Canberra Philharmonic Society Incorporated Annual Report 2013philo.org.au/.../2014/07/2013-Annual-Report-FINAL.pdf · Canberra Philharmonic Society Annual Report 2013 Page 9 of 21

Canberra Philharmonic Society Incorporated

Annual Report

2013

Canberra Philharmonic Society Annual Report 2013 Page 2 of 21

Letter of Transmittal

The Members

Canberra Philharmonic Society

PO Box 1320

Fyshwick ACT 2609

Dear Members of the Canberra Philharmonic Society

Attached is the Annual Report of Canberra Philharmonic Society Incorporated for the

year January 2013 to December 2013.

The Report addresses all the requirements of the Associations Incorporation Act

1991 and the Society’s Rules and Standard Operating Procedures.

Best regards


CONTENTS

Letter of Transmittal .................................................................................................. 2

Minutes of Last AGM ................................................................................................. 4

The Executive Committee ......................................................................................... 7

President’s Report for the 2013 Year ........................................................................ 8

Philo Wardrobe ......................................................................................................... 9

Philo Hut ................................................................................................................. 10

Marketing Report ..................................................................................................... 11

Sponsorship ............................................................................................................ 13

2013 Shows ........................................................................................................ 14

Audited Accounts .................................................................................................... 16

Coming Attractions .................................................................................................. 21


Minutes of Last AGM

CANBERRA PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

OF 28TH MARCH 2013

Griffin Centre, Civic

MEETING OPENING

The meeting opened at 7.32pm

Present: Anne Macleod, Jenny Spence, Kate Tricks, Helen Bridges, Nick Brightman, Michael Miller, Marie Donnell, Greg Hood, Simon Rutledge, Jill McMullen, Jenny Moon, Malcolm Tompkins, Phil Spence BM, Greg Sollis, Ashley Waser, Don Whitbread OAM, Peter Karmel, Adrian Flor, Ronnie Flor, Dave Smith, Anne Mewburn-Gray, Dave Spence, Andrew Spence and Kim Stephenson.

Apologies: Judy Wilkinson, Brenton Warren, Phil Perman, Neil McRichie, Jim McMullen, Ian Gammage, Pixie Grey and Myra Law OAM

MINUTES OF PREVIOUS ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

The draft of the Annual General Meeting of 16th March 2012 was presented to the meeting as part of the Annual Report.

Motion: That the draft minutes be accepted as a true and accurate record of the meeting.

Moved: Nick Brightman Seconded: Helen Bridges

ANNUAL REPORTS

President’s Report as attached to Annual Report 2013.

Jenny Moon moved acceptance of the President’s Report. Seconded Greg Sollis

Treasurer’s Report as attached to Annual Report 2013.

Phil Spence moved acceptance of the Treasurer’s report. Seconded Jenny Spence.

ELECTION OF HONORARY POSITIONS

Patron: Jenny Spence advised the meeting that she has not yet had a response from Mary Porter and asked that the incoming committee follow up this matter.

Hon Solicitor: Jenny Spence advised that Michael Phelps, of Phelps Reid, has confirmed that he is happy to continue as Hon Solicitor for the society.

Motion moved by Kate Tricks Seconded: Nick Brightman


Hon Auditor: Jenny Spence advised that David Long of Gorrell Robertson has confirmed that he is happy to continue as Hon Auditor for the society.

Motion moved by Nick Brightman Seconded by Kim Stephenson

ELECTION OF COMMITTEE

Jenny Spence passed the chair to Kim Stephenson, who declared all committee positions vacant.

There being one nomination for President, Greg Hood (nominated by Jenny Spence, seconded by Anne Macleod) was declared President.

There being one nomination for Vice President, Jim McMullen (nominated by Kate Tricks, seconded by Anne Macleod) was declared Vice President.

There being one nomination for Treasurer, Marie Donnell (nominated by Anne Macleod, seconded by Kate Tricks) was declared Treasurer.

