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THE
BRITISH SOCIETY FOR MUSIC THERAPY ANNUAL
GENERAL MEETING held on Friday 7th December 2007 6.30-7.30 at
Nordoff Robbins Music Therapy Centre, PRESENT: Wendy
Magee (Chairperson), Anna Ludwig, Gemma Lenton-Smith, Ian Rogers, Tiffany
Hughes, Kathryn Barker, Jo Hutcheson, Stephen Sandford (minutes), Pauline Etkin,
Cressida Jenkins, Maria Alleyne,
Karen Marr. Rachel Bull, Janet Halton, Diane Byrne, James Adutt, Elaine
Robson, Margaret Cambell, Jane Gibson, Miriam Wood, Alison Barrington, Christina
Rhys, Lisa Otter-Barry, Janet Graham, Adrienne Freeman, Kay Sobey, Sheila Hales,
Anna Maratos, Anna Jacobs, Catherine Carr, Tamsin Dives, Elly Cowie, Angela
Fenwick, Willow Matthews, 2.
Minutes
of the last meeting The
minutes of the last AGM held in March 2007 were read, agreed and adopted as
being a true record on a proposal by the chairperson. The vote for the approval
of the minutes was carried, this was proposed by Catherine Barker and seconded
by Pauline Etkin. 3.
Matters
arising from the Minutes No
matters arising. 4.
Report
from the Chair Falling so soon
after our last AGM held in March 2007, it may seem confusing to members that we
are having our 2006-2007 AGM now. As many of you may remember, the BSMT
financial year falls between October and the end of the September and until 2005
we traditionally held our AGM in late November to mark the financial year end.
In the last two years, we moved our AGM to March in order to enable a joint AGM
to be held with the APMT. We felt this was a start to working closer together. Good news
first. After reporting a financial deficit at the last AGM for the 2005-2006
year of over £15 000, the Executive made some very hard decisions to try and
rectify the financial overspends which had overshadowed our financial reports
for the last four years. This year we have reduced this deficit markedly.
Although we still have a small deficit to report at year end, this is vastly
reduced, being only approximately £3 800 for the end of this financial year.
This is a marked improvement upon deficits of over £14 000 in 2005, and
£32 000 in 2004. That situation could not continue and the actions we have
taken in the last year have paid off to help the Society survive. Our Treasurer
will give more detail, but in essence we scaled down much of our administrative
activities thereby saving much of our expenditure. As a consequence of our
staffing cutbacks, there has been reduced income. However, we have ensured this
has not at the expense of delivering our key activities for members. This has
included continuing the journal, continuing a newsletter delivered twice yearly,
having access to the book loan service, and most important, continuing with
delivering a varied and interesting series of events promoting and developing
Music Therapy. In the light of
the improved finances I am also very pleased to let members know that there will
be no rise in membership subscription rates for the 2007 – 2008 year. We hope
that this news will encourage members to continue their membership with the
BSMT, which offers them two issues of the British Journal of Music Therapy each
year, along with two newsletters annually of information relating to Music
Therapy, and reduced delegates’ fees to the range of courses, workshops and
conferences offered by the Society. Formation
of the new Music Therapy organisation. At the last
AGM, the membership approved a motion to continue with the work towards forming
a new organisation representing Music Therapy in The new
organisation will be unified, promoting and developing music therapy throughout
the We
have already started creating our new organisation, for example sharing
resources and getting rid of duplicate effort. This will continue during
2008. While we might not have tied up all the loose ends by mid 2008, we
are reasonably confident that by then we will have made significant progress.
