Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on Thursday 10 th October 2013
1. Apologies
Apologies were received from: Hilary MacQueen, Tim Hunt and Yvonne Alton.
2. Minutes
Minutes of the October 2012 AGM were received and approved as a correct record.
3. Matters Arising
Liz reported that, following a suggestion from Peter Barnes, details of forthcoming choir concerts were now being sent to OU Senior Management. Gill Smith also noted that Belinda
Tynan, the new Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Teaching and Learning) has asked to be added to the
Choir mailing list.
It was suggested that the publicity concert posters be sent out to OU Senior Management and
Gill Smith agreed to action this.
4. Chair’s Report
The Chair’s report can be found in Appendix 1
5. Treasurer’s Report
The Accounts were distributed.
Vanessa Skelton reported her thanks to Eleanor Pettigrew for auditing the accounts and noted the following:

The choir is in a small profit situation this year largely due to: o Bill’s hard work re making orchestral parts for the Mozart concert (and others) o The large number of subscriptions paid – thanks to all members

The overall cost of concerts was cheaper year than in 12/13, as the choir had performed Thomas the Rhymer and paid for the excess through our reserves
 Next year’s budget is prepared and approved by the committee and Vanessa has already been advised that the grant of £4532 is approved

There was no proposal to increase the cost of subscriptions this year though we may need to raise them in 14/15.
Questions:
There were no questions
Proposals
Acceptance of the Accounts and proposal to maintain yearly subscription at £15 was proposed by Liz Healing and seconded by Michael Street.
6. Conductor’s Report
The conductor’s report can be found in Appendix 2
Questions:
There were no questions.
7. Election of the Committee
The following officers were elected unopposed to the OU Choir Committee:
All were proposed by Peter Skelton and seconded by Helen Phillips.
Chair: Liz Camp
Secretary: Sally Connelly
Treasurer: Vanessa Skelton
The following were re-elected as ordinary committee members:
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Marian Ballance, Gill Smith, Anna Page, Robin Rowles and Jan Lloyd
The following people were re-appointed: Mike Davis (Concert Manager), Juliet Baxter
(Assistant Librarian and Lisa Burns (Membership Secretary). These choir members are coopted by the committee.
Steve Potter has stood down as Orchestra Manager. Liz Camp is taking over his role.
8. Any Other Business
Marian Ballance gave a vote of thanks to Liz for her work as chair throughout the year.
Subscriptions
Eleanor Pettigrew asked how subscriptions were to be paid this year.
Liz reported that application forms were available on the website and can be handed in plus cheque from next week to Lisa Burns. Lisa stated that she would also bring some paper versions of the application form next week. Subscriptions are £15.
Danesborough Choir
Peter Skelton stated that the Danesborough Choir were looking for more singers, especially sopranos.
Steve Potter ’s Retirement
Liz reported that Steve has invited the choir to his leaving event on November 28th. We have been invited to sing the Hallelujah Chorus plus another current piece. Steve Potter added that lunch will be provided.
With no further business the meeting was closed.
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APPENDIX ONE: Chair’s Report
Having looked back at my report from last year, I realise that a lot of what I want to say this year is very similar to last. I hope you won’t accuse me of being too boring if I repeat myself in only my second Chair’s report! But I feel it is really important nevertheless to begin with a huge thanks to the choir committee and others for their contribution to the running of the choir in the past year. Without someone to organise scores, set up concerts, sign cheques, book rooms, organise committee meetings, and a host of other tasks, we would not be able to turn up each week to sing. Everyone gives up their time freely, and in some cases the time spent can be considerable. So, on behalf of the choir, thank you to you all.
Secondly, and, I think, more importantly, we wouldn’t be here without Bill’s leadership of the choir. So Bill, can I once again say thank you to you directly for all your work. I know you will say you enjoy doing it, but what you put into the choir is still a huge commitment that I know can sometimes be stressful! As I think everyone is now aware, we begin our season this year in a new position for the choir. Bill has, just a week or so ago, retired from the Open
University, and will therefore now be conducting the choir as an ‘external’ member. In some ways this may not be as big a change as it might initially appear. Bill is still committed to the choir and we hope this will continue for some years to come. But I think it is evident that we are now looking to the future of the choir in a slightly different light, knowing that at some point, its conductor of 36 years may wish to move on to pastures new. As Bill himself has told the committee, he doesn’t know how he will feel once he gets used to his new-found freedom, and perhaps in a few year’s time a round-the-world trip will become too strong a lure to resist!!
Anyway, I do want also to look back at the past season, of course. As ever, Bill has ably and enthusiastically steered the choir through an interesting and varied programme of music. One of the highlights for me was, I think, our spring concert - perhaps because the programme wasn’t actually what had originally been planned and I don’t think I’d expected the performance to be as magnificent as it was. Whilst the choir struggled initially with
Stravinksy’s Russian, and the very difficult Totus Tuus, I think we really pulled it off. And on a personal note, having been the Russian pronunciation tutor, I was delighted that we sounded something like a Russian choir, even if just for 5 minutes! The summer concert was also a fabulous event, and again I think was partly down to the fact that we pulled off two excellent performances of some difficult pieces, perhaps much to our own surprise. Britten’s flower songs are not easy to sing, and I think the choir really rose to the challenge. As in previous years, the programme also included some home grown work, in the fo rm of Steve Potter’s
‘Deare Besse’. As most of you are aware, Steve was chair of the Choir for many years and I am delighted that we were able to sing his piece, which I found both moving and musically interesting. As ever, it is Bill’s commitment to performing such a great mix of music that means that every concert is different from the last. The concerts are always informed by Bill’s own research and extensive knowledge and we are very lucky to have him at the helm.
So, finally, could I formally welcome anyone who has only recently started coming to rehearsals, or indeed, who has joined since the last AGM. Everyone in the choir, whatever their experience or singing ability, contributes to the experience of singing with the choir. We are lucky to be able to sing in a group consisting of both internal staff and members of the local community; both very experienced choral singers, as well as those with less formal knowledge, and we can all learn from each other through our mix of backgrounds and experiences.
In finishing my report I would just like to say thank you to you all for your singing, for you insights to the music, your comments and contributions and I hope that we will all enjoy another year of exciting music under Bill’s leadership.
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Liz Camp
OU Choir Chair
10 th October 2013
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APPENDIX TWO: The Conductor’s Report
I’d like to make two points this year.
The first is about the range of repertoire we sang last year, and will be singing this year.
When I’m planning, or proposing, programmes, I try to get historical and stylistic variety into the season as well as accommodating our pattern of performance venues and different accompanimental resources. So I might rearrange last year’s repertoire as:
 a Renaissance mass setting