There being one nomination for Secretary, Anne Macleod (Nominated by Jenny Moon, seconded by Greg Sollis) was declared Secretary.

Seven written nominations were received for the position of Committee Member.

These were:

Kate Tricks – nominated by Anne Macleod, seconded by Jenny Moon

Helen Bridges – nominated by Jenny Spence, seconded by Ronnie Flor

Anne Maree Mewburn-Gray – nominated by Kate Tricks, seconded by Simon

Rutledge

Ronnie Flor – nominated by Jenny Spence, seconded by Helen Bridges

Greg Sollis – nominated by Peter Karmel, seconded by Anne Macleod

Peter Karmel - nominated by Greg Sollis, seconded by Anne Macleod

Ashley Waser - nominated by Anne Macleod, seconded by Peter Karmel

There being seven Committee positions, no further nominations were called for, and the seven members named above were declared to be elected as Committee Members.

ADDRESS BY INCOMING PRESIDENT

Greg Hood thanked the outgoing committee Jenny Spence, Jenny Moon, Kim Stephenson and Nick Brightman for all the dedication and hard work and welcomed all new members to the committee.

Greg introduced himself to the meeting and gave a brief history of both his professional and Theatrical career.

Greg’s ongoing tasks for the next 12 months are:

Looking at a long term operations plan.

Starting a slush fund to be used in times of trouble.

Preview night for the less fortunate in the community.

Keeping the MOU going with Erindale but also exploring other options.


Regular Committee meetings, sharing tasks with all members of the committee.

Maximising opportunities for our performers.

OTHER BUSINESS

Ian Croker asked why Philo does not hire more scenery, props and costumes. He felt that we could make more money for Philo rather than letting it all sit idle at the Hut. This will be discussed further by the committee at future committee meetings.

Phil Spence asked that the meeting acknowledge that over the past 3 years we have gone from almost insolvency to over $100,000 in the Black, this is a direct result of the outgoing committee’s fiscal hard work.

Phil Spence would like to pass a motion that “All the previous committee members be commended for all the hard work in getting to society to where it is today” this was expressed by a standing ovation.

Ian Crocker also asked the meeting to express its gratitude to Jim McMullen as he was the one who initiated the originally plan to get Philo back on its feet.

Little Shop of Horrors will be having auditions in May.

There being no further business the meeting closed at 800 pm


The Executive Committee

OFFICE BEARERS

PRESIDENT

Greg Hood

VICE-PRESIDENT

Jim McMullen

SECRETARY

Anne McLeod

TREASURER

Marie Donnell

COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Kate Tricks

Greg Sollis

Peter Karmel

Ash Waser

Rhys Madigan

Ronnie Flor (resigned mid-2013)

Helen Bridges

Anne Mewburn-Gray


President’s Report for the 2013 Year

Times are tough - not just for Canberra Philharmonic, but for the entire Canberra theatre community. Following the outstanding artistic and financial success of Philo’s 2013 “Les Misérables”, momentarily putting us back into the black, by the time we paid the royalties and other associated costs, and mounted our artistically acclaimed but financially challenged “Little Shop of Horrors”, we were once again, back in the red. We applied for and were granted the rights to “Miss Saigon” to be staged early in 2014, however were unable to attract a full cast. Interestingly, this is a challenge being experienced by many theatre companies in Canberra. Philo has not lost any money on a production in a number of years, but “Little Shop” just didn’t attract the patronage of the Canberra community, despite the talented production, artistic, and musical teams. Theatrically and artistically a success, the lack of ticket sales was disappointing. We have worked hard to maintain the relationships with other musical theatre companies throughout the region, lending props and costumes to many productions. We also grateful for the opportunity to staff a booth at the multi-cultural festival promoting the productions of all musical theatre companies in Canberra. We have continued to work closely with partners such as the Erindale Theatre and Eclipse Lighting and have very much appreciated the continued support of our major sponsor, Ricoh and the local manager Iain Heddle. We are also grateful for the support of Steve Walsh and Nerdvana who host our website and assist with web editing and design. In late 2013, Peter Karmel presented a concept to the committee to turn a portion of the workshop space at 18 Collie Street Fyshwick into rehearsal space. Starting in late January 2014, a team of willing and tireless volunteers led by Peter commenced the work to transform the space into a useful rehearsal venue. The first stage is now complete and will enable the cast of “Cabaret” to rehearse at our facility. Whilst the work undertaken thus far is nothing short of spectacular, there is still a long way to go. We plan to continue to repair the areas that are in disrepair (stairs, gutters etc), relocate the demountable building within the compound, change locks, install a gate, reconcile the wardrobe collection and work towards restoring the paint, props and set storage areas to a well-ordered and effective space. You may have also noted that we have very much moved into the technological age through the introduction of Dropbox, Facebook and Flickr – my thanks to Rhys Madigan for facilitating much of this work.