I encourage members to contact the office or myself directly with their queries,
concerns and comments about the new organisation. We value all feedback. I would
like to stress that all of the activity for developing this new organisation is
coming out of voluntary time given by the Executive Committee, and not out of
paid office staff time. Given this, I hope that all of you will continue your
membership for the coming year and with the new organisation. Our membership
from individuals has decreased very slightly this year (approximately 9
subscriptions) as did our corporate Revised
newsletter. After some
teething problems we have had some good feedback about the new newsletter
format. We intend to continue producing two issues per year in the Spring and
the Autumn. I would like to thank Ann Woodward, Tamsin Dives and Isobel Erich
for all the time they have given to get this off the ground. We have received
helpful feedback from members about the newsletter, so please continue to
contact us with any thoughts you have. We are also always looking for members’
contributions, such as feedback about workshops and training days. In
particular, we would like to hear views from those members who are not members
of the APMT in order to help us meet your needs. The Executive
have had some additional extended meetings to set an action plan in place for
the coming year. This has involved examining all of our activities, including
fundraising and financial management over recent years, and identifying what can
be realistically achieved within our resources, setting goals for the next year.
The membership will be pleased to know that we have decided to continue the book
service both through the office by phone or email and at events. This was
something that we were unsure about at the last AGM and caused a lot of concern
from those present. Having moved into a better financial position, we now feel
able to dedicate time and funds to this service, which we realise is an
important way of promoting and developing Music Therapy, particularly through
promoting new literature and authors. The book stall has continued to run at
recent training events, thanks largely to an army of volunteers involved in
transporting the books to and from events and then running the stalls, too many
to thank within the body of this report! We have also revised the staffing needs
required for running the Charity, working closely with the APMT to ensure that
we are making the best use of members’ subscriptions to run our services.
Developing an effective fundraising plan is a key priority which we will be
acting upon in the New Year along with developing new and innovative training
events for a range of members’ needs. Executive
Committee Membership. At the last AGM
we voted in our Honorary Treasurer Ian Rogers, who has been invaluable in
helping oversee the financial management of the Society and assisting the
Executive Committee in making decisions on all matters based on a thorough
understanding of the financial implications. This was essential given our
financial overspend in recent years and has helped to keep us on track. We were
very sad to lose Tamsin Dives from the Executive during the year after all that
she gave to the Society and Executive in so many ways. We wish Tamsin all the
best. After the last AGM, we co-opted Kathryn Barker onto the Committee, and we
are pleased that she has agreed to be nominated onto the Executive. All of the
Committee members have volunteered many hours over the last year, assisting in
administrating the Society, running all of the training events, updating the
website and contributing to many other developments. In the face of the reduced
staffing since January 2007, the Society would not have continued without all
these hours of work, given on top of people’s other daytime jobs which are
often challenging therapy jobs. I would like to give my very warmest thanks to
all those who have given so much time helping to keep the BSMT running. Staffing. Our staffing
changed immediately and with very little notice following the last AGM and we
had difficulties keeping the office open for short period of time. Since May
this year, things have settled somewhat by having Lisa McGinlay work 16 hours in
the office over the week, and Louise Karena (the APMT administrator) co-opted
from the APMT to manage the Society’s accounts. I would like to thank both
Lisa and Louise for their management of a challenging situation, their ability
to remain good humoured, and everything else they are continuing to do to help
the Society do its work. I would also like to thank Stephen Sandford, the APMT
Chair, for his support and generosity which has been invaluable in getting us
through this difficult time. The Society continues to run on extremely limited
resources. Given this, it is astonishing what we have managed to achieve.
