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Minutes from the SMIA AGM held at 5pm on

Tuesday 19th February 2013 at The Universal

Directors Present:

Stewart Henderson (S. Henderson), Tam Coyle (TC), Jamie Gilmour (JG), Caroline Gorman (CG), Dougal Perman (DP), Greg Kane (GK), Stephen Hume (S. Hume), Douglas MacIntyre (DM) and Ally Gray (AG)

Issues for Member Feedback

Proposed amendments to the Memorandum and Articles of Association to be signed off by members

Members can now nominate themselves to be considered for the newly-formed advisory group (email: caroline@smia.org.uk)

Members are requested to complete the research questionnaire which is now on the SMIA website

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1. Apologies

Richard Chater (RC), Caroline Winn (CW)

2. Review of past twelve months

S. Henderson stated that he succeeded TC as chairman in April 2012 with DP taking up the role of vice-chair. TC remained on the board after stepping down as chair.

Cathie Rae resigned from the board in July 2012.

In June 2012, the SMIA inaugurated the Scottish Album of the Year (SAY) Award with a ceremony at Film City Glasgow. The first winners of the award were Bill Wells and Aidan Moffat with their album ‘Everything’s Getting Older’.

The SMIA hosted several other events throughout the year including the Music Hack event which took place in Edinburgh in August and the Independent Record Fairs which took place in August and December in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

The SMIA also invited Scottish music managers along to an industry sector meet-up in November. This was hopefully the first of many sector meet ups which will continue with various sectors of the industry through 2013.

In 2012 the organisation relocated from The Scottish Music Centre in Candleriggs to our own office in Broad Street, Bridgeton. This has proved to be a beneficial move as we have secured part of the finance for this year’s SAY Award from east end urban regeneration agency Clyde Gateway.

3. Members / Finances

Financial Year End 31st March 2012 - operating surplus of £1,434.15, which was rolled over to current financial year.

Overheads are within budget for the current financial year.

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For the first three quarters of the current financial year (i.e. April to December), we have made an operating surplus of £3,719.58. These figures include £3,003.20 in membership income and £14,636.81 in Core Funding from Creative Scotland. No further core funding is expected this financial year, so the year end surplus will be lower than this.

In terms of members, our paid membership has increased from 27 at the time of the last year’s AGM to 87.

Bank balance is healthy, but this is mainly due to sponsorship income received for the coming SAY Award.

4. Board Appointments & Resignations

S. Henderson stated that the board had been debating how best to structure the SMIA to ensure maximum productivity and transparency.

A new structure was proposed to members. The new structure consists of a leaner board of five directors (S. Henderson, DP, TC, AG and GK) and an advisory group that members can nominate themselves to join. Proposed amendments to the Memorandum and Articles of Association will be distributed to members in due course.

S. Henderson emphasised that the current board see the new set up as being a more open and efficient structure for the SMIA.

The following directors tendered their resignation – Stephen Hume, Jamie Gilmour, Caroline Gorman, Douglas MacIntyre, Richard Chater and Caroline Winn.

In terms of staffing the SMIA will continue to employ Caroline Cooper and may seek project staff / volunteers.

5. Stuart Thomas’ Return to CS / SXSW

S. Henderson said that Stuart Thomas’ (ST) secondment to the SMIA from Creative Scotland (CS) ended on the 31st of December 2012 and thanked Stuart for his contribution and hard work over the year.

The board took the strategic decision to allow the delivery of the SXSW provision to return to CS at the end of ST’s secondment. It is felt that the SMIA’s focus should firmly be on business development; allowing CS to handle artistic development. The SMIA will work at creating a stronger, more efficient relationship between Creative Scotland (CS) and Scottish Development International (SDI).

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6. Proposed Changes to Memo & Articles Of Association

The Memorandum and Articles of Association will be amended to reflect the SMIA’s new structure as discussed in agenda point 5. Any proposed amendments will be distributed to members for approval.

7. Priorities Moving Forward

DP stated that the organisation’s priorities moving forward are to continue to build on the current membership, to strengthen our relationship with existing members, to facilitate communication via sector get-togethers and other events, to encourage business growth through education and the strengthening of relationships with other industry organisations and to celebrate Scotland’s musical output through the SAY Award.

S. Henderson stated that the SMIA is well on the road to achieving financial self-sufficiency.

8. Questions from Members

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Q. At what point in the process of changing the organisational structure will members be consulted? – Anny Deery (Inner Ear)

A: DP said that members could input any time, not least at this evening’s AGM. Before any changes can be implemented the amendments to the Memorandum and Articles of Association will be circulated to and passed off by the membership.

Q. How did the board decide who would step down to form the advisory group and how can members feed in to more of the SMIA’s activities? - Sheena MacDonald (Musician’s Union)

A: DP stated that most of the retiring directors chose to step down as a matter of practicality. These directors will form the core of the new advisory group which will be assessed to identify any skills gaps which can then be filled.

Q. Could the SMIA be viewed as being too business focused and thus alienate artists? - Andy Haldane

A: DP reiterated that the SMIA’s primary focus is business development rather than artistic development. However, it may be worthwhile considering an entry level membership tier for artists.

S. Henderson said that although artists are more than welcome to become members of the association, business development would always be the primary focus of the SMIA.

9. AOB

S. Henderson introduced Matt Brennan (MB) and Adam Behr (AB) of Edinburgh University.

MB explained that AB and himself are undertaking a research project on how small Scottish companies can expand their business internationally. The research carried out will form the basis of a report that will in turn inform the government’s growth sector report.

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MB and AB will conduct interviews with some SMIA members and all members are requested to complete a questionnaire which will appear on the SMIA website.

The meeting ended at 6:15pm

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