The Medau Society Ltd

The Minutes of the Meeting of the 59th Annual General Meeting held on Saturday 12th November 2011 at Strood Academy School, Watling Street, Strood, Rochester, Kent ME2 2SX

1 WELCOME AND OPENING REMARKS Chairman, Julie Gilbert, welcomed all those present to the 59th Annual General Meeting of the Medau Society. In particular a warm welcome was extended to Jean Parmiter, (President), Hilary Weedon, Tricia Hill and Barbara Norton (Vice-Presidents) and Daran Bennett (Chief Executive, Exercise Movement and Dance Partnership - EMDP).

2 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE Apologies for absence had been received from the Minutes Secretary, Chris Markham. In Chris’s absence, Janet Burns would be taking notes of the meeting. Members of committees, trainers, teachers and class members had also sent their apologies.

3 MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING The Minutes of the 58th Annual General Meeting of the Medau Society held on Saturday 13th November 2010 at Tring School, Mortimer Hill, Tring, Hertfordshire HP23 5JD were approved and signed as a true record by the Chairman.

4 THE CHAIRMAN’S ANNUAL REVIEW AND EMDP BOARD DIRECTORS’ REPORT The Chairman and (with John Hunter) an EMDP Board Director, Julie Gilbert, reported:

“This Review begins with thanks to the Executive Committee. This may not be the usual way to begin an Annual Review but I want them to know that their work is appreciated. Meetings are held three times a year on Wednesdays in central London and business is also conducted via email. In no particular order, I would like to thank: John Hunter (Hon. Treasurer and an EMDP Board Director)), Janet Burns (Vice-Chairman and Teachers’ Rep), Phyllis Ballam (Members’ Rep), Jenny Bailey (Marketing Rep and National Promotional Lead), Margaret Nicolson (Events Officer), Joan Gatfield (Medau Training Team and EMDP Training Group Rep), Hilary Weedon (Sport and Recreation Alliance [formerly the CCPR] Rep and a link to the EMDP re training), Jan Alderman (Youth Officer) and Chris Markham (Minutes Secretary). There are many tasks that need to be covered - we would welcome you – contact: ([email protected])

Another vitally important member of the Medau team is the Training Coordinator. Last year I reported that Olive Carter had taken over this role from Jo Power. In early 2011 Olive resigned although she has taken on the voluntary role of Minutes Secretary for the Medau Training Team. From February to August the Team were without a co-ordinator. This was a difficult time and required volunteers to take on extra work. Thanks to all those involved. I am pleased now to tell you that Barbara Norton is our Training Co-ordinator – a big welcome to Barbara!

Moving on to some of the events of the past year: in January 2012 the Central YMCA Qualifications (called CYQ) are launching a new Exercise, Movement and Dance qualification for teachers which is more suited to our types of classes and work. Hilary Weedon and Joan Gatfield have done tremendous work mapping the Medau qualification to the new CYQ qualification – thanks to them.

More on training . . . the first Medau teachers to emerge from the new Combined Training Framework – which we call the CTF- are now close to qualification (at this point in the proceedings the five students present at the meeting were given a warm welcome). Now let me remind you how the training scheme works:

The CTF is given in four stages with the first three combined with the Keep Fit Association (KFA) and the Fitness League (FL). These stages are generic to all three disciplines. Following 1 on from these generic stages, Stage Four is discipline-specific. The completion and development of the CTF has been the most important development in EMDP this year.

Eltham was the only CTF course in which Medau was fully involved. We have so few trainers able to teach with the CTF - but I will come back to this vital subject later. The course produced five students now specifically studying the Medau teaching method. They are at Stage Four and are due to complete their training in May 2012. We wish them all the best in their studies and look forward to welcoming them to our teaching force. Thanks to Jane Seyler, Zoë Walton, Ann-Marie Weathers and Margaret Charlwood for their work teaching on this course.