Difficulties with ensuring appropriate management of the Charity’s
administrative arrangements have highlighted many benefits for combining
resources. Training
events. Despite our
very limited staffing resources since December 2006, we have continued to run a
full, varied, innovative and exciting programme of training events in the last
year for a wide range of members. Our Introduction to Music Therapy days have
continued to be a focus for people wanting to find out more about the profession
and the clinical use of music. We held days in A writing
skills workshop for people wanting to publish their work in professional
journals was held in Our series of
days on Music Therapy with Families continued with the final two days falling in
February and May. This is a rapidly growing field in Music Therapy, and we were
very pleased to offer this series with a range of speakers from related
disciplines. The days were very well subscribed with around 30 delegates each
time and we are exploring the possible development of this work. Thanks again to
Rachel
Bull, Tiffany Hughes and Colette Salkeld for the work they did organising and
running these days. During the
summer, we held two events which we felt were particularly innovative with
international speakers. We were privileged to have Dr. Suzanne Hanser from
Berklee College Boston present a day on Music Therapy in the treatment of pain,
stress and anxiety. We felt that this was a new area for Music Therapy
professional development events in the Lastly, we
recently held a day of papers from the 2007 European Congress, bringing
presentations by British music therapists to a local audience. We intend to run
a second day with the remaining papers very early in 2008. Running these
events has been one of the most challenging activities in the last year, due to
the very limited hours of staffing we have. Yet, we know that this is one of the
most important activities of the BSMT. For the current time, we have to rely on
volunteers to help administrate, organise and run events, and we are very keen
to hear from anyone who would like to get involved, either behind the scenes or
on the day. We are also keen to get feedback from members about training events,
so please do contact us with ideas of topics you would like to see covered. Fundraising. As stated in
the last AGM report, we have targeted fundraising for specific events in the
last financial year. Unfortunately we have had limited success with applications
to trusts and foundations, although a successful application to the Music
Therapy Charity assisted with our two summer events. Several applications are
currently outstanding. To
conclude, it’s been a good year despite continuing challenges and we look
forward to the next year and the formation of the new organisation to bring
greater coherence to the promotion and development of music therapy in the Matters
arising: Maria
Alleyne questioned the issue of membership of the new organisation regarding
categories of membership. Wendy Magee outlined that there will be several levels
or packages of membership available in the new organisation and that it is hoped
to increase the range of membership categories which are currently available.
Members who do not hold joint APMT/BSMT membership will continue to have the
option of membership within a similar category as is currently available. The
BSMT Executive has also been discussing new membership categories which might be
developed, such as categories for employers of music therapists. The new
organisation will aim to have a range of membership categories available which
will ensure the support and development of music therapy. Tiffany
Hughes expressed her thanks on behalf of the BSMT Executive to Dr Wendy Magee
for all her hard work over the past year and the success achieved in the past
year. Dr
Wendy Magee read the journal report to the meeting supplied by the Journal
Editor Simon Procter who was unable to attend the meeting. Annual Report 2007 from the British Journal of Music Therapy for the APMT
and BSMT Issue 20(2)
appeared late in January 2007 due to circumstances beyond the Journal’s
control (see below). Despite its lateness, this themed issue, devoted to
“Music therapy and the evidence debate” has since received much positive
feedback from people both inside and outside the profession. The idea of a
themed issue enabled the journal to attract articles from eminent theorists and
practitioners and seems a useful way of responding to topical concerns from time
to time. Issue 21(1)
appeared in the summer and issue 21(2) is on track to appear in December 2007.
Both of these are mixed issues without any particular theme. It is encouraging
to note that half of the articles in these issues are by I would like to
take this opportunity to thank all those who contribute to the ongoing success
of the Journal, whether by writing articles, reviewing books, or acting as
anonymous peer reviewers for submitted articles. The Journal is
always eager to receive comments, suggestions and feedback from its readership
– whether these be positive or negative. The Contents Editor can always be
contacted via email: Financial (NOTE:
Whilst the financial side of the Journal has usually been a matter for the BSMT
Administrator, the lack of such a person lately has meant that the Contents
Editor is having to be more involved in this side of the Journal, hence its
inclusion here.) Issue 20(2),
which was due to appear in December 2006, in fact appeared in January 2007 due
to the after-effects of our previous printer having gone bankrupt. Our
intermediary placed our printing with a press that turned out to have no
knowledge of what was involved in printing a journal, resulting in major delays,
lots of extra work and a surprisingly high printing bill. In the light of this, it was decided to abandon the services of the intermediary as well as those of the production editor. In the absence of anyone in the BSMT office to inherit Denize Christophers’ role of liaising with printers etc, the Contents Editor invited tenders from a number of printers for issue 21(1). Rustin Clark were selected and did a much better, faster and cheaper job. We anticipate a comparable cost with the same printer for issue 21(2). Costs
of printing for recent issues: Vol 20 no 2
(printed by Roseheath) £2761.25
for 1000 copies Vol 21 no 1
(printed by Rustin Matters
arising: Wendy
Magee iterated that though the print cost of the journal is £1.25, this does
not reflect the actual cost of each issue of the journal which is considerably
more considering the costs for administration. It was also highlighted that
there had been considerable support given by the BSMT Chair during the
difficulties reported in the production of 22 (2). Stephen Sandford told those at the AGM that a joint meeting with the BSMT/APMT Chairs and the journal contents editor will happen in the week following the AGM to think about how the support the production of the journal and input infrastructure again into the management of the Journal. 6.
