Category: Reports

Annual Report, Financial Year 2022/23

Troubadour Central Coast,
AGM  2022-23

Presidents Report
26 October 2023, Everglades Club, Woy Woy

Michael Fine, President

Another successful year for the Troubadour, and that brings us to another AGM.  It’s an opportunity to reflect on what we achieved and to thank all of those who have contributed.  It’s also a time think about our shortcomings and limitations and to prepare for the challenges we face as we plan for the coming year and those beyond.

When I look back at our program over the past year, it brings many great memories to mind.  It is tempting to just relive the memories of so many fabulously memorable concerts and brought together so many wonderful people. I recall the joy, pleasure and the warmth of friends and success, the excitement of the special performances, the sense of satisfaction and relief that it all came off well after another night of the Troubadour applies is magnified when I look back over another whole year. Behind it all, of course, lies a mountain of unpaid work and a tangle of people and connections that enable it all to happen.  That’s what I’d like to turn to next.

In financial terms, we can see that the club is doing reasonably well.  It not just a small group of music lovers, but it has become quite a significant non-profit enterprise.  Turnover this year exceeded $20,000, with the great bulk of that going to pay musicians who performed.  Most of the significant remainder was needed to pay for the venues we hired.

As in the previous two years, in the wake of the Covid19 crisis, almost all the performers at the grand concerts in the Everglades were from Australia.  But for the first time since 2020 we have also hosted performances from a few intrepid troubadours from overseas, many slotting into a house concert spot.  George Mann from USA performed at the Everglades with the Solidarity Choir, while Steve Turner, Alistair Brown and the grand veteran, Martyn Wyndam-Read, each from a different part of the UK, gave us a house concert.  In the past year, we’ve also enjoyed some of the most popular and best attended events in our club’s recent history, with the concerts from (ex-Seeker) Keith Potger drawing over 160 paid attendees, while those from Enda Kenny was close to 100.  Details of all our monthly grand concerts and other paid performances are set out in the Treasurer’s report.

A feature of the club’s program of concerts in 2022-23 has been the need to draw a sizeable audience in order to pay for relatively high costs of the halls we hire at the Everglades Club.  This also provides an opportunity for other artists, as increasingly we have sought to engage a support artist or group for the larger concerts.  This year, we also put on a night of shanty singing as part of the Central Coast Music Festival.  This memorable and well attended event, for which we engaged Margaret Walters, Forty Degrees South and the Redfern Shanty Crew, was supported by a grant of $1,000 from the Central Coast Council, as part of the Festival.

Another successful development has been the continuation of the Club Performers Nights, held monthly at Empire Bay community Hall.  These have provided an opportunity for club members and other local artists to perform a short set with a live audience in a café-like setting.  There is also a blackboard listing opportunity for anyone attending to perform a single song.  The variety of newcomers from the Central Coast and beyond, some established musicians, others trying out the experience of performing for the first or second time, has been particularly pleasing.

The club has also continued with two sessions a month – one now held on the first Friday night of each month at the Anglican Church in Woy Woy, the other in Kariong Eco-Garden on the third Sunday afternoon.  Convened by Hugh Worrall, these have been well attended throughout the year.

To publicise the events, the club has also commenced a subscription for a fortnightly notice to be published in each edition of the Peninsula News.  We have also continued and extended our community partnership with Radio 50+, 93.3FM, who assist with regular on-air notifications of many of our concerts.  Other publicity comes from press-releases that lead to published articles in the our local Central Coast newspapers – Coast Community News (occasionally) and Peninsula News (monthly), as well as from distribution of publicity handouts by email, at concerts and wherever possible. 

We have much to be proud of, as a local non-profit community based club.  Our links with the NSW Folk Federation, too, are significant.  But there are also challenges.  While the move to the Everglades and Empire Bay Hall have been beneficial, accommodation remains a major cost and uncertainty and we will need to take steps in the coming years to put it on a more affordable and secure basis.  Others challenges include the need for ongoing renewal of our club’s undoubted vitality.  Attracting a good audience across a range of age groups and ensuring our profile is recognised across the Central Coast region and beyond continues to be important.  We also need to continue to enhance opportunities for creative and engaged lives for those in the community, no matter what age group. 

Supporting the club’s activities this year has been a vigorous and accomplished team.  I’d like to finish by acknowledging them.  MaryAnne Howland, is our intrepid secretary and manages the monthly club performers nights along with Hugh Worrall, Mike Madden and Jeff Wille.  Mike and Jeff are also our sound technicians for our grand concerts and are the envy of every other folk club in NSW.  Hugh Worrall, our Vice-President, is inspiring in so many ways, but especially with the sessions, the Performance Nights and with lighting, brightening up all major performances.  And Ina Fine, our treasurer and behind the scenes club manager, is indispensable, booking venues, placing advertisements, contacting artists and doing so much more.  I can not thank her, or all others on our committee who contribute in so many ways, enough.  Finally, I would like to thank our members and audiences for their support and contributions in so many different ways throughout this year.

