2015 ANNUAL REPORT MATTERS CORPORATE. Chairman s Report and Financial Statements. The British Association of Barbershop Singers

Transcription

1 CORPORATE MATTERS 2015 ANNUAL REPORT Chairman s Report and Financial Statements The Registered as a Company No: Registered Charity No:

2 CORPORATE MATTERS Chairman s Annual Report 1st January to 31st December 2015 As I began to compose this report, I realised how quickly my first year has passed as BABS Chairman. It has been a year with many rewarding moments, as well as some challenges. We ve made solid progress on many fronts, including building on our strategic platforms, while establishing exciting new ones. I am honoured to be the 27th Chairman of this exciting and thriving organisation. The (BABS) is a company limited by Guarantee and operates in compliance with the Companies Act 2006 and of the Charity Acts. The Directors and Trustees are all volunteers and do not receive any remuneration. The Board meets on a regular basis and has a pre-planned schedule of near bi-monthly meetings. We met formally on 10 separate days during the year including our 2 Members days - the Annual General Meeting and our Autumn Members Meeting. In addition, there were 11 days of BABS hosted events such as Directors' Academy, Convention, Quartet Prelims and Harmony College. The highlight of the year was, as always, our incredible Convention in May. This year s event in Llandudno was an exceptional affair with our great friends the Vocal Majority in fine form. The BABS Strategy for Growth and Development Our strategy for growth and development is under constant development and review. The strategy remains at the forefront of our entire decision making. The Board recognises that to support the further development of the Association we also need to look at our overall management and how we manage succession planning for the future. The current strategy is operated under three key headings: Growing Skills - through education and training. Growing Numbers - through recruitment and retention. Growing Reputation - through external marketing and partnerships. The following summary of activity demonstrates the support provided in delivering our strategic aims: Growing Skills Directors Academy - In January we had one of the most successful Directors Academies ever. Many of you would be familiar with the venue - it was Nottingham University home of Harmony College and in true HC style, they did us proud. We had two terrific educators from American, Kirk Young and Theo Hicks who gave all 86 attendees a truly remarkable directing experience; the weekend included many fascinating insights and techniques for improving the skills of our front line directors and their support teams. The new Chorus Directors Workshop at Windsor on 20th September was very successful, both for the six students and the two new mentors. Further workshops will be planned for Harmony College Another huge success with the highest number of attendees ever recorded at Harmony College. This year there was a different aspect to the college chorus - there were two. The usual great fun - big sound college chorus was led by talented guidance from "Reckless" quartet. The second group, a first for HC, was an auditioned chorus under the direction of the outstanding Jack Pinto (International Quartet Gold medallist and director of The Brothers in Harmony" chorus of New Jersey. Steve Tramack, MD of the New Hampshire Granite Statesmen chorus, was our other US guest educator and he brought a wealth of knowledge and gave us all a cluster of great techniques to make us better singers. The success of our 40th Anniversary Convention in 2014 meant that we were able to offer a free place at Harmony College to every one of our choruses and over 90% of clubs took up the offer to send one of their members along. continued over...