Baroque motets, including one of the best, by J.S. Bach for double choir
 a Classical mass, with orchestral accompaniment and professional soloists
 a mid-twentieth-century set of partsongs, marking the Britten centenary
 t he première of a short unaccompanied piece by one of our own members
You will have had your own favourites – perhaps the intense performance of Górecki’s Totus
Tuus – but taken as a whole it was a classic OU Choir lineup and, if I may say so, a spread of repertoire which any choir would be proud to tackle, and pleased to pull off.
This season:
 We’re getting our Baroque fix this term, but specifically and exclusively English (not something we’ve done for a while) and including another familiar strand of our activities, performing works newly edited by OU colleagues – and in this case prestigiously published

Next term, two super twentieth-century pieces with distinctive two-piano and percussion accompaniment arrangements, Constant Lambert’s The Rio Grande and
Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms

Having attempted a Renaissance mass in the summer term, and you and the audience apparently enjoying it so much, I thought we should try another, and have chosen Palestrina’s Missa Aeterna Christi Munera.

Classical gets a miss this season, but in compensation for having included very little nineteenthcentury repertoire last year, I thought we could return to Verdi’s marvellous setting of the Pater noster, and – so that things don’t get too solemn – add an extract from Ros sini’s distinctly unpious Petite Messe Solennelle.
The second point I want to mention is the matter of my recent retirement from my post in the
Arts Faculty. Although this was under negotiation for a while, it will have seemed sudden to most of you because the actual decision was not concluded until quite late. But the committee has been helpful in trying to make it as smooth as possible and I hope that the only practical difference you’re going to notice is that my email messages will be circulated at second hand, as it were, through either Marian or Liz.
Otherwise we hope it will be business as usual, with the one exception this season that I won’t be doing the Carol Concert, but will take December off and leave you in Dennis’s capable hands.
I am conscious, however, that the new arrangement is going to feel different for me, for the committee, and possibly for the general membership too. We’ll have to see – we haven’t been in this situation before. But I will undertake that, for as long as I go on being involved with the choir, I’ll try to make my contribution as consistent as possible, because that’s the only way I would want it to be.
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Thanks to the committee, our co-opted helpers and rehearsal pianists, and of course to members for your support over t he last twelve months. I’ve spoken of the year as if it was a matter of planning repertoire, but of course it’s much more than that, and we remember moments of enjoyment and discovery in rehearsal, as well as having to persevere with difficult passages, the pleasure of achieving successful performances and, I think and hope, a sense of community within the group.
Bill Strang 10.10.2013
Conductor report 2013
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