I would like to recognise the dedication and hard work of the Canberra Philharmonic committee and volunteers who worked tirelessly in 2013 to produce Les Misérables and Little Shop of Horrors. The quality of these two productions equals if not exceeds any professional musical theatre production staged anywhere in Australia. We have continued to provide opportunities for young artists, musicians and budding stage-craft professionals - a key role for a community based theatre organisation. Due to professional commitments, I am unable to continue as President of Canberra Philharmonic. I do however leave you with a professional, intelligent, talented and visionary committee that will serve you well into the future.

Greg Hood

President


Philo Wardrobe

The Philo Wardrobe has been continuing to operate in 2013/2014 and has maintained its policy to only hire to other theatre and drama companies, as well as schools. This has bought in a small but steady stream of revenue, approximately $3400 since the last AGM. The Wardrobe continues to be run by myself with assistance from committee members, and this is something that may need to be looked at in the future as it is very time-and labour-intensive and difficult to manage with only a few people. Due to the renovation of the Fyshwick premises we have removed several metres’ worth of costume racks in the wardrobe. We have stored most of these in boxes above the racks but are also preparing a Costume Sale in the near future, to clear some more space. Costumes being set aside for sale are costumes that are excess to requirements or that we have too many of (ie wedding dresses, some mens’ suits). The costume sale will not include any valuable, ornate or vintage pieces, or items we hire out a lot or use a lot in shows.

Kate Tricks

Wardrobe Manager


Philo Hut

The Philo Hut continues to be a major and invaluable resource for the society. The equipment and materials located there allow for the construction of fabulous sets which would otherwise be prohibitively costly.

Scott Quilty has left Canberra to undertake an opportunity in Timor L’este.

Peter Karmel approached the committee with a concept to re-design the Collie Street premises such that the workshop end adjacent to the wardrobe hire could become a rehearsal space obviating the need to rent rehearsal space for Philo in the future.

In a sting of working bees extending from January – March 2014, an army of dedicated volunteers has worked tirelessly to conduct a massive clean-up campaign and construct the rehearsal space that you are meeting in this evening.

The Hut is now ready for rehearsals for “Cabaret” and renovations will now continue throughout the rest of the demountable office space and set construction, storage and properties areas. The committee would like to specifically recognise Peter Karmel for his vision, his energy and enthusiasm in designing and driving this project to completion.


Marketing Report

The marketing for Les Misérables and Little Shop of Horrors was a team effort – many members of the committee worked hard to ensure the success of these shows in 2013.

