A successful Making Music South West Annual Members Day was held on a beautifully sunny day at The Thomas Hardye School in Dorchester. Members from 14 member societies were present. During registration tea and splendid cakes were provided by the School's caterers.

The event proper started with our RDO, Kate Allen, giving a brief description of the successful applicants from this year's Minor to Major Project. MMSW were hoping to be able to repeat the project next year and Kate hoped that her presentation would give an indication of the types of project that might be successful. Kate followed this with an interactive session, using a hot air balloon as a way of analysing the factors that might affect our organizations - What would allow us to fly, what was holding us down, what might blow us off course and who should be on board. Here's a link to Kate's presentation

This was followed by the regional AGM. During the meeting a presentation was made to Don Sheppard, who was stepping down as Secretary of MMSW after serving in NFMS and MM in various roles for over 40 years. Two new committee members were elected, Ann Seaton from Penzance Choral Society, and Donia Coomber from Bristol Cathedral Concert Choir. Donia would serve as acting secretary for the following year and would also be shadowing Roger Hughes, Treasurer, with a view to replacing him when he retired at the end of the year.

The AGM was followed by a splendid buffet lunch, again provided by the School's caterers, which provided a welcome opportunity for networking among the delegates.

The first session after lunch started with a presentation by Johanna Bueker, from the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, on developing our audiences by making the best use of our publicity material. Following this there was a discussion on the topic Music for Everyone with special emphasis on how to ensure that young people continue to make music after leaving full time education. The discussion was lead by a panel (left) made up of Abiola Okubanjo (MM's Social Inclusion and Youth Director), Richard Hall (who runs the Dorset Rural Music School) and Jackie Richmond, Secretary of the Poole Young Peoples Orchestra.

The final event of the day was the Artists' Showcase. This was organised by Jonathan Bloxham, who started the recital by playing four movements from one of Bach's suites for unaccompanied cello. This was followed by performances of oratorio excerpts and somgs by Ben Johnson (tenor) and Sussana Hurrell (soprano) accompanied by the pianist Sebastian Wybrew.

Jonathan Bloxham		Left to right: Jonathan Bloxham, Sebastian Wybrew, Ben Johnson and Susanna Hurrell

After the recital there was tea, with more excellent cakes, and with much conversation before everyone left for home.