THE OPEN UNIVERSITY CHOIR
Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on Thursday 11th October 2012
1. Apologies
Apologies were received from: Marian Ballance, Anne de Broise, Laurence Holden, Jonathan Hughes, Sally Jones, Jane Maharry, Karen Mason, Ruth McCracken and Vanessa Skelton.
2. Minutes
Minutes of the October 2011 AGM were received and approved as a correct record.
3. Matters Arising
Liz reported that it had been decided to continue with the same dress code for concerts.
Caroline Oliver asked who had decided this and Liz replied that it was a Committee decision.
4. Chair’s Report
The Chair’s report can be found in Appendix 1
The Chair’s Report was proposed by Eleanor Pettigrew and seconded by Gill Smith.
5. Treasurer’s Report
The Accounts had been made available on the OU Choir website.
Vanessa Skelton was unable to attend the meeting as she was ill, but gave her notes to Sally to report:
· The choir didn’t cover its costs last year, but this was a conscious decision, as it was felt that the choir and audience would respond well to putting on Thomas the Rhymer, but we should not ask the Music Fund to foot the entire bill, especially as we had (and still have) a reasonably comfortable cushion in our bank account.
· We have planned next year’s programme to break even
· We have already received our grant from the Music Fund for 2012/13
· Last year we had fewer subs received than the year before. Members should make sure that they are proactive in paying. Members MUST fill in the subscription form as if they don’t we can’t ensure correct recording of receipt of subs.
· Thanks to Eleanor Pettigrew for auditing the accounts
Eleanor Pettigrew reported that she had found the accounts very comprehensive and accurate. She commended Vanessa’s thorough work.
Questions
There were no questions
Proposals
Acceptance of the Accounts and proposal to maintain yearly subscription at £15 was proposed by Eleanor Pettigrew and seconded by Peter Skelton.
6. Conductor’s Report
The conductor’s report can be found in Appendix 2
Questions:
Eleanor Pettigrew asked for Bill’s view on the increased percentage of external choir membership. Bill responded that it was just a neutral observation. He noted that it seems to be part of a trend which also applies to the falling proportion of internal players in the orchestra and the make-up of the concert audiences.
Peter Barnes asked whether the committee had invited senior members of the OU Management to the Concerts. He felt that attendance by these people would illustrate that all OU staff were encouraged to partake. Liz stated that this would be discussed in committee.
7. Election of the Committee
The following officers were elected unopposed to the OU Choir Committee:
Chair: Liz Camp (Proposed by Peter Skelton, seconded by Jan Lloyd)
Secretary: Sally Connelly (Proposed by Siggy Martin, seconded by Anna Page)
Treasurer: Vanessa Skelton (Proposed by Eleanor Pettigrew and seconded by Steve Potter)
The following were re-elected as ordinary committee members: (Proposed by Juliette Baxter, seconded by Helen Jarvis.)
Marian Ballance, Gill Smith, Anna Page and Jan Lloyd
The following people were re-appointed: Mike Davis (Concert Manager), Juliet Baxter (Assistant Librarian), Steve Potter (Orchestra Manager) and Lisa Burns (Membership Secretary). These choir members are co-opted by the committee.
8. Any Other Business
Thanks
Pam Furness gave a vote of thanks to Liz and Kevin for acting as accompanists to the choir throughout the year.
Publish Chair’s Report
Peter Skelton asked if we send the Chair’s Report to the Arts Faculty. Steve Potter responded that we send a copy of the Minutes (that includes the Chair’s Report) to the OU Club. Peter proposed that we should consider sending the Report to the Dean of the Arts Faculty. Liz said she would discuss it with Bill.
APPENDIX ONE: Chair’s Report
The Open University Choir
Chair’s Report 2012
Firstly, I just wanted to note my thanks to the committee and to everyone who has supported the choir in one way or another over the past year. There is a lot that has to be organised, and it’s only since becoming Chair last year that I’ve really appreciated just how much goes on behind the scenes! Everyone gives up their time freely, and in some cases the time spent can be considerable. So, on behalf of the choir, thank you to you all.
A thank you must also go, of course, to our conductor Bill Strang. As ever, Bill has ably and enthusiastically steered the choir through a really interesting and varied programme of music this year. This included our 100th concert programme in June which we celebrated formally at the start of this term. At the same event we also marked Bill’s 35th year conducting the choir so I would just like to reiterate the thanks that I gave to Bill on that occasion at this AGM, and on behalf of the choir, formally note our appreciation of Bill’s contribution over the years, and hopefully for many more years!
I’d like to take just a brief look back over the past year in the choir’s life. During this year, the choir has performed three wonderful concerts, and I won’t go into much detail about these as I think Bill may also intend to say something. However I would like to note two things in particular. Firstly, the Spring concert of 2012 when we performed a premiere of Thomas the Rhymer by William Bowie. Suffice to say, that there were a few challenges in some of the organisation, but as a concert it was both a privilege and a pleasure to sing in. I would like to give our thanks to Bill for this concert in particular, as without him it would neither have been dreamed up, nor come to fruition. The amount of work he put in to it was really quite considerable. He took an original manuscript score from a library and managed to turn it into something that we as a choir, with orchestra, were able to perform from a beautifully prepared final score. This really is above and beyond what a conductor might normally be expected to do for their choir. However, it was certainly very much appreciated by all of us in the choir, and of course by the family of William Bowie himself.