It leaves us well prepared for this and coming years.

Signed __________Michael Fine

Dated __________26 October, 2023

Report on the Sessions, 2022-23

Hugh Worrall:  Session Convenor

We had a great year for sessions. We still have two sessions per month. We started the 1^st Friday night of the month sessions at the Anglican Church (where we used to have concerts) and these have been a lot of fun and very popular. We’ve also kept the 3^rd Sunday afternoon  session each month in the Eco-Garden going and we appear to have broken even financially overall.

The sessions have built on the work of everybody over the years contributing songs to the books. Several people, Jeff, Suraya, Mick and Kaye have done the hard yards of compiling them and putting them in order in five separate books. For the 2023-24 years Jeff has scanned all the music and is creating a downloadable, alphabetical collection to use at the sessions on your tablet and enable you to practice the songs at home. That will be a big step forward.

The unintended benefit of the sessions is that all the $4 or $5 donations people put into the pot each session go to the Kariong Eco-Garden and the Anglican Church Hall, helping these local organisations.

Thanks to everyone for sharing your talent, encouraging each other and bringing snacks to share. It makes the sessions a great place to enjoy the music and each other’s company and improve your playing.

Income                                                $902

Expenditure

Kariong Eco Garden    $522

Kariong Hall                $40

Anglican Church Hall  $300   

Total Expenditure                              $862

Surplus                                                $40

Troubadour Concerts 2022-23
Date	Performers	Venue	Attendance
27-08-22	Hippy Trippy Band	Everglades	67
17-09-22	Central Coast Music Festival: Sea Shanty night	Gosford C.C Leagues	44
24-09-22	Bathtub Gin Orch.	Everglades	79
29-10-22	George Mann + Solidarity choir	Everglades	50
26-11-22	Waterrunners + Docters Wife	Everglades	80
17-12-22	Xmas Concert	Everglades	79
18-01-23	Steve Turner (UK)	House Concert	32
24-02-23	Enda Kenny	Everglades	94
3/05/2023	Alistair Brown (UK)	House Concert	16
18-03-23	Martyn Wyndham Read (UK)	House Concert	24
26-03-23	Keith Potger + Rachel Collis	Everglades	161
18-04-23	Bruce Watson	House Concert	21
27-05-23	Traditional Graffiti	Everglades	76
24-06-23	Corn Nut Creek	Everglades	43

CLUB PERFORMERS NIGHTS:  Empire Bay Community Hall Second Saturday each month
Date	Attendance
7/09/2022	27
13/08/2022	27
9/10/2022	33
10/08/2022	19
11/12/2022	27
2/11/2023	23
3/11/2023	25
13/5/2023	33
6/10/2023	31

Troubadour Central Coast Incorporated

Committee 2022-23

1. President:  Michael Fine  (MC, Bookings Manager, Website, Facebook page)
2. Vice President:  Hugh Worrall  (Sessions, Lighting, Performers Night, Facebook page)
3. Secretary:  MaryAnne Howland  (Minutes, records, Performers’ Night Mgt, Door manager)
4. Treasurer:  Ina Fine  (Accounts and finances; Door manager)
5. General:  Jeff Wille (Sound team)
6. General:  Mike Madden (Sound team)
7. General:  Mary O’Mahony
8. General:  Cally Chambers
9. General:  Michael O’Mahony (Public Officer)

Although it is not necessary for all committee members to be at every event, it is desirable that they attend most events where possible to help keep everyone’s work load to an enjoyable level. A minimum of 3 committee members is required to form a committee.

It is not necessary to be on the committee to take on a role within the club, other than the executive roles of the club. Elected Committee members should be sought initially from members who take on duties of the club.

Roles and Positions in the committee – a brief outline.

President – Chairs meetings, organizes or steps into help others where needed. Organizes MC’s for concerts and events. Organizes the running of functions.

Vice President – Backs up the President and steps in when the President is absent.

Secretary – Keeps records of meetings, membership, and deals with all correspondence. Send out renewals and notices. Ensures that the required number of committee meetings are held throughout the year and liases with committee with date, time and location of meetings.

Treasurer – keeps a record of the financials of the club and pay the bills.

ROLES

Bookings – Books venues, organizes keys for venue, books and liaises with performers. Give information to the publicity and website coordinator.

Catering – organizes supper and cleans the kitchen at the end of the event.

Hospitality – meets & greets visitors at functions. Helps with catering as required.

Infrastructure – Organises to set up and put away chairs & sound equipment at meetings. Helps tidy venue at end of event.

Publicity – Sends out publicity and emails to members, guests, papers, email list distributors. Prepares and distributes flyers. Organizes the taking of photos at each event.

Sound and Lighting teams – Responsible for sound equipment (amps, mikes, other inputs, mixers, speakers) or for lighting at venues.

Website – Maintains the website and keeps information updated.

At times, some roles are filled outside the committee where there is insufficient committee members to fill all the roles. Committee members can also hold multiple roles (or roles can be split between 2 or more people) where there is not sufficient people to take responsibility of all the roles.