CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY

Executive Officers: Stephen Cleobury (SC, Cond.), Nick Collon (NC, Cond Z/CII) Simon Fairclough (SF, Web-master) Ashley Grote (AG, Ass Con) Maggie Heywood (MH, Hon.Sec.), Dora Kemp (DK, Hon. Treas.) Gordon Lawrence (GL, Librarian), Richard Neill (RN, Inst. Man.), Beth Thompson (ET, Publicity), Robin Ticciati (RT, Ass Con), Peter Tregear (PT, Mus. Fac),

Non-voting student committee members: CUMS I: Rosie Burton, Lucy Colwell, Dan Shaw, CUMS II Claire Postlethwaite, Chorus: Carolin Pflüger

The secretary welcomed the newly co-opted members and the newly elected convenor for CUMS I. She also welcomed the other student members of committees. She proposed that Tim Brown be elected to the chair. This was seconded by DK and agreed.

1 (9) The Chairman prefaced his remarks by saying that he agreed to be chairman in order to help CUMS to move forward and regain its stature and status. He acknowledged valid issues of a constitutional nature which deserved to be addressed: the agenda contained a late item added at the request of Jon Stainsby concerning the validity of decisions taken by this committee since 27 November 2003, and he proposed taking this item first on the agenda. (The minutes are therefore numbered in the order in which they were taken - agenda number given in brackets).

JS introduced the subject by reading out a prepared statement, which was critical of the fact that there had been no elected student representation at the first two meetings of this committee, other than the four student executive officers (elected at the AGM) and the invited reps from the orchestras remaining from the old committee. He made it clear that he did not wish, at this meeting, to reverse committee decisions taken since November 27, but did wish the Society to review `in the near future' the committee's constitutional validity during the period 29 November 2003 - 30 January 2004, leading to an opportunity for the committee, including the newly-elected student respresentatives, to vote to ratify committee decisions taken since the last AGM.

After a brief discussion, the following motion (proposed by JB and seconded by RN) was put to the vote: that this committee accepts the decisions of the committee taken since 27 November 2003. The Chairman clarified who was eligible to vote (all but the extra student committee members) and the motion was carried by 16 to 2 with one abstension.

Dora Kemp reported on a very helpful meeting which she had organised between Toby Wilkinson (recently Development Officer at Christ's and now at Clare) and a few of the CUMS Committee, who would be most closely involved in raising funds. We would like to have money available to be able to support foreign tours, pay for guest conductors etc. The main conclusions of the meeting were that we need to build up a data-base of ex-members, and nurture the `Friends of CUMS'; meet with the University Development Office for guidance and to be sure that we do not duplicate our approach to people with theirs, and re-engage our members before we ask them for anything! SF added that one reason for needing to build up our endowment was in order to be able to pay a reasonable stipend in the future to the conductor and secretary, and still have sufficient funds for the other items mentioned by the Treasurer.

The Chairman suggested there was too much to be done for one person to handle. In response DK said she would like to meet with the student Treasurers and secretaries to pool ideas to take her ideas forward. CG will make a start on building up the data-base of former members and will be encouraging them to become `Friends of CUMS' to re-engage their interest.

The Zephyr Emsemble has elected the following: Conductor Jonny Vaughn, Sec/convenor Vicky Skinner, Treasurer Claire Dudley, Librarian Ellie Connell, Publicity Craig Hudson, Web/list man Rita Muley, Programme ed. Jon Arr

CUMS I has elected: Sec/convenor Jon Stainsby, Treasurer Lucy Colwell, Librarian Deepak Subramanian,, Publicity Zoe-Laura Bridel, Social sec Chris Ward, Registrar Dan Shaw, Recruitment/fixer Rosie Burton

CUMS II has elected: Sec/convenor Rhiannon Mayon-White, Treasurer Claire Postlethwaite, Publicity Karen Wells, Ents Phil Richardson & Henni Saarela. Registrar Aidan Brown, Tour reps: Grace Chen, Sinead Smith & Alex Marianski.

Chorus has elected: Convenor Liz Harvey, Secretary Christine Schmalz, Treasurer Carolin Pflüger, Publicity/registers Helen Barnes, Richard Meeson, Hannah Armstrong & Milo Prelevic who are willing to do any task.

The Chairman proposed taking both items together. He suggested that both the constitution and day-to-day running of the society needed to be looked at in detail, opinions needed to be sought and a small group might be invited to set about finding out what members wanted.

SC: We already know about some of the shortcomings of the constitution, so a start could be made on that immediately. Time might be saved for members of this committee if a suitably qualified member of CUMS, for instance a solicitor, were asked to cast a professional eye over the constitution and make recommendations, to add to the known areas we shall already have identified. This suggestion was adopted.

SF : In the survey of members' opinions, how are we going to know the strength of opinion in the society for the issues that will be raised? TB said that it would be up to the members of the sub-committee appointed to the task to find this out. If every member has the opportunity to give an opinion, it's up to them to express it, even though he accepted that, generally speaking, people who are satisfied rarely say anything.

SF : If we're going to have a review of the problems in CUMS, it's important to get as balanced a view as possible and not have a group of people doing it who already hold strong views, one way or another.

TB : He hopes that the people invited to take on this task will be positive in their attitudes and will be sure to canvas all opinions. A letter soliciting the views of members should be sent to every member of the society (including non-performing members). Every single aspect of the society needs to be looked at, as long as it's in the spirit of moving and looking forward, not back.

MH: suggested that the language used in seeking opinion was really important if we were to get ideas of how we can change/improve things, not merely end up with a long list of complaints. Ask `what improvements would you like to suggest for your section of CUMS', not `what would you like to complain about?'

It was agreed that the four convenors plus Jo Whitehead as chair, would set up the review and report back to the next committee meeting, albeit in an interim form. TB thought that the whole process needed to be completed by June. If members of the sub-committee think it's necessary to seek opinion from non-members of CUMS they will be at liberty to do so.