FRIENDS OF THE HAWTH (FOTH) Minutes of the Annual General Meeting, Tuesday 20th June 2017 Present at the meeting: Committee: Chair Treasurer Secretary Volunteer Organiser Hawth General Manager:
Tricia Newell Peter Beckley Tom Howard-Jones Liz Tennant Dave Watmore
Friends of the Hawth: 35 members attended. 1. Apologies Stephanie Bagshaw and Maureen Wicks. 2. Minutes of the last AGM These were agreed and signed by Tricia Newell Proposed by Mike Tyrrell and seconded by Jenny Ramsey 3. Matters arising At the last AGM there was a query about the fact that the number of members did not seem to equate to the monetary value of the memberships. This was because the fees from online membership renewals were not being recorded correctly. The process has been updated and the values will be reconciled correctly this year and in future. 4. Chair’s Report Opening address Tricia welcomed everyone to the meeting and hoped that the members are appreciating the benefits of membership, the Magazine and the discount vouchers. The full programme of our events is kept up to date on The Hawth website, sent to your email address and displayed in the foyer. Tickets should be reserved at the box office for the films, Friday talks and other free events so that numbers can be prepared for. Coach Trips Motown: The tickets for the trip to London on 5th October 2017 will go on sale at 10am on 12th July 2017 (cost £46.50 for the trip). Cirque du Soleil: We will be going to The Royal Albert Hall for a 3pm performance on Sunday 25th February 2018. Tickets will go on sale at 10am on Wednesday 11 October 2017 (cost £49 for the trip). Monday Movies The morning movies at 10:30 are proving popular and we have a ongoing schedule of attractive films. There is room for more to attend. You are welcome to join members having coffee after the showings. Welcome Wednesdays The free coffee mornings are an established feature which is generating new Friends. People who come on their own are always very welcome.
First Friday Talks We have been fortunate in finding such high quality speakers. We meet at 12:00 for lunch and the talk starts at 1pm - ending about 2pm. We are always on the lookout for new speakers and welcome your suggestions. Fun Quiz The Fun Quiz held on the second Friday of most months is our newest event. We meet at 12:00 for lunch. The quiz starts at 12:45 pm and ends about 2 pm. Rod Sayward writes and runs the entertaining quizzes for us. People coming on their own are most welcome and will be included in teams. Please check to confirm the dates when the quiz is being held. Email Addresses Please keep your email addresses up to date so that you will receive all the news quickly and conveniently. The Friends Volunteers Thanks went to Liz Tennant for continuing to provide an excellent service of managing the volunteers rota. The volunteers provide a service to the public which in turn helps the Hawth staff by fielding many of the general enquiries made before each show. Hawth Talk Hawth Talk is our own magazine published 3 times a year and written by Laurie Bagshaw. It is always a most interesting read. The discount vouchers inside it are a bonus for members! Committee The committee is a small, efficient team of 4 working closely with Dave Watmore. The committee meet 3 times a year and use email to communicate between meetings. This has proved to be an effective way of working. Facebook Group We have launched a Facebook Group for The Friends which has made a promising start. So far 46 people have joined the group. By joining you are able to contribute, to enter into discussions and to receive email notices of all entries. If you would like advice or help in joining please contact Tom Howard-Jones (
[email protected]). General The diary for Friends events is incorporated into the Hawth website under the "Take Part" and then "Hawth Friends" tabs. Anyone with access to a computer and the internet can keep up to date with developments. A copy of the diary is also placed on the notice board in the Theatre foyer. The Hawth Marketing department is extremely helpful and enthusiastic. Emma has produced very interesting newsletters together with news of special offers on shows. The committee thanks them all very much. Tricia has enjoyed this year as Chair of the Friends and expressed her delight in how lucky we are to have such a wonderful, well run Theatre, with friendly, supportive staff and a fantastic free car park. 5. Treasurer’s Report 2016 - 17 Accounts Peter commented on the provided audited statement of our accounts. We have decided to use some of our funds for the benefit of members through initiatives such as: Welcome Wednesdays; goodie-bags on coach trips and occasional payments for speakers. The first goodie-bags, provided on the Kinky Boots trip, proved to be popular and will feature on future trips. This year we have spent £676 on new membership flyers and membership cards. The costs for printing Hawth Talk is higher this year because it covers 3 payments compared with 2 last year. Income from membership fees is up on last year.
