Westerton Male Voice Choir Scottish Charity No. 047962
www.wmvc.scot
Trustees’ Report and Receipts and Payments Account for the year ended 31 July 2025
Westerton Male Voice Choir – Trustees Report & Accounts
Contents
Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 3 Reference and Administration information ........................................................................................ 3 Current Trustees and Trustees who served during the year ................................................................. 3 Current Trustees........................................................................................................................... 3 Other Trustees who served during the year .................................................................................... 3 Structure, Governance & Management .............................................................................................. 4 Constitution ................................................................................................................................. 4 Appointment of Trustees .............................................................................................................. 4 Management ............................................................................................................................... 4 Objectives and Activities ................................................................................................................... 5 The Choir’s Charitable Purposes .................................................................................................... 5 Membership ................................................................................................................................. 5 Musical Director and Musical Accompanist ........................................................................................ 5 Activities, achievements and performances ....................................................................................... 6 Rehearsals and Musical development ............................................................................................ 6 Public performances ..................................................................................................................... 6 Social activities............................................................................................................................. 7 Social media................................................................................................................................. 7 Investment ................................................................................................................................... 7 Board meetings ............................................................................................................................ 8 Charitable support ........................................................................................................................ 8 Outlook and appreciation ................................................................................................................. 8 Receipts and Payment accounts and bank balances............................................................................ 9 Independent Examiner’s report ....................................................................................................... 10 Trustee Certification ........................................................................................................................ 11
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Westerton Male Voice Choir — Trustees Report & Accounts
Introduction
The Trustees have pleasure in presenting their report for the charity for the year ended 31 July 2025 together with the Receipts and Payments Account and the Independent Examiner's Report.
Reference and Administration information
Charity name: Westerton Male Voice Choir —_ number: SC—
Current Trustees and Trustees who served during the year
None
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Westerton Male Voice Choir – Trustees Report & Accounts
Structure, Governance & Management
Constitution
The Charity is an incorporated Association. It is governed by a constitution which was adopted on 12 September 2017. The organisation was granted charitable status by OSCR on 1 December 2017.
Appointment of Trustees
Membership of the Board is open to all Members of the Choir in line with the Constitution. Under the Constitution there must be a minimum of five and a maximum of ten Trustees. The Board can appoint a Trustee at any time to fill a vacancy. All Trustees retire from office at the Annual General Meeting but are eligible for re-election.
Management
The choir has had another very successful season, with six ‘sold out’ concerts at Christmas and Spring and another very well-received tour of the Highlands in May.
Our financial position remains healthy and sustainable, and our membership reached a record level of 73 men during the year, including one honorary life member.
The Board of Trustees manages the activities of the Choir and together with the Musical Director, is responsible for the strategic direction of the Choir and for its dayto-day activities.
Each Trustee has responsibility for developing and reporting on an area of the Choir’s operations.
The Trustees are particularly aware of their responsibilities for Health and Safety and engage with the membership to ensure that the Choir’s activities are carried out safely.
The Board meets formally at least three times a year and more frequently if required. The Musical Director attends the Board Meetings by invitation.
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Westerton Male Voice Choir – Trustees Report & Accounts
Objectives and Activities
The Choir’s Charitable Purposes
The advancement of the arts, heritage, culture or science by the promotion of male choral singing and related music through the practice and performance of public concerts, recitals and making recordings, with a view to furthering the appreciation of the genre.
The Choir shall deliver its core purpose through activities in its core area of Westerton (North-west Glasgow), as well as throughout Scotland and any other places it chooses. This will be done in co-operation with local authorities, like-minded choirs and music festivals, all with the objective of promoting male choral singing.
The Choir shall seek to support charitable purposes. This will be at the discretion of the Board of Trustees and will take the form of promoting fund-raising for the chosen charity at any particular time. Such activities will be financially separate from the core activities of the Choir.
Membership
There were no resignations during the year and nine new members joined, resulting in a record active membership at the year end of seventy-three men.
Musical Director and Musical Accompanist
The Choir is delighted to retain the services of as our Musical Director and as Accompanist. Both are enthusiastic, professional and fully committed to the choir, and we recognise the intrinsic role they play in the success of the choir.
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Westerton Male Voice Choir – Trustees Report & Accounts
Activities, achievements and performances
Rehearsals and Musical development
The Choir has regular rehearsals at Kessington Hall on Monday evenings, from September to April, totalling around 30 per year.
The venue has excellent stage facilities which we have been able to hire from the hall providers, DCB Kessington and we have access to designated storage space for our audio & video equipment.
Public performances
Resulting from our partnership with the charity ‘Playlist For Life’, the choir were delighted to be able to sing with Scottish band ‘The Bluebells’ in Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum, as part of National Playlist for Life Day.
At Christmas the Choir was once again invited to participate in the ‘Light up a Life’ service, in support of The Prince & Princess of Wales Hospice, in the beautiful St. Andrew’s Cathedral in Glasgow. This is always a favourite with choir members.
In December we also performed at several pre-Christmas events, including; the Westerton Christmas Lights Switch On, Braehead Shopping Centre, Beatson WellBeing Centre and a few members appeared on Heart Radio prior to Christmas.
The Choir once again performed our ‘Spirit of Christmas’ concert, entertaining record audiences of almost nine hundred and fifty, across three concerts , whilst raising a substantial sum for our chosen charity. The Christmas concert was also ‘livestreamed’, allowing supporters around the world to see and hear the choir performing.
Regrettably, our annual ‘Shall Brothers Be’ concert was cancelled at short notice due to severe storms, which had resulted in the closure of the council-owned venue, Kilmardinny House.
