By: HAA Admin
MINUTES OF THE QUARTERLY MEETING OF HILLINGDON ARTS ASSOCIATION
18TH JULY 2023
1. PRESENT
Lydia Holland, Trustee, Chair H.A.A, Hillingdon Philharmonic Orchestra
Sylvia Taylor, Trustee, Acting Minute Secretary, Argosy Players
Fred Davis, Trustee, Web Master and Membership Secretary
Jenny Thorne, Trustee, Hillingdon & Harrow Embroiderers
Sheila Scoates, Trustee, Hillingdon U23A Singers
Richard Fremantle, Treasurer
David Pearson, Proscenium Players
Sheena Rosser Hillingdon Artists
Lyn Kauffman, Ruislip Lions
Joan Scoates, Pastiche Musical Theatre
Michelle Needleman, Uxbridge Coral Society, Sine Nomine Singers
Ron Webb, Voices in Accord
Gloria Webb, Voices in Accord
Maggie Warren, Pastiche Musical Theatre
Gaynor Lasch, Ickenham, Art Society
Wolf Lasch, Ickenham Art Society
2. APOLOGIES
Jan Scurr – Harefield Amateur Dramatic Society)
Barbara Porkett – Society of Ruislip Artists) –clash of meeting clash
Joyce Carpenter – Society of Ruislip Artists)
Judy Kelly – health (going to hospital)
TP Singh – Punjabi Theatre Academy
Pam Currin – away on Holiday
Gaye Russell, Free and Easel
Peter Russel, Middx. Woodturners
3. MINUTES OF LAST QUARTERLY IN MARCH and MATTERS ARISING
It was pointed out that the date on the March Quarterly Minutes quoted the date as 28th March, whereas it was the 29th March, 2023
Hillingdon Operatic and Hillingdon Philharmonic Orchestra report needed to be amended to include further information provided by Lydia.
Ron and Gloria Webb are representatives of Voices in Accord, not Singers in Accord as reported in the Minutes.
Jenny Thorne is a representative of the Hillingdon and Harrow Embroiders and not the Townswomens’ Guild as reported in the Minutes.
The Secretary apologised for these omissions/errors and the Minutes will be amended accordingly. With these amendments the Minutes were accepted.
4. MATTERS ARISING FROM THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2023
Attention was drawn by Gaye Russell to the spelling error on the Frontispiece of the Annual Report, the website for the Association had a spelling error. This was noted for next year.
Sheena Rosser questioned whether the Combined Arts Exhibition should be listed as an HAA Promotion in that it is currently managed by Gaye Russell as an individual. Sylvia related the history of the Exhibition which had been the work of the Visual Arts committee but now seemed to have lapsed. When Fred Davis stood down as Chair of the Committee, the Exhibition was promoted by Graham Pellow and following his resignation Gaye volunteered to take it on. It was understood that she recruited a small committee of fellow Artists to assist her. At the time it seemed possible that the Exhibition had no future without an organiser. Since then she has introduced some innovations to attract more member of the public.
A question was raised about the inclusion of the Council Grants Panel on the frontispiece, the Secretary pointed out that as the Panel existed during 2002/23 it had been included, however it will not be included on the front of the 2003/24 Annual Report.
5. TREASURER’ S REPORT
This had been covered at the Annual Meeting held immediately before this meeting and therefore the decision made then required no further comment at this meeting.
6. NEWS FROM THE SOCIETIES
Proscenium – Brian Pearson
Brian had produced a typed account of the Society’s activities and is appended here:
Post-Covid
As soon as the pandemic social restrictions were lifted and Compass Theatre was re-opened we took the bold decision to present as full a programme as possible with Old-World in October 2021, An Enemy of the People in March 2022 and The Memory of Water in May 2022. Proscenium may justly be proud of those productions artistically. They were well presented and enjoyed by enthusiastic audiences, which regrettably were very small owing to the continuing reluctance of people to resume their previous levels of social activity and theatregoing. Consequently, we lost a substantial amount of money on the season.
A season followed of more popular productions of A Bunch of Amateurs, A Month of Sundays and Art, which, together with a big fundraising effort, enabled us to recover our losses and even make a small profit. The recovery plan also meant that we reduced our season from four to three productions.
We are now ready to celebrate our centenary next year with another season of three productions. In November we will present Ladies’ Day by Amanda Whittington; in
March 2024 we will present an innovative production of Julius Caesar, which will be our Centenary production, and in June we will complete the season with Speaking in Tongues by Andrew Bovell.
