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To members of the Welsh Viola Society

The Annual General Meeting will be held on Sunday March 16th at 2.00pm

in the St. David's Club, 35 Eastgate, Aberystwyth, SY23 2AR

Nominations for the committee for 2008-2009 with the name of the proposer, seconder and nominee should be emailed to the Secretary, jules@violacymru.org.uk or posted to Jules Riley, 3 Londonderry Terrace, Machynlleth, Powys, SY20 8BG as soon as possible.

Agenda

1. Apologies for absence.

2. Minutes of the last AGM held on 15th July 2007 at The Tabernacle, Machynlleth.

3. Matters arising.

4. Chairman's report.

5. Tresurer's report.

6. Secretary's report.

7. Election of Officers.

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Minutes of AGM held on Sunday 15th July 2007

in the Tabernacle, Machynlleth at 10.30am.

The members attending were warmly welcomed by the Acting Chairman, Otto Freudenthal.

1. Mr Freudenthal then talked about the establishment of the Welsh Viola Society (“The Society”).
2. He informed us that the Society has been officially recognised by the International Viola Society (IVS), as an independent, but subsidiary organisation.
3. He then introduced the other three acting members of the new Society who were, with himself, responsible for the formation of the Society and for arranging its inaugural meeting today.
4. Jules Riley, the Acting Secretary, then also formally welcomed the members and expressed the hope that they would enjoy and find useful, the programme of events organised for the day.
5. Nick Davies, the Acting Treasurer then read out the Constitution of the Society which was adopted unanimously by the majority present with a show of hands. There were 13 members present at the meeting.
6. He explained that the meagre £5 initial annual subscription would need to be reviewed when the Society was in a position to plan its future activities and budget accordingly.
7. Bethan Miles, Acting Welsh-speaking Representative then explained the importance of translating the Society’s documents into Welsh and for keeping the Society as bi-lingual as possible.
8. The meeting then proceeded to the Elections for the Management Committee and Adopted Members of the Committee. Members were invited to nominate persons for all the positions on the Committee. The members attending unanimously decided that the current Acting Committee Members should all be elected to:

CHAIRMAN Otto Freudenthal

                        Proposer Celia Evans, Seconder Bethan Miles

SECRETARY Jules Riley

                        Proposer Emsyl Davies, Seconder Otto Freudenthal

TREASURER Nick Davies

                        Proposer Goronwy Davies, Seconder Jules Riley

WELSH-SPEAKING REPRESENTATIVE Bethan Miles

                        Proposer Nick Davies, Seconder Otto Freudenthal

The meeting decided that it would be advantageous if all three regions of Wales were represented and voted on to the committee :

MEMBERS’ REPRESENTATIVE (NORTH)             Emsyl Davies

                        Proposer Bethan Miles, Seconder Jules Riley

MEMBERS’ REPRESENTATIVE (MID)                   Mark Purdy

                        Proposer Nick Davies, Seconder Otto Freudenthal

MEMBERS’ REPRESENTATIVE (SOUTH) Ross Cohen

                        Proposer Otto Freudenthal, Seconder Peter Taylor

Eloise Akehurst, a UCW Aberystwyth graduate currently living in the West Midlands also joined the Members’ Representatives to bring to the Society her considerable Media skills.

As there was no other business, the meeting finished at 11.05am.

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You are cordially invited to join our group dedicated to supporting the viola cause everywhere. For the first time in the long history of Wales, a Welsh Viola Society has been formed.

The Welsh Viola Society has already been accepted as a provisional member of the International Viola Society (IVS) and is dedicated to supporting the viola cause, as well as having some fun exploring the rich, untapped vein of music for viola ensembles.

On the 15th July 2007 the first Annual General Meeting and Viola Day was held in Machynlleth, the ancient capital of Wales. Follow the newsletter link for more details.

 Only in the last century has the viola achieved any sort of prominence thanks to new works by contemporary composers, by the rise of many top class soloists, and by the encouragement, enthusiasm, scholarship, and hard work of the International Viola Society and its members. The IVS was formed originally in Austria and Germany and now has affiliated societies across the world. The UK branch sadly no longer exists, and so we invite you to the first event of the Welsh Viola Society. Apart from being a worthy cause, and discounts on much useful material, there are many other advantages of membership of the IVS. For more information, visit their website at http://www.viola.com/ivs/