AGM Minutes 2016

2016 AGM Minutes

Pompey Pluckers Annual General Meeting: The Old House at Home

Thursday 20th October 2016

PPresent: Pete Coote (Chair), Helen Deacon, Liz Latcham, Hoppy, Robert Turner-Diamond, Elaine Halsey, Rowena Nott, Karen Bevan, Diane Houghton, Rob Farnden, Rosemary Farnden, Glenn Wallace, Lyn Browne, Berry Reeves, Martin Mason, Ian Maiden, Sally Jouhning, Phil Letchford, Mandie Letchford, Ian Lloyd, Mark Bushnell, Jim Stamp, Graham Cockburn, Pete Riches, Antje Eisfelder, Dave Baker, Eddie Brown, Kev Moughton, Simon Green, Jude Child, Maggie Spyropoulos, Claire Hillyar. (Guest - Megan, Portsmouth Food cycle)

Apologies: Pauline Sandiford

The meeting opened at 19.10 and the Chairman welcomed everyone and thanked them for their attendance.

Minutes of last meeting: The minutes of the previous AGM were agreed.

Matters arising: There were no matters arising from the minutes of the previous AGM

Vote on proposed amendment to section 7 of the Constitution:

Proposed: Ian Maiden. Seconded: Chris Collier. Carried unanimously

Committee’s Annual Report given by the Chairman

AGM - Thanks for coming to 2016 AGM, we’ve been going for around seven years now and here’s a quick review of what we’ve done, where we are and what should we be doing in the future.

First of all, I’d like to thank:

• All the pluckers who have turned out to perform week after week.
• Everyone who turns up to Monday and Thursday nights.
• All the committee members who have worked to keep Pompey Pluckers operational.
• With special thanks to Lyn Brown who has tirelessly maintained and organised the gig list with all that encompasses, encouraging pluckers to attend.

Over the past year, Pompey Pluckers has achieved a great deal:

• We played 83 gigs and made a load of cash for Artscape this year.
• In fact, since we were formed in 2009, we’ve performed over 325 and donated over £30,000 to the charities we've supported: The Rowan's Hospice (2011), Naomi House and Jack's Place (2012), The Elizabeth Foundation (2013), Wessex Cancer Trust (2014) Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance (2015), Artscape (2016).
• This year our gig list has been full of interesting gigs: weddings, a funeral (Norah Coote’s), we dressed up in Halloween for Denmead Beer Festival, new public gigs at Wickham and Emsworth festivals, HMS Victory and not forgetting on the main Guildhall stage for the Chinese Cultural Celebration, where I felt unusually a little under-dressed, with all the immaculately dressed and made-up Chinese singers and dancers.
• We had POMPEY PLUCKERS XMAS PARTY JAM at the Students Union in December, this year’s may be in January when it’s quiet for gigs.
• Our third POMPULELE Ukulele Festival on the 16th April 2016 was a great success with 16 local ukulele groups playing at the event, many pluckers getting involved to make the day smashing, making a good profit too. When we started, there were only a few local ukulele groups around: Southampton Ukulele Jam and Wukulele. Since then, many groups have popped up, some of them performing at their local community events.
• We don’t advertise, it’s all word of mouth, which is great and keeps costs down. It does however, set an audience expectation as to our performance. So, we must be careful to maintain our quality and keep our reputation. Please read and take on our “Gig Etiquette” guidelines online to make sure you’re up-to-date.
• So what next? What do do we want to do as a group?
• What, if anything do we need to do to keep our momentum going?
• Are we going along OK or should we do things differently? If so what direction should we take
• To finish, please get involved with the group in whatever way you can, keep it fun, maintain our reputation, promote amateur music and spread the love.

The Chair asked the the floor for their views on what we need to do to take Pompey Pluckers forward into 2017. Please see attachment for some of the views/observations/suggestions.

Presentation of Accounts

Pompey Pluckers Annual Financial Report 2015-2016

Money to be given to Artscape

The income from the Plucker's Party and Pompulele has been included in the Donations amount.

Adoption of Accounts: The accounts were adopted unanimously

Choosing a Local Charity (mainly or wholly in Hampshire)

1. FoodCycle Pompey (sponsor Robert Diamond-Turner)

2. Mary Rose Academy (sponsor Liz Latcham)

3. The Rocky Appeal (sponsor Berry Reeves)

After a short presentation by each sponsor (Robert nominated Megan from FoodCyle to present his). After the final presentation the Chairman opened up the voting.

Round one

FoodCycle 5

Mary Rose Academy 13

Rocky Appeal 11 (inc 1 proxy vote)

Round two (with FoodCycle eliminated)

Mary Rose Academy 18

Rocky Appeal 11 (inc. 1 proxy vote)

Mary Rose Academy was duly selected as our charity for the coming year.

Election of the Committee: The following were elected to form the new committee:

Chris Collier; Helen Deacon; Lyn Browne; Ian Maiden; Pauline Sandiford; Pete Riches; Pete Coote; Liz Latcham; Graham Cockburn; Jude Child.

Positions are to be decided at the next PP committee meeting ( 3 Nov 2016 @ The Good Companions, 7.30).

AOB

• Berry thanked Peter C for being an effective leading guiding Pluckers through some challenging times and for all his work with projects such as Pompulele over the years.
• For personal reasons Berry has made the decision to stand down from the Committee this year. As one of the founder members of Pompey Pluckers Jude Child proposed and Jim Stamp seconded that Berry became a Joint Honorary President of Pompey Pluckers. Berry gratefully accepted.

Closing remarks

The Chairman thanked everyone for their support. The Constitution will be amended and added to the Website.

As there was no other business the meeting closed at 20.15.

Here are some of the views:

• We are suffering from are own popularity and are finding it difficult to get players to cover all our gigs.
• Some of the bookings are made a year in advance
• Dwindling numbers of Pluckers. Encouraging younger people to come along. Structuring practice evening
• Afternoons gigs - core players due to work commitments etc.
• How do we encourage Monday nighters to come along on a Thursday?
• More Ukulele groups around nowadays
• Perhaps we need to promote Pluckers more - consider posters etc.
• Press release highlighting our achievements together with an appeal for players
• Thursdays have been chaotic but do now have more structure
• Promotions such as giant cheque handover. Press release/postcards/flyers?
• Disappointment we have not been involved in ‘large’ festivals this year - e.g. Wickham, Victorious etc.
• Using gigs to explain and perhaps attract new players etc.
• More effort into Monday evenings to bring people across to Thursdays
• Thoroughly enjoy monday nights - fun, social …
• We struggle to keep the good players
• More variety of songs, need to change
• More people doing setlist to bring variety
• Limitation on number of leaders available
• Good to have a core group of songs that we play well and often the audience expects
• You have to be confident of songs on setlist if you are leading
• Stress the importance of replying to gig invites - use yes, no and maybe buttons as applicable it all helps in identifying potential availability
• Need to look at protocols especially relating to email listing etc..