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The Westland Modern Ballroom Dance Section

Chairman’s Report to the Annual General Meeting 2008

"Good evening and welcome to the 19th Annual General Meeting of the Westland Modern Ballroom Dance Section.

I am pleased to be able to start this report by saying that our club is healthy, solvent and growing. This is due to the excellent support of our members, the tireless work of the committee Treasurer Pete Open, Doreen and Pete Eastment and Secretary Penny, the quality of our music hosts, and the continuing success of the beginner's classes.
A particular feature of this year has been the growing success of the introduction of occasional Wednesday theme nights and Saturday dances.

This year we have been able to continue to offer our members the occasional bonus night and to improve our Anniversary Ball with small gifts for our lady members. The committee were pleased by the reaction of the members of the club to these innovations and recommend the practice to next year’s committee.

The committee believe that the more we can give back to members the stronger the club will become. Of course, all this will depend on keeping our finances in order which in turn depend primarily on a healthy attendance at our events.

The committee believe that the best way forward for our club is to offer good quality entertainment and a strong social element to our Wednesday night dances.

The successful policy of consolidation started in 2005/2006, continued up until this year and is now complete and the committee believe that the club can now look forward to a very bright future.

We continue our preference for quality in our presenters as this provides the double benefit of the best events for our dancers creating the greatest income to the club.
We now have a regular circuit of music hosts that are well managed by Penny to whom I am particularly grateful, the programme is now complete for the forthcoming year and therefore provides the new committee with a sound foundation for music hosting. Of particular note was the introduction of a new keyboard player Carl Webb, with many of our members remarking how much they liked his music.

Our current repertoire of music presenters includes Paul Eden, Sid and Roz Gateley, Gary and Trishia Fleetwood, Mark Helmore, David Last, Ray Denning, Sean Briffit, Carl Webb and of course Penny and myself.

This list is under review and we recommend that the new committee actively seek to investigate and engage new music hosts. The membership are invited to assist this process in two ways, first to let the committee know of presenters who might be suitable and secondly to support new hosts when they are engaged.

The balance of dances throughout each evening has stabilized this year and each presenter provides proportions of Ballroom, Latin and Sequence dances that are expected by our club. The guidance notes that Penny has produced have been universally welcomed by the music hosts as it provides a solid platform from which they can, if they wish, choose to deviate and modify according to their personal taste and the mood of the evening.

This year our Anniversary Ball (Black and White with a Twist of Purple) was a huge success, receiving praise from all of our members who attended. The evening was immaculately compered, as always, by Sid and Roz. The demonstration by Daniel Silva and Stephanie Walker was excellent; the quality of the demonstration added that extra WOW factor to a brilliant night.

Crucial to the whole dance experience is of course the music reproduction. The sound system at Westland has had a few problems this year and is due for a general maintenance upgrade. A new sound desk has been installed which is a great help, our XLR leads that plug directly into the stage system has contributed to a much better sound. Currently there is a problem with the high range speakers on the left of the stage (viewed from the bar). This is being addressed by ESW.

Towards the end of this year the club has purchased a new laptop computer and software licence to improve the quality and reliability of club music. This system is now fully operational with some 3400 music tracks available to the club. In addition to improved equipment the club has a policy to purchase the latest dance music to enhance the occasions when club music is played. A further benefit of this policy is that we are able to advise our regular hosts of what music is available.

The beginners dance lessons are extremely popular and we have a regular attendance every Wednesday. The new dancers are showing excellent progress and several couples are now venturing onto the dance floor in our general dances, we hope that this trend continues. I again this year offer a huge thank you on behalf of the club to Heidi and Lisa who manage these classes so well.

Our Club Website www.dancewestland.co.uk is also proving to be a great success. The site is well used (attracting over 60,000 views last month partly due to a large number of new pictures being uploaded into the website album). The most important aspect of the site is that it provides a regular and reliable way for members to be informed of the club's activity and any adjustments to the programme.

In addition to the website we have an active list of email addresses of our dancers and this provides an additional way to inform members of events and news of our club.
Finally, I wish to reiterate my grateful thanks to the membership of the club and the energetic committee who all contribute to the wonderful dance evenings enjoyed by so many of our members.

I wish the club a successful coming year and promise full support to the incoming committee to help maintain the high standards that we are now enjoying.

Your Chairman"