## Trustees’ Annual Report 2023 

The u3a in Bath is a member of the Third Age Trust. Our membership is open to anyone who is no longer in full-time employment: there is no age qualification. 

_**The Objects of the group are the advancement of education and, in particular, the education of older people and those who are retired from full time work by all means, including associated activities conducive to learning and personal development in Bath and surrounding areas.**_ 

These objects are carried out partly through our monthly talks and mostly via our many interest and activity groups. 

Communication is through our website, monthly bulletin and quarterly newsletter, the ‘Third Ager’, the monthly lecture and coffee morning, and we also have a Facebook page. 

Governance is through our Committee who are also Trustees of the charity. We are entirely run by volunteers, including Trustees, non-Trustee officers, group convenors and co-ordinators; without them this organisation would not exist. 

For a small annual membership fee, members have access to all our groups and talks; other activities, outings, and residential trips require further payment.   They also have access to insurance cover while on u3a activities and the huge range of learning resources provided by the Third Age Trust.   In addition, we keep a small amount of equipment which can be borrowed by groups to help them with their activities.  In order to facilitate some of our Trustees in their work we have provided dedicated laptops for the Treasurer, Business Secretary, Membership Secretary and Newsletter Editor. 

All our groups are autonomous, but we provide help as needed through a dedicated section on our website, the Groups Advisers, and an annual meeting for convenors which gives them the opportunity to share good practice and problems, as well as providing input on matters of importance, most recently handling money, GDPR, and our new management system, Simple Membership. 

Changing the way we have previously managed our records to this new integrated system has been much of the focus of our work this year.   We ‘went live’ at the end of 2022 and various members of the committee have worked assiduously to ensure that all our convenors know how to use the system, the Groups Organisers are encouraging convenors to manage their own webpage but are also carrying out this task for those who are reluctant.   The focus now is to get members to use the website as their first port of call to find out information, but again we have had mixed success. 

At the moment we have 1383 active members, 266 lapsed members and 48 left members. There have been 306 new members since 1 April 2022 so the new members are slightly less than the lapsed and left, and we are therefore maintaining our numbers.   Use of Simple Membership is enabling us to track where members have actively left or have just not yet renewed their membership. 

1 



So far as our groups are concerned the year has seen a good deal of positive activity, with groups returning to a more regular pattern of meetings. The current schedule of groups masks a wide diversity, ranging from thriving small groups of up to 8 or 10 meeting mostly in private homes, to groups of 80 or more, who meet for sports, music or outdoor activities of all kinds. As at 30 April 2023, there are 101 groups in the Groups Directory compared with about 118 groups in 2019. New groups include: 

·         Beginners Bridge 

·         Craft ·         History of Art – Further Study 3 ·         Novel Writers’ Workshop ·         Play Reading 2 ·         Rummikub ·         Social Bridge 

·         Violin Ensemble 

Some of the new groups are still in the early stage of getting established, and others are  progressing well. Yet they are far from replacing the groups lost over the last three  years,  which  include  some  which  were  quite  large,  e.g.  Mathematics,  a Countryside Walking group, and the former Sailing group.   All these, despite the enthusiasm and effort of individual members, were unable to recruit appropriate volunteers to act as Convenors, and represent a significant loss to the organisation as a whole. 

All of the groups are dependent on u3a members being willing to help organise them, and to share the workload and the responsibilities with their Convenors. The Groups Advisers are available to offer support and encouragement to any member prepared to take on board the self-help philosophy of u3a and co-operate in doing the groundwork to get a new group started. 

The Outings group in particular is still struggling to engage with members, day visits have been achieved, but residential trips have still not managed to get off the ground.   The Theatre group has had a bit more success and have organised a couple of theatre trips, however neither of these groups have returned to their preCovid strength which may be due to a number of factors, not just people’s reluctance to participate in larger outings. 

Our  monthly  meetings  continue  to  be  well  attended  however,  thanks  to  some excellent publicity in a variety of local magazines and free papers.   We regularly see non-members  attending  and  our  Membership  Secretary  is  generally  busy  with membership enquiries. 

