Bournemouth and Boscombe Light Opera Company Rules 2019
Approved at the AGM on 30 September 2019
The Company shall be called the ‘Bournemouth and Boscombe Light Opera Company’ [abbreviated to BBLOC].
The objects of the Company shall be:
the study and performance of musical works, theatrical productions and dramatic works;
the raising and/or collecting of funds for charitable purposes; such charities and donations to be recommended by the Committee for approval at the Annual General Meeting or decided unanimously by the Committee in the case of exceptional one-off donations which might occur throughout the year.
The Company shall consist of Active and Associate members, aged 16+ (with Year 11 completed) and may also include as Life Members persons who have served the Company for 20 years or more and as Honorary Life Members such other persons as shall have rendered special services to the Company.
The Company shall be managed by a Committee consisting of 9 members elected in accordance with Rule 19 who shall elect a Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer. The President shall be an ex-officio member of the Committee. No paid officer of the Company may be a Committee member (or official).
The election and expulsion of members other than life members shall rest solely with the Committee.
Application for active and associate membership shall be made in writing or by email to the Secretary who shall submit the same to the Committee for its decision.
Prior to election all candidates for active membership shall satisfy the Committee as to their musical and/or dancing/acting ability. If at any time thereafter an active member’s musical and/or dancing/acting ability shall in the opinion of the Committee be in doubt, that member may be required to re-audition before re-joining the Company. Similarly, any active member not taking part in the performance of any season without, in the opinion of the Committee, a good and sufficient reason shall be required to seek re-election as above.
The voting on applications for membership shall be taken either by ballot or otherwise as the meeting considering such application may decide but no candidate shall be elected an active member of the Company unless he or she shall receive in his or her favour the votes of at least two thirds of the members of the Committee personally present at the meeting called to consider such applications.
Membership Subscriptions to the Company for Active and Associate Members shall be determined annually at the AGM. Active and Associate Members’ Subscriptions shall be deemed as a part donation towards yearly running costs and part as a membership fee to the company.
First Annual Subscriptions for new members shall become due and paid in full to the Treasurer on receipt of notice of election from the Secretary and all subsequent Annual Subscriptions shall become due on 1 September in each year and shall be paid to the Treasurer no later than 31 October in that year. Subscriptions for existing members are payable annually or by instalments, with the agreement of the Chairman.
The financial year of the Company shall commence on 1 September and an annual profit and loss account and balance sheet for the previous year shall be presented at the AGM.
The Committee shall have the power to remit such portion of the subscription as they think right in the case of members elected after 1 January or members leaving the neighbourhood or for any other good reason.
Members wishing to resign shall give notice to the Secretary.
The Committee shall have power by ordinary resolution to suspend any member whose subscription remains unpaid after 31 October in each year, except those paying by instalments (see Rule 10) from exercising all or any of the privileges of membership until his or her subscription is paid or at their discretion terminate the membership of such person and erase his or her name from the register of members.
The Annual General Meeting of the Society shall be held in the month of September when the reports of the Committee and the accounts for the past year, shall be presented and all general business transacted.
An Extraordinary General Meeting of the Society may be called at any time and shall be called within 21 days after the receipt by the Secretary of a requisition in writing to that effect signed by at least 12 active members. Every requisition shall specify the business for which the meeting to be convened and no other business shall be transacted at such meeting.
No business other than the formal adjournment of the meeting shall be transacted at any General Meeting unless a quorum is present and such quorum shall consist of not less than 15 persons present and entitled to vote.
Unless otherwise provided by the Rules, all resolutions brought forward at a General Meeting shall be decided by a bare majority of the votes properly recorded at such meeting, and in the case of an equality of votes the Chairman shall have a second or casting vote.
The Committee (including the officers, with the exception of the President) and the Auditors shall retire annually but shall be eligible for re-election and need no nomination, except that no non-office holding member may serve on the Committee for more than three consecutive years. However, he or she may be eligible for nomination after a further one year. Nevertheless, this ruling shall not prevent such person being co-opted by the Committee should a casual vacancy occur after the Annual General Meeting. Nominations of new candidates shall be sent to the Secretary in writing, together with the names of the proposer and seconder and an assurance that the nominee will accept office if elected, not later than 21 days before the Annual General Meeting. If more names are proposed than the number required to fill the vacancies and sufficient names are not withdrawn at or before such meeting, the election shall be by ballot. If all the aforementioned positions shall not be filled at such meeting or any casual vacancy shall thereafter occur, the same shall be filled by the remaining members of the Committee. The President shall retire at the end of 5 years.
A printed or electronic notice of every Annual General Meeting, accompanied by the statement of accounts for the past year and particulars of nominations for the Committee (including the Officers), and of any proposal to elect a life member, shall be sent to each member at least 14 days prior to the date fixed for such meeting.
