CENTRAL COAST CONSERVATORIUM INCORPORATED
PRESIDENT’S REPORT TO THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
SEPTEMBER 2008

As I write this report, I wonder who will read it.  The Central Coast Conservatorium Incorporated is a community organisation.  Its membership comprises its students enrolled for one-to-one tuition or their parent/guardian if the students are under 18 years old, and the members of its Committee of Management.  In theory, that is well in excess of 400 people but I will be surprised if anybody other than the Committee members will exercise their right to attend and vote at the Annual General Meeting.  

Why is this?  Is it because our members don’t know they are entitled to have a say in the running of the Conservatorium?  Is it because they think that they cannot make any difference?  Is it simple apathy, or a case of being too busy?  I would prefer to think that it is because they are totally happy with the way we are running things but I have trouble convincing myself.  Would they be more involved if the Conservatorium were in crisis?  

How important to us is the music education of our children?  What value do we and the wider community put on it?  If we were talking about sport, we would have no trouble arguing the case.  Everybody knows that sport is good for us, essential in the healthy development of our children, and valuable to the community.  But music?!
 
Yet we watch with fascination the performances in shows like “Australian Idol”, “Operatunity”, “It takes two” and “Battle of the Choirs”, in concerts by the Australian Youth Orchestra and in the Young Performers’ Awards and other similar competitions.  We see the wild enthusiasm and sheer joy of children in the brilliant annual “Schools Spectacular”, in the Rock Eisteddfod ®, in our own local Eisteddfod, the Gang Show, the Central Coast Children’s Choir and Youth in the Performing Arts productions, among others.  Television brings us the spectacles of Olympic Opening and Closing ceremonies - great visual experiences indeed, but try watching them with the sound muted and you will realise how much they depend on music.  The same goes for the role of background music in TV productions and films.

I’m sure you get my drift.  Music is actually more pervasive in our lives than sport; we are just less aware of it.  Everyday we can see evidence that the music industry is growing and our young people are very much a part of it.

With few exceptions, any music performer has had to have had at least some basic training with their voice or instrument.  That’s what your Conservatorium does, for infant children through to retirees, and our students appear in all sorts of Central Coast performances, in all types of music, from rock to opera, bands to orchestras.  This contribution in the community is a significant one.  

Also, today, it is widely accepted that music education contributes to the social and cognitive development of children and some researchers would argue that music is “fundamental” to their early development.  Research has shown that children having access to quality music programs do better than other children in English and mathematics (C.Johnson, J.M.E.R. June 2007) and playing music boosts literacy skills (Douglas and Willets 1994), concentration, memory and reasoning capacity.  You can be proud of the quality of the music programs that your Conservatorium delivers and proud of the character development and achievements of its students.

Now let’s talk about funding.  Who pays for your Conservatorium?  You do.  This past year, tuition fees covered 82.9% of our costs (excluding abnormal items).  Grants from the Department of Education and Training covered 14.8% and Other Income earned by the Conservatorium, the rest.  We actually generated a Surplus of $11,980 but abnormal expenses produced a Net Deficit of $23,221 which was met from our reserves.  

Our Balance Sheet (Statement of Financial Position) is strong; it shows that at 30 June 2008 we held $355,062 in reserves.  This is the Members’ Equity - your equity - in the Conservatorium.  This has been accumulated as a result of sound management practices, unplanned income, and unused provisions for expense escalations and asset acquisitions.  It might seem like a lot of money but it is retained for the demands that we know will arise in the near future, the largest of which will probably be for accommodation.

We are grateful to the University of Newcastle for providing our home in the Old Court House and Police Station in Gosford.  The University holds these premises in trust for the Department of Lands and as trustee, maintains them for us.  We acknowledge gratefully also the contribution by Gosford City Council of the use of the Cottage and the grounds and parking area to the east of the main building.  Our premises really are inadequate to support the Conservatorium’s programmes but they save us high rent costs.

We know we can expect in the future to have to pay rent and hiring costs for new premises and performance spaces.  We are lobbying for a new Conservatorium to be incorporated alongside a Concert Hall and other performance facilities in a Performing Arts Precinct at or near the Gosford waterfront.  Progress towards this goal is slow but when it is achieved, we can expect that such facilities will have a high on-going cost.  In the interim, we will need to find temporary premises which probably will not be available without cost.  Our current reserves are unlikely to be adequate for these and other purposes so they need to be boosted further.

A challenge is to increase our growth.   Total Revenue grew by only 7.3% this past year, compared to 16.5% for 2006/2007.  Good management contained cost growth.  Tuition costs increased by 6.3% but overheads and operating expenses by only 1.3%, holding total cost growth to 4.9%, compared to 13.7% for 2006/2007.  The year 2008/2009 must see an effective Marketing Plan put in place to generate cost-effective growth within our tight real estate constraints.

We need to engage the community more intensively and be able to garner support from all sections of it.  We are most grateful to our current sponsors and donors but given our value to the community, I feel that the community could do more.  Donations, and support of our dozens of performance events each year, are the most valuable forms of help but possibly the use of skilled and unskilled volunteers could reduce costs (although it’s not a straightforward process and would require close supervision).  

I acknowledge the skills, professionalism, enthusiasm and commitment of our Director Christopher Bearman, Business Manager Frank Cubirka, Operations Manager Phyllis Gibson and the office staff.  They have done an excellent job in difficult times and have had to handle many challenges over this past year, and I thank them profusely.  I especially thank Chris Bearman for his leadership; we are fortunate to have as Director a person so highly qualified and with international experience.   

Likewise, I cannot speak too highly of the professionalism and commitment of the Tutors whom we engage to teach with us.  They deliver quality with enthusiasm.

I thank my colleagues on the Management Committee for their commitment and support.  The Conservatorium is indeed fortunate to have people of such calibre who are prepared to give up their time for our cause.




John D Pinn
President