Old Members

We strive to ensure that our members feel energised and valued as part of the choir. Our Voice Representatives, who are part of the Membership team, act as a liaison between choir members and the committee.

General Members Information

Attendance
We ask Members to sign in each week on the registers. As we live in the real world we recognise that not everyone will always be able to commit themselves to every single concert. However if wishing to sing in a concert we ask that Members endeavour to attend a minimum of two thirds of the rehearsals for that concert. The rehearsal on the day of the concert is compulsory.

Subscriptions
At the beginning of each season all subs are due for current members and friends. The Subs due for the 2022-23 season are unchanged from 2021-22 and full info can be seen in the protocol. At any point during the year, new members will need to pay subs proportionate to the point in the season. Please refer to the Subscriptions Protocol for details of the amounts to pay and the ways and means of paying. If you are a taxpayer then gift aiding significantly increases the benefit of your subscription to the Society. All you need to do is fill in a Gift Aid form and submit it to Treasurer Gill.
Gift Aid Form
HCS Subs Protocol

Concert Dress
In addition to subscriptions members are asked to purchase the necessary items to fit in with our dress code. Ladies normally wear a pair of smart full length black trousers (not jean style or cords or skinny legged) or an ankle length black skirt (ankles being no more than 2 inches above the ground!) with a long sleeved round necked plain black top. When we sing in Ripon Cathedral or a church (in cold weather) additional warmer black layers are allowed. Ladies also wear a choir scarf, red or blue, members own both and the colour for any one concert is announced in plenty of time. For gentlemen concert dress is normally a pair of black trousers with a black shirt or, occasionally, a white shirt. Usually worn with an HCS tie (red or blue to match the ladies), sometimes open-necked. More information will follow in advance of each concert. You will be required to buy both HCS scarves/ HCS ties once you have had a successful voice assessment, they are available from Louise (Alto 1). Also for the Christmas Concert in HIC, gentlemen wear a plain but brightly coloured shirt and ladies wear a shirt style blouse in a plain bright colour ideally with full length sleeves (but 3/4 length sleeves are acceptable).

All choir members also need to have a black choir folder, please purchase one from the librarian team.

Poppies may be worn, should members wish to do so, at any concert in the period from eleven days before, and including Remembrance Day or Remembrance Sunday, whichever comes later, in line with the national custom and practice.

Music Scores Generally

Music for each concert is available to hire to Members for each concert for a reasonable fee. Alternatively you may wish to purchase your own scores. However please note that as we perform Messiah and Christmas Carols every year and we do not offer for hire copies of either Messiah (Watkins Shaw) or 100 Carols for Choirs, although we do have a few copies for potential new members to use prior to their voice assessment. We suggest that potential members wait until you have successfully passed your voice assessment before actually buying. We try to keep a stock of bulk bought scores in stock to save new members some money - please ask to see what we have! They are of course also obtainable through local music shops (The Music House is good) or online. We also currently ask all choir members to buy a copy of "The Greatest Choral Classics" edited by our President Brian Kay, once they have passed their voice assessment. The librarian Team have copies for sale available at all times.

Learning the Music / Scores etc etc

If anyone needs rehearsal files they are often available on Cyberbass. With the latest version of Cyberbass these files should play on any computer, including Apple devices and tablets. But you must observe 2 rules or strange things may happen.
1. Always single click when selecting a section to play, never double click.
2. Before changing to another section, always stop the first section first, by clicking the pause symbol ll.

Alternatively have a look at www.johnfletchermusic.org which also contains many helpful files for helping you to learn various works we are performing. You may need to pay a subscription to use this site.

In addition we have various in house pdfs and midi files for works which we have performed over the years. If you are interested in any of them please ask. If there are midi files relevant to a current work being learned they will either be published here or emailed to you.

The Suggestions Book
The suggestions book is a place for you to let the Committee know which works you would like to perform. For shorter works it would be particularly helpful for suggestions of accompanying works to make a full concert. Every few months (or when there are sufficient entries) the book is reviewed and the Committee's views made public. The results of various reviews are available and at all times please feel free to add requests of your own. Please ensure that all entries are fully completed (with your name and the date as well as composer and suggested work) in order that they can be considered. We also ask that you take into account works already considered and planned as well as those already considered and deemed not suitable (there are lists of all these plus all the works ever performed in the back of the book) and finally please don't suggest works we have performed in the last five seasons.
Here is a list of suggestions from Feb 2011 planned
Here is a list of suggestions from Feb 2011 pending
Here is a list of suggestions from Feb 2011 performed recently
Here is a list of suggestions from Feb 2011 deemed not suitable

and for info here is a list of all the concerts we have ever performed in date order - if you know of any we have missed do let us know!!

Publicity (Radio) Opportunities for HCS Members
Why not contact Classic FM with a music request, as a means of publicising our concerts? Weekdays from 1 - 3 pm they will play music suggested by members of the public so any choir member could help publicise our events by linking it to a music request, it can be done in one of three ways:

email your request via the Requests Form
call 0845 749 1812 during the show
text your request on 61812

Have a go...it's so easy and a great way of promoting our events. Good luck!
BBC Radio 3 will also play listeners requests if you send them a tweet!

Newsletters

HCS Annual General Meeting

The 2022 AGM was held at 7.30 pm on Wednesday 6th July 2022,
The minutes remain in draft until approved at the next AGM

HCS Constitution and Rules

Now that HCS is a CIO (Charitable Incorporated Organisation) we have updated our Constitution and Rules and created various policies to ensure our governance is fit for purpose. Please click on any of the links below to access the relevant document.
HCS Constitution
HCS Rules

HCS Policies

Please click on the files below to access the relevant policy

Child Safeguarding Policy
Code of Conduct, Disciplinary and Complaints Procedures
Contingency Plan
Data Protection
Privacy Statement
Equal Opportunities
Financial Controls Policy
Health & Safety Policy
Records Management Policy
Reserves Policy
Risk Management Policy
Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults Policy

Finally....keeping everything up to date...
It is also important that you make sure that the Choir's Member records have the correct phone number and address so that Members can be contacted if we have to cancel a rehearsal - as we did during the winter because of snow. If you are in any doubt then have a word to check what info is on file.