The Friends of the Britannia Panopticon Music Hall Trust
Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on Wednesday 19th August 2015 at 6.30 p.m.
1. Chairman’s Opening Remarks
Chairman Robin Cameron thanked everyone for turning up despite the awful weather, and was very pleased to see the return of the stage, saying it looked fantastic. He was very sorry for what he felt had been a lack of help in the last while.
2. Apologies for Absence
Apologies had been received from John Addison who was at work in Aberdeen and unable to attend this meeting.
3. Minutes of the 2014 Annual General Meeting.
Minutes were read out by Judith Bowers
Ann Metcalfe expressed concern that the previous year we had not been quorate. However this had been resolved as Robin Cameron, John Addison, Tom Malone and Nick Barrett had been in attendance. Ann claimed that she had not received correspondence to confirm this, and cited this as the reason that she had not brought the 2013 minutes with her to the 2014 AGM.
Judith stated that last year’s annual report was available upon request and urged anyone who wished to receive a copy to request it from her.
The shop takings had been down slightly from last year, but this was due to the fact that scaffolding had surrounded the shop front for some time due to building works in the area.
Matters Arising from the Minutes
The minutes were a good record of what had been said at the previous meeting, and all present were happy that all points that had been plausible to achieve had been attained throughout the year. There were no questions.
Presentation of Reports for 2014: (a) Annual Report
(b) Shop Report
(c) Accounts
All reports were available for viewing upon request.
Chairman’s Statement
Robin Cameron extended his thanks to all the trustees he had worked with over the years, and said thank you for the whiskey with which Judith had presented him in gratitude for his efforts as Chairman. Nick Barrett personally thanked Robin for all the help he had provided over the years and for being a wonderful friend. Robin was resigning to allow Nick Barrett to take his place.
7. Ratification of the Interim Trustees
Interim Trustees (Nick Barrett, Mike Fraser, Graham Hunter and John Addison) had been appointed to enable the organisation to move forward with the proposed changes and, in particular, the formation of the new SCIO body which was expected to be established early in the New Year. Most members had agreed to the new setup with only one or two exceptions. Robin asked the members present to formally ratify the existing interim trustees and this was unanimously agreed. It was however also agreed that the trust would need to be expanded further to include important skillsets which were not currently represented. A TAG (technical advisory group), to be headed by John Addison, is being discussed.
At this point Robin Cameron (the retiring Chairman) handed over the Chair of the meeting to the newly ratified Chair of Trustees Nick Barrett to conduct the remainder of the business.
Election of Other Officials
At this time there were to be no additions to the trust. A new accountant had been appointed (Tim Alter of Alterledger Ltd) to replace the existing accountants Martin Aitken & co. Tim had been engaged and had trained Stacey in the use of Xero, a bookkeeping package. He was to be engaged with immediate effect, and had already been doing the payroll for a very low fee.
Applications for Licences
Our Alcohol/Entertainments & Market traders licence had been applied for now that we had suitable toilet facilities & fire exits. The alcohol licence would include the entertainments licence and will cost £3000 after we are given a £1000 discount from our solicitor Steven MacGowan, who wished to use us as a test case (hence the discount – he was dropping his personal fee).
With the market traders licence, we would be able to run proper markets and charge for stalls, and would be able to utilize the New Wynd. Jim Adams had inspected s for health and safety and had been very happy with the progress we had made, enabling us to increase our capacity from 60 to 120. He remained unhappy regarding the bar licence however, and had said he would prefer to see another two urinals in the men’s toilets and another cubicle in the ladies, however these things should be negotiable. Judith stated that alcohol would only be available at adult shows, strengthening our case further.
In relation to the alcohol licence, Gerald Michaluk of Arran Breweries was considering creating a beer for us, aptly named Booby Beer! It would feature our logo, the booby lady, and a small amount of info about the music hall, with a percentage of each unit sold going to us.
10. Update on Current Projects
Nick stated that the annual report clearly demonstrated that the project was flying ahead, as detailed in pages 10 & 11. He felt that we are almost at a point where we can hold full sized shows.
Judith stated that once the Alcohol and entertainments licence had been put in place, we would be in a position where larger professional companies could use our facilities. Our small capacity would mean that we would not have large crowds, however the sale of drinks would pull in a good income.
Judith also stated that the Conservatoire were using us as an educational facility - they wanted to get their students involved in various projects such as the proscenium arch, the apron, scenery etc as part of their curriculum. They'd be learning about the old technical side of things such as the old pulley systems, as well as learning how to project without aids, as well as learning the history of music hall. Also, the new toilets meant that we could now have schools in!
11. Proposed Changes to the Britannia Panopticon Management Structure
Nick explained that we had spent a lot of time and effort working out the details of the proposed new management structure. The format of the SCIO would consist of a single united body, and all legal responsibilities would rest with the trustees rather than the friends. A Friends Committee would exist but not in the same manner as before, serving only to coordinate the activities of the Friends such as fund raising for the project.
The existing constitution was currently unfit for purpose and needed to be replaced but would remain in force for the time being. A new constitution, appropriate to the SCIO which we are seeking to become had been drafted and offered to the members for approval.
Because of time constraints a postal/email consultation with all members had been carried out, rather than holding a formal EGM, to seek members’ approval for all the foregoing . Nick thanked everyone who had responded, with a total of 29 votes, of which 27 had voted Yes and 2 had said No. He reminded all present of the statement in the consultative letter that members who did not vote and did not attend this meeting would be assumed to be in favour of the proposed changes. Accordingly therefore the changes will now go ahead. With regard to the timescale it would be the end of the year at least before they were fully implemented.
Mike Fraser (trustee) wished to congratulate Nick on getting the new constitution and SCIO application dealt with, and felt it had been handled exceptionally well.
12. Any Other Business
Mike F asked whether the Mitchells had provided any feedback regarding the project, to which Judith was pleased to tell them that Wade and the rest of the family were very happy with the progress we've been making. Wade had been popping up to see us regularly.
There remained the issue of the state of the windows, as they would need to be re-braced. We should be able to get a little more funding to deal with this.
Graham Hunter asked where it was possible to view the constitution. Nick replied that it was available to view on the website.
Janet Muir asked what would be happening with the names on planks, to which Judith replied that they had all been sold and would have the names inscribed once the season had ended. Janet expressed concern that donors would not be able to see their names, but was reassured that there would be a chart drawn up detailing where everyone’s name is, and that we would hold an open day for viewing. People could also request to see them on other occasions.
Peter Crilly thanked all the volunteers for helping him integrate into the team, and was very happy to be part of the project.
13. Closing Remarks
A big thank you was expressed to everyone who had made the effort to attend this meeting. The attendance had been our best yet, and we will hopefully continue like this for many to come.
Friends of the Britannia Panopticon Music Hall Trust
1st Floor
117 Trongate
Glasgow
G1 5HD
0141 553 0840