Postage costs are down thanks to the wider use of emails. The costs of our popular FOTH vouchers have increased slightly - reflecting our aim of giving members value for their fees. Thanks to Laurie for organising the vouchers and thanks to Dave and his team for all the exclusive special offers on tickets which are emailed to the members. We aim to break even on events and trips. Occasionally we make a loss. The Amberley Museum trip lost money as we did not fill the coach through Premier Coaches. We will use Turbostyle in future. The quiz night made a profit. All other events broke even. Our aim is to give The Friends a range of events and benefits and to encourage people to use the theatre and its facilities. All suggestions on ways to do this will be welcome. There were no questions on the accounts. The statement of accounts was accepted. Proposed by Barbara Southgate and seconded by Jenny Ramsey. HAWTH Report Dave thanked everyone for inviting him along to the AGM. He started by reminding us of some historical events. The Hawth opened in 1988. Parkwood Theatres took over 5 years ago and are half way through their 10 year contract. Contract renewal is due in 2022 and Parkwood will start their bidding process in 2 years. Dave reminded us of their mission statement and their performance measures under the council contract. Recent Progress The dance studio, Sway, is very successful - producing the next generation of dancers. 80% of the young people who come to Sway dance sessions have never been to the Hawth before. Their families have often become customers for other shows as a consequence of coming into the theatre. The box office has been redesigned with a more welcoming desk and seating to discuss bookings. About 3/4 million tickets have been sold since February 2012 which is good for an 850 seat venue. The Curzon Cinema is doing well with the live screening events proving very popular. The Loft, a new space created by combining two meeting rooms, is proving very successful. The users include: Youth Theatre; Choirs; life drawing; homecraft; sewing and most popular of all - the ukulele classes. The new solar panels were installed in January and are contributing savings. New benches, chairs, tables and carpets have been installed in the foyer and the meeting room. Large LCD presentation screens have been installed. Dave used two for this presentation. In 2016:
500 performaces were delivered 1000 classes in Sway took place 125 classes and workshops were held in the Loft in 4 months there were 7 performances in the amphitheatre 1075 new customers came sales were up by 18% tickets up by 3% 2 festivals were held
20% of theatre time was devoted to community activities - against a council target of 10%.
Professional arts events made up 16% of the theatre activities. These receive some council subsidy to make them affordable. We hope that will not be lost. The origin of customers has remained relatively constant over the years with 40% coming from Crawley and 60% from outside the town. The management team are considering investing in some major building works, including: enclosing the entry porch to create a glass portico; adding a function room as an orangery to seat 130 people; adding toilets and a changing room and creating a new patio area. The aim is to increase the secondary income from events, food and drinks. The business plan will depend on the terms of the renewal of the council contract. The 30th anniversary of the Hawth will be in 2018. Dave thanked the Committee, the volunteers and all the members of the Friends for their help and support over the last year and is looking forward to a successful 2017 and beyond for the Hawth. Election of Committee Members The committee are all willing to stay in post. So with no other names submitted, Tricia Newell (Chair), Peter Beckley (Treasurer), Liz Tennant (Volunteer Co-ordinator) and Tom Howard-Jones (Secretary) continue in their roles. Hawth Volunteers Liz thanked all the volunteers for their hard work. More volunteers are always welcome. Any Other Business None After the meeting the attendees enjoyed a wine and cheese buffet and the chance to talk with each other about achievements, the news and ideas for the future.