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2025-08-31-accounts

EDINBURGH CONCERT BAND

Annual General Meeting for the year September 2024 to August 2025

Held at St Brides Centre, 10 Orwell Terrace, Edinburgh on Tuesday 30[th] September 2025

Attended by ECB members, including the Musical Director and 10 committee members

Minutes of the meeting

  1. The minutes of the 2024 ECB AGM were approved

  2. a. Proposed – Rosie Ellison

  3. b. Seconded – Marysia Holmes

  4. Annual report from the Chair and Musical Director

Musical Director’s Report

Another good year for the band in 2025 with strong membership and balanced sections with a few new members joining from the waiting list. The band performed to a good standard with three well attended and musically varied concerts across the year. As always, a huge commitment from members and plenty hard work and commitment from everyone to maintain a good standard of performance and level of enjoyment.

Fiona Anderson continues to monitor the band waiting list and we have recently reviewed section numbers to invite new members to join for the start of the new band year (September 2025).

St. Brides continues to be a good rehearsal venue and despite some challenges over the last year we have managed to maintain a good relationship with our council contact and the St. Brides committee who are very keen that we continue to use the space. We enjoyed another two successful concerts in St. Brides again this year. The setting works well, is accessible and impacts positively on the band finances and the St. Brides Centre as a community hub. As always, we are grateful to St. Brides for accommodating us and continuing to look out for the band on our behalf with regards to the storage and safety of our equipment.

Christmas 2024

The band performed the Christmas Concert at our usual venue, Greyfriars Kirk in which we premiered a piece by local composer Callum Huseyin. This was made possible by a very generous donation to the band to allow us to research and commission a local, up and coming composer to write a piece of music for Edinburgh Concert Band. The commission process was steered by a small subcommittee and once our candidate was chosen the band enjoyed input, rehearsals, and discussion with our composer as the piece was developed. We played to a good audience and a ‘Concert of Two Halves’ was well received with our first half finishing with the commission and the second half given over to a full festive programme with great feedback from our audience members. We continue to have a good working relationship with Greyfriars staff who are very accommodating and enjoy having the band to perform. Concert dates for this venue are secured 2 years in advance, and I believe we are given first refusal on the final Saturday before Christmas every year. This remains an excellent venue for our Christmas Celebration in a beautiful setting and a different stage to perform on.

Children’s Concert 2025

We performed our yearly children’s concert in early March 2025 at St. Brides. Despite a little uncertainty around similar concerts in Edinburgh the same weekend we played to a reasonable sized audience selling half the ticket capacity. Despite this the concert was well received and fun to play. For the band year 2025/2026 the committee and musical director will give some consideration to the time of year and venue for this concert going forward to maximise audience numbers.

Summer Concert 2025

The summer cabaret concert in June was another great night with our deputy conductor, Kelan Rooney taking the reins for a set of the concert. Working with Kelan and his experience with a range of ensembles is an exciting opportunity for the band.

This concert set up and programme style continues to be a good fit for the band and audience and a lot of fun to play. The audience was full and there was a very sociable atmosphere amongst audience and band members. Once again, there was some challenging repertoire in the programme and the band truly stepped up and performed to make it a good night.

Thank you to all band members once again for all your efforts, commitment, and enthusiasm you give to rehearsals, practise, and concerts. A special thank you to all the committee who have volunteered their time particularly those who are stepping down this year. The band could not run as successfully as it does without the input of all those involved on behalf of everyone to make the rehearsal and concerts run smoothly. I certainly could not do my job without their support throughout the year behind the scenes.

Band Year 2025/2026

Discussions are well under way for the year ahead around new projects and performance opportunities for the band. There has been communication with Community Choir, Love Music about a potential collaboration. We will continue to update the band should this opportunity develops further. Discussions are in the final stages with Royal Scottish Conservatoire alto saxophone student Christopher Lo to programme a concerto with the band at our Christmas concert. Along with our usual yearly concerts’ conversation has also begun around a potential ‘New Composers Concert’ with enquiries being made around an Edinburgh festival performance. As details of any collaborations and concerts progress, we will keep you informed but it looks to be shaping up to be a good year.

Chair’s Report

The band continues to have a full complement of players in all sections, with waiting lists in some areas which Fiona Anderson monitors.

