Vaughan Williams. A year of some very fine music lies ahead.

On the practical front, this year has seen a much appreciated solution to the question of the cold at St Michael’s. The church agreed to our using two mounted and portable radiant heaters. These we were able to acquire free of charge from a church in Paddington that was upgrading its heating. We have subsequently gifted them to the church.

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The other important practical change was the acquisition of an extra tier of staging. The firm that made the original staging, which we bought some years ago, went out of business. But we were fortunate in being able to have the new tier produced locally at a good price.

Another important change was alto, Emma Britton’s, volunteering to act as Web Support. This has made a great difference to the Chair’s role in particular and we are very grateful to her. At the same time I would like to thank all the choir members who helped over the year, with drinks at social events and concerts, and with the organisation of the concerts: as front of house (in some cases involving family members), the erection and dismantling of the staging, and other practical tasks. And then there are our proficient and talented programme-note writers, Valerie Worth (soprano) and Julia Wigg (soprano), our Publicity Coordinator. We are grateful to the ever-reliable Tom Kempton (bass) for all his help at St Andrew’s, as well as to Martin Berry (bass), who manages all things staging.

And finally thanks are due to Simon Wratten (bass) and his wife, Carol, for the use of their lovely house and garden for the summer party a week after the May concert. About 50 members and partners attended, it was a warm evening, the food was glorious and the singing very passable, including the usual The long day closes and Torrents in summer .

In concluding, I would like to thank Duncan on behalf of the whole choir for communicating his musicality so effectively to us again this year – I am struck by members’ pleasure and surprise, which I share, about how well we end up performing on concert day. But I would also like to thank him personally for his great support to me in my position as Chair these last years. His open-mindedness and enthusiasm and his commitment to the choir have made working with him very enjoyable.

Philip Booth Chair

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