On Monday September 23rd the chairs of the Niagara, East Ontario and Toronto Branches, Tom Shilcock, Peter Shepherd and Joy Horswill, together with ARSCM's Michael Kaiser and Violet Naylor, and joined by Dr. Giles Bryant, met with the Director General of the RSCM, John Harper at St. Cuthbert's church in Toronto. Professor Harper was here for that purpose from England.

The meeting was to continue discussion of the formation of RSCM Canada as a legal entity. This discussion has been going on for more than two years, in person with John Harper and through meetings, email, and letters with him and each other. A Constitution that will address the aims and objects of the RSCM in Canada, provide a firm and workable structure for the future, and allow us to obtain charitable organization status with the Federal Government is the first step, and has been the subject of most of these discussions.

At the meeting on September 23rd it was decided that before we do any more work on the constitution we should consult an accountant and a corporate lawyer to be sure that we are going in the right direction. This will be done immediately.

Providentially, this left us quite some time to talk and plan about the real work of the RSCM in Canada.

Dr. Bryant had attended the RSCM workshop in Durham, England in August, where he met RSCM members and leaders from around the globe; he came back from the meetings with much that would help guide us in working toward the goal of setting RSCM Canada on firmer ground administratively, and to be a more effective organization in its day to day work. He also contributed to the meeting drawing on his experience as a Cathedral organist, adjudicator, teacher and National President of the RCCO. His suggestions, good humour, and expertise infected the meeting with a feeling of eagerness to begin and to get things done.

We are pleased that Dr. Bryant has agreed to join the RSCM Canada working group.

We were very much encouraged by the receptiveness with which John Harper received suggestions from the group. We will be able to adapt some of the excellent new publications coming from Headquarters to have more "Canadian" content. Negotiations will commence with Headquarters to come to a fair arrangement with respect to fees, CMQ and Sunday by Sunday and other publication delivery. Professor Harper has become aware of the cost to Canadians of publications either from England or from US. RSCM is negotiating with GIA Music in the USA to publish and stock some RSCM music. We will look for ways to make the purchase of music in Canada as economical as possible.

Professor Harper reminded us that RSCM does already exist in Canada. There is nothing to prevent us from making plans now, going forward to enlarge our committees, reach out to new members, approach professionals in the field of church music, liturgy, and administration, to work with us, and provide some new and innovative programs for our members.

Eventually the members of the RSCM who live in Canada will relate to a central administration based in somewhere in Canada for such things as membership lists, dues, mailing to members and other business matters. This will prove to be financially sound, as our exchange rate with the British pound and American dollar continues to our disadvantage. New initiatives, programs, workshops and other projects will arise from this central office, or from the branch or individual members These changes will give us the ability to address the needs of our Canadian members more efficiently, economically, and aptly.

However, as John Harper importantly pointed out, each membership is and will continue to be with the world-wide organization RSCM.

We were pleased to get to know the Director General in a more personal way, and came away from the meeting with renewed focus and confidence in the way forward.

Great things are going to happen to the RSCM in Canada.

Watch this space!

Joy Horswill

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