Chapter News
Dissolution of the London & South of England Chapter of the American Theatre Organ Society (ATOS) and the creation of The Wurlitzer Heritage Trust
As Chapter members are aware, the committee consulted with them regarding the committees desire to cease our association with the American Theatre Organ Society (ATOS), close the old charity and form our own, new, independent Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) with the Charity Commission for England and Wales. The membership approved the change and so the new charity has now been registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales. We are now working to dissolve the old charity, transfer our assets across to the new charity, create a new website and everything else that goes with changing an organisation’s structure, governance and name. The new charity name is The Wurlitzer Heritage Trust.
What does this mean to you?
Our programme of Woking concerts will continue as published, under the name The Woking Wurlitzer, notwithstanding unforeseen circumstances. The same volunteers will still be involved. We own the Woking Wurlitzer outright.
If you are a Full National member, so you have paid £66 ($US exchange rate depending) for both our Chapter Associate membership (£10 per annuum) and £56 for the USA ATOS Full National membership these will continue until expiry. Once your ATOS Full National membership expires you will need to renew this directly with the USA should you wish to do so, not via Peter Collett, our Membership Secretary. To access the membership page of the USA site please click HERE.
Your Chapter Associate membership will still entitle you to a discount off of admission to most of our concerts until it expires, so please be sure to bring your membership card with you.
We will be introducing a new season ticket scheme in due course, but details of this are yet to be finalised.
In the meantime, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact one of the current trustees, details of which you may find HERE.
Len Rawle MBE (1938 - 2023)
Donations in memory of Len and the video of his funeral
The Rawle family has chosen for any donations you may wish to make in memory of Leonard Rawle to go to ‘Music for All’. The charity makes the transformative power of music accessible to all, something which was massively important to Len.
Len Rawle MBE Memorial 16th November 2024 at 2.30pm
2024 UK Young Theatre Organist Of The Year (YTOY) - postponed
We are sorry to announce that our planned re-launch of the UK Young Theatre Organist of the Year Competition has been postponed and is now likely to take place in 2025.
Woking Lighting and Video Upgrade
During summer 2023 we worked with an external contractor to upgrade the Wurlitzer Hall lighting and video to modern standards. You can read about it and see pictures of the project as it was delivered HERE. Better still, come to one of our concerts to see the improvements first hand!
The Woking Wurlitzer on Facebook
If you are on Facebook, please search for "The Woking Wurlitzer" or if you click on this link it should take you there. If you are a Facebook member please 'Join Group' then 'like' us and 'invite' your friends and family too. If you are not a Facebook member you should still be able to view the page.
Chapter Newsletter articles
We always welcome contributions to our Chapter Newsletter. If you can help in any way, either with articles or photographs, please contact the editor, Peter Collett, at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Help Needed
We need your support in the following ways:
- Chapter trustees. You would need to be registered as a trustee of the charity, be able to support the organisation and attend committee meetings (either in person or virtually, e.g. via Zoom).
- Woking concert set up and take down. We would particularly welcome local people who can regularly help with this or pop into the centre when required as none of the committee live in Surrey, let alone Woking!
- Public Relations. We would welcome somebody who is familiar with website management, Facebook, posting our concerts and events on websites and liasing with local press and other publications.
If you think you can help or wish to learn more then please contact one of the ATOS trustees who's details you can find HERE.