3 Quartet Exploration Days - BABS held two QEDs in one in Stockport in September and one in Bromley in October. "Reckless" quartet also held three Quartet Coaching Days during 2015, at Southampton, Telford and Warrington. In total 18 quartets attended - 11 BABS' registered quartets, 6 ladies' quartets and one a male quartet from the Royal Northern College of Music. Guild of Judges - BABS has its own competition judges. As well as scoring our quartet and chorus contests, many are invited to adjudicate at non-barbershop festivals and barbershop contests in Europe. We run our own training during the year in readiness for our annual contests and also send judges to category school in America for enhanced training. To ensure continued alignment with the BHS, the Presentation category is in the process of changing its name to Performance to more accurately reflect the broader ethos of the category. In October, 3 members of the Guild - Andy Funnell, Mark Grindall and Rhiannon Owens-Hall - travelled to the USA to shadow judge at the Mid Atlantic District contest where they ably demonstrated to the Americans the capabilities we have within our judging Guild programme. Thanks must be given to our Guild of Judges for their efforts throughout the year, in providing evaluations to all competing quartets and choruses, these evaluations provide an invaluable aid to future development. Growing Numbers Recruitment and retention are key parts of the strategy and there are many aspects that will affect both areas. The majority of our members are post middle age and we must remain mindful of this as we strive to recruit the next generation of barbershop singers. Our membership at the end of 2015 remained solidly around the 2,200 mark; however, and perhaps more significantly, the proportion of under 25s has increased from 3.3% in 2013 to 4.3% in Further encouragement can be taken from knowing that, during that same two year period, the average age of new members fell from 53.1 to 49.5 years young. Slow it may be but we seem to be heading in the right direction. Learn to Sing Courses - During the October of 2014, as part of our 40th year celebrations, an exceptional 41 clubs took part in National LTS courses from which the association gained around 210 new members. As a result we expected fewer LTS sessions during we normally plan on around 18 taking place in any one year. However, when numbers were added up we still held 16 LTS courses during 2015 with 77 potential new recruits. The LTS model is our most successful method of recruitment, by some margin - not only that but the sessions also help retain the interest and provide motivation for our stalwart members. It seems that the LTS concept is here to stay and if you think you can improve the concept please let me know. Growing Reputation We are and should be proud of the fact that we sing barbershop harmony, and the position we now have of being one of the leading music organisations in the UK. We have made giant strides in this area and the aim is to continue to drive this improvement in the quality of our presentation, in line with our overall objective. Whatever event we run, whatever material we produce, whatever we do and say, will have a bearing on our reputation. There is now a recognised house style of branding for all BABS events and activities that creates a professional look to our organisation, a sense of belonging and continuity of effort. Sing Barbershop - It s the Harmony that makes the Difference, is our promotional message, building on the unique style of singing and the special fraternal environment that is produced by you the members. External Marketing - Our marketing activity continues to make an impression and play a part in building the positive awareness of barbershop with key influencers within other music genres. We continue with an active programme of external facing awareness and we run regular features and advertisements within specifically targeted periodicals, journals and digital outlets. Each time we advertise, whether we are inviting choirs to try barbershop for themselves, promoting Convention or selling Harmony College, the message reinforces the quality of the Association, and when taken together, reflects a vibrant and successful music organisation. Harmony Express - The official publication of BABS was very successfully migrated to its new on-line home during The quarterly magazine is now much more readily accessible and is read by many of our overseas friends. The document can still be printed for those who like that old fashioned feel but many now prefer to take HEx with them wherever they go. The periodical covers national barbershop news events, items of interest to our members and regional club level activity. Electronic Communication - The InTouch system allows for messages to be sent direct to every individual member and can also be utilised to specifically communicate with targeted member groups such as our frontline directors. The system has been successfully used to send personalised invitations to events such as Directors' Academy and is being used as the main form of communication with the Company Members with regard to their attendance at Company Meetings such as the AGM. It is important to ensure that all members provide their up to date address to ensure they receive these messages. The InTouch system is for barbershop matters only, rest assured that addresses will not be passed to any third party neither will they be used for any commercial gain. BABS Web Site - Continues to play a major role in both our internal and external communications. The content, format and design are continuously being updated and amended to ensure that the website is fresh and informative and takes account of these two sets of viewers. The Document Centre contains copies of official BABS documents and other information sheets. The site provides links to major BABS' events, like Convention and Harmony College, and to many external bodies including our partner barbershop organisations. Page 2 continued over...