Our annual Spring concert was themed ‘Silver’, to mark Musical Director Bryan Marshall’s 25 year association with the choir. All three concerts at Kessington Hall, were ‘sold out’.
In May the Choir returned to The Highlands for our third self-funded and selforganised tour. The tour saw the Choir perform to appreciative audiences in Inverness & Strathpeffer, with ‘pop-up’ performances in Inverness and Aviemore.
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Westerton Male Voice Choir – Trustees Report & Accounts
Social activities
Our walking group, ‘The Walking Warblers’, met on two occasions this season.
Our golfing section organised three well-attended outings this summer.
Our Chairman hosted three snooker nights.
The popular ‘Open Mic’ singing sessions, at which members perform solo songs of their choice via ‘Zoom’, continued on a monthly basis. These informal evenings continue to provide an opportunity for choir members to challenge themselves with a variety of genres and boost their confidence at solo singing.
Our Awards Ceremony was held at the Annual Dinner in May. Service Awards were presented to the following members:
10 years –
The prestigious Norman Shepherd Award was presented to , a longstanding member of the choir.
The ‘Dugald Macfarlane Award’ for outstanding contribution was awarded to , in recognition of his significant contribution to our successful stage performances and Highland Tour.
The Music Director’s Award was presented to , a stalwart of the Baritone section and a member of the choir’s ‘Tech Team’.
Social media
The Choir recognises the importance of social media in its promotion and development. One Trustee assists the Musical Director in this regard.
The Choir supports a number of WhatsApp chat groups.
Investment
Over £1,500 was spent on equipment during the year, mainly on audio/visual items to enhance our live performances..
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Westerton Male Voice Choir – Trustees Report & Accounts
Board meetings
The Board of Trustees held four meetings during the year.
The Annual General Meeting of the Choir was held on 25[th] August 2025.
Charitable support
The first year of the choir’s two year support of ‘Playlist For Life’ was highly successful, with a record annual fund-raising total achieved, including £3,000 raised by four choir members who completed the annual ‘Kiltwalk’.
As part of the choir’s charitable purpose to promote male voice singing, funding of around £850 was provided to The Semitones, a small choir ,currently consisting wholly of members from WMVC. The Semitones provide an important service to the local community by regularly performing at Care Homes throughout East Dunbartonshire, raising nearly £700 for charity in the process.
Outlook
The Choir has enjoyed a very successful season, performing eight concerts in total, entertaining around 1800 people and raising over £12,500 for our chosen charity in the process.
The Choir continues to ‘buck the trend’ with increasing membership numbers, at a time when many male voice choirs are struggling and indeed many have ceased to exist. The Board of Trustees and our Musical Director have expressed an interest in being involved in an initiative to investigate the decline of male voice singing, led by , a renown Scottish musical director.
Having existed for over sixty-five years, the Board is committed to the continuing development and welfare of choir members and to ensuring that it meets its Charitable Purpose. The Board and Musical Director have begun initial planning for the choir’s 70[th] anniversary in 2027.
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Westerton Male Voice Choir – Trustees Report & Accounts
Receipts and Payment accounts and bank balances
| WMVC Receipts and Payments Account for the year to 31st. July 2025 Member Subscriptions Gift Aid Donations (inc. net raffle proceeds) Christmas Concerts (Professional Fees incl.) Spring Concerts (Professional Fees incl.) Misc. Choir Gigs (incl. Professional Fees) Charity Concert (incl. Professional Fees) Highland Tour (Incl. professional fees) Support for Semitones Uniforms & Ties Tea Break donations & cost of supplies Sponsorship & Advertising income Prof. Fees (excl. H/Tour, concerts & gigs) Storage costs Administration and Miscellaneous MM subscription & insurance Rehearsals Equipment & consumables Music Marketing & Recruitment costs Workshops Choir development & welfare Annual Dinner & Awards Due to Charity PRS fees Total Surplus/(Deficit) of Income over Expenditure |
Receipts in Payments in the period the period £ £ 9480 2348 1312 10540 4599 5835 3239 0 3595 0 155 19957 20834 0 853 2628 2597 509 218 0 0 8557 260 0 0 566 1766 1552 853 610 0 100 1620 2607 9145 9345 0 619 0 63374 62925 449 |
|---|---|
| Bank Balance at 1st August 2024 5274 Add: Receipts year to July 2025 63374 Deduct: Payments made year to July 2025 62925 Bank Balance at 30th. June 2025 5723 |
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Westerton Male Voice Choir
Registered Charity No. SC 047962
| report on the accounts ofthe charity for the period from 1* August 2024 to 31 July 2025 which are set out on page 9.
Respective responsibilities of trustees and examiner
The charity's trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the terms of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006. The charity trustees consider that the audit requirement of Regulation 10(1) (d) of the 2006 Accounts Regulations does not apply. It is my responsibility to examine the accounts as required under section 44(1) of the Act and to state whether particular matters have come to my attention.
Basis of independent examiner's statement
My examination is carried out in accordance with Regulation 11 of the 2006 Accounts Regulations. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts and seeks explanations from the trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit, and consequently | do not express an audit opinion on the view given by the accounts.
Independent examiner's statement
In the course of my examination no matter has come to my attention:
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which gives me reasonable cause to believe that in any material respect the requirements:
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¢ to keep accounting records in accordance with Section 44(a) of the 2005 Act and Regulation 4 of the 2006 Accounts Regulations
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e to prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records and comply with Regulation 9 of the 2006 Accounts Regulations have not been met, or
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to which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
This report and that of the Independent Examiner have been approved by the Board of Trustees of the Westerton Male Voice Choir.