Financial Report. BSMT
Financial Report for 1 October 2006 to 30 September 2007, Report produced
December 2007 As Wendy has already reported, in last year’s
financial summary, we highlighted the need to make significant improvements to
the finances of the BSMT. After
several years of deficits our reserves were rapidly diminishing, and there was a
real risk that the BSMT would not be able to continue functioning. Last year we reported a deficit of £15,000.
This year, we have been able to reduce the deficit to £3,804.
In fact most of this (£2,427) is a reflection that our equipment –
computers, printers, furniture and so on, is simply a year older, and so worth
less than it was a year ago. If we
look at the money in our bank accounts and the stock of books, we see that these
have reduced by only about £1,300 over the year.
This is a big improvement on previous years.
At the end of the year we had about £22,000 in our
general bank accounts, and had book stocks worth about £4,600.
In addition, the BSMT holds money for the Guildford Academic Associates
Funds and the Juliet Alvin Music Therapy Funds.
These are kept separately from the general BSMT funds. I would like to talk briefly about some of the
factors which led to the improvement in the finances over the year. Wendy has already mentioned the much reduced staffing
the BSMT has had this year. We have
also made reductions to our spending on printing, postage and stationery (and
have made much more of our contacts through email than in the past). Against this, we have seen our income from
Conferences and Workshops fall over the year, as, especially earlier in the
year, we needed to reduce the number of events we ran.
We also saw a reduction in Membership subscriptions and Sales of
Publications. We remain very grateful for the Donations to the
Charity over the year, although these were overall slightly lower than last
year. As Wendy has mentioned, we have increased our
fundraising applications through the year, and we need to focus on this further
in future. Looking forwards, there is still further work to do
to improve the finances of the Charity, but as we move towards the new
organisation, we are in a much stronger position than we were a year ago. Finally, I would like to thank the other members of
the Executive for taking the time over the year to better understand the BSMT
finances. And I would also like to add my own thanks to Louise and Lisa for
their work managing the BSMT’s accounts, for producing regular financial
updates for the Executive, and for helping me with many questions throughout the
year. Ian
Rogers,BSMT Treasurer, December 2007 The
accounts had already been signed and were adopted as a true record on a
unanimous show of hands. The accounts appear at the end of the minutes. Matters
arising:
Anna
Ludwig questioned the drop in conference and workshop fees. This was attributed
to the fact that there was a conference in 2006 and not in 2007. It was
highlighted that although the conference did bring in income, it also involved
more expenditure. Wendy
Magee intimated that the financial recovery achieved has been remarkable. Stephen
Sandford spoke to the context for the charitable aims of the BSMT having the
potential to change dramatically. Given the new focus for how the APMT side of a
new organisation for music therapy
may be able to support the BSMT to a greater degree in the short term, strategy
for further development of the charitable activities can be continued and be
consolidated. 7.
Election of new Committee members 9.
A.O.B.
The
Chair declared the meeting closed.
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