Wherever an area has a Medau presence we aim to give taster classes at the CTF Road Shows – this year included venues as far apart as Devon and Scotland, Norfolk and Hampshire! Thanks to those class teachers and trainers who gave these taster sessions and also thanks to those who have welcomed students from the other disciplines into their Medau classes to observe. It gets the name of Medau out there!

We also held two recreational courses: in Chichester in July and at Lilleshall in October. Thanks to Margaret Charlwood and Gisela Klötzer (known to us as Bedu) who staffed Chichester and to Marlene McGee and Jane Fisk for Lilleshall. A small group from England attended the Medau Schule’s biennial meeting and recreational course in Coburg in June. Next year there will be just the one recreational course - in Coburg in May.

Of course the Medau Display Team has also continued its acclaimed performances. The Team performed at various venues over the past year including in March at Move-It (a festival of movement and dance held at Olympia) and have been invited again next March to Move-It 2012. The Team also performed at the launch of Gymfusion in Nottingham in April. Our Team is recognised for its professionalism and is a marvellous publicity tool for Medau. You make us proud to be Medau members! Thanks to everyone in the Team and in particular to their choreographer Margaret Charlwood.

Moving on to our family magazine: you know that the April 2011 “Medau News” and KFA’s “Media” were published inside a common cover and in October 2012 the first truly joint magazine - “Moving Together” - came out. This has allowed us to reduce our costs without reducing quality and will give you a more substantial magazine than would otherwise be possible. As ever, the contents depend on you. Thanks to everyone who contributed articles. I would particularly like to thank Heather Hunter for encouraging you all to write them and for collating them. Do keep them coming!

Medau has just moved into the 21st century – we have joined Facebook! Thanks to Jan Alderman for taking on the management of the Medau page. Jan in her role as Youth Officer recognised that Facebook is a modern way to get the Medau name out there. We will also be updating our web pages in the next few months. This will involve several people providing material – any help you can give will be appreciated. Please contact me or a member of the Executive Committee with suggestions. Thanks to Olive Carter’s husband Nick for responding to our requests to update our web pages.

Moving on to our membership numbers: This year, 2010/11, Medau had 1,257 members compared with 1,376 in 2009/10. We still have too many participants enjoying their classes who are not members. We need to get the message out there that they need the Society if they want teachers to ensure their classes have a future. Any help you can give us will be much appreciated. A drop of just over 100 could so easily be reversed.

Back now to training: we have six trainers willing and qualified to support the new CTF which as I explained earlier is taught in four stages. Hilary and Joan are assessors and are not allowed to teach. That leaves four trainers who can: Margaret Charlwood, Jane Seyler, Zoë Walton and Ann Marie Weathers. Two of these trainers have already given devoted service to Medau for much longer than we deserve and they would like to retire in the near future but feel they cannot do so until potential trainers are in place. Without trainers we cannot get new teachers. Therefore the whole future of Medau is dependent on just two people, Jane and Zoë. The Training Team have been concerned about this for some time and have made Herculean efforts to find 2 replacements. The Team are bending over backwards to adjust the training to be a trainer course to suit the individual trainee.

The small size of the Training Team has affected the staffing of our Continuous Professional Development (known as CPD) days. The South West organises and staffs its days locally. The North West now has two trainer-staffed days with the third staffed locally. Norfolk and Suffolk hold regular CPD days, staffing them locally. Only London days have been able to be trainer-staffed every time.

We have a wonderful and dedicated Training Team but the future of Medau training is precarious. If we want Medau to have a future and if trainers are not coming from our present teacher base we must consider alternative ways to get them. We will continue to need the support of the EMD Partnership to fund training and to develop a brand so that Medau can secure its future under the umbrella of a larger organisation. Training is expensive and Medau is unique.

It is extremely important for Medau’s future that Sport England continues to fund the Partnership. The current Sport England grant of £185K per year runs for four years to March 2013. The application to Sport England for further funding must be made by June 2012 with a decision expected in September 2012. This timetable requires EMDP’s plans for the future to be ready and agreed with the partners by March 2012 so that the funding application can be prepared. Medau and our partners the KFA and FL are each working towards new Partnership Agreements which will reflect a new relationship within the EMD Partnership and between the individual partners themselves.

