Governance and finance

The majority of our member groups are run by a committee - a group of enthusiastic people who care about their group, want to see it thrive and are willing to take responsibility for making that happen. As well as enthusiasm, a committee position requires good organisational skills, a willingness to give up some spare time and the ability to co-operate with others. And like most things in life, being on a committee will very often give you a sense of achievement and fulfilment – but it can also be tedious and frustrating, especially when things are not going right.

The position of Treasurer in an amateur music group is an important one – they are the person who receives money and makes payment on behalf of the group, and keeps an eye on the bank balance to make sure that the group remains solvent.

This guidance describes the current situation with regard to Gift Aid and the voluntary music sector. Please note that Gift Aid is available to UK recognised charities, regardless of whether or not they are also registered charities.

This handbook will help you manage your charity and answers the most common questions about your responsibility as a committee member (trustee) of a charity.

Orchestra Tax Relief (OTR) is the latest in a line of state aid tax reliefs for the creative industries. OTR incentivises the production of orchestral concerts – and amateur orchestras are specifically referenced in the legislation.

We have extensively researched OTR and believe that it has the potential to be hugely beneficial to instrumental amateur music groups across the UK:

Demonstrating that music-making has an impact seems to be a much talked-about topic these days. Whether that’s to do with increasing audience size,  attracting new members to your group, having a greater profile in the community or undertaking outreach activities, it can feel as if producing numbers and evidence to show impact is a growing (and possibly unwelcome) additional demand on a leisure-time music group’s time. Indeed, if you have secured some funding, reporting on impact is often a standard requirement.

From May 2018 the new General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) will be in place, replacing the current Data Protection Act. The new regulations will apply to all types of organisations – including small charities and leisure time music groups. This toolkit brings together guidance, tools and resources for groups to use to prepare for the changes.

GDPR: What you need to know

An overview of GDPR - the background, what is changing, what you need to do to prepare and why Brexit won't change the outcome.

Our Charity Registration Service is designed to make the process of registering as a charity as simple as possible. Find out how we can help you.

Running a leisure-time music group can be time-consuming. With so many things to do, sometimes you can get bogged down in the small details and immediate issues and forget to look at the bigger picture. Creating a strategic plan will not only help you to do this but will also provide a framework for dealing with those day-to-day details, helping you to run your group smoothly and efficiently.

What are the key elements of a strategic plan?

What is succession planning?

It is the process of preparing for someone to take over a role from another person, in order to make the transition as smooth as possible, as well as having a plan for emergency cover should any role suddenly become vacant or temporarily lapsed. There are three key aspects to succession planning: