East Midlands Region

 Chairman’s Report- June 2007

 I was invited to become Chairman last year and was elected at last year’s AGM in Leicester. I thought long and hard about whether it was right for me and indeed for Making Music. I first had to convince myself that Making Music had a role to play, as devolved funding was about to cease (we were one of the last of the English regions to continue to receive it) and with it any kind of regional role – or so it seemed to many. It was clear things had to change, but how?

It didn’t take me long to realise that Making Music was the only real representative of the important, but often forgotten, third sector in our cultural life – the voluntary sector – and that without adequate representation at local and national level of its needs, much music making in this country was likely to be ignored. The Arts Council used Making Music as its agent in the dissemination of local grants, requiring us to monitor quality, both artistic and operational and one of my first tasks was to rescue grant application forms from my predecessor, Joe Clark, and organise the awards for a final time.

All of this was overshadowed by the knowledge that Jane Barwell had been very effective in managing this task in recent years and was now immobile as a result of brain injuries sustained in a horrific accident some time before. Sadly, but in many respects it was a great release, Jane died at the end of 2006 and members of Making Music were well represented at the several events arranged by people in her memory.

Then came the more challenging task of managing change. There was no doubt that there was little point in arguing for the maintenance of the old system, as the dye was already cast and the funding in the old sense was gone. However, I was pitched into discussions with colleagues from around the country and gained considerable confidence from their experience, several of whom had already gone through what we were going through and come out the other end positively. The result of these discussions, in short, was the new Regional Development Officer appointments made last month. We have been very fortunate in appointing Becky Stickland as our first regional RDO and have thus effectively retained funding, but in a different way. Becky will be developing her role in the coming months in ways that have already been agreed, but we will all feel the benefit of having a dedicated and expert resource able to help us tap new sources of funding and other necessary resources – many of which are already provided by Making Music. I would like to place on record our sincere thanks for the work that Michaela Schmitz did during the year prior to Becky’s appointment. She was seconded to us from West Midlands and, in addition to several useful surgeries, piloted our excursion into Jazz with Derby Jazz. I hope you will all make contact with Becky and help her develop a meaningful role in the East Midlands.

Part of the management of change has been to watch the evolution of the committee. I would like to thank especially Angela Walker, Secretary, and Roy Benning, Treasurer, who have been very hard working and supportive on your behalf, and also three members of the committee who are retiring this year. Ruth Elliott has been membership secretary for as long as I can remember and despite illness has been a loyal Making Music supporter, known especially to the groups for which she has been the visitor. Nikki Little and Gill Carter are also retiring and we thank them for the many hours of work which they have put into visiting societies especially.

I am pleased to say that we have recruited four new committee members to take their place and look forward to having representation in NW Derbyshire and Lincolnshire, as well as from the Concert Promoters Network.

There have also been some unexpected bonuses this year in that we have scooped two awards. The first was to Margaret Frogson, who many will know from her work at Windblowers in Nottingham. However, she received the Lady Hilary Groves award for the most distinctive contribution to our national artistic life for her work over more than 20 years in developing Nottingham Symphonic Winds and its members and I would like to thank Jon Wakefield, who presented the award on my behalf. The other surprise was Chesterfield Philharmonic Choir winning the CAF Award in 2007, for online accounts and ease of accessibility on the website. Both these awards were won against stiff national competition and deserve our congratulations.

Some of our societies are celebrating significant anniversaries this season and we wish them well in their celebrations. South Holland Concerts are 60 years old this year and Chesterfield Phil are also 40 this season.

It has been a busy year, but we have come out of it in good shape and look forward to a positive and productive year. Thank you for your continued support.