Volunteers are the lifeblood of Medau. Some I have already mentioned by name and specifically thanked them. I am now going to quickly mention some of them again and yet others not mentioned before, being deeply aware that there are still others I will have missed:

Thanks to Mary Shirley who acts as our consultant on Equality and Ethics.

Thanks to Jane Seyler, Zoë Walton, Ann-Marie Weathers and Margaret Charlwood for teaching on the CTF and to Hilary Weedon and Joan Gatfield for their work as CTF course assessors.

Thanks to Margaret Nicolson for her work organizing and administering our recreational courses as well as national events such as today’s AGM and Annual Reunion.

The 60 th Anniversary Committee: Thanks to Margaret Nicolson, Margaret Charlwood, Barbara Rose, Frances Judd and Pat Palmer who are doing a grand job with our diamond celebration (but more of this later).

Today’s Annual Reunion and AGM: Thanks to the following for making it so enjoyable.

The Class Teachers: Thanks to Jo Power and Rosemary Littlewood for the lovely and inspiring classes.

The Kent Teachers and Class Members: Thanks to you all for hosting this year’s Annual Reunion and for the excellent lunch - in particular thanks to Joan Daniels, Maureen Crowhurst and Mary Shirley - and a big thank you to Pat Gaskell.

The Stall Holders: Thanks to everyone for organising and manning the stalls; these fundraising efforts are invaluable – and particular thanks to Toni Bergman for the raffle.

The Display Teams: Thanks to each and every one for the time and effort put into rehearsing your items and for giving your displays at this reunion. Particular thanks to the choreographers: Jayne Seyler, Frances Judd, Margaret Charlwood, Grainne Sinclair and Jan Alderman, and also to Sarah Semple. Thanks also to Tricia Hill for announcing the displays.

Everybody: Thanks to everyone for supporting the Medau Society and especially just for being here today – without you there would be no AGM or Annual Reunion!

3 Finally, we have entered our sixtieth year and celebrate our diamond anniversary from now. The major celebratory event will be the Sixtieth Anniversary Celebration at the Copthorne Effingham Hotel, Copthorne near Gatwick, East Sussex on 27th October 2012 and will be instead of an Annual Reunion but with the AGM held separately. We will celebrate the past but we are also planning to make this anniversary the start of our Medau future. With the support of the Partnership, with Sport England funding and a solution to the training issue we will be able to look forward to a bright Medau future such as would have made our founder, Molly Braithwaite, proud of us”.

5 ACCOUNTS The Honorary Treasurer, John Hunter, presented the Report of the Directors and the Financial Statements for the year to 31st July 2011; these had been distributed to all present. He apologised that, due to a transmission difficulty the previous evening, the accounts presented to the meeting did not include a signature of the Reporting Accountants. He gave his assurance that they had indeed been signed off.

The Society made a loss of £1,962 in the 2010/11 year (2009/10 loss: £6,062). This was after receiving £1,302 interest on the Society’s cash balances (2009/10: £2,657) and paying tax of £273 on that interest. Administrative expenses amounted to £2,991 (2009/10: £7,005). The Society’s reserves stood at £94,204, of which £69,891 were unrestricted.

John summarised EMDP’s financial position and answered a number of questions. He then proposed that the Society receive and adopt the Report of the Directors and Financial Statements for the year ended 31st July 2011. Margaret Nicolson seconded the motion, which was carried.

6 ACCOUNTANTS To appoint Richards Place Dobson as Reporting Accountants for the year 2011/2012: proposed by John Hunter and seconded by Margaret Nicolson. This was agreed.

7 REGISTRATION RATES John Hunter proposed that the Executive Committee be allowed to agree the Registration Rates and other membership terms for 2012. Barbara Norton seconded the proposal. The proposal was adopted unanimously.