Details of all our talks and activity groups are on our website.   We took the decision in the summer of 2021 to change our newsletter offering from 11 editions a year to 7 brief bulletins interspersed with 4 magazine-type quarterly issues which we have called ‘The Third Ager’.   Many of the groups provide extra information in this quarterly issue, often in the form of a report about a particular activity and usually with  photographs,  we  also  try  to  include  recipes,  gardening  tips,  and  puzzles, although the offering does vary depending on what members send in.   The bulletin gives information about forthcoming activities, booking forms for trips, and contact 

2 



details for all  the  groups.   We  have  used  the  money from a recent bequest specifically to produce a leaflet to give to new members, reminding people to register on the website and suggesting ways in which they can participate more fully in membership of our u3a. 

Transition to Simple Membership has meant a completely new website which has taken a lot of effort on the part of the retiring Webmaster and also means that for the first time we have been able to provide a ‘members only’ section, all members have been given a username and are invited to set up their own password.  They are able to contact other members and also to access information which is not in the public domain. 

## **Regional News** 

We are members of the Bath and Wiltshire U3A Network, a group of local U3As organised by Kennet U3A, which meets four times a year.  This group has been meeting on-line and our Chair has attended meetings, as other commitments have allowed.  This group is meeting face-to-face at the end of June when they will be joined by the national u3a Chair. 

The network has also set up an on-line forum for Speaker Organisers, our new organisers attended the initial meeting and found it very useful. A second area Study Day organised by Kennet u3a took place at the end of April in conjunction with Marlborough College, having been postponed from September 2022 because of the late Queen’s funeral. 

## **The Committee and Trustees** 

We have had some movements on the Committee and support group this year, we now have a second Treasurer, our Webmaster has retired but is still in the process of inducting his successor and our talks organiser has left and been replaced by two people job sharing. 

The Committee consists of eleven members, 

Anne  Banks  (Chair),  Meg  Gore  Langton  (Business  Secretary),  John  Weinle (Treasurer), Richard Marke (Treasurer) Jill Carr (Membership Officer), Pat Corcoran (Newsletter Editor), Eleanor Ellington & Diane Duck (Joint Groups Advisers), Steve Prowse (Publicity and social media), Christine Barron (Newsletter distribution), David Bethell, (Outings) and Irene Murdoch (Theatre). 

We are also supported Betty Suchar & David Hagger (Talks Organisers), Derek Longmore (database) and Andy Pepperdine (Audio Visual) 

. The current Chair and Business Secretary both intend to step down in 2023, and also  the  Membership  Secretary  after  the  next  membership  renewals  round  in October. 

In  common  with  many  other  voluntary  organisations,  while  we  have  a  thriving membership, we are having difficulty in getting people to take up committee and other support roles.   Many of our members have caring duties, some are still working part-time, and others feel they have ‘done their bit’.   This is proving to be a problem to us, but we continue to work hard to persuade people to step up. 

