CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY

A Committee Meeting was held on Thursday 10 June, 2004 at 12noon in the Faculty of Music.

1. Present:

Executive Officers: Stephen Cleobury (SC), Simon Fairclough (SF), Ashley Grote (AG),), Maggie Heywood (MH.),Dora Kemp (DK) Gordon Lawrence (GL), Richard Neill (RN), Claire Pike (CP), Vicky Skinner (VS), Jon Stainsby (JS), Beth Thompson (ET), Jonny Vaughn (JV),

Co-opted members: John Barber (JB), Tim Brown (TB), Martin Ennis (ME) Caroline Goulder (CG),

Observers: Harry Blake (HB), Sam Hudson (SH), Max Pappenheim (MP) Christine Schmalz (CS)

Apologies:

Nick Collon (NC), Liz Harvey (EH), Tagbo Ilozue (TI), Courtney Lewis (CL), Jo Whitehead (JW),

2. Minutes

The minutes of the meeting of 07.05.04/12.05.04 were approved, after two corrections, and signed.

3. Matters arising

  1. Programme 2004/05: One addition and one change was noted. The Chairman asked that any further changes should be channelled through the programme-planning sub-committee and that the programme must be finalised by the end of June to enable to librarian to order all the necessary music in early July. The secretary was asked to send out the composition competition advert forthwith and to contact the resident composers to ask if they would be interested in judging the pieces submitted.

  2. The CUMS 2 tour to Budapest was confirmed

  3. Faculty Board letter re CUMS: TB reported that his letter to the FB was discussed at last week's FB meeting, but that it has not changed their view about the status of the chorus and Zephyr ensemble.

  4. After much discussion it was agreed that the Zephyr Ensemble should continue to be able to rehearse in the Recital Room at West Road, and we will pay the unsubsidised rate for that to happen. It was further agreed that we would book their two concerts in West Road for the Michaelmas & Easter Terms, at the unsubsidised rate, on a Wed or Thur.

  5. Strategy sub-comm: It was agreed that the SSC should continue to meet until the date of the next AGM, by which time its work should have been drawn into that of this committee. The Mission Statement has been transformed into a statement for the web-site by JS. It was approved with minor adjustments.

  6. Publicity report is being acted upon. Questionnaires will be given out at the next two concerts to assess effectiveness of our current publicity measures.

4. Long-term planning

SC reported that although the long-term planning sub-committee had considered the long-term future briefly, it had so far largely devoted its time to the immediate future. It was agreed that the group would meet again before the next full committee meeting and will bring a paper to that meeting. Gordon Lawrence (CI) has joined the group to represent performing members.

5. Recruitment Supper report

MH reported that the key to the success of all the new initiatives is to have a really active and enthusiastic group of college reps, preferably one for the chorus and one for the orchestras in each college. Hannah Armstrong has started to recruit for the chorus and JS agreed to do the same for the orchestras.

Chorus auditions will be organised differently this year, in colleges, so that it's a less daunting experience! It was agreed that if the rehearsal time were to be moved to 8pm - 10.15pm it would send out a more welcoming message to members of Chapel choirs who all have Evensong on Thursdays. MH will consult the chorus on this, this week.

6. CUMS Fund / re-imbursement for Secretary and Conductor

After some discussion on the nature of the CUMS Fund it was agreed that a working party was needed to look into the annual budget for the Society including reasonable re-imbursement for the Sec and Cond. JB agreed to convene the group which will consist of DK, TB & CP. They will report to the next meeting.

7. Concert in St Andrew's Street Baptist Church

MH outlined the proposal that the Church has invited us to use the premises, free of charge, to put on a concert in October, to coincide with their centenary exhibition. It was agreed that MH should agree a date with the Church, as late as possible in October, and then advertise amongst all ensembles within CUMS for small groups to perform.

8. Dates of Meetings next year

MH will circulate some dates and times for general agreement. It was noted that although lunchtimes are a rush, and for some very inconvenient, evenings might also be too much to contemplate if they were too frequent. TB and MH will endeavour to map out the likely items for discussion spread over the year, and we will aim to clear the backlog from this year with two or three meetings early next year.

9. AOB

  1. Elections TB reported that there had been some difficulty in the interpretation of the constitution at the recent chorus committee election, and that the solution was to appoint an Election Officer from the members of this committee, whose role would be to make sure that all future elections were carried out according to the rules. Simon Fairclough agreed to take this on.

  2. Instrument cupboard TB reported that the Faculty Board had raised the issue of the storage of CUMS instruments free of charge, when many students thought that our hire charges were too high. RN pointed out that we haven't raised our charges for five years and percussion insts are very expensive to maintain. It was agreed that we could consult Barry Eaden for a professional opinion on our charges, and we could compare with other inst. hiring agencies. TB suggested that we should offer the FB a nominal rent for the use of the cupboard. ME expressed his concern that some comments from around the table indicated a perceived lack of support for CUMS from the FB which is not the case. Their recent decisions have been made solely because of the financial pressure coming from the University.

  3. In closing the meeting the chairman said that it has been a difficult year for CUMS, but we must not forget that CUMS has a long history of fantastically good music-making. We must look forward to further concerts of that extremely high calibre. He thanked the whole committee, the secretary and the conductor, who somehow fits CUMS into his very busy musical life.

SC responded by thanking TB for coming in as chairman and doing it such an expert way. He was extremely grateful and asked that TB's contribution to CUMS should be noted. General applause followed.

The meeting closed at 1.10pm