We will be continuing to use our current rehearsal space at St Brides. There have been a couple of instances where our percussion equipment has been moved, but the management committee of St Brides is very supportive of the band and lets other users of the hall know that our equipment is not to be used.

The band’s finances remain healthy, with our main sources of income being subs and our Christmas concert at Greyfriars Church. Our Children’s concert and end of year concert both break even as the costs are much lower with there not being the need to move percussion.

However, last year, St Brides changed the standard evening let times from 730pm until 930pm to 630pm until 830pm. Given that we start our rehearsal at 7, this was cutting down both on playing time and time to chat with other folk in the band at break, which is equally important in a community band.

The committee decided that we would extend our let until 930pm each week so that we can play (and chat) for longer. This, of course comes at an extra cost as we now need to pay for an extra hour in the hall plus an hour’s overtime for the janitor.

As a result, it has been decided that the subs will need to be raised. This is item 3 on your agenda tonight. With this increase, the finances of the band should remain healthy.

There are some exciting events in prospect for the band, including our collaboration with our alto sax soloist at our Christmas concert and the possibility of a concert in the Usher Hall. We will obviously also have our popular end of year cabaret style concert in St Brides.

Our children’s concert this session is going to be postponed and will possibly turn into a suitably spooky Halloween gig instead.

  1. Presentation of the accounts and subscription levels

  2. a. The accounts were unavailable at the AGM. Proposal to issue these when available in October, at which time band members will be given a week to respond with any queries.

    • i Proposed – Andy Towll

    • ii Seconded – Katie Dennison

  3. b. Subscription fees are currently £120 per year (£100 for concessions). Proposal to increase to £160 per year (£120 for concessions) has been agreed. This will come into effect from September 2025.

    • i Proposed – Richard Jones ii Seconded – Sarah Freshwater

  4. Election of the Committee

Proposed – Kellan Rooney Seconded – Oliver Roditi

Under the constitution the Committee is elected at the AGM and holds office for one year.

  1. Committee members resigning:

  2. a. Alysoun Wilson (Chair)

  3. b. Rosie Ellison (Vice Chair)

  4. c. Vicki Fraser (Digital/IT)

  5. d. Matthew Welfare (Social Convener)

  6. e. Seonaid Wilson (Committee Member)

  7. Amendment to committee roles – new roles:

    • a. Publicity Officer (now x2)

    • b. Fundraising & Development Officer

    • c. Community Liaison Officer

  8. New committee members:

    • a. Sarah Murray – Chair

  9. b. Andrew Hall – Vice Chair

  10. c. Lindsay Rowlands – Publicity Officer

  11. d. Erich Zwyssig – Social Secretary

  12. e. Mairi Oliver – Fundraising & Development Officer

  13. f. Judy McCulloch – Community Liaison Officer

Chair Sarah Murray
Vice Chair Andrew Hall
Secretary Elaine Clark
Treasurer Jackie Newsome
Librarian Mike Knox
MembershipSecretary Fiona Anderson
Concert Manager Sinead Tidman
PublicityOfcer LucyJoss
PublicityOfcer LindsayRowlands
Social Secretary Erich Zwyssig
Fundraising& Development Ofcer Mairi Oliver
CommunityLiaison Ofcer JudyMcCulloch
Musical Director(ex ofcio) Sarah Cunningham

  1. Election of the Independent Examiner of Accounts: the nomination of Marysia Holmes was Proposed by Andy Towll and Seconded by Katie Dennison.

  2. Appointment of the Musical Director: the nomination of Sarah Cunningham was Proposed by Alysoun Wilson and Seconded by Elaine Clark.

  3. Constitutional Changes:

  4. a. Proposed – Fiona Anderson

  5. b. Seconded – Andy Towll

    • i Section 3 – Committee – Changed from 5 to 6 members

    • ii Section 6 – Membership – Changed to state ‘age 18+, or at the discretion of the Committee’

    • iii Section 7 – Subscription – Wording added ‘A concessionary rate of subscription shall be available to members in retirement, students and those receiving universal credit or at the discretion of the Committee’

    • iv Section 7 – Subscription – Add wording ‘or at special general meeting’ v Throughout – change ‘Chairman’ to ‘Chair’

  6. Any other business: Formal thank you to Alysoun for her long service as Chair, as well as other outgoing Committee members.