TRUSTEES REPORT by KIRSTEEN RUSSELL
1 SEPTEMBER 2024 - 31 AUGUST 2025
The principal office bearers were elected at the AGM of 21st February 2025 . They are: Chair: Catherine MacNeil Secretary: Louise Holling, Treasurer: Kirsteen Russell with Sandra Macleod , Dolina Grant, Kirsteen Keir, Kirsty Bethune taking on the roles of ordinary members.
Fèis na h-Òige, whose principal aims include the promotion of Gaelic arts, heritage and language and the provision of opportunities for children and young people in those areas, continues to offer throughout the year a series of regular Saturday workshops in traditional music, song, dance and drama, as well as the week long Fèis. We also offer after school singing activities.
We had another busy year at Fèis na h-Òige.
Saturday workshops were back in full swing and we ran 7 this year with the participant numbers building as the year went on. Our Main fèis week was enjoyed by 93 children with 34 of those in Fèis bheag which is a great sign for future years as they progress up to Fèis mhòr.
Còisir and Seinn classes which run after school in term time were very much in demand. We secured another tutor so were able to open up another Seinn class bringing the numbers of children attending every Monday to just over 90.. We also enjoyed getting out and about with performances and competitions at the local and national Mòds, various other concerts and The Gathering festival. Ceòl our teenage choir continued to get busier with the new S1s joining after October. We also started a new fortnightly class with funding from Bord na Gaidhlig which has been a success.
In expenditure terms the largest item is tutor fees. This provides much needed and valuable work for traditional musicians, many of whom have themselves come through Feisean as children. This coming full-circle of talented youngsters through to professional musicians and highly skilled and qualified tutors, is one of the success stories of the Feisean movement .Again we have had the added expense of venue hire which had previously been free. This amounted to £6116.
luckily we managed to secure quite a bit of grant funding this year which totalled £13315. This is considerably up on previous years. Other forms of income came from fundraising. donations and instrument hire.
The year, therefore, closed at the end of August 2025 with a closing balance at the bank of £32473.98