8 RESOLUTION As the Executive Committee was now small and it was difficult to find replacements to fill vacancies, John Hunter proposed that a Resolution be passed that the requirement of the Articles of Association that three members of the Committee retire and not become eligible for re-election within one year should be waived for one year. Barbara Norton seconded the Resolution. The Resolution was adopted unanimously.

9 ELECTIONS AND HONORARY APPOINTMENTS The below was proposed by Margaret Nicolson and seconded by Pat Gaskell and agreed unanimously by the meeting:

To reappoint as Directors of the Society: Mr John Hunter and Mrs Julie Gilbert To reappoint as Honorary Treasurer: Mr John Hunter To reappoint as Vice-Chairman: Mrs Janet Burns To reappoint as President: Mrs Jean Parmiter

The meeting welcomed as Members’ Representative Mrs Phyllis Ballam

10 EXERCISE, MOVEMENT AND DANCE PARTNERSHIP (EMDP) That John Hunter and Julie Gilbert be reappointed as Medau-nominated Directors of EMDP. This motion was proposed by Margaret Nicolson and seconded by Pat Gaskell and agreed unanimously by the meeting.

4 11 ANY OTHER BUSINESS Daran Bennett, Chief Executive of EMDP, thanked Medau for its support of the teacher training programme. Daran explained that the programme is known as the Combined Training Framework (CTF) because it is backed by all founder partners and reported that the CTF was now up and running. Indeed he was delighted to see that five students from the CTF were training to become Medau teachers. Daran reported that the Partnership was in receipt of funding from Sport England (SE) of £85,000 per annum over four years. An application for further funding from SE would be submitted in 2012. He continued by reporting that the Fitness League had closed their office in Sunningdale, Berkshire and transferred much of their administrative work to the EMDP Office in Horsham. Street Dance had affiliated to the Partnership and a Street Dance qualification had been developed at Level 2 (Medau training through the CTF is at Level 3). Cheer Leading had also joined EMDP. Finally he drew attention to a nationwide activity, Big Dance, which would be taking place in 2012 and that Jade Moulden at the EMDP Office could provide information on how Medau might get involved.

There followed a question from the floor calling for public relations work to put the name of Medau in front of the public and asking how EMDP were handling this. Daran replied that the budget for marketing and promotion was small and that Medau needed to take some responsibility for promoting their discipline. This was not well received by the meeting as the impression had been given when Medau joined EMDP that the Partnership would be responsible for public relations.

Discussion followed and it was agreed that, as each discipline is different, a generic approach to marketing and promotion was not working. Public relations work was labour-intensive and involved monitoring media to look for opportunities, and exploiting those opportunities by responding to them. This had not been happening. Medau would need to provide its own stream of stories and press material. It was agreed that advertising in newspapers and magazines or in modern media was expensive and that using social media, making appearances at events or writing articles or letters to magazines and newspapers were less financially burdensome. To succeed it needed to come from the grass roots as all media are quick to spot what is really an advertisement in disguise.

The Chairman, Julie Gilbert, invited Jan Alderman who manages Medau’s Facebook Page to report to the meeting. The Page was updated regularly and Jan invited members to visit it and to contribute to it. Contributions should be sent to her at ([email protected]). She added that members with a Facebook page could “advertise Medau” on their home page with, for example, a mention of their Medau experiences. Jan also reported that there is Medau material on UTube and also a Medau webpage ([email protected]).

Time was running short as the displays were to follow and some members were anxious to get off home. The discussion was brought to a close. The Chairman agreed to pursue the idea of members becoming involved in publicising Medau *.

* Following the meeting an email was sent asking for volunteers to help put the name of Medau in front of the public. Two people responded.

12 CLOSING REMARKS Julie Gilbert, Chairman, thanked everyone for coming and, on behalf of all, again thanked everyone involved, whatever their role or roles, for making the day special. The meeting closed at 3.30 pm.

The 60th Annual General Meeting will take place on Saturday 10th November 2012 at 2.00 pm and will be held at Woolmer Green Village Hall, Woolmer Green, Knebworth, Herts SG3 6XA