Secondly, I wanted to note the summer concert in 2012 which, again, was a real pleasure to be involved with. The programme was entirely made up of music by women composers, including an Associate Lecturer of the Open University, Liz Lane, as well as drawing on research from a music lecturer who had left the OU. Again, I do feel that without Bill, this concert programme would never have happened. It is a real strength of the OU choir that it manages to perform such a varied and interesting repertoire, and that it makes use of both OU music research and staff in creating these programmes. I think this year’s concert programme has been particularly illustrative of these strengths, and of Bill’s innovative and creative programming. We have sung a real mix of music including more standard classical choral repertoire in the autumn, new and previously unheard modern work, romantic music by women composers, and much more.
Whilst the membership of the choir varies for each concert, I feel that there is nevertheless a sense of being part of a united group of singers, and I hope that any new members, as well as old returners this term also find this to be the case. I would like to formally welcome anyone who has only recently started coming to rehearsals, or indeed, who has joined since the last AGM. Everyone in the choir, whatever their experience or singing ability, contributes to the experience of singing with the choir. We are lucky to be able to sing in a group consisting of both very experienced choral singers, as well as those with less formal knowledge, and we can all learn from each other through our mix of experiences. In finishing my report I would just like to say thank you to you all for your singing, for you insights to the music, your comments and contributions and hope that we will all enjoy another year of exciting music under Bill’s leadership.
Liz Camp
OU Choir Chair
11th October 2012
APPENDIX TWO: The Conductor’s Report
The Open University Choir
Conductor’s Report 2012
I usually mention my highlights from the past year and the plans for the coming season but, since I have already done the latter at the beginning of term, I thought it might be more helpful to take a broader view of where I think the choir is currently placed.
I would characterise the past year as a year of changes.
At the administrative level within our own organization. When someone has been in post as long as Steve had, it is liable to be quite a jolt for the whole organisation when they hand over, but I think Steve and Liz have handled it very well. Liz brought her own style to committee meetings immediately, she has sought advice to amplify her own experience of how the choir runs, and conversely helped us to take a fresh look at some issues. And I think the committee, longstanding and new members, has rallied round [wo]manfully as well.
One of the highlights for me of the past year was bringing to life the previously unperformed pieces by William Bowie – a unique process for me, and for the choir too. And the choir coped with it very well. The problem with that concert lay in the difficulty we had assembling an appropriate orchestra. Unfortunately this is becoming a pattern, and Vanessa and I have begun to allow for it in our budgeting. With fewer internal players, we need to find more external players, and that is not, and never has been, easy for lunchtime performances. It may be down to changes in the work environment, or it may be other factors, but only 25% of the Spring orchestra were internal. We don’t understand this trend yet but we have managed so far to allow for it financially. But if we can’t find the actual players we may have to review our profile and stop doing orchestrally-accompanied concerts.
Then in the coming year we’ve had to change what we thought was a rather brilliant concert plan, because the practicalities of housing and tuning two pianos couldn’t be accommodated within existing Hub Theatre bookings. Of course, we’ve put a different interesting programme in its place, and we have now also secured agreement in principle to mount the two-piano programme at a later date. But the process brought two significant developments to light:
- The clash was with a conference which has already been happening in the same week as our March concert for two seasons, and has caused problems and required us to make shifts each time. It turns out this is going to be a regular event and so we will have to learn to work round it in various ways, perhaps in a different way each year.
- And this in itself is indicative of what Estates tell us is greatly increased pressure on large meeting spaces in the university. And what that boils down to is more groups looking for spaces on campus, whereas in the past some would have gone for more expensive jollies elsewhere off campus.
Another change – although perhaps it has been creeping up on us more gradually without us realizing – is that the balance of membership has changed: in the last concert 1 out of 3 members (36%) who made it to performance were external. This is, however, happily reflected in the current composition of the committee.
When I came to write this report I discovered that we hadn’t recorded as many of the figures as I thought. However, we have been keeping better records of numbers performing than we used to – this was Gill’s initiative – and over the next year we’ll be better able to monitor these trends.
Then in the last year or two there has also been a significant change in the external environment. I sent my best wishes to Open Voices, when they gave their first lunchtime concert just as we were preparing for our hundredth. The advent of a second group on campus is symptomatic of a new wave of interest in group singing which has also seen the formation of new community choirs and rock choirs in the area, and, on a wider canvas, unprecedented television coverage of choral singing. However, this wave of interest and activity, which is laudably inclusive, seems to me to be causing quite a lot of confusion as to what is involved in being in a choir.
It affects our profile in a slightly unfortunate way, in the sense that we have always tried to operate a light touch over admission, but it’s becoming increasingly necessary to define what we do in contradistinction to groups which are attempting much easier repertoire in quite different preparation conditions. It is unfortunate, after many years and a good track record of setting the tone for our distinctive development and profile, to have to be reactive in this way, but I suspect there is going to be no option in the short to medium term, until we see how these recent developments pan out.
To this end we have revised the ‘How to join’ page on our website and will be looking at refining our entry routines, and I encourage all members to look at that if they are commending the choir to friends or colleagues who are potential members. You might also take a moment to read the ‘Information for members’ page of the website – re-christened and re-cast from ‘Information for new members’ because it is of ongoing relevance.
I cannot finish without mentioning the 35 years issue. I was very taken aback to be lauded in this way but I suppose I may have set myself up. But it was not myself I was thinking about when I sought to highlight the 100 concert mark, but the on-going reputation of the group. So thank you for your support over the years, and for your very generous comments and gifts, despite which I promise not to stay for another 35 years.
Bill Strang
October 2012
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