We have also held a series of social events centred around readings of plays and other literary works. We held an acting workshop this month, which has attracted interest from a number of potential new members and we look forward to the coming season with renewed vigour.
Uxbridge Choral Society – Michelle Needleman
Michele reported that since Covid some former members had not returned, however the good news was that six new members have joined. They like so many other performing groups have suffered from dwindling audiences and their last concert attracted only 30 members in the audience. A decision has been made that a greater emphasis on singing for members enjoyment rather than leading to a performance, the range of music chosen has also been widened. Michelle reported that she is already Secretary to Sine Nomine but been nominated to become Secretary of Uxbridge Choral Society.
Voices in Accord – Ron Webb
The group consists of fifteen member and perform approximately four times a year, raising money for a variety of charities. They have recently had to replace their second-hand piano which they have had for 25 years with a keyboard. Numbers remain steady.
Pastiche Musical Theatre – Maggie Warren
The Company enjoyed great success with their latest production of Company at the Compass. They consider themselves lucky as they have had several new younger members join which they think is partially due to their young musical director. They will be producing Mixtape in October, which will be a mixture of songs from shows they have performed and or may do in the future.
Ickenham Art society – Gaynor Lasch
The Society would like to attract new members as the society is only half the size it used to be and was reducing in number even before Covid. As a result they will be limiting Exhibitions to two a year instead of four as previously. Their meeting place is the Village hall but Demonstrators are increasingly expensive.
Hillingdon & Harrow Embroiders – Jenny Thorne
Across the board Townswomen’s Guilds are closing, due to many cases because of lack of funding and the high cost of teachers many of whom charge in excess of £100 plus travel expenses. Even Scottish Wool Shops make a charge.
The Embroiders Guild, as part of the TWG, has relocated to St Aubins in Harrow where hall hire is cheaper and numbers are growing.
Encore – Sylvia Taylor
Sylvia had heard recently that Encore has been devesting itself of some costumes and props and were not planning to put on a musical in the near future but will perform The 39 Steps instead.
Argosy Players – Sylvia Taylor
Argosy staged a Variety show in June at Ickenham Village Hall, the Compass Theatre being too expensive to hire and guarantee a full house.. It had attracted small but appreciative audiences and they were especially pleased to offer a show for dementia patients which had gone down very well.
As an experiment Argosy are joining forces with Wembley Operatic Company to stage Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at the Winston Churchill Hall in October, reason being that both societies have small balances and cannot afford to hire Winston Church on their own.
Hillingdon Philharmonic Orchestra – Lydia Holland
The orchestra had performed Opera Music at a concert in the Winston Churchill Hall in March, a Classical concert in May at the United Reform Church in Ickenham and Music from America at Winston Churchill Hall in June. Each concert went well but relatively small audiences is causing costs to become concerning. For this reason their next concert will be a Piano Concert at Northwood College ion 28th November,
Hillingdon U3A – Sheila Scoates
The Singers will be performing in company with two other U3A groups – Ukelele and Guitar on 2nd December at Christ church, Uxbridge. Small evening audiences is causing them to consider afternoon rather than evening concerts in the future.
Hillingdon Artists – Sheena Rosser
An exhibition is currently being held in the Library until 27th July. They are continuing to have the former Marks and Spencer café until the end of July but are looking to be moved to another space where they will be mounting both a Gallery of work and Art Classes.
Ruislip Lions – Lyne Kauffman
Though not a performing group Ruislip Lions invite musical and other groups to support their fund raising for their five charitable areas. In the past these have included a Jazz Concert with the Music Service and the RAF band Whereas before Covid there were 42 members of the group they are now only 18. They too are looking for smaller venues and have found that Alec Reed School provides a reasonably priced venue and are looking to hold three concerts in the future with local sponsorship.
This concluded news from Societies but Sylvia announced the sad passing of Mary Bolton, a founder member of Uxbridge Musical theatre, Pastiche and the Hillingdon U3a Singers. Mary has left a large legacy of sheet music which her niece has kindly offered to Hillingdon societies. Sylvia has these and will be very pleased to receive offers of help to sort and distribute the contents of her very extensive music library.
7. Date of Next Meeting this will be circulated as soon as it is confirmed by the Civic Centre.
The meeting closed at 9.55 pm
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