All about our Annual General Meeting
Our Annual General Meeting is held during the first half of a normal practice night. Our Constitution sets out the dates when the AGM should be held each year.
At the AGM the members will hear Apologies for Absence and the Minutes of the last AGM. There will be reports from the Chairman, the Musical Director and the Secretary on what has happened to the Choir since the last AGM. The Treasurer will present the audited accounts for the year for approval by the meeting.
The meeting will then elect, or re-elect, the Officers and Committee members for the following year. Any member of the Choir can stand for election to any of the positions as a Trustee or a committee member. You do not need to have been a member for "x" number of years or have any qualifications. All you need to do is be nominated and seconded by chior members and then your nomination can be put to the vote of the AGM. If more than one person is nominated for a position the members at the AGM will choose which of the nominees they wish to stand by a simple ballot.
It is not a "given" that current committee members continue for another year. Indeed some may have decided to resign and need replacing.
Once the Officers and committee are elected Any Other Business may be conducted. Proposals can be made by members and, if required, be voted upon by the Annual General Meeting.
How do you put up a nomination?
There are notices on the Choir Noticeboard, at our practices, where you can post nominations for any position on the committe or as a Trustee. You should have the approval of the person you ae nominating. Your nomination will then need to be seconded. The Secretary will read out the nominations at the AGM and the members will then vote.
What are the positions as Trustees or as Committee Members?
Our constitution allows is to have seven Trustees. Three of these Trustees are Officers of the Choir: Chairman, Secretary & Treasurer. Without these Officers, as a charity, we cannot (and may not) function.
All Trustees are also committee members. Committee Members take on the other functions to help run the Choir: Concert Secretary, Librarian, Stage Manager, Membership Secretary, Publicity Officer, Webmaster. Sometimes a committee member may perform nor than one function. As an example the Chairman is currently also running this website and acting as Publicity Officer.
If no specific committee membr is elected to a post the committee can decide amongst themselves who will take on that function, or, they may co-opt a member specifically for that function.
The Musical Director is not an elected Committee Member and has no voting powers. He does attend and advise at all committee meetings.
The Accompanist or Assistant MD has no voting powers and is not expected to attend committee meetings.
Due to the way in which the Choir funtions much of the Committee Business happens through email. Reports are sent by email. Events are organised by email. Initial discussions usually start on email before being concluded in committee. It would be diffcult to funtion as a committee member of you do not use email. Nothing in the constitution or rules prevent anyone who has no email from standing. It would just make the efficient funtioning of the committee and ths the Choir difficult.
FINALLY, our Choir has a Constitution that has been approved by the Charities Commission. You can find that Constitution HERE.
We also have set of Rules of Governance which sets out how the Choir is organised. These rules cover things that are not part of the constitution that is rerquired by the Charities Commission. Your committee worked very hard for many months updating the Rules so that they work with the new Constitution. We have also included some updates that bring these rules (which were the original constituion of the SMVC, some of them set 60 years ago) up-to-date for our modern world.
