At the Annual General Meeting, Sing Out members elected their new Board and gratefully acknowledged the departure of several key members. This handover demonstrates the deep attachment of the singers to our association.
The general meeting is a legal obligation for any non-profit organisation, but at Sing Out Brussels it’s also an opportunity to actively involve members in the management of this ambitious project.
For the past two years, this evening has been organised in such a way as to boost participation. Members are divided into small groups for workshops, which makes it easier to share ideas, even if there isn’t enough time to go into detail. On Wednesday 11 September, members took part in four workshops:
– A workshop summarising all the activities carried out over the past season and presenting the main projects for the season just beginning
– A workshop presenting the results of our internal survey, to identify areas for improvement this season.
– A workshop presenting the accounts for the past season and the budget for the coming season, highlighting the way in which the association is managed and financed.
– A workshop organised by the Board of the ASBL Various Voices Brussels 2026 to gradually include Sing Out members in the organisation of the festival.
Generally speaking, the evening was a reminder of the importance of voluntary commitment within our association. Sing Out Brussels! is an association run entirely by members, most of whom work full-time and therefore devote long hours of their free time to coordinating activities, managing the budget, looking after the well-being of the group, communicating about our projects and preparing for the future. In addition to the Board, thematic Joy Teams mobilise dozens of volunteers, true enthusiasts who wish to give back to the association a little of what it gives them.
At the end of the evening, the members paid tribute to the work of our President Josephine Landgraf, who was stepping down after a year in office during which she managed the choir with rigour and kindness.
They also warmly thanked Marina Belotti, treasurer of the ASBL since its creation six years ago, who will now devote her energy to the Various Voices project.
The new Board will comprise six members: Danielle Lyle, Sheila Gysens, Kit Sainsbury, Robbie Blake, as well as Alex Sartoretti and Matthew Small, who are joining the Board for the first time. It is also the first time that none of the association’s founding members have sat on the Board, demonstrating that all the members who have joined the association over the last six years fully regard it as their own. Kit Sainsbury is now President of the association.
Below you can read the speech by Marina, outgoing treasurer, and the speech by Matthew and Alex, new members of the Board.
Marina : Today, I am stepping out as Treasurer of Sing Out, a role I have taken on for the last 6 years, because I need to devote more time to the organisation of the Festival Various Voices. When I hear the sound of these words, it seems like nothing, but the emotional storm I feel in my body right now tells me that this is going to be a big change for me.
In my experience with Sing Out, first as founder, and then as member of the Board, I realized early on that the value of my contribution is in itself. There is no eternal paradise yet to come, set as a prize for “when we win”. Paradise is a word that means garden, and the edges of the norm we inhabit transform into gardens every time we oppose normality, violence, racism, hatred, hetero-cis-patriarchy. Our gardens are fragile, plural, composite, permeable, ephemeral but renewable in continuous transformation and re-discussion, in a place where conflict and love meet. Our gardens are open, accessible with convivial and protected spaces where we feel safe. Every inch and every minute of these paradises makes me want to continue to build, in time and space, even more paradises: in every demonstration, in every assembly, in every rehearsal, in every concert, in every night spent drafting subsidy requests. These gardens are extremely precious, inestimable places. I wish each of you to be able to glimpse this little corner of paradise that is Sing Out, and when I look into your eyes, I see that you will always be ready to protect this garden with kindness, and to support it with all your strength.
Matthew : For me, the choir has provided a crucial space in which I can explore my queerness in a supportive and loving community setting. I know that is true for many of our members too. And, for me, that is the primary goal of Sing Out. I think we can proudly say we are excelling at this central goal. We also have core goals around high quality music, embodying our values, spreading those values – including through queer activism – and the sustainability of our activities. These have only and can only be maintained with a dedicated and hard-working Board, Joy Teams, Section leaders and broader set of volunteers. I am now in a position to contribute a lot of my time to this important work and I really look forward to doing so. I love you all!
Alex : Even though I have been in Sing Out for less than a year, the choir and its community and already brought me so much.I’ve been able to meet amazing people, to create happy lasting memories and relationships, to sing and to be among members of the community in a space than is safe and welcoming. It has truly been a blast, as well as an amazing mental health boost. I want to give back to the choir and the Sing Out community at large by joining the board and using my skills to ensure that it continues to run smoothly, and to improve the areas that can be improved upon. I am also very excited at the opportunity to represent voices and sub-communities that are Under-represented within the board, as a non-binary native French speaker.