Number 202: July 2011 - Wagner Society of England

NEWS FROM THE COMMITTEE MEETING OF 26th MAY 2011
Andrea Buchanan
Mike Morgan gave a detailed account of the state of the Society’s finances, which
are currently healthy. Most of the subscriptions for 2011 had now been received and both
the current and deposit accounts were adequately funded. It had been recommended at an
earlier meeting to purchase more Charifund Shares, to replace those that had been
disposed of. These shares currently give a better yield than the interest given by any bank
or building society, and are therefore seen as a good investment. The Treasurer had
therefore invested £5,000 in these shares and we will look at investing further sums in
future. Mike took the Committee through the completed 2009 accounts and the draft 2010
accounts which would be presented at the forthcoming AGM.
The Committee will also re-establish its annual membership of the International
Richard Wagner Verband. This had been temporarily suspended in 2010, due to lack of
available funds. It was also noted that the membership fees had risen substantially in 2011
and was now €2 per member. These fees have risen due to improved services accorded
to international members in terms of multi-lingual services. As a result of this increase,
the Committee discussed the possibility of raising the membership fees in 2012. This will
be decided at a future meeting. The importance of maintaining our good relationship and
strong communication links with the Verband was stressed.
Jeremy Rowe talked about events in the pipeline for 2011/12 and mentioned
several exciting projects for 2013, which will be shared with the members in due course.
The Committee also discussed the mailing of Wagner News to members, which is
currently done manually by Margaret Murphy, and is a herculean task. The Committee
will investigate the costs of having this mailing done by the printers in future. There was
also some discussion of the library.
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