|
|
|
|
HTC Summer Newsletter 2025
|
Hello fellow Choir members
|
|
We have come to the end of the ‘HTC year’ and so it’s time to reclaim Thursday evenings for whatever you want to do before we come back on 18 September. This is really only halfway through our 15th anniversary year so we still have a few exciting gigs between then and Christmas. I just wanted to reflect a little on what has been achieved and note a few things for your general consideration.
|
|
|
|
Summer Party
|
|
|
|
Firstly, a huge thanks to Tim and Kate Webster for opening up their home and giving us such a splendid welcome for the Summer Party. I know some of you weren’t able to join us on this occasion but it was dry, if not as hot as more recent weekends and the spread of both food and drinks was more than sufficient – indeed we donated some of the excess soft drinks to the Gracious Street Church project in Knaresborough. As well as thanks to Tim and Kate, we need to thank Allison for her organisation (and Jenga, amongst other games!)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Future Dates....
|
|
You will recently have received an e-mail from Jean drawing your attention to the Muzodo entries for rehearsals and performances into 2027(!) so that you can plan your life around HTC commitments! Your Committee now meets regularly for a planning meeting so that we can not only give you more advance notice of these but also raise our chances of securing the best venues for our performances. Following my request in the Spring Newsletter, we had some good suggestions for new venues (thank you) and we will be exploring and including them as we continue our future planning. Your responses to the survey were also very helpful and may open up opportunities to go further afield.
|
|
.....and Muzodo
|
|
Using this system has improved greatly the understanding of the availability of singers, especially for concerts, and – because it is as close to realtime as is possible – even if your attendance changes at the last minute you can let Jean and Catherine know by using it. This avoids unnecessary emails/telephone calls, not to mention concerns if someone doesn’t arrive as expected.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This will be the subject of a separate communication later in the summer, but much work is taking place to transfer the click-tracks to a new HTC One Drive account. Setting up this new account should sort out the previous problems that singers were having when trying to access the click tracks. It will mean everyone using a NEW LINK so look out for the specific guidance which will be sent out well before we come back in September. You will need to follow any instructions in order to use the new links.
|
|
|
|
HTC FOR HIRE
|
|
|
|
I covered this in the Spring Newsletter but, as many of you know, we will be singing at the wedding party for Meem’s daughter on 2 August. If you want to recommend HTC to sing at an ‘external’ event of this kind then please ask Catherine or a Committee member – we will also advertise this on our website.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Charity Support
|
|
As you will be aware we have been making contributions to local charities from the proceeds of our recent concerts – and a HUGE thank you to all those who have contributed cakes and/or raffle prizes which have helped to swell those donations. Linking with these charities has, on the whole, been beneficial in improving the reach to our potential audience as well as – in some cases – improved their own visibility, and we think that it should be continued in future. We will be supporting Martin House Children's Hospice at our Wetherby concert on 26 October but have not yet decided on a charity for our Christmas concert………. so any suggestions will be gratefully received!
|
|
CHRISTMAS 2025
CHARITY
|
|
|
SUGGESTIONS PLEASE!
|
|
|
|
|
Sponsorship
|
|
Audiences at our recent 15th anniversary concerts have benefitted from having a glossy programme and some of the costs of this have been met from sponsorship/advertising, most recently at Masham from HECK. Where we can find helpful sponsors for the programmes it will benefit HTC, the business and the headline charity, so we are always on the lookout for such support – if you know of a business either in the Wetherby area (October) or in Harrogate (December) then please let Gerry know.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Help at Concerts
|
|
This falls into two categories – set-up and Front of House. In the first instance it is often helpful for some singers to arrive ahead of the majority to erect staging etc and this will be covered in the Muzodo details. So far as FoH is concerned, whilst we don’t yet have a regular Front of House manager - which would be the ideal – there is a small group which has been supporting HTC at the last couple of concerts. If you know of someone who would be prepared to help as either FoH manager or a team member, on either a regular or occasional basis, please let me know.
|
|
|
|
Committee Duties
|
|
At the AGM in September, you will have a chance to thank your Committee members for the work which they put in to make sure everything comes together to run efficiently. However, we would be keen to welcome an additional Committee member who would allow Gerry to stand down in due course, to give her a break after five years. Please let any Committee member know if you would be prepared to sit alongside Gerry for a few months before taking on her responsibilities.
|
|
|
|
Christmas Social Event
|
|
|
|
Allison will be organising a Christmas celebration event, taking into account comments which were made after the last pre-Christmas event in 2023; last year, of course, we had the Ceilidh in January. She would welcome any suggestions that singers may have for the type of event/potential venue – sooner rather than later please!
|
|
|
|
HTC Constitution
|
|
|
|
Finally, whilst HTC is not a charitable organisation, it is a measure of good governance that we operate under a broad set of policies, as evidenced in a Constitution. Some of the longer-serving HTC members may recall that such a document was approved in 2017 but it has not been reviewed or revised since then. There have a been a few changes in HTC since then, not least in the quality of our singing(!) but also in the way we operate, so the Committee has reviewed the requirement and drafted a new 'Constitution 2025' for approval at the AGM in September.
|
|
|
|
|
I wanted to give you the opportunity to look at it over the summer break and make any suggestions for changes to me before 1 September at andrewrforsyth@aol.com, so that the Committee can review them before the AGM on 25 September.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Hope you can enjoy your summer and I look forward to seeing you in September.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
