North West Early Music Forum Annual General Meeting
Saturday 13 April 2024, 10 am to 10:45 am, via Zoom
1 Present: Tim Gannicliffe (chair), John Huthnance (Secretary), Elizabeth Dodd, Peter Syrus, Janet Evans, Bob Foster, Jenny Howard, Kirsten Flores, Nicky Brooks.
Apologies for absence: Andrew Mayes, Ann Herniman, Philip Parkinson, Ailsa Harrison, Heather Steward, Lindsay Ward, Jacqui Gresham, Jenny Walsh, Susie and Roger Greenwood, John Tickle, Martin Steward, David Love.
There was a pause to read documents in the members area of the Web site that had been temporarily unavailable.
2 Minutes of the AGM held 15 April 2023 were accepted.
3 Matters arising from those Minutes; none except those covered by the agenda.
4 Chairman’s Report. Tim Gannicliffe gave a verbal report at the meeting; a written version follows here. “The programme of workshops this year got off to a bad start with the recorder workshop at Hoole being cancelled through lack of support – only 7 applicants. Numbers attending workshops are still below pre-covid averaging 24 per event*. The recent poll showed that most respondents favoured instruments and voice workshops, which we have tried to do. So, most of the workshops in the future will be for both voice and instruments with a few for voice only. As I said in my recent letter to members we have managed to have 7 workshops per year even with the vacancies on the committee. This number of workshops places an unfair burden on the few committee members, and if we don’t get more people volunteering to organise a workshop, a reduction in the number is a distinct possibility. You will notice that there are vacancies for Chair and Treasurer. If these officer posts are not filled the forum cannot function.” *It was noted that the March/April 2024 workshops both had about 24 participants/registrations respectively.
5 Treasurer’s Report. This was accepted. There was discussion of numbers coming to workshops: S and BM Early Music Fora have more.
6 Workshops so far planned for 2024-2025. A list had been circulated covering the remainder of 2024 and a couple in 2025 were under negotiation.
7 Publicising and attracting participation in workshops (Web presence, social media?). Kirsten Flores has ideas for this and will liaise with David Allen.
8 Election of Officers:
a. Chair: Kirsten Flores was nominated by Peter Syrus, seconded by John Huthnance and elected nem con.
b. Secretary: John Huthnance continues in the absence of another nomination.
c. Treasurer: Martin Steward was thanked for carrying out this role and John should encourage him to continue in the absence of another nomination.
9 Election of Committee Members: Tim Gannicliffe, Elizabeth Dodd, Bob Foster and Peter Syrus were willing to continue to serve. Additionally Phil Parkinson was willing to convene workshops; this does not require membership of the Committee.
10 Other Business. In view of the small number joining this AGM on Zoom, future AGMs should take place at a workshop. A questionnaire should be circulated (cf. Fora with better participation) to find out what people want and how to be contacted – with an incentive to respond since a previous attempt elicited only few responses. John should convene a Committee meeting to follow up on the AGM suggestions. Bob should forward Kirsten Flores’ e-mail address to Tim.
