Phoenix Theatre
Drama Workshop, New Street, STORNOWAY, ISLE OF LEWIS, HS1 2JJ
AGM Held at the drama workshop on 17[th] March 2026 19:00
Chaired by: Kay Falconer
Minutes by: Debbie McKie
Present : Esther Abraila, Robyn Bayly, Julia Connolly, Scarlett Fox, Lily Hothersall, Tina Irwin, Jayden Jacks, Aimee Kay, Mairi-Alice, MacDonald, Chris Mackenzie, Callum Macleod, D.I. Macleod, Catriona McCluskey, Ash Ross-Jordan, Ezra Ross-Jordan, Barnaby Smith, Dawn Tiernan
Apologies: Chloe Dempsey, Ro Fletcher, Dee Jones, Andrew Hothersall, Dave Rattray, Morag Smith
Agenda:
1. Chair’s Report
2. Treasurer’s Report
3. Fundraising Report
4. Secretary’s Report
5. Youth Report
6. Election of Trustees
7. AOCB
Chair Report
Kay Falconer read the chair’s report which has been attached as appendix 1
Treasurer’s Report
Scarlett Fox read the treasurer’s report which has been attached as appendix 2
Fundraising Report
Lily Hothersall and Dawn Tiernan gave an overview of the year’s fundraising ventures attached as appendix 3
Secretary’s Report
Debbie McKie read the secretary’s report which is attached as appendix 4
Youth Report
Debbie McKie read the youth report which has been attached as appendix 5
Election of Trustees
Kay informed those present that in accordance with our constitution, all trustees must stand down at each AGM but may stand for re-election.
Julia Connolly was nominated by Lily Hothersall and seconded by Aimee Kay
Aimee Kay was nominated by Kay Falconer and seconded by Julia Connolly
Debbie McKie was nominated by Robyn Bayly and seconded by Aimee Kay
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Scarlett Fox was nominated by Debbie McKie and seconded by Aimee Kay
Catriona McCluskey was nominated by Debbie McKie and seconded by Aimee Kay
Barnaby Smith was nominated by Lily Hothersall and seconded by Callum Macleod
Kay Falconer was nominated by Robyn Bayly and seconded by Scarlett Fox
Callum Macleod was nominated by Kay Falconer and seconded by Lily Hothersall
A vote was then held and the new members of the board were named as:
Aimee Kay, Debbie McKie, Catriona McCluskey, Julia Connolly, Kay Falconer, and Barnaby Smith.
AOCB
Catriona encouraged members to follow the club’s Facebook and Instagram pages. And suggested the need for more posts on social media: photos of AGMs, rehearsals, etc. Aimee added ways of conquering the Facebook algorithm by sharing, liking and commenting and suggested making a WhatsApp group to alert people to when a new post had been created.
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Appendix 1
CHAIRPERSON’S REPORT TO AGM OF PHOENIX THEATRE COMPANY 17TH MARCH, 2026.
The last AGM was held on March 12[th] 2025 at which time the following people were elected as Trustees- Kay Falconer, Debbie McKee, Lily Hothersall, Scarlett Fox, Dawn Tiernan and Catriona Hill.
So far so much the same except for one name change, Catriona Hill now being known as Catriona McCluskey!
Morag Smith was co-opted to continue as temporary Treasurer and Dee Jones as In-house Drama Adviser.
I do not intend to give you a blow-by-blow account of all the meetings throughout the year. The minutes of the meetings are available for all to read in detail if you so desire.
What I intend is to give you an overview of the year’s work, our achievements, our failures and so you can see what more needs to be done.
We held our first Trustee meeting on 25[th] of March last year, at which the office bearers were elected.
A few weeks later Morag attended a trustee meeting where she handed over the accounts into Scarlett’s more than capable hands. Scarlett will be giving us a report on our finances shortly.
It was suggested that we should keep an Action Log, which would be updated after each meeting to keep a record of all actions, to whom they were assigned and a note of when these had been completed. Scarlett set this up on the Google Drive and while we all thought this was a great idea, I have to admit we fell by the wayside when it came to completing it. I have a copy of it here, hurriedly filled in for this meeting, and I would encourage future trustees to make use of it. It would make compiling of reports much easier, rather than trawling through all the minutes as I have been doing.
We continue to make improvements to the building and the surroundings. The resurfacing of the driveway was completed by McLennan’s in June, followed by the railings down the side of the wall by I.M. Murray in August. A chain and cone were purchased in an attempt to stop use of the driveway by visitors to KIWI garage opposite and this seems to have been quite successful but the chain does need to be replaced when a driver leaves these premises!
