SFEMS will hold its Annual Members’ Meeting on Sunday, September 15, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., at The Musical Offering, 2430 Bancroft Way in Berkeley. All SFEMS members are cordially invited to attend. The annual meeting is an opportunity for us to celebrate and reflect on the past season. It also is your chance to meet the Board, share your ideas for the future, and most important, nominate new Directors for the coming year. We especially encourage our members to consider joining the Board.
Please come early for refreshments, provided by the Board, as well as a chance to socialize with Board members and early music friends. One of our newer affiliates, Nash Baroque, will provide music. Unlike previous years, the Members Meeting will NOT be followed by the year’s first Board Meeting; that meeting is tentatively scheduled for the following night.
A special pleasure of this year’s gathering will be honoring Robert Cole, as he steps off the Board and retires from his decades-long service on behalf of SFEMS and early music in the Bay Area. Robert’s contributions to our community have been legion. He founded and was Executive & Artistic Director of the Berkeley Festival (through Cal Performances) from 1990 through 2009 and resumed the directorship from 2013–2018, after SFEMS took over curation of the Festival. He joined the SFEMS Board in 2013 and served as President of the Society from 2014–17, also serving for a time as Board Treasurer.
As you know, the Member’s Meeting is one of the most important meetings of the year. We will nominate and elect new SFEMS board members, and the Board Meeting that immediately follows will elect this year’s Officers. Highlights of the Members’ Meeting will be President Joyce Johnson Hamilton’s annual report, a report on our Affiliates program, nomination and election of new Directors, and an open forum for members’ questions and suggestions.
Please attend if you can. Or if you cannot, please consider inviting or encouraging those who share the goals of SFEMS and can help us to realize those goals. If you have any questions about this process or, if you or someone you know would like to serve on the SFEMS Board, please contact Joyce Hamilton <[email protected]>
Looking to the future, we need your input and participation more than ever, to sustain and extend the Society’s mission during these challenging times. All are welcome. Help shape the future of SFEMS.