Collective Meeting Minutes

A few of us met last Monday to consider the possibilities and potential for the work of the Collective.

We considered the strength of existing ministries first of all - the Community Gospel Choir and its five-year record of encouraging participation and showcasing excellence; the way that the schools choir has managed to unite good work going on in Barnfield South, Denbigh, Sixth Form College and Challney Girls; the well-established "Gospel in the Sun" event in August (with a particularly-fine line-up last year;) the autumn-based "Gospel Jazz" events at the Hat Factory in collaboration with Perry Louis' "Focus on Jazz" ; the Breath of Life "Friday Night Jam" events at the student union as well as Howard and Ibe's G-Focus show on BBC 3 Counties Radio.

Other initiatives also spring to mind : David George's "Musicians' Day" and the growing recognition of Luton as a centre for excellent musicianship. On top of the emergence of the Campbells and Beverley on the national scene, we have emerging vocal and musical talent such as Dee Nyoni and Chris Morris, who promise to break through in their respective fields in months and years to come.

We also realise that the range of "gospel arts" is growing to encompass comedy (Ibe is considering touring his comedy act in '08,) dance and other art forms. We would like to feature a full range of these ministries.

Discussions with Pastor Alan West and worship leader Liz Green also opened up possibilities for a productive collaboration with the "Transforming Luton" network of Luton churches. An existing administrative and publicity network is available to the Collective to work through and both Alan and Liz expressed the desire for us to work in collaboration with local churches to co-ordinate events (and demands on musicians ) more effectively. We resolved to share dates of key events at the beginning of the year and thus work to bring about an annual programme that maximises opportunities for the gospel. For example, Alan expressed an interest in hosting Noel Robinson at LCF in 2009 given the fact that Noel has told Howard that he would like to play in Luton sometime.

Discussions with the new National Carnival Arts Centre in town showed that they will be useful for pointing us in the right direction to apply for grant funding as well as considering our acts for inclusion in their launch event programmes later in 2008.

The Hat Factory Jazz Jam nights on Wednesdays are popular with many of our musicians and we considered asking Perry Louis whether we could convert one session a month into a "Gospel Jam" to invite regional musicians to network with Luton band members.

Howard also highlighted the possibility of using the radio programme to provide a focus for gospel events going on not just in Luton but right across the 3 Counties of Herts, Beds and Bucks.

We agreed to establish a gospel musicians' database so that band and worship leaders can access details of individuals from across the region.

Further down the line we would like to establish a monthly restaurant ministry at a place such as Nandos or the string of Nicholl's Brasseries at Bedford, Woburn and Harpenden.

A web-based resource could also act as a 3 Counties one-stop calendar / what's on of events throughout the year.