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Grit box and salt at top of driveway for icy conditions in the winter, and new sandbags for the roller door were purchased.
The basement is extremely damp and unsuitable for storage of a lot of items, and space is at a premium in here. An area where water was gathering then seeping into the basement has been dug out and cemented over. A dehumidifier was used in the basement for 8 weeks, gathering about 1 gallon of water per day. Ultimately the plan would be to ‘tank’ – thick layer of concrete in the basement- and a couple of vents to the outside. Hopefully this will be done in the next few months.
Other areas of improvement that have been identified are to have a new roller door, and a new fire door at the side. More about that later from Dawn and Lily.
Annie Parkin is to paint a sign for the side of the wee shed, to let everyone know we are here.
If anyone is concerned about the flattened fence between us and Action Aid, do not be. I am very happy to report that that is their fence. They are planning a big overhaul of the whole back area this spring and they have the funds to do it. All they want from us is access to the site.
I’ll now call upon our treasurer to bring us up-to-date with the club’s finances.
TREASURER’S REPORT
FUND-RAISING REPORT
The current economic and austerity climate means that many grant funding organisations are moving to funding more social and welfare orientated projects. Also many organisations are looking to fund green initiatives.
Therefore, there are more organisations bidding for grants and funding organisations priorities have changed. However we will continue to apply for grants as we become aware of them or are made aware of them. Also going forward we will be looking at methods of fundraising other than grant applications Therefore we would ask any member to email the Phoenix Theatre email address at weephoenixtheatre@gmail.com if they are aware of any grant schemes or have any suggestions of other methods of fundraising.
Lily Hothersall and Dawn Tiernan
Trustees
SECRETARY’S REPORT.
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One other area of focus this year has been to review and update the policies we established in the year 24-25, the idea being to make them more succinct and ensure they were suited to the needs of the company. Also, this should make this easier for any subsequent trustee boards as these policies will only need to be reviewed every 2 years, or if there is any change in national legislation and that should be a very quick process,
We have established some templates to ease future burdens
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for funding applications- thank you Dawn- most of the information needed when applying is already there.
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a template for meeting agendas.
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A Loans log- for keeping track of costumes lent out and to any income from this.
Okay thats’s enough about the trustees.
Congratulations to Lily’s group who competed in the one act play competition in Plockton a few weeks ago, coming 2[nd] and through to the next round in Wick this coming weekend. Very good luck to you all.
And very well done indeed to the group from the youth group, in their first competition. They did extremely well and we should all be extremely proud of them.
And may I say what a pleasure it was for me to be there and to witness the camaraderie between the two groups and the way they supported and encouraged each other. It all augurs very well for the future.
And last, but most certainly not least, we had the panto in December. Yet again it was a great success, and thanks to all both on and off stage who contributed to this. Aimee Kay took over the ticketing duties for the school groups, introducing a new method of doing so which proved very successful. Thank you Aimee. You’ll get to do that again!
When we have completed this AGM, the rest of the evening will be given over to further discussion by all for panto 2026, but before we do that I’d just like to tackle some rumours that were brought to my attention recently. At no time was it ever said, by the trustees or anyone else as far as I am aware, that we would not be putting on a panto this year. We certainly had a few discussions around the subject, as I am sure you would expect, wondering if it were to be possible, and considering any other options, and I think it was only reasonable and prudent to do so but these sorts of decisions cannot be made by the trustees, nor should they be. The final
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decisions need to come from the membership and from the level of enthusiasm we witnessed at our meeting on February 2[nd] , if that is maintained, then it’s in good hands.
Election of board of Trustees.
It was suggested back at our first meeting last March that the election of office bearers would be better done at the time of the AGM and while that initially seemed a good idea, and after further discussion recently, we decided that that would be rather unfair to ask any new trustee to take on a role they may know little about. With this in mind, I would suggest that the first meeting of the new board of trustees should take place within 2 weeks of this meeting. Also, one of the topics that has been suggested for discussion fairly early on is an amendment to the constitution to introduce ‘fixed term’ limits for trustees, so ensuring changing faces and new ideas coming forward.
And now, as proscribed in our constitution, all current trustees will stand down, and I’d now like to invite nominations for these posts. Please remember the nominee must be proposed by one person and seconded by another.
