HarmonicaUK Newsletter - October 2023

Welcome to our October Newsletter. As I type, our 2023 festival is but 3 weeks away! We do have a few tickets left for sale, so it's not too late if you want to come along. The schedule is now available for you to have a look at - if you like the look of what you see, get in quick! 

Every year at our Festival we have our AGM. If you can't make it in person, we ask that as a HarmonicaUK member you please complete our Proxy Vote form. If we don't get enough votes for the committee members, we then have to hold another vote a few weeks later, so it's important that we get as many proxy votes in as possible before the AGM happens. 

You will find all the relevant paperwork (such as committee member profiles) on our AGM Documents page. Once you've had a look there, please go to the Proxy Vote Form and complete it - it's a really quick job, fill in your name, email, and address, and then a couple of clicks on the resolutions - of course we request that you support the Committee and vote for both resolutions. If you have any questions about the process or any of the resolutions please get in touch with our secretary - [email protected].

The eagle-eyed among you will spot in the AGM paperwork that I'm stepping down as Chair of HarmonicaUK at this festival. I've got a lot of personal commitments which have colluded to leave me with nowhere near enough spare time to give to the role of Chair. I took on the role of Chair a year ago when Pete Hewitt stepped down, and in that last year the Committee have together run two successful live events, weekly Zoom coffee mornings almost every week, our always popular monthly Zoom open mic sessions, and the hugely successful bi-monthly Saturday Session Workshops (special thanks to Dave and Suzy for organising and hosting the open mic and Saturday sessions!) We have also worked hard behind the scenes making sure that we are fully compliant, and as safe as possible from cyber-threats, by moving most of our IT systems and data onto a new Google Workspace, including harmonica.uk email addresses for all trustees and volunteers. 

I'm really proud of what the Committee and volunteers have all achieved in the last 12 months, I've been very fortunate to work with such a fantastic group of people that give their time and energy freely to support HarmonicaUK and the harmonica community. Although I'm stepping down as Chair, I'm not leaving completely, I will be remaining on the Committee with the less time demanding role of Webmaster. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all of the HarmonicaUK Committee and volunteers for their help and support over this last year. In particular I'd like to thank and congratulate Dave Colclough for agreeing to take on the role of Chair of HarmonicaUK - Good luck Dave!

Finally, don't forget to log in tomorrow, Saturday 7th for our Zoom Open Mic at 5pm - pop along with a song at the ready or simply sit and listen in the comfort of your own home! The Open Mic is closely followed by our next Zoom Saturday Session with Adam Glasser, Saturday 14th October at 5pm, a Q&A session on Chromatic Harmonica that is not to be missed.

That's it for this month, I look forward to seeing some of you at Hillscourt at our festival, and hope that you all have a great October. Thanks in advance for your support with the proxy voting, it will enable the committee to continue their great work for harmonica for another year. 

Happy Harpin'

Barry

Barry Elms, Chair