Bournemouth and Boscombe Light Opera Company Rules
Approved at the AGM on 8 December 2025
The Company will be called the ‘Bournemouth and Boscombe Light Opera Company’ [abbreviated to BBLOC].
The objects of the Company will be:
the study and performance of musical works, theatrical productions and dramatic works.
be recommended by the Committee for approval at the Annual General Meeting or decided unanimously by the Committee in the case of exceptional one-off donations which might occur throughout the year.
The Company will consist of Active and Associate members, aged 18+ and may also include as Life Members persons who have served the Company for 20 consecutive years or more and as Honorary Life Members such other persons as shall have rendered exceptional services to the Company.
The Company will be managed by a committee consisting of 9 members elected in accordance with Rule 17 who will elect a Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer. The President will be an exofficio member of the Committee. No paid officer of the Company may be a Committee member (or official).
The election and expulsion of members other than Life Members will rest solely with the Committee.
Application for Active and Associate membership will be made in writing or online to the Secretary who will submit the same to the Committee for its decision.
Prior to election, all candidates for Active membership will satisfy the Committee as to their musical and/or dancing/acting ability. If at any time thereafter an Active Member’s musical and/or dancing/acting ability will, in the opinion of the Committee, be in doubt, that member may be required to re-audition before re-joining the Company. Similarly, any Active Member not taking part in the performance or supporting the Company in any season without, in the opinion of the Committee, a good and sufficient reason will be required to seek re-election as above.
Membership Subscriptions to the Company for Active and Associate Members will be determined annually at the AGM.
50% of the Annual Subscriptions for new members will become due and to the Treasurer on receipt of notice from the Secretary and all subsequent amounts will be payable by standing order. Subscriptions for existing members are payable by monthly instalments at the current agreed rate.
The financial year of the Company will commence on 1 December and an annual profit and loss account and balance sheet for the previous year will be presented at the AGM.
Members wishing to resign should give notice to the Secretary.
The Committee will have power to suspend any member whose subscription remains unpaid for more than 2 consecutive months.
The Annual General Meeting of the Society will be held in the month of December, when the reports of the Committee and the accounts for the past year will be presented and all general business transacted.
An Extraordinary General Meeting of the Society may be called at any time and will be called within 21 days after the receipt by the Secretary of a requisition in writing to that effect signed by at least 12 active members. Every requisition will specify the business for which the meeting is convened and no other business will be transacted at such meeting.
No business other than the formal adjournment of the meeting will be transacted at any Extraordinary General Meeting unless a quorum is present and such quorum will consist of not less than 15 persons present and entitled to vote.
Unless otherwise provided by the Rules, all resolutions brought forward at an Extraordinary General Meeting will be decided by a bare majority of the votes properly recorded at such meeting and, in the case of an equality of votes, the Chairman will have a second or casting vote.
The Committee (including the officers, except for the President) will retire annually but will be eligible for re-election and need no nomination, except that no non-office holding member may serve on the Committee for more than five consecutive years. However, he or she may be eligible for nomination after a further one year. Nevertheless, this ruling will not prevent such person being co-opted by the Committee should a casual vacancy occur after the Annual General Meeting. Nominations of new candidates should be sent to the Secretary in writing, together with the names of the proposer and seconder and an assurance that the nominee will accept office if elected, not later than 14 days before the Annual General Meeting. If more names are proposed than the number required to fill the vacancies and sufficient names are not withdrawn at or before such meeting, the election will be by ballot. If all the positions are not filled at such meeting or any casual vacancy occur thereafter, the same will be filled by the remaining members of the Committee. The President will retire at the end of 5 years.
A printed or electronic notice of every Annual General Meeting, accompanied by the statement of accounts for the past year and particulars of nominations for the Committee (including the Officers), will be sent to each member at least 14 days prior to the date fixed for such meeting.
The Committee will have power to appoint sub-committees and to delegate to such subcommittees all or any of its powers and will continue to hold office until the conclusion of the Annual General Meeting at which its successors are elected.
The Cast of any production will be selected by the Chairman (or their representative Committee member) and one other representative of the Committee (who is not auditioning for parts) assisted by the Director, the Musical Director, and the Assistant Director or Choreographer. The Secretary will attend such auditions in an administrative capacity only if required. No member may audition for more than two parts, but subsequent to auditions, the Committee representatives have the power to ask any member to audition for any part not then filled. Applications for principal auditions, on the prescribed form, should be made to the Secretary. Competent ‘readers’ will be chosen to read in with members auditioning for a part. Following the auditions, the auditioning panel have the power to ask any member to audition for, or fill, any uncast parts.
The Committee will have the power to revise the cast from time to time, and as soon as practical, if any Active Member to whom a character has been assigned, in its opinion, proves unsuitable for the part,
Active Members will to the best of their ability, play the parts assigned to them, whether principal or chorus, and obey the directions of the production team at all rehearsals and performances, and no member shall raise any objection at a rehearsal to any of the music or business in rehearsal. Any such objections should be made to the Chairman.
All rehearsals for music only will be conducted and controlled by the Musical Director and continued rehearsals of music and production will be controlled by the Director or Choreographer/Assistant Director, who will work with the Musical Director for the good of the Company and the work in production. Once at the theatre, all productions will be under the control of the Production/Stage Manager.
A record of the attendances of Active Members at rehearsals and performances will be kept by the Committee who will have the power to prohibit any members whose attendance at rehearsals shall have been irregular, from taking part in the performance of the work in preparation. Active Members absenting themselves from three rehearsals in any four-week period without good cause may, at the discretion of the Committee, be deemed to have resigned their parts in the work then in rehearsal.
The Committee may, by a unanimous vote, remove from the list of members the name of any Active Member who has persistently neglected the work undertaken by the Company and the name of any member whose conduct they consider likely to endanger the welfare of the Company.
The Committee will select the works to be produced by the Company.
All monies due from members in connection with the production and performances of any work must be accounted for and paid to the Treasurer prior to the start of the show on the stated date. The Committee reserves the right to ask for any member’s payment in advance where a previous late payment is evident without good reason. All monies due and owing to the Company, including the subscriptions of members, will be recoverable at law in the name of the Secretary.
Within two calendar months after the final performance of any work produced by the Company, the Treasurer will prepare, or cause to be prepared, a full statement of receipts and expenses and the same will be open for inspection by the members at such time and place as the Committee will, from time to time decide, and the net proceeds (or an agreed and recommended portion of them) will go to charity.
The first meeting of the Committee will be held within 21 days after the Annual General Meeting. All subsequent meetings of the Committee will be arranged at the end of each meeting or scheduled annually. Six will form a quorum.
The Committee will have the power to decide any questions arising out of these Rules and all other matters connected with the Company (other than those which can only be dealt with by the Company in an Annual General Meeting).
The Company will only be dissolved by the resolution passed by a majority of at least five-sixths of the members present and voting at a Special General Meeting called for the purpose of considering such dissolution. In the event of dissolution, any balance of cash remaining in hand after the realisation of assets and payments of debts will be paid to charity.
No alterations of these Rules will be made except at an Annual General Meeting nor unless 14 days prior to such meeting a written notice of the proposed alterations or of one substantially to the like effect shall have been given to the Secretary, who will give 14 days’ notice thereof to the members, and the resolution embodying such proposed alteration will be carried by a majority of at least two-thirds of the votes recorded at the meeting.
In the interests of the Company and other Societies, all Active Members are required to make the Committee aware if they are taking part in another stage production during the 8-week period prior to the Company’s current production or 4 weeks after that date.
We have a PDF version of the rules below, which can be .
