A Committee Meeting was held on 27 April 2007 at 1pm. in Lecture Room 4, in the Music School, West Road.
Present: Executive Officers: John Barber (JB), Julian Black (JB) Stephen Cleobury (SC), Rachel Croft (RC), Chris Ford (CF) Joseph Fort (JF) Mark Galtrey (MG) Lottie Greenhow (LG), Jacob Head (JH) Maggie Heywood (MH) Dan Hill (DH) Theodore Hong (TH), Fergus MacLeod (FM) Robert Nimmo (RN), Michael Sharp (MS), Emily Taylor (ET), Anna Zagni (AZ),
Co-opted members: Richard Andrewes (RA), Simon Fairclough (SF) Jo Whitehead (JW) Caroline Goulder was invited to be present as an observer, as the newly appointed chorus manager.
1. Apologies:
Charlotte Barker (CB), Rosica Bates (RB), Fiona Jacques (FJ), Claire Pike (CP), Giles Reid (GR), Alex Selby (AS), Martin Ennis (ME),
2. Minutes: The minutes of the last meeting were agreed and signed.
3. There were no matters arising.
4. Programme and budget: SF thanked the conductors for producing an artistically challenging and exciting programme and invited the committee to decide whether or not the projected loss was acceptable in order to put on such a programme of concerts next year.
JW summarised the new first page of the document with the most recent figures available.
SF suggested that we had three options: accept the programme as proposed and spend some of our reserves in doing so; change some of the pieces to save costs; improve our financial situation so that more ambitious programmes can be done more easily. He reminded the committee that we had been trying to improve our funds recently and had discovered that it was not easy to do that.
SC put the case for the Messiaen project, to perform the Turangalila Symphonie as one of the iconic works of the 20c, by one of the foremost composers of the century in his centenary year. After much discussion, very largely in favour of CUMS doing this programme, and with one or two financial points being raised, the committee agreed to this programme. It was further agreed that every effort to raise audience figures, particularly for mid-week concerts, must be made. JW will send round some ideas which could be developed and asked that everyone takes note and does whatever s/he can to implement some of them.
5. Appointments sub-committee recommendations. SF reported that the appointments sub-committee had interviewed six strong candidates for the two posts of secretary and orchestra manager, and wanted to recommend the appointment of Jennifer Howells as secretary and Dan Hill as orchestra manager, subject to satisfactory references being received. He gave some details about their qualities. RA proposed that the recommendation of the sub-committee be accepted by this committee. It was carried unanimously. SC asked everyone to keep this information confidential until an announcement was made.
6. Instrument Manager: Jacob Head will be leaving Cambridge at the end of this term so it is necessary to find a replacement for him. He outlined his suggestion for a way forward which would lighten the load on one person and allow others with certain skills to become part of a team to run the instrument hire service in future.
1. The on-line booking system needs a skilled computer operator who will keep it running smoothly and also back everything up.
2. Someone to keep the cupboard sorted out at least once a week.
3. Someone to look after the percussion instruments - perhaps David Ellis would be willing to do this more often now that he's living and working in Cambridge. (There is no local company which deals with percussion repairs).
4. A manager in charge of this team who will collect the payments, make a note of everything that's needed in the way of instruments for rehearsals and concerts, and keep an overview of everything that's going on. There is potential for expansion if anyone had time to widen our clientele. The Society relies heavily on this income, it must be run effectively.
MH suggested that the new appointees should be asked first if they would be willing to take on the computer side (Dan?) and the management aspect (Jennifer?) and it was thought possible that a student from one of the orchestras might be willing to check the cupboard regularly. David Ellis needs to be asked if he would be willing to do more frequent maintenance (paid) on the percussion instruments.
The committee accepted Jacob's plan and asked Simon and Jacob to follow it up.
The next meeting is on Monday 18 June at 1.30pm.
MJH 27.04.07