Georgia Straight Jazz Society
December 3, 2009

President’s Report to the
Fourth Annual General Meeting

There’s a joke I’ve heard several times during the last year about the difference between Blues and Jazz music: Blues is three chords played in front of thousands of people whereas jazz is thousands of chords played in front of three people. Well, the good news is that where Georgia Straight Jazz Society is concerned, it’s not true! Jazz is played here in front of dozens of people, and the number keeps increasing.

The past few months have been marked with significant change. Since the last AGM on May 21st 2009, the Society has increased both its membership (currently sitting at about 110 – and the majority of those are renewed memberships) and attendance at Thursday Night at the Elks’. Over the past three weeks, our average Thursday attendance stands at 101, and for the 2009/2010 season so far our average is 70.  I believe it’s possible to further stimulate these numbers; if we can raise our membership to a target of 150-200 and draw on a pool of about 300 people who occasionally attend Thursday performances, we should be able to look forward to a “regular” audience of about 100. This would maximize our use of the Elks’ facility, and provide our performers with a valuable opportunity to play before a sizable appreciative audience. An important bi-product of this will be the sustainable and substantial income stream for both our performers and the Society. My request to all members is: go out and share the good news about the way Thursday Night Jazz at the Elks’ has taken off, and encourage a friend to come down one evening just to get the flavor. Our challenge is to motivate people to attend; once they’ve experienced it, most will keep coming back for more.

Our Sunday Night Concerts have resulted in two outstanding evenings so far this season: The Brandi Disterheft Quartet and The Bill Coon Trio have provided us with two wonderfully diverse interpretations of “jazz” and we have been really fortunate in being able to attract such high calibre artists to our community. I have to thank Dale and Rob for their hard work in bringing these events to reality and I look forward to our future professional performances in 2010. One point we learned very clearly from the show of hands at the Brandi Disterheft evening was our audience’s partiality for Sunday rather than Saturday performances. Mine was one of the few hands that went up for “Saturday”, but I acknowledge the overwhelming preference for Sunday, and propose that we leave things in the hands of the majority. Another thing I’ve learned is that as bad as advance ticket sales may be, the vast majority are sold at the door, on the night. The Bill Coon Trio played on a night when the weather was atrocious – and still eighty or so people turned up without tickets.

The Society has benefitted from a positive response to our request for volunteers. As emcee, I had asked people to consider what they could do for their society rather than vice versa; about a dozen individuals responded and have become involved in our regular activities, meaning that the workload is now spread around rather than dependant on the same few people. On behalf of the Society I would like to personally thank those people for “coming to the rescue” and sharing the load; your participation makes the Society’s activities less onerous and you have added a sense of “team spirit” – a quality that improves any organization and further contributes to its growth. Behind the scenes, I would like to recognize Gale Embury’s work as our volunteer coordinator, and Valerie Taylor as our bookkeeper; Val has spent considerable time assisting our Treasurer, Jackie Holt, in organizing our financial statements to a fine point of clarity and ease-of-use. In this regard I would also like to recognize Jackie’s diligence – not only with her work in organizing our financial statements, but also in her design and organization of our money-collecting forms such that we can quickly and accurately document our financial activities on-the-night, with the help of mentored volunteers. Also in the background, I have to recognize Mary Lynn DesRoches for her generous contribution to the Society: she has made her B&B accommodation in Cumberland available to our Sunday night performers – a valuable incentive when attracting out-of-town musicians.

In addition to the thanks I’ve offered already, I should mention other individuals. At the Board level, Dale Graham, as the Society Secretary, does a remarkable job of gathering the ramblings of the Directors and turning them into clear, decisive and action-oriented minutes. Rick Husband maintains our web page and handles the tireless task of keeping it, and our membership list current, as well as continuing to help with set-up for most of our performances. Rick and Dale have also worked on the revisions to the Society’s constitution. And Rob Peterson – well, what can you say about a guy that can dream up more creative ideas in a week than most people do in half a lifetime? Rob has maintained a close contact with the Georgia Straight Big Band, while involving himself in the Society’s business. He has been a valuable link in this regard, as well as organizing value-added ideas to the Sunday performances in the form of workshops and classes for serious local musicians. As a sign of our growth and change Rob resigned from the Board in September: his focus and is now predominantly with the Georgia Straight Big Band. On behalf of the Society, a special thank you Rob for what you have brought to the GSJS during its first three years. Which gets me to the topic of the Band: It has separated from the Society and now exists in its own right – the GS Big Band. The Band and the Society will remain good friends but they are now completely separate entities. To this end, we have adopted a Memorandum of Understanding which outlines the common interests we share; the ways in which the Society continues to support the Band and encourage individual paid up Band members to participate in the Society’s events, based on their entitlement to free membership in GSJS. As an indication of the good relations we share, the Society has made a $1,000 donation to the GS Big Band for the purchase of additional charts.

Other volunteers who deserve recognition include Tim McCarroll who has become a stalwart equipment handler; Dorinda Marquardt, George and Bonnie Lutterbach, Judy Croome, and Debby and Peter Horsley for their reliable money handling and counting; Andy Merrick for his emcee work; Norm Walker for his sound work most Thursdays, and Dean, who is our constant and reliable greeter and money collector. And last but not least, Art Jackson, who has a charming and intimidating way of persuading members of our audience to dig a little deeper into their pockets! Sharing these weekly tasks means we can each enjoy an occasional evening where we are simply members of the audience, with no official responsibility. I should also include thanks to Karen for her stalwart duties at the bar, without whom we would all get very thirsty. Karen feels like she’s part of the Society since she’s such a Thursday evening constant.

We miss Dave and Charlotte Harvey. Since they departed for Saudi Arabia we have experienced the absence of a practical link into the local school district. But we are fortunate in having Greg Bush, music director with the Big Band and professor at VIU, to step into the breach: Greg will be meeting with music program directors in our local high schools and encouraging strong connections between those students who display budding musical talent with the potential to play in GSBB as well as those who are sufficiently interested in jazz to attend our Thursday Night at the Elks’ performances. The Society has a student membership rate, and it would be good for all of us to get the word out to young people – especially senior high school students – that there is a lively jazz scene that won’t cost them any money.

Two things I would like to encourage are, firstly, a social event where we can better get to know each other. I see this as a gathering where jazz will play in the background, but we bring ourselves to the fore. Secondly (and this is an idea suggested by Jackie) we should consider the best way of organizing a “History of Jazz” program – perhaps a three part series where we can learn about the evolution of jazz throughout the last 110 years. We have a fair range of that history covered in our repertoire of  local performers - from the Cure All Dance Band, through the GS Big Band, to several modern jazz combos, and these could be supplemented with selected recorded music and You Tube videos. Please think about these ideas and let me know what you think.

In conclusion, I’m happy to report that the Society is in really good shape. With a modest, yet steady income stream to cover our costs and donations to the community in support of local jazz, rising attendance and an expressed desire by many of our performers to play return gigs, the coming year looks really bright. I want to also repeat my personal note of thanks to the volunteers have contributed to the Society, and for your membership and continued support. If you are not yet volunteering, ask yourself whether you can offer anything in return for the hundreds of hours of pleasure the Society brings to you personally?

If the answer is yes, consider get involved.

Malcolm Holt
President
Georgia Straight Jazz Society