Minutes and Report from the HCS Committee Meeting of 16 Oct 2019

Harleston Choral Society

Report on Minutes of Committee Meeting

Downloadable here as a pdf file for printing

Wednesday, 16th October, 2019

A discussion about membership began our meeting.  Whilst it is pleasing to note that we have a few new members, we would like more new singers, particularly, bass voices.  Janette is chasing up possible singers to join us.

The ‘Sing With Us’ practice in January had been a useful event to advertise and we will, with some rewording on the advertisement, repeat this on 20th January, 2020 in our attempt to encourage some new members.

At the St John’s Church pre-Christmas event it was agreed we sing ‘Three Ships’.  It was agreed not to sing at the Harleston Christmas lights ‘switch on’ event at the end of November.

We discussed organizing an a cappella Concert with Janette, Karen and professional singers to raise funds for the choir.  This will be at St John’s Church, on Sunday, 10th May, 2020 and could be a focus for our ‘Mayflower Celebrations’ – watch this space.

Our new Chairperson, Stella Brownsea was welcomed by the Committee, as was the new ‘Minutes’ Secretary, Sue Foster.  They drew attention to the marvellous job done previously by Jo Curry and Jenny Hyams. Testament to this was the well-organized folders of Reports, Agendas, Minutes, and other Charity Commission documentation.  As it is H.C.S.’s 20th Anniversary this year, we hope a display of some of this ‘paperwork’ archive will be on show at our Christmas Concert.  It was also agreed that in the New Year these documents should be safely stored at Norwich Records Office.

Grant applications were discussed and we would like to thank Jo Curry for her submission to Festival Voices, in a bid to secure some of their funding, as they seek to disband and re-distribute their funds to worthy recipients.  The Committee is investigating how to make submissions to The National Lottery and to Music for All for funding future projects, recitals and expenses.  It was agreed to shelve, for now, ideas on ‘Crowd Funding’.

All the organisational jobs necessary for our forthcoming Christmas Concert were divvied out to the Committee members and we look forward to a successful festive concert once again.

The Summer Concert date has changed, due to a wedding in St John’s Church on 20th June, 2020, so our concert will now be on Saturday, 27th June, 2020.


HCS has now taken over total management of our website and, whilst there were some glitches during the handover, we hope these have now been ironed out. We will continue to develop it and would be grateful for your feedback.

 Fiona Brownsea has now taken on the job of administering H.C.S. Friends.  Thanks to Carol for her past commitment to this role. 

Future Dates for Your Diary:

  • Start of Spring Term 2020  – Monday, 13th January – (begin at 7.00pm for payment of subscriptions please)
  • Open Rehearsal 2020 – Saturday, 20th January – begin at 7pm please
  • Quiz Evening 2020 – Saturday, 21st March at St James Village Hall 
  • End of Spring Term 2020 – Monday, 30th March
  • Start of Summer Term 2020 – Monday, 20th April – (begin at 7pm for payment of subscriptions please)
  • Summer concert Rehearsal – Friday, 26th June at 7pm
  • Summer Concert and end of term 2020 – Saturday, 27th June

Next Committee Meetings are: 

Monday, 9th December at 7pm and Thursday, 6th February at 11am.

Sue Foster (Nov 2019)