FRIDAY, 12th JUNE 2020
WITH REGRET WE WISH TO INFORM THAT ALL
FURTHER EVENTS IN 2020 ARE POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE
Dear Colleagues,
Because of the current social-distancing regulations, your Committee has been unable to meet formally. We have been discussing matters between ourselves by e-mail and have reluctantly come to the conclusion that it is necessary to postpone the remainder of the 2020 programme.
The principal difficulty is that our venue has a maximum seating capacity of 138 people. Martin Vander Weyer, Chair of The Arts Centre in Helmsley, has recently written that under current social-distancing regulations the maximum capacity of its theatre is 20%, not even 28 people. Even if the current regulations were to be relaxed later this year to a one-metre distance, the theatre could seat no more than 56 people. That is obviously inadequate for our membership, currently 116 people, and any guests or visitors.
Our excellent Programme Secretary, Jo Pitt, has been liaising with all of the proposed speakers from April 2020 onwards and has agreed with them that their lectures will be carried forward into 2021, not necessarily in the same month because some of them have other commitments in the coming year. We will send out a programme for 2021 in the autumn.
We propose that our Society should change its financial year-end to 31 December to bring it in line with the membership year; and to postpone the Annual General Meeting from November 2020 to March 2021. These proposed changes will require the approval of the members and the Society will consult you about them as soon as practicable, having regard to its Constitution and Charity law.
The members of the Committee are conscious that, due to Covid - 19, the Society has not delivered to you the promised programme for 2020. We plan to meet in the autumn of this year to consider the budget for 2021 and to decide on the membership fee for 2021, always subject to our duties as a registered charity.
I regret being the bearer of these bad tidings and hope for your understanding of the necessity of the action taken. I will arrange for this news to be published on our website, www.theartssocietyhelmsley.org, shortly.
Kind Regards,
Jack Leonard, Chairman