The TYMBA AGM is being held on Sunday 29th January 2012, at The Wythall Royal British Legion Club, 15 Houndsfields Lane, Wythall, Birmingham, B47 6LS

Here is the agenda.

1. Apologies
2. Minutes of the last meeting
3. Matters arising from the minutes
4. Chairman’s report
5. Treasurer’s report
6. Membership Secretary’s report
7. Contest Panel report
8. Regional reports

• South
• Midlands
• North

1. Formal election of Officers

10. Election of Committee Members

11. Appointment/election of President and Vice presidents

12. Motions to propose changes to Constitution and Rules

13. Motions relating to general changes to contests, training etc

• Proposal 1 – TYMBA competitions to be allowed to use none military judges at the ratio of no more 50% of the judges to be used (on field judges). These judges to be known as additional judges. Additional judges to be identified by the association and can be contacted via TYMBA.

(Not for inclusion in the proposal, but additional judges would be people such as long standing bandmasters, contest organisers, known person to TYMBA who have necessary skills and abilities to judge but maybe are not military or ex military)

(Proposed by Paul Wong).

Reason for proposal/Benefit to the Association

To allow contests greater flexibility in selection of judges, to allow them a wider choice within a reasonable distance of the contest and thereby reduce costs to the contests and ultimately to the bands themselves.

• Proposal 2 – Bands competing in TYMBA contests will enter in a single class where each band competes against the total score available.

Each bands score will be converted into a % score of that total. Awards will then be presented against the following:

Up to 65% – bronze

66% to 75% – silver

76% to 85% – gold

86% to 100% – gold with honours

League positions will be calculated using each band’s % score and divided by the number of contests entered giving then a mean average %, bands will then be placed into an order of highest % score down to the lowest % score.

Class annual awards can be given against the bronze, silver and gold bandings. 

Drum mayors will be judged as above and league position calculated in the same way. 

(Proposed by Paul Wong)

Reason for Proposal/Benefit to Association

Due to declining numbers, contests are becoming unviable across all classes. Making it more likely that contests will not run rather than employing a system which promotes the running of the contest despite small numbers.

Bands are also encouraged to work towards improving their own performances against the total score rather than trying to outplay just one or two bands in their own classes. Movement up the system will be much easier to achieve as bands improve their scores as they progress and get batter. 

Bands that join the association can easily compete against all bands and will naturally score against the system, where strong bands join us they will be judged accordingly against the system, likewise weaker bands can compete without fear of being overly judged. Meaning that any new band will fall naturally into their place without the fear of them either being too strong or too weak to compete in whatever class the association places them into.

14. Appointment/election of President and Vice presidents

15. AOB

16. Date and venue of next year’s AGM.

The Chairman may alter the order at his discretion

Our friends at the British Federation of Youth Marching Band Organisations, are holding a Percussion Masterclass with intentional soloist Dame Evelyn Glennie.

The event will take place on Sunday April 15th at The Stables, Milton Keynes from 1pm till 3pm.

Tickets cost £6.50 and are available from www.stables.org.uk

Dame Evelyn is Patron of The British Federation of Youth Marching Band Organisations who are organising this masterclass to support the UK’s marching youth band activity. Tickets are priced at a low level to support bands’ overall costs in attending.

Volunteer performers needed for London 2012 Paralympic Opening and Closing Ceremonies

The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympics Games (LOCOG) has today begun a search for enthusiastic and energetic adult volunteer performers to participate in the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

Jenny Sealey & Bradley Hemmings, Co Artistic -Directors of the Opening Ceremony and Kim Gavin, Artistic Director of the Paralympic Closing Ceremony, are searching for 5,000 volunteer performers to fill roles as dancers, actors, percussionists and general all-round performers.

Successful applicants will perform in front of a packed stadium and a worldwide broadcast audience for this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be part of one of the largest events ever staged in the UK.

Applicants must be able to participate in up to two auditions that will take place on evenings and weekends in February and March, up to two or three rehearsal sessions each week of up to four hours per session from June, and a number of all day rehearsals in the three weeks leading up to each Ceremony. All of these rehearsals will take place in East London.

Jenny Sealey, Co-Artistic Director of the London 2012 Paralympic Opening Ceremony said: ‘As with the Olympic Ceremonies we’re looking for both disabled and non-disabled applicants and previous performance experience is not required; we’re really looking for enthusiasm and commitment. Anyone with a positive attitude, huge amounts of energy and a willingness to perform in front of a stadium audience and to millions of people around the world should get onto the London 2012 website now and sign up.’

Kim Gavin, Artistic Director of the Paralympic Closing Ceremony, said: ‘For the Paralympic Ceremonies we’ll audition around 8,000 people to get our 5,000 volunteer performers. This is a great opportunity to take part in what will be the grand finale of the entire Games.’

People can find more information and register their interest for this opportunity by completing the online application form www.london2012.com/ceremoniescasting.

The deadline for receipt of applications is 13 February 2012 and it is not a first come first served process.

To be eligible applicants must be aged 18 years or older on 1 March 2012. Only one application per person will be accepted and if LOCOG receives over 8,000 applications a computerised draw will be used to randomly create the short list for auditions.

For those who want a chance to see the successful applicants in action there are a limited number of tickets still available for the Paralympic Opening and Closing Ceremonies at www.tickets.london2012.com

Sunday 29^th January (TBC) will see the six winners of the 2011 solos competition battle it out to be crowned Musician of the Year.  The contest should have been held at the National Championships which had to be cancelled.

The competition will now take place before the Annual General Meeting.

Bugle winner – Shereena Hewitt – Alderley

Drum winner – Megan Kelsey – Moreton

Tuned perc winner – Sherry Kingswood – Tonbridge

Woodwind winner – Meera Patel – Thurmaston

Upper brass winner – Natasha Dunn – Moreton

Lower brass winner – Sarah Smith – Moreton

Congratulations to; Harry Kitchen, James Racher, Rachael Stalker, Charlotte Yarwood, Kush Patel, Samual Johnson, Duncan McKay, Alice Nicholl, Victoria Sharp, Oliver Bassett, Jason Bisby, Shereena Hewitt, Megan Kelsey, Sherry Kingswood, Meera Patel, Natasha Dunn and Sarah Smith who all won their catagories in this years TYMBA Solos

See the results here