Oxford and Cambridge Musical Club

Annual General Meeting

held on Saturday 28^th April 2007
in the Housman Room, University College, London

Chairman: Lyn Parkyns

Minutes

The meeting opened at 5.30pm and was attended by approximately 40 members

1. Apologies for absence

Chris Crocker, Derek Green, Carl Murray, Norman Parkyns, Sheila Shuttleworth, Derek and Juliet Smith

2. Minutes of previous meeting

The minutes of the previous Annual General Meeting (on 6th May 2006) were read and adopted

3. Matters arising

Club library
Nick Reading pointed out that the plan to make the catalogue available to members via the Club website had still not been implemented. What was holding this up ? Andrew Westlake acknowledged that he had undertaken to do this and apologised for the delay. Part of the reason for this was that he wanted to re-design the database to make it fully searchable.

Nick Reading argued that, in view of the 7-year delay in making the catalogue accessible, it was more important to make the existing catalogue accessible now, sorted in simple alphabetical order. Andrew Westlake replied that if PDF format was acceptable it could be made available almost immediately. He agreed to do this by the end of May. A notice will be published on the website enabling a copy of the file to be sent to enquirers as an e-mail attachment. Sue Estermann suggested a password procedure to limit access to Club members, however as custodian of the catalogue Deborah Behrman saw no reason why knowledge of its contents should be restricted to OCMC members.

This action was approved by a show of hands proposed by Michael Crowe and seconded by Alan Reddish.

4. Membership Secretary’s Report

Evelyn Bercott reported that membership, as shown in the directory, now stood at 249, a net increase of 41 since the previous year (208). Since last year there had been 56 new members of which 40 were aged under 26 (38 of these being Procorda members). Over the same period there had been 14 resignations and one death.

Livia Gollancz pointed out that although the numbers had been swelled by offering free membership to those under the age of 26, these new members had so far shown little interest in participating in concerts other than special events arranged for their benefit. None of them were present for the current concert and AGM. Others sought to explain this by term-time commitments (Evelyn Bercott) and also on the ground that this is a long-term policy and will take time to show results (Alan Reddish).

Andrew Westlake said that he was now able to produce monthly updates of the Club Directory and these are now available to members on request .

5. Music Secretary’s Report

Nick Murray reviewed the highlights of the past year. These included many notable performances by new members, also a number of highly innovative events. Some important organisational issues had arisen. In particular the organisation of the annual Opera had been set on a firmer, clearer basis and foundations had been laid for a better relationship with UCL.

Regarding his own future as Music Secretary and the planning of the concert programme for the coming year, Nick voiced the suggestion that the position of Music Secretary might in future be rotated year-by-year rather than being held by an individual as a long-term commitment. If successful this might encourage a greater degree of innovation and variety of approach.

6. Treasurer’s Report

Libby Summers presented the Accounts for 2006. It was again noted that a substantial credit balance (£2821.14) was largely accounted for by room hire charges for which invoices had not yet been received. As in 2005 a slight diminution of revenue from subscriptions was offset by an increase in dividends and interest. The analysis of costs by individual concert revealed the very high cost of hiring the Highgate venue for the Opera, by comparison with the UCL hire charges. However the cost of music hire for ‘Tales of Hoffman’ had been relatively low.

In response to a question from Nick Reading concerning the Jack Waddell legacy, LS said that these moneys had been invested and only the interest is available for the occasional hiring of professional musicians. After discussion it was decided on a show of hands (proposer Andrew Westlake, seconder Nick Reading) that the Committee should be asked to look into the question of how this and other legacies should be managed for the benefit of the Club.

7. Motions and Proposals

The outcome of discussion on the agenda points listed was as follow:

Proposed Termination of the Gala
Concert Hugh Rosenbaum explained the difficulties of organising these concerts and also their pointlessness since the links which they are intended to foster no longer exist. He likened the organisation of these concerts to pulling teeth. Michael Crowe from his own experience as co-organiser felt they were no longer a practicality. Livia Gollancz recalled historical reminiscences of what the Gala Concert had once been but acknowledged, with regret, the passing of that era. Two members (Chris Crocker and Derek Green) had expressed their views by letter - one in favour of termination, one against. It was decided on a show of hands that the Gala Concert should be discontinued

Need for (orchestral) Concert Organisers to have assistance for issue/return of music parts
Nick Murray explained the difficulties of concert organisers responsible for orchestral events. Managing the issue and return of music parts is an additional burden and there is a real need for a helper to take on this task. Alan Reddish acknowledged the problem and agreed that organisers of orchestral concerts do need help for this task. However in his experience the only practical way of dealing with it is for each (orchestral) concert organiser to find his own volunteer from those playing in each concert. This point was confirmed by the lack of response to Lyn Parkyns’ request for volunteers among those present at the meeting.

Proposed ‘ceiling’ on Club membership for the most popular instruments
This suggestion arose from the concern, voiced by Nick Murray, that there is a limited number of performing opportunities for each instrument and therefore only a limited number of players can be accommodated. This applies particularly to wind instruments. After discussion it was agreed that this problem should be kept under review and that control of admissions is best exercised by the Committee.

8. Elections

Eleven members of the retiring Committee were willing to stand for re-election leaving one vacancy following the resignation of Adrian Rushton. In the absence of any further nominations the former 11 former Committee members were re-elected en bloc (proposer Gillian Noakes, seconder Andrew Westlake).

9. Any other business

None

The meeting closed at 6.30pm and was followed by the AGM Concert and Party.