Oxford and Cambridge Musical Club
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Oxford and Cambridge Musical Club |
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The meeting opened at 5.30pm and was attended by approximately 35 members
David Banbury, Brian Blandford, Oenone Cox, Claire Edwards, Ruth Fox, Tim Handel, Xavier Luscan, Giles de la Mare, Lynne Maya, Tamara Migrina, David Morris, John Nelder, Jo Parton, Jessica Percival, Ruth Pitman, Vivien Price, Nick Reading, Jo Rodgers, Eric Stevens, Peter Sowerby, Pat Stewart, Libby Summers, Genevieve Usher, Steve Warrington, Andrew Westlake, Julian Zerfahs
The minutes of the previous Annual General Meeting (on April 23rd 2005) were read and adopted
Club library On the question whether Gordon Cumming and the Behrmans hold the Club library as owners or possessors, Lyn Parkyns noted that the legal Agreement leaves no doubt that they are full owners, subject to the terms of the Agreement. The hoped-for meeting (referred to in the Minutes of the previous AGM) had now taken place and Gordon Cumming had been invited to give a report to the AGM on how things currently stand in the management of the Library (see below)
Club name Arising from Chris Crocker’s proposal, voted on at the previous AGM, Club members had been invited to submit ideas for a possible change of the Club’s name. In response to this Lyn Parkyns had received two suggestions for alternative names and two letters deprecating any change from the present name. The two suggestions were “The Oxbridge Musical Club” and “OCMC - the Club for musicians”. Her conclusion and that of the Committee was that there was no case for change.
Evelyn Bercott reported that membership now stands at 208 - a gain of 3 compared with the preceding year. During the year there had been 6 resignations, 4 deaths, 2 non-renewals and 15 new members - a net gain of 3 since the previous year. Of the 15 new members 4 were under 26 and of these 3 were Procorda members. A new recruitment leaflet has now been produced and arrangements are being made for these to be placed in Music Libraries and music colleges.
Lyn Parkyns mentioned a letter from a friend of Graham Thorne regretting that he had been obliged to resign due to ill health and moving away.
Alan Reddish gave a review of the musical events of the past 12 months - his final year as the Club’s Music Secretary. He made particular mention of the Concerto Workshop day organised by Nick Murray and the celebratory concert for Leonard Whitehouse, also the participation of Procorda in the annual Gala Concert.
Alan’s full report can be read here.
On behalf of the Club Lyn Parkyns made a presentation to Alan and thanked him for his outstanding contribution to the Club’s musical life over a very full and active period. extending over 16 years.
As Libby Summers was unable to attend in person, the accounts were presented by Tony Summers. An apparent surplus of £477.87 is largely accounted for by room hire charges of 4 concerts for which invoices have not yet been received. A slight decline in income from subscriptions was offset by an increase in dividends and interest. An increase in the cost of piano tuning is due to arrears of charges from previous years.
Chris Reynolds asked for and was given an explanation regarding the depreciation of the keyboard. It appears that this is now fully depreciated although still being shown at its full value in the balance sheet. Hugh Rosenbaum raised the question of whether the Club should change its accounting year to match its newly-adopted concert programming year.
Lyn Parkyns thanked Tony Summers and asked him to convey the Club’s appreciation to Libby. The accounts were adopted (proposed by Adrian Rushton, seconded by Mike Crowe.
Gordon Cumming, supported by Deborah Behrman, gave a report on the library of Club music held at Wendover and Cookham Dene, and on the stage reached in making this accessible to OCMC members. A record of what Gordon said can be read here. In the subsequent discussion there was general support for the proposal to make the catalogue available to Club members via the Club website and for the methods proposed to operate a postal lending service for Club members. Norman Parkyns supported what Gordon had said about the historical value of the collection and suggested that it should be made available to researchers by linking the website catalogue with those of major music libraries and research institutions.
Lyn Parkyns as Chairman then referred to a letter from Nick Reading criticising the slow progress and failure after 7 years to make the library accessible to Club members. In his letter Nick Reading proposed that the Club should now take steps to re-possess the Library on the grounds that the current owners had failed to fulfil their contract. Deborah Behrman strongly denied this accusation and insisted that two successive paper copies of the catalogue had been provided but had been lost. She displayed a further (orange-bound) copy of the catalogue. The terms of the contract, although not yet completely fulfilled, had not been broken.
In Nick Reading’s absence the Chairman asked for a seconder to the motion which he had proposed. The motion lapsed when no seconder was forthcoming.
Three amendments to the Club Rule Book, previously agreed by the Committee, were proposed to implement the decision (made at the 2005 AGM) to offer free membership to all members up to the age of 26. These amendments were:
- Amended Rule IV “Every candidate for admission shall be proposed by a member of the Club” (deleting the words “to whom he must be personally known”)
- Amended Rule VII(b) “Members not in gainful employment may subscribe at half rate” (deleting the preceding words “Students and . . .” )
- New Rule VII(c) “Members are not required to pay subscriptions until they reach the age of 26 years”
When put to the vote the first two amendments were carried nem con. For the proposed new Rule VII(c) there was a discussion of wording and the need for this to be more positive.
The alternative wording which was finally adopted (nem con) was
“Members under the age of 26 are entitled to free membership”
Lyn Parkyns thanked the members of the Committee for their work during the past year. All were willing to stand for re-election except Lynne Maya who had offered her resignation.
The resultant Committee members for the coming year are
Evelyn Bercott, Michael Crowe, Sue Estermann, Nick Murray, Lyn Parkyns, Alan Reddish, Hugh Rosenbaum, Adrian Rushton, Richard Shaw, Peter Sowerby, Pat Stewart, Libby Summers
Sue Estermann said she would like there to be a limited duration of office for those holding the principal positions of responsibility in the Club.
Alan Reddish thanked Lyn Parkyns for her work as Chairman.
The meeting closed at 6.30pm and was followed by the AGM Concert and Party.
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Page last updated: 04 June 2007 |