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The Westland Modern Ballroom Dance Section

Chairman’s Report
to the Annual General Meeting
21st February 2007 Committee Photo

Good evening and welcome to the 18th 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 Pete Open, Doreen and Pete, Sue and Dave and Penny, the quality of our music hosts, and the continuing success of the beginner's classes.
As the club is now so successful the committee are pleased to be able to expand the whole experience of Ballroom Dance at the Westland Leisure Centre.

This year we have been able to offer our members the occasional bonus night and to improve our Anniversary Ball and Valentine Dance with small gifts for our lady members. The committee were pleased by the reaction of the members of the club to this innovation 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 during 2005/2006 continued last year and the committee now believes that the club can now look forward to a much brighter future. The consolidation is now complete and perhaps the theme for the future can be one of innovation to promote the club.

Last year we stated a preference for quality in our presenters as this appeared to provide 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.
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, 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 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 Richard Still and Morgan Hemphill 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. Last year we saw an upgrade of the club’s music system and a general improvement in the quality of reproduction from the leisure centres equipment. An important improvement in the quality of sound is due to the club having purchased a new set of XLR leads that allows us to bypass the system on the stage and to go directly into the main sound system. Although not expensive this along with our new mixer system have substantially improved the sound quality and simultaneously provided us with greater flexibility for presentation.

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 second 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 8,000 views last month alone). 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, may I reiterate my grateful thanks to the membership of the club and the energetic committee who all contribute to form the wonderful social event that we all enjoy so much.
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.
Chairman
– Westland Modern Ballroom Dance Section