Inverurie Music Annual General Meeting – Saturday 22^nd September 2018 at 7pm

St Mary’s Episcopal Church Hall, Inverurie

Present: Ann Boyle, Margaret Bremner, Roy Bremner, Ian Clark, Alistair Massey, Bryn Morley, Sylvia Munro, Mike Radcliffe, and Nora Radcliffe.

1. Welcome and Apologies:

Sylvia welcomed all present to the meeting. Apologies were received from John Hearne.

• Minutes of Last Meeting:

Approval of the minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on 7^th October 2017 was proposed by Sylvia, seconded by Ian, and approved by those present with no amendments.

• Matters Arising: No matters arising were raised.
• Treasurer’s Report:

Ian presented the Treasurer’s Report which was tabled at the meeting (copied below).

This has been a successful year musically and in terms of our financial position. We have invested more time and money in professional publicity, significant social media advertising, newspaper articles and reviews, and link-ups with two local restaurants, all to increase our public profile and to encourage concertgoers to enjoy a rounded evening’s entertainment. This has been expensive but worthwhile as ticket sales increased by 47% in cash terms with no increase in ticket prices. The increase in actual ticket sales per concert was 50%. A grant from the Foyle Foundation of £2500 helped with the increased expenditure; the residue of this grant is reserved by the Board to support developments and publicity at a rate of £500 per year for the next four years. It is unlikely that we shall be able to repeat this striking improvement however we will be refining the initiatives taken so far.

Further income acquired this year as a result of grant applications included from;

            Awards for All

            David and June Gordon Memorial Trust

            The Garioch Partnership (specifically for workshop fees)

            We were also awarded a share of the funds dispersed by the Gordon Forum for the Arts upon the dissolution of that organisation.

Some of the grant aid is reserved to support specific parts of the coming year’s concert programme and the workshops; EMS (Enterprise Music Scotland) is supporting two workshops and Awards for All one. The workshop programme has been substantially increased. Some of the additional workshops scheduled will, we hope, be self-financing.

Expenditure on publicity was up substantially as I have said, and musicians’ fees also accounted for a significant increase in expenditure, however, we ended the year with a very healthy £6109 in the bank with further grants applied for. Since the financial year under review ended at the end of June grants from Foundation Scotland and EMS have further swelled the coffers to approximately £10,000. In this situation some of our objectives, for example to support new music and increase our educational activities, may be more realisable over the next few years. It is important to remain aware, however, that the concert programme always requires a substantial subsidy; without the grants this year we would have made a loss of circa £2500. (IC 15^th September 2018)

Ian thanked Alistair for his support and for providing a helpful structure for managing the accounts. Ian also commented that EMS were no longer providing Guarantees Against Loss and that the grants available were now capped at £3,000. Alistair suggested that it would be helpful to have individual accounts for each concert. Ian said that this had been suggested by Lessel Rennie and that he planned to continue to do this for Board meetings.

• Chairman’s Report:

Sylvia presented the Chairman’s Report in John’s absence. She thanked all Board members for their work during the last year.

The 2017-18 Season was a great success beginning on Saturday 7th October with the McNeill/Savaloni Duo. Sylvia noted that Alison’s voice was flawless with a big range and Sasha’s guitar technique was impressive. The concert on Tuesday 7th November was given by New York Jazz pianist Rossano Sportiello and was a delightful performance, especially his “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” for the children in the audience. The audience was large and several loyal fans travelled some distance to attend. A ‘pop-up’ concert was given at short notice by Sasha Savaloni on the afternoon of Sunday 28th January. This was a short and very attractive programme which again drew a large audience. On Saturday 17th February, AB24 Aberdeen Baroque gave a concert playing baroque instruments to another large audience. Highlights included the Bach Cello Sonata and a piece by William McGibbon. In Kemnay on Saturday 17th March, the Primrose Piano Trio gave an outstanding performance to a smaller audience, and on Saturday 21st April, the Sinopia Quartet gave a very warm performance with the Dvorak ‘American Quartet’ being a personal highlight for Sylvia. The audience for this concert was again reasonably large and this was a great finish to season.

Sylvia thanked Richard Mutch for the tremendous work he has done in designing the concert posters and banners during the season. She also highlighted the contribution from Ian and Margaret in preparing grant applications, and from Claire Hamilton and Margaret in producing the new website. She also thanked Denys Wheatley for his sponsorship of the website.

There was no support from EMS for educational activities, but a woodwind workshop was arranged by Ian and led by Laurence Perkins. It ran with nine participants and was successful.

Sylvia mentioned that Board members had taken on a lot of work last season and she made a plea for people to express an interest in joining the Board or suggest others who might like to join. Thanks were given to Alistair for all his efforts during his time as Treasurer – especially the work done to enable Inverurie Music to become a charity; to Ian for taking on the role of Treasurer; and finally to John for the work he has done for Inverurie Music throughout its existence.

Looking ahead to the coming season, which is the 20^th season, there are six concerts planned and a special subscription price of all six concerts for the price of four. There has already been an increase in the number of subscriptions for the season as a result. This season there will be more emphasis on education including Chamber Music workshops (the first of which was held earlier this month in Kemnay), workshops for guitar and cello, and school workshops in November 2018 and March 2019 at Alford and Meldrum Academies. Consideration is also being given to establishing a Bursary for a young musician to be known as the John Hearne Award. Plans are being made for a social event to mark the 20^th Season which will include an Inverurie Music retrospective. This is likely to be in April 2019, date to be confirmed. Looking further ahead there are plans to maintain and increase educational activities, finance allowing, and to continue with six concert seasons with perhaps Sunday afternoon concerts. Sylvia outlined ticket prices for this season (full price £12, concession £10 and students/children £1) and these were agreed by those present.

• Elections:

All Board members stood down and indicated their willingness to stand for re-election. All were re-elected by general consent. Sylvia will become Chairman and will continue to liaise with artists, Ian will continue as Treasurer, Alistair will become Archivist and will have a role aimed at increasing audiences, and Margaret will become Secretary.

• Close of Meeting:

Sylvia thanked all for attending and declared the meeting closed.

MB/SM 240918

Inverurie Music Accounts to year ending 30th June 2018