We have continued to try and be mindful of costs in our marketing, while tailoring it to the particular show that we are working on. For example, we did slightly more aggressive marketing with ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ than we did with ‘Les Misérables’, due to it being a less well-known show and having a smaller cast. For both, we advertised with: The Canberra Times The Chronicle City News Canberra Weekly Big Impact Screens (Civic, Fyshwick and the Convention Centre) Radio interviews Facebook Poster distribution through SPY StageCenta Website We have a good working relationship with these contacts and will continue to advertise through them in the future. We have two Facebook pages and are endeavouring to get people to transfer from the old one (1000+ subscribers) to the newer one as it has more functionality. In the interim, we still post on both pages, and are working on refreshing/updating the website so as to make it more modern and appealing. Rhys Madigan has been working on this, as well as streamlining our email systems and creating an online document storage system (via Dropbox) where (so far) we have documents going back to 2003 saved there.

Les Misérables

The marketing for Les Misérables included the big screens in Civic, Canberra Times, Canberra Weekly, City News, Chronicle, Spy posters and a 2CC radio ad campaign.

Another big thank you to Casey White who not only managed to do the musically direct, and sing in Les Misérables but also did all of the artwork for our print and digital advertising.

Jennifer Spence arranged interviews on the radio with 666FM, and Mark Parton from 2CA.

The launch was held at Westfield Woden to a very enthusiastic crowd of shoppers while flyers to the production were being handed out.

Whether it be the show itself, the word of mouth, the Canberra Philharmonic patronage or an act of fate, we received many full houses with 16/18 performances receiving standing ovations.


Little Shop of Horrors

Our second show for 2013, Little Shop of Horrors, was an artistic but not financial success. Many other companies staging shows per year and a smaller cast led to ticket sales that were lower than we would have hoped. However, the reviews were glowing and exceeding positive across the board, from media and audiences alike. We were very fortunate to have a stellar cast featuring some of Canberra’s finest talent, as well as a very experienced artistic team.

We were lucky enough to be able to borrow the four Audrey 2 plants required from a contact in Rockhampton, however the largest of these was rusted away inside and was unable to be used, requiring us to make a new one from scratch. After many hours of gluing and a lot of sewing our Audrey 2 was ready to go for opening night. You may have noticed that there were a lot of brick walls in Skid Row – these were all hand painted by the cast/crew over many weekends, we couldn’t have done it without them and they did a fantastic job.

Marketing is detailed elsewhere, but we did increase the marketing push as we had a smaller cast. Below is a picture of our ad on the Big Impact Screens at the Convention Centre.

Kate Tricks


Sponsorship

The sponsorship arrangement with our major sponsor, Ricoh, was extended for three years until mid-2015. The new arrangement with Ricoh now excludes printing of programs and posters. With the assistance of Ricoh’s General Manager, Iain Heddle, an introduction was made to Trendsetting printers, who we have negotiated an arrangement to enable Philo to produce spectacular professional programs at a greatly reduced rate. Ricoh and Trendsetting representatives are present in full force at opening night of all our shows and are truly wonderful in their support of local community theatre. We are also very grateful to Erindale Theatre, another key sponsor and supporter of Philo. Erindale Theatre is an ideal space in which to perform and the support from staff before and during productions is very much valued by the Philo committee and community. They allow a great deal of flexibility in their relationship with us and make themselves available to open the theatre whenever we need to be there. The committee members have come to know many of the front of house and theatre staff and are very grateful for all the help they receive.

NERDVANA HOSTING


2013 Shows

Les Misérables

February – March 2013

Production Team

Director – Jim McMullen

Assistant Director – Greg Hood

Musical Director – Casey White

Choreographer – Miranda Cookman


Little Shop of Horrors

August – September 2012

Production Team

Director – Ron Dowd

Musical Director – Jason Henderson

Choreographer – Angel Dolejsi


Audited Accounts






Coming Attractions

CABARET AT THE ERINDALE THEATRE

10 – 26 July 2014

Director – Jim McMullen

Musical Director – Rhys Madigan

Choreographer – Shasha Chen

Documents

Canberra Philharmonic Society Incorporated Annual Report 2013philo.org.au/.../2014/07/2013-Annual-Report-FINAL.pdf · Canberra Philharmonic Society Annual Report 2013 Page 9 of 21