The Committee shall have power to appoint sub-committees and to delegate to such sub-committees all or any of its powers and shall continue to hold office until the conclusion of the Annual General Meeting at which its successors are elected.
The Cast of any production shall be selected by the Chairman (or their representative Committee member) and one other representative of the Committee (who is not auditioning for parts) assisted by the Director, the Musical Director, and the Assistant Director or Choreographer. The Secretary shall attend such auditions in an administrative capacity only if required. No member may enter for more than two parts for audition but subsequent to auditions, the Committee representatives have power to ask any member to audition for any part not then filled. Applications in writing (on the prescribed form) for principal auditions shall be made to the Secretary. Competent ‘readers’ shall be chosen to read in with members auditioning for a part.
The Committee shall have power to revise the cast from time to time, if any active member to whom a character has been assigned shall, in its opinion, prove unsuitable for the part, as soon as practical.
Active members shall to the best of their ability, play the parts assigned to them, whether principal or chorus, and obey the directions of the production team at all rehearsals and performances, and no member shall raise any objection at a rehearsal to any of the music or business in rehearsal. Any such objections shall be made to the Chairman.
All rehearsals for music only shall be conducted and controlled by the Musical Director and continued rehearsals of music and production shall be controlled by the Director or Assistant Director who shall work with the Musical Director for the good of the Society and the work in the production. Once at the theatre, all productions shall be under the control of the Stage Manager/Deputy Stage Manager.
A record of the attendances of active members at rehearsals and performances shall be kept by the Secretary and the Committee shall have power to prohibit any members whose attendance at rehearsals shall have been irregular, from taking part in the performance of the work in presentation. Active members absenting themselves from three rehearsals in any four-week period without good cause may at the discretion of the Committee by deemed to have resigned their parts in the work then in rehearsal.
If at any time the number of members rehearsing a production exceeds the number of voices required for the presentation of the same, preference shall be given to members (in the part in which there are too many voices) who have rendered themselves most efficient in the opinion of the Committee, by the regularity of their attendance, by their musical ability or by such other matters as the Committee in their absolute discretion shall think fit.
The Committee may by a unanimous vote remove from the list of members the name of any active member who has persistently neglected the work undertaken by the Company and the name of any member whose conduct they consider likely to endanger the welfare of the Company.
The Committee shall select the works to be produced by the Company.
All monies due from members in connection with the production and performances of any work shall be accounted for and paid to the Treasurer prior to the start of the show.
Within two calendar months after the final performance of any work produced by the Company, the Treasurer shall prepare or cause to be prepared, a full statement of receipts and expenses of each production and the same shall be open for inspection by the members at such time and place as the Committee shall from time to time decide, and the net proceeds (or an agreed and recommended portion of them) shall go to charity.
All monies due and owing to the Company, including the subscriptions of members, shall be recoverable at law in the name of the Secretary.
The first meeting of the Committee shall be called by the Secretary and shall be held within 21 days after the Annual General Meeting. All subsequent meetings of the committee shall be called by the Secretary in accordance with any resolution to that effect passed by the Committee, and failing any such resolution at the discretion of the Chairman and the Secretary. Six shall form a quorum.
The Committee shall have power to decide any questions arising out of these Rules and all other matters connected with the Company (other than those which can only be dealt with by the Company in General Meeting) and make, maintain and publish all necessary orders, regulations and bye-laws in connection therewith.
The Company shall only be dissolved by the resolution passed by a majority of at least five-sixths of the members present and voting at a Special General Meeting called for the purpose of considering such dissolution. In the event of dissolution, any balance of cash remaining in hand after the realisation of assets and payments of debts shall be paid to charity.
No alterations of these Rules shall be made except at a General Meeting nor unless 21 days prior to such meeting a written notice of the proposed alterations or of one substantially to the like effect shall have been given to the Secretary, who shall give 14 days’ notice thereof to the members, and the resolution embodying such proposed alteration shall be carried by a majority of at least two-thirds of the votes recorded thereon at the meeting.
In the interests of the Company and other Societies all Active Members are required to make the Committee aware if they are taking part in another stage production during the 8-week period prior to the Company’s current production or 4 weeks after that date.
In order to regulate and maintain the numerical strength and musical/dancing/acting balance of the Company and at the same time offer opportunity for the entry of new active members, the Committee shall review the Company Membership annually. If in the opinion of not less than two-thirds of the full Committee it is considered that action is desirable, a member may be invited to re-audition for fully active membership or become an Associate Member – such membership to include participation in Concerts or other musical works and social activities (and by invitation – where appropriate – to participate in a selected role or capacity in any stage production).
We have a PDF version of the rules below, which can be
.