3 



Anne Banks
Chair u3ainBath
May 2023

## **General Ledger Summary** 

## U3A IN BATH 

For the period 1 March 2022 to 28 February 2023 

|**Account**|**Account Code**|**Opening Balance**|**Debit**|
|---|---|---|---|
|U3A Bath Subscriptions (Current Fee year)|200|0.00|165.00|
|Donations|250|0.00|0.00|
|Interest Income|270|0.00|0.00|
|Gift Aid Tax Recovered|275|0.00|0.00|
|New Group Grants|280|0.00|58.84|
|Monthly meetings|330|0.00|7,464.00|
|Open day meeting|331|0.00|1,019.07|
|Speakers for U3A meetings|335|0.00|1,415.00|
|Convenors meetings|342|0.00|145.20|
|U3A Bath newsletter|345|0.00|1,871.33|
|Advertising & Marketing|400|0.00|5,670.00|
|Audit & Accountancy fees|401|0.00|300.00|
|Bank Fees|404|0.00|415.80|
|Membership costs|420|0.00|2,670.05|
|General Expenses|429|0.00|60.00|
|Trustees Expenses|430|0.00|378.00|
|Trustees monthly meetings|432|0.00|462.00|
|Capitation Fees|435|0.00|5,280.00|
|Third Age Trust magazine|438|0.00|3,361.00|
|IT Software and Consumables|463|0.00|1,504.73|
|Website|495|0.00|100.70|
|601 Unity Trust - Renewals|601|60.00|11,106.75|
|Petty Cash|602|50.00|0.00|
|Unity Trust - Current|603|7,211.69|63,003.10|
|Unity Trust - Deposit|604|40,886.31|49.67|
|THEATRE BARCLAYS BANK ACCOUNT MEMO ONLY|609|1,922.39|0.00|
|Accounts Receivable|610|0.00|29,947.99|
|BANK ACCOUNT NATWEST OUTINGS|612|5,517.60|3,992.50|
|New Members|616|105.00|3,414.89|
|Accounts Payable|800|0.00|37,279.90|
|Unrestricted funds b/f|940|(42,354.71)|0.00|
|Outings|951|(5,517.60)|4,612.20|
|Theatre Group Barclays Account|952|(1,922.39)|3,008.05|
|Redundant Groups|953|(271.25)|0.00|
|Groups: Table Tennis|961|(587.22)|2,712.00|
|Groups: table tennis 4|962|(609.53)|936.00|
|Groups: Ukulele|963|(69.30)|210.00|
|Groups: Swing Band|964|(349.20)|1,454.04|
|Groups: Art 1|966|(0.36)|1,140.00|
|Groups: Art 2|967|280.22|522.50|
|Groups: Active Adventurers1|971|(1,023.61)|1,050.12|





|Groups: Badminton|972|(485.34)|1,365.00|
|---|---|---|---|
|Groups: Choir|973|(1,421.75)|3,132.11|
|Groups: Computer Users Forum|974|(170.01)|0.00|
|Groups: Creative Writing|975|(214.50)|475.00|
|Groups: Creative Writing Workshop|976|(104.00)|0.00|
|Groups: Digital Photography|977|(477.71)|578.05|
|Groups: European & Current Affairs|979|0.00|612.00|
|Groups: Exploring philosophy|980|(31.00)|0.00|
|Groups: Family History|981|0.00|291.00|
|Groups: Garden group|982|(142.38)|0.00|
|Groups: History 1|983|(30.00)|521.00|
|Groups: History 2|984|(93.00)|0.00|
|Groups: History of Art - Further Study and Discussion|986|0.00|180.00|
|Groups: History of Art 3|986a|0.00|33.75|
|Groups: Italian Beginners|987|(7.19)|150.00|
|Groups: Local History buildings|988|(16.94)|182.25|
|Groups: Listening to Music|989|62.46|1,404.00|
|Groups: Mahjong1a|990|(118.68)|0.00|
|Groups: Mahjong 3|994|(72.00)|0.00|
|Groups: Rock band|998|232.00|720.00|
|Groups: Science|999|(238.00)|884.40|
|**Total**||**(0.00)**|**207,308.99**|
|All groups exc theatre and outngs||||
|Social group fees||||
|Social group costs|||26,173.47|





|**Credit**|**Net Movement**|**Closing Balance**|
|---|---|---|
|23,541.49|(23,376.49)|(23,376.49)a|
|1,123.20|(1,123.20)|(1,123.20)a|
|49.92|(49.92)|(49.92)a|
|4,394.99|(4,394.99)|(4,394.99)a|
|0.00|58.84|58.84a|
|0.00|7,464.00|7,464.00a|
|0.00|1,019.07|1,019.07a|
|0.00|1,415.00|1,415.00a|
|0.00|145.20|145.20a|
|0.00|1,871.33|1,871.33a|
|0.00|5,670.00|5,670.00a|
|0.00|300.00|300.00a|
|0.00|415.80|415.80a|
|0.00|2,670.05|2,670.05a|
|0.00|60.00|60.00a|
|0.00|378.00|378.00a|
|0.00|462.00|462.00a|
|0.00|5,280.00|5,280.00a|
|0.00|3,361.00|3,361.00a|
|0.00|1,504.73|1,504.73a|
|0.00|100.70|100.70a|
|10,973.36|133.39|193.39a|
|0.00|0.00|50.00a|
|50,893.94|12,109.16|19,320.85a|
|15,000.00|(14,950.33)|25,935.98a|
|1,068.05|(1,068.05)|854.34a|
|29,947.99|0.00|0.00a|
|4,612.20|(619.70)|4,897.90a|
|2,081.11|1,333.78|1,438.78a|
|37,279.90|0.00|0.00a|
|0.00|0.00|(42,354.71)|
|3,992.50|619.70|(4,897.90)|
|1,940.00|1,068.05|(854.34)|
|0.00|0.00|(271.25)|
|3,086.02|(374.02)|(961.24)a|
|880.50|55.50|(554.03)a|
|223.00|(13.00)|(82.30)|
|1,572.75|(118.71)|(467.91)a|
|1,140.07|(0.07)|(0.43)a|
|1,125.00|(602.50)|(322.28)a|
|1,138.50|(88.38)|(1,111.99)a|