4 Partnerships UK Based Choral Organisations We continue to develop our relationships with our external friends in choral singing. This year our links have been strengthened by representation at all of the Making Music meetings and closer ties with the likes of ABCD (Association of British Choral Directors) and TONSIL (The Ongoing Singing Liaison Group). We have continually impressed representatives of these organisations with our organisation and singing competency whilst they experienced some of our events during the year and invitations to Convention 2016 and Directors' Academy 2016 have been enthusiastically accepted where, no doubt, they will continue to be impressed. Barbershop Harmony Society We continue our affiliation with the Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS) and attended the Affiliates and World Harmony Council (WHC) meetings in Pittsburgh during Efforts continue to develop the Affiliation agreement into a partnership model which would better resonate with the developing world of barbershop singing. Barbershop in Harmony BIH operates as a collaboration between the three UK barbershop organisations, involving ourselves and the two ladies organisations: the Ladies Association of British Barbershop Singers (LABBS) - and Sweet Adelines Region 31 Quartet of Nations. A growing interest in the mixed gender quartet style of barbershop singing has been supported by a number of events in recent years. In 2015 the UK championships were, for the first time, a BinH event and took place immediately following the LABBS convention at Bournemouth. This type of quartet singing is an exciting development and will foster even greater interest in the musical style. The mixed voice quartet World Championships are held in Germany every two years with every fourth year being European events and held at the European convention which moves around the various European organisations. These events give the top three mixed quartets each year a goal to aim for and you can be assured that UK representation will be at both the BinG World event in Munich in 2016 and at the European Convention which, in 2017, will be combined with the LABBS' Convention in Bournemouth. Conventions & Contests SING2015 in Llandudno - We can reflect on how successful our 41st Convention turned out to be with 36 choruses taking part leading to the highest attendance we have ever had at a Llandudno convention. The Mayor of Llandudno himself commented on how he was impressed by the warmth and friendship which BABS brought to his town. Our international guests this year were "The Vocal Majority" Chorus from Dallas, Texas. In their words they were completely blown away by the reception and hospitality they received. The competition itself was very close this year as indeed we thought it would be. But, when the points were in, the "Great Western Chorus of Bristol" had taken first prize with their highly entertaining performance, very well done guys - whilst the young guns of "Tagline" had the purple ribbons and quartet gold medals placed around their necks following one of the highest scoring and closest competitions for many years, congratulations lads. I m sure you ll all do BABS proud in Nashville next summer. During the summer, the Board (under the guidance of Convention Manager Alan Bithell) undertook a comprehensive review of our convention structure; discussions took place to decide if anything could, or should, be changed. The review came to the conclusion that convention works very well in its current form. Consideration will, of course, always be given to suggestions for improvement but, fundamentally, we are getting it right. Quartet Prelims The Birmingham Conservatoire, which for a number of years now has been the home of our quartet preliminary competition, was undergoing a refurbishment programme in 2015, which meant that we had to find an alternative. Step forward the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) in Manchester. The event, this time extended over two days, was an undeniable success. The Youth and Seniors competitions were held on the Saturday at the end of which we had our new Youth and Seniors champs - "Trailblazers" and "South Parade" respectively. The qualifier for convention next year held on the Sunday came out with "Finest Hour" on top with a terrific 80% average. Barbershop Harmony Society International - As usual BABS was well represented at the BHS convention. This year "Hallmark of Harmony" from Sheffield competed against the world s best in the chorus competition whilst quartets were well represented by "Reckless" and "The Emerald Guard" in the international quartet competition. "Reckless" became the highest placing BABS quartet to date finishing 21st and getting to mike warm the quartet semi-finals. Finance BABS remains in a strong financial position. Whilst committing investment in the various aspects of the Growth and Development Strategy, the Board continues the drive to contain day to day costs, with a commitment to obtain value for money and good financial management. A copy of the Draft Accounts is included with this report itemising full financial activities of the Association for the year ending 31st December Harmony Foundation The Trustees met on six occasions in 2015 to consider applications for scholarships and grants. Funding comes from various sources to enable these grants to be issued including Gift Aid, Regular Giving, Donations and Legacies. Page 3 continued over...

5 The Board & Appointments The 2015 Board consisted of Ian James, Peter Cookson, Derek Parmenter, Paul Williams, Laurie Whittle, Alan Goldsmith, Ashley Baker and Colin Roper. During 2015 our Convention Manager, Alan Bithell, was co-opted onto the executive team as Convention and Events advisor welcome Alan. General Young People in Harmony (YPiH) - The first development meeting for YPiH took place in July and the inaugural seminar was on Saturday 7th October. An external speaker (from Voice Festival UK) commented on how well organised everything was. The networking between clubs in the same region worked well and they are starting to communicate. The principle focus was the creation of a music pack to enable our clubs to talk to school and colleges. The work to collate a pack of suitable existing arrangements (e.g. songs/tags/warm ups etc) is ongoing. Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to personally thank all our members and their families for their continued support of the Association. I particularly thank my fellow directors/trustees for the support they have given me during my first year in office, in addition to our Guild of Judges, coaches, educators, event organisers, and supporting administration teams. The Association, under the guidance of the Board, is in a very strong position in many ways and the commitment to continue to strengthen the structure and management through progressive development is unwavering. Page 4 Ian James BABS Chairman /16

6 CORPORATE MATTERS Financial Summary proved to be an exceptional year in many ways. We had more people taking part in barbershop events than ever before, more at Convention in Harrogate, more at Harmony College, more at Prelims both audience and participants, more at Directors Academy and more taking part in quartet coaching days. This then was manifested in the Association making an unprecedented surplus of 26,354 which was added to the existing fund balance and having a record 127,486 of Reserves. The Charites Commission encourages organisations to hold sufficient reserves to cover current activities, liabilitiies or any unforseen circumstances. We have held two very successful conventions in 2014 at Harrogate for our 40th Anniversary with record numbers attending and the unforgettable AIC chorus. Then a little bit to our surprise in 2015 at Llandudno, when we were expecting smaller numbers, we had far more people attending than forecasted. To make the event unmissable we invited Vocal Majority to Wales and having sold out one show, they very kindly agreed to repeat it the next day. This resulted in another surplus which the Board have again used to support the clubs in attending Harmony College with a free place, plus allocating additional money to the Young People in Harmony initiative. So although the plan is never to make money, sometimes when attendances are greater than budgeted (usually estimated 18 months in advance), and despite the weather attempting to blow up the hall (Harrogate 2014) and giving us a discount on the venue costs, these additional surpluses generated, have been used to support the Association in its strategy for Growth and Development. This year we also left additional reserves available for the future which the Board consider to be a prudent policy. Paul Williams BABS Finance Director