We started as a self-run group in 2011 and have carried on that way even after hiring Rob in 2018. We share tasks amongst us, with some of us adopting various specific roles. So, Rob is hired for his musical expertise, rather than to ‘lead’ the choir.
Our main expenses are our musical director, Rob, our rehearsal space, Golden Lane, and the hire of Unity Hall for our bi-annual gigs in June/July and November/December. How this works is Colin, our treasurer asks us for a payment (of £100) periodically when the kitty is running low. Robin (who is the auditor) handles the Unity Hall side of things separately, and asks us for money accordingly. We charge for gigs, so the ticket takings offset this significantly. Other costs can be claimed by members through the kitty – such as for music, printing, web hosting, and miscellaneous costs when we have gigs.
For our song repertoire, there is a Repertoire Gang who come up with a ‘theme’ for each of our bi-annual gigs at Unity Hall. The theme helps to shape the selection of songs. Everyone is invited generally to find and suggest songs (with musical score and/or recordings), however gig setlists (which form the term’s work) are finalised by the Rep Gang. Currently the Rep Gang is formed of Wendy, Peter, Robin and Juliana. The membership can change over time. Wendy and Peter translate scores into robot voices using specialist software.
As well as the bi-annual gigs at Unity Hall, we like to fit in some more performances in the year, sometimes not with the full choir, such as at Fortune Green.
Members volunteer to ‘sponsor’ specific songs in the repertoire, which means manage the admin – allocate parts, keep any changes up to date on the website (such as which version of the score is the right one, and any significant changes made by Rob along the way). Members need to keep their own notes as well of course, but it helps to have the basics on the website.
Peter creates and manages the rehearsal Schedule (on the website), allotting rehearsal slots for each song. Members log any planned absences there too, which can mean changes to the repertoire of an evening in some instances. Peter can send instructions of how to do this if need be.
All share in Chairing duties. Chairs are responsible for producing the Agenda for the evening, based on what’s in the Schedule, and for chairing the rehearsal. We are much better at not chatting and generally going off-piste between takes than we were, but the restraining of this urge is an ongoing challenge!
Wendy maintains the websites, both the public-facing one, and Members site (which I’ve assumed Wendy has already given you access to) where the Song pages containing music scores, MP3s, the Schedule, and much else is kept. Members can edit the site (WordPress), so song sponsors can keep their song page up to date, for example, and members can log their absences.
Wendy, Peter and Maxine maintain a social media presence for Wrablers.
We have a chat space on Signal messaging app, called Wrabalert, which is particularly handy for signalling late arrival at rehearsal, for example, but is used for all sorts of stuff, from trivial through practical to sublime!
For publicity for our gigs – Juliana puts together a flyer, postcard and programme for each gig, with input from the group. The flyer is distributed via our mailing list (Mailchimp) which Wendy maintains. Members also email it to their friends. Postcards are printed to hand out here and there.
On stage we have ‘prompts’ (A3 paper on the floor) containing start notes and the first line of each song, who announces what – we also share in this – and maybe a few other notes. Juliana produces these. Other than that, we have to memorise everything!
Our gigs have been themed (eg folk, standards, 80s, songs about journeys, songs about love) but mostly have been a broad mix of songs. We usually decide a dress code for each one, and have a lot of fun dressing up!
We usually have an AGM in February