Thursday 10th June saw the BYBA Council meet (via Zoom) for their 6th meeting of 2021. Although there were apologies from a few attendees, those present were in good spirit (and on fine form!).
Joint Initiatives
The first item of business came from Chairman Neil Wright. He has been on several really positive calls with Claire Stacey (TYMBA) and Andy Hewlett (IMG) with a view to how we can all work together both now and on the other side of the pandemic. The three organisations are looking at releasing a shared calendar of events to ensure there are no clashes and to help each organisation support the other two, and there is even talk about running shared events!
Finances
Next, we moved over to the finances with outgoing treasurer Jon Haw. He advised that the insurance had recently been renewed. This means that, as long as they are operated legally, BYBA is still covered to host events. Currently there is a maximum attendance of 4000 or 50% of the total capacity (whichever is fewer), but as restrictions relax the number should go up.
Jon also informed Council that the setup of a new bank account for BYBA had been completed and all the funds from the previous account had been transfered over. He also got permission from Council to add the incoming treasurer Justine Robertson to the account so he could continue with the handover of responsibilities. Both the BYBA account and the Bursary account both have healthy balances despite virtually no income during the Coronavirus pandemic.
Communications
Communications Chair Luke Taylor then gave his update. He began by talking about a quarterly newsletter that had been suggested at the previous meeting. As part of setting up the newsletter, he had been reaching out to the Fellowship to see if they would be interested in a newsletter and what sort of content they would like to read. Several Fellows had indicated that they would be interested in hearing more about what BYBA Council and all the Regions are up to, so it was agreed that an article about each meeting would be published going forwards.
Luke then updated Council on the progress of the massed band Song for the Frontline project. Submissions from the bands have been collected and the editing of the video has begun. It's been good to see several bands and individuals participate in the project, but especially great to see Kingston and Malden band submit 25 entries!
He finished by mentioning the Music for All Learn To Play event that had been suggested by Richard Haw. Richard had suggested that BYBA could support member bands with hosting and running a Learn to Play event, boosting the ranks of the bands and hopefully raising the profile of the Association in the process. All attending agreed it was a good idea.
Performance
The next discussion came from Performance Chair Clive Burd. The interest levels for the event on the 11th July were discussed, as was a plan for if the June 21st lifting of restrictions was pushed back. Carl Harris suggested that the event gave bands something to aim for and something to focus their rehearsals towards if nothing else, making being back at band more productive. The general consensus of the Council was to cancel the event if the restrictions were not lifted in time, so we must now wait for the 21st June to find out the next steps!
The 2020 commemorative patches were also discussed. The design has been finalised, the patches have been made and bands have received theirs, however there are still over 100 patches left over. It was agreed that these should be made available to the general public, and will be available through the BYBA website shortly.
Clive's final item of business related to show sponsors for our 2022 events. Revolution have agreed to sponsor the Northern event as long as it runs on the same day as the DCUK event, meaning that we now only require a sponsor for the Midlands event in September. The Midlands region is happy to host if no other sponsor comes forwards but would like to let them have the opportunity to do so first.
New Member
Finally, Southern Region Chair Paul Morgan informed Council that Raiders Performing Arts have signed up for membership of BYBA. All at Council would like to welcome Raiders to the Association and look forward to seeing them when safe to do so!