Appendix 2 PHOEN IX THEA TRE Registered Charity SC052133 ACCOUNTS - 24/25 Prepared by - Scarlett Fox. Treasu rer Total Income Total Expenditu re £17,593.72 £16,435.68 Cash in bank - 31/10/2024 £7.962.05 Cash In bank - 3L/IO/2025 £9,713.96
PROFIT Total Income £17,593.72 Income Report Sour¢È IhcomÈ P•nt¢ ITi¢k•tSil•s. Rilll•s. N1r¢h$. •t¢ 0.0810 4ihsth Youth Show lTIcketSa. R8ffie8. Èt£) £2.7S&82 Adult Subs £1I)49.32 Youth sb$ Grants £1.500 ODnabon5 leasyfundrg15ing. 5CDikatcl 7S.4S SYY4 Eqviprn•nt Hir• £400 Oth•r Icostknm• SI$. •tcl Tptlll £J7.S93.72 Increase in group ticket sales for Panto over last accounts period Increase in both Adult and Youth Subs over last accounts period Decrease tn awarded grants over last accounts period Decrease in donations over last accounts period Grants recieved went towards improvements to the studio, none being carried over to 25/26
LOSS Total Expenditure £16,435.68 Expense Report Pnnto (Expense4 Vnn Hire. VeDue. etcl -£4.255.65 Youth Shuw IExp•ns•s. V•nu•. •tcl -£1,756.52 V Drama F•5tival ITravDL AE£omodation, ?t -£507.97 Studb Work -£8.289.87 -£379.44 Energy -£689 Subscrlptlons ISCDA W•bslt•, •tc} -E164.04 othr {PrIntiÉ. AdrtIsèmént •tcl -£297.16 Total Exp•n5e5 .6.435.68 Panto expenses down over last accounts period Youth expenses up over last account5 period Energy expenses up over last accounts period, with potential for greater increse Studio work up over last accounts period. using the last of the grant5 awarded to us in 23/24.
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Appendix 3
FUND-RAISING REPORT
The following is an update for the membership of Phoenix Theatre of the fundraising activities undertaken since the AGM on 12[th] March 2025 to date.
| Funding Organisation | What we applied for | How much we applied for |
Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| Screwfix Foundation | Disability Act compliant Handrail for the driveway |
£2,689.06 | Unsuccessful |
| Coastal Communities Funding 2025-26 via CNES |
Disability Act compliant Handrail for the driveway |
£2,689.06 but asking for £5000 which is the minimum grant (increased steel costs) |
Successful and awarded £1,500. |
| Western Isles Development Trust Small Grants Fund |
Funding to take two Teams to Plockton in February 2026 to the SCDA One Act Play Competition and possibly beyond. |
£1,500 | Unsuccessful |
| Hugo Burge Foundation | Funding to take two Teams to Plockton in February 2026 to the SCDA One Act Play Competition and possibly beyond |
Unsuccessful | |
| Guild of Drama Adjudicators |
Towards travel expenses for the youth group going to Plockton |
£100 | Successful |
| NHS Western Isles Capital Grant |
New Doors and Roller Door |
£5232 | Successful |
Unsuccessful Pending Successful
Appcndix 4 Phoenix Theatre Secretary Report March 2026 Total Members Total Subs 60 f 150 2113.64 t 290/. Membership Distribution Subs Distribution Adult 27% 25% S•nlor Youth 48% senior Youth 49% Youth 26% Youth 25% Membership Growth 25 20 15 io
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Appendix 5
Youth Section Report March 2025 – February 2026
Phoenix Theatre’s Youth Section has had an incredibly productive year to date:
In March 2025, we performed a full length adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz in an Lanntair for two audiences which was very well received and garnered attention from both adults and children wanting to join Phoenix.
An Lanntair was host to Wonder Fools’ Positive Stories for Negative Times Festival in June of 2025 and our youth section were honoured to be invited to take part. A selection of the youth group performed Are You A Robot by Tim Crouch and were able to watch other youth groups perform as well. During the festival, we were also able to take part in workshops such as movement, song writing, puppeteering, and voice. It was exciting to have such an opportunity come to our community and to meet groups from other areas of the country.
August 2025 saw a split of the youth group to make one P4-P7 group and one S1-S6 group, to allow for more members to join. In spite of this, there is still a waiting list.
Since October 2025, each group has been working towards a one act play for performance at the end of March 2026. The Juniors will be performing Jabberwocky by Tony Best, while the Seniors will be tackling Alice , a one act version of the classic tale by Lewis Carroll, written by Lindsay Price. A selection from the Senior Section will also be performing Camel Dung and Cloves by Dara Murphy.
February 2026 saw the first foray of the over 16s from the Senior section to Plockton to take part in the SCDA Open Festival where they performed Sweep Under Rug by Lindsay Price. Although they did not place in the competition they received a fantastic response from the audience, adjudicator and fellow thespians alike and are wholeheartedly looking forward to next year.
Watch this Space!