Minutes of the Committee Meeting of Saturday 27th November, 2004, held at 10.30 a.m. in the Latimer Room, Clare College.
1 Present:
Executive Officers: Stephen Cleobury (SC), Simon Fairclough (SF), Maggie Heywood (MH.), Craig Hudson (CH), Sam Hudson (SH), Dora Kemp (DK), Gordon Lawrence (GL), Beth Thompson (ET), Jo Whitehead (JW)
Co-opted members: Tim Brown (TB), Caroline Goulder (CG)
2 Apologies: Martin Ennis (ME), John Barber (JB), Courtney Lewis (CL), Richard Neill (RN), Max Pappenheim (MP)
3 Minutes
The minutes of the meeting of 02.11.04 were approved, after one correction, and signed.
4 Matters arising
4.6.ii SH brought a proposal for another concert to be given by the choir formed for the concert on 20 October. He suggested a concert in Sidney Sussex Chapel, for which he has obtained permission, which will include Otcenás by Janácek for tenor, chorus, organ and harp. He would like to invite CUBE as well so that they could perform alone and with the choir in some Bruckner motets. The suggested date is Sat 22 Feb. The idea of performing in aid of a local charity was approved, and SH was authorized to proceed, and to contact a charity which he felt would be appropriate/interested.
SH
4.10 DK & JW have discussed on the production of a long-term financial plan for CUMS and will bring it to a future meeting.
DK/JW
4.12 TCB has not yet received any proposal concerning the opening of the Faculty Bar after rehearsals.
5 The Treasurer will sort out the remuneration for the Conductor and Secretary.
DK
7 Library: GL reported that the process is moving forward, and he hopes to have reached a conclusion by the next meeting. There will be a meeting to finalise the library matters for GL, TB, MH & SF on Tues 25th Jan at Clare at 1p.m.
GL/TB/MH/SF
5 AGM Date
The AGM was fixed for Thursday 10th February at 9.30 p.m. in the Upper Hall at St Andrew's Street Baptist Church, following that week's chorus rehearsal. It was also agreed that there would be an open forum for discussion in the previous week, on Wednesday 26th January in the Latimer Room, Clare College, at 7.30pm.
The committee meeting which had been arranged for Wed 26 Jan has now been re-arranged for Friday 28th Jan 1 - 2 p.m. in Clare College.
MH
6 Constitution
The committee examined a draft revision of the constitution and agreed a further version to be shown initially to a solicitor member of CUMS chorus, and then to the Proctors, after which a further revision will be agreed and then circulated to members for comment. A final draft will be brought to the AGM.
MH/TB
Some points that were discussed:
Membership & Subscriptions: it was agreed that the section on the registration form requiring non-university members to be proposed by a member of the university should be re-instated.
Governance: it was agreed that Vice-Presidents should be re-elected annually. It was further agreed that assistant conductors should be appointed by the committee on the recommendation of the conductor.
It became apparent during the discussion that there is a need to draw up some standing orders to accompany the Constitution.
TB/MH
Committee & sub-committees: It was agreed that in the case of an emergency the chairman might convene a meeting which need not necessarily be quorate, but he should convene a subsequent meeting to ratify any decision taken or action taken.
(para 23) needs to be scrutinised by a lawyer because payment is involved.
(para 24) The committee might remit to a sub-committee tasks which would be better handled by a smaller group. The sub-committee would have power to recommend to the committee.
(para 25) It was agreed that the whole ensemble should elect the chairman of their sub-committee once the committee was formed. Action SF/TB
7 Instrument hiring / maintenance
MH reported that she had discovered by chance that some groups were borrowing CUMS instruments for rehearsals at West Road without booking them out or paying for them, and in some cases taking them away for private practice. It was agreed that we should write to the groups concerned and ask them to stick to the rules. It was further agreed that David Ellis should be paid at the rate he requested for the repair and maintenance of instruments, but that he should advise the Treasurer when there was work to be done and give her an estimate of the cost before doing the work. He will be paid £150 for the work done in the cupboard over the past summer. Action DK
8 CUMS Organisation
JW summarised the contents of a discussion document, drawn up by the sub-committee examining CUMS organization, and previously circulated to the full committee. TB suggested that internal communication is part of the secrtary's role. SC said that the document was useful as a blueprint and something to aspire to, but suggested that in some ways the aspirations would be difficult to meet: for instance, in practice none of the current ensembles has thus far been able to form a full student committee. People are generally too busy to fulfil the roles and it is remarkable that people do as much as they do.. SF thought that it was useful as an articulation of what we already do, in that all the office holders have ownership of their jobs and can turn to MH for support when necessary. TB thanked JW for the work he had put into the proposals and suggested that the most beneficial use of them would be to make them the basis of standing orders, to be brought before the committee next term. It was agreed that standing orders would contain comprehensive job descriptions for all posts.
TB/MH
9 Long-term planning
TB registered concern that the long-term planning group had been unable to meet as planned. It was agreed that the group would endeavour to meet before the next full committee and will submit their plans to it. The most urgent issue is the audition process for new conductors, to be held next term, and the need for strategy for forward planning over the next two to four years in order that plans year's programme might begin to be formulated.
MH
10 Chorus tour to Switzerland
There is an itinerary for the tour, thanks to a great deal of hard work by Christine Schmalz, but only 17 people had replied positively to the invitation by the time of this meeting. It was agreed that Christine should contact the chorus again and ask them for their current response (yes/probably/possibly/no) by the end of next week so that the next steps could be taken if the tour was to go ahead. At the moment SC is unable to come on the tour because of the clash with the King's Chapel Choir Tour. Once the deadline for replies is up SC will meet with DK, MH & CS to make a decision.
SC/DK/MH/CS
11 Date of the next meeting
This has been re-arranged and will now be on Friday 26 January
2005, at 1p.m. in Clare College.
12 A.O.B.
The Chairman said how delighted he was that Sir David Willcocks was to conduct Holst's The Hymn of Jesus on December 1st, in King's, and suggested that CUMS present him with a magnum of champagne and a gargantuan card signed by all current CUMS members. DK agreed to make the card and MH to buy and decorate the champagne. There will be a small Reception in H1 after the concert.
MH/DK
ET reported that we had had brilliant reviews in Varsity and TCS
following the CUMS I concert on 6th November. TB suggested that, given his extensive connection with CUMS, and his continued support for the Society, it might be appropriate to co-opt Richard Andrewes to the committee. There was general agreement.
TB