ROS StageWorks Summer School

ROS StageWorks Summer School Steering Group

This Group manages the Summer School’s affairs and meets regularly through the year. In the autumn the emphasis of the meetings is on learning from the experiences of the previous School. This subsequently changes to preparations for the next School.

The Summer School is a Registered Activity of ROS. Accordingly, each year ROS appoints the Steering Group Chairman and the School’s Artistic Director. The Chairman is then responsible for recruiting other members of the Group, although the Finance Manager must be approved by ROS.

There is an ‘ROS StageWorks Summer School’ item on the agenda of each ROS Committee meeting, allowing for key issues to be drawn to the Committee’s attention. Additionally, at least twice a year, the Steering Group Chairman attends the ROS Committee meeting and gives a full progress report.

The current membership of the Steering Group, with their portfolios, is:

Chairman - Malcolm Unwin
Artistic Director – Ann Hertler-Smith
Administration – Gordon Beck
Chaperones Manager – Dawn Perry
Operations Manager – Jackie Lack
Finance Manager – Peter Cloot
Secretary - Eric Martin

Malcolm Unwin is the Vice President of ROS. As well as chairing the Steering Group, he holds the Marketing portfolio.

The contents of each portfolio are tailored to the individuals’ areas of expertise.

Ann Hertler-Smith, Artistic Director
Annie leads both the Performance Team – those who work directly with the students during the School (including wardrobe, props and make-up) – and the Technical Team – the people who build the set, work backstage and provide lighting and sound.

Annie also has responsibility for selecting the show for each year’s School and for deciding how it will be staged, how it will be cast and the size of the gender/age groupings of students, so as to provide a well-balanced School.

Gordon Beck, Administration
Gordon acts as our liaison with the School venues, deals with all the pre-School student communication, oversees the Box Office and, during the School, is available to work with the Operations Manager to ensure smooth running. He is also a member of the Ruislip Lions, one of the School’s key sponsors, and he decides the allocation of generous Lions bursaries to students.

Dawn Perry, Chaperones Manager
Dawn is responsible for recruiting chaperones, helping with their CRB disclosure applications, briefing them, and drawing up the chaperone rota for the duration of the School. The adults who act as chaperones also help with other activities, and Dawn liaises with Gordon Beck and Jackie Lack to ensure that all tasks are adequately staffed.

Jackie Lack, Operations Manager
During the School it is essential that the students and Performance Team staff are able to concentrate on their activities without disturbance or disruption. Jackie ensures that all issues arising during the week are managed with the minimum impact on rehearsal activity.

Within the Steering Group Jackie takes responsibility for a range of activities, such as the Risk Analysis for the School, the organisation of T-shirts, jazz shoes and name badges for students, the foyer display and the Front of House team on performance day.

Peter Cloot, Financial Manager
Peter prepares the School’s budget and tracks our income and expenditure, providing an up to date report at each Group meeting. He also prepares the School’s accounts for examination. Additionally Peter has applied himself to obtaining grants for the School, with considerable success.

Malcolm Unwin, Chairman & Marketing
The Marketing brief is extensive. It covers the design and printing of the advertising leaflets for the School and the placement of suitable advertisements in the press and on websites, to invite applications and sell tickets for the end of School performances. The brief also includes the design of student T-shirts, production of the programme and attracting sponsors for both.

Eric Martin, Secretary
As well as preparing the agendas and the minutes of Steering Group meetings, Eric carries out many other tasks to support the Group and the School.