|1,447.00|(82.00)|(567.34)|a|
|---|---|---|---|
|3,170.00|(37.89)|(1,459.64)|a|
|0.00|0.00|(170.01)||
|435.00|40.00|(174.50)||
|0.00|0.00|(104.00)||
|595.00|(16.95)|(494.66)|a|
|846.10|(234.10)|(234.10)||
|0.00|0.00|(31.00)||
|544.00|(253.00)|(253.00)||
|0.00|0.00|(142.38)||
|438.90|82.10|52.10|a|
|0.00|0.00|(93.00)|a|
|90.00|90.00|90.00|a|
|34.00|(0.25)|(0.25)|a|
|177.50|(27.50)|(34.69)||
|204.00|(21.75)|(38.69)||
|1,575.00|(171.00)|(108.54)||
|0.00|0.00|(118.68)||
|0.00|0.00|(72.00)||
|952.00|(232.00)|0.00||
|736.00|148.40|(89.60)||
|**207,308.99**|**0.00**|**(0.00)**||
|||(7,815.41)||
|26,342.84||||





## U3A IN BATH 

## Statement of Financial actvites (Income and Expenditure) 

|||Unrest|
|---|---|---|
|||General|
|||2023|
|Incoming Resources from generated funds|||
|Voluntary Income and investment income|Note 1|29,070|
|Incoming resources from charitable actvites|Note 2||
|Total incoming resources||29,070|
|Resources expended|||
|Cost of generatng voluntary income|Note 3|9,359|
|Charitable Actvites|Note 4|21,160|
|Governance costs|Note 5|1,657|
|Total resources expended||32,176|
|Net incoming/(outgoing) resources||-3,106|
|Total funds at previous year end||42,354|
|Total funds at 28 February 2023||39,248|
|Net Assets at 28 February 2023|||
|Current Assets (cash balances only)|||
|Unity Bank Reserve Account||18,246|
|Unity Bank Current Accounts||20,952|
|Cash in Hand||50|
|||39,248|
|Barclays Bank current account for Theatre events|||
|NatWest Bank current account for Outngs|||
|Total Assets at 28 February 2023||39,248|
|These accounts were adopted by the Trustees on|….............................................2023 and signed on th||
|Chair - Anne Banks||Treasurer -|
|U3A IN BATH|Notes to the account 28 February 2023||
|||Unrestr|
|||General|
|||2023|
|1A Voluntary Income|||
|U3A Bath Subscriptons||23,376|
|Gif Aid received||4,395|
|Visitors' Fees||624|





|Bequests<br>1B Investment Income<br>1 Voluntary and Investment Income<br>2 Incoming resources from Charitable Actvites<br>Social Groups' Fees<br>Incoming resources from Charitable Actvites<br>3 Cost of generatng voluntary income<br>Membership costs<br>Open Day costs<br>Advertsing and Marketng<br>4 Charitable Actvites<br>Hire of rooms, coaches etc for Social Groups<br>Capitaton Fee<br>IT sofware & consumables<br>Postage, printng & statonary<br>Room hire for U3A monthly meetngs<br>Speakers for U3A monthly meetngs<br>Third Age Trust magazine<br>U3A newsleter<br>New Group and convenors costs<br>U3A IN BATH<br>Notes to the account 28 February 2023<br>5 Governance costs<br>Audit & accountancy fees<br>AGM costs<br>Trustees monthly meetngs<br>Website costs<br>Bank charges<br>Trustees' expenses - authorised re-imbursement<br>of expenses<br>Purchase of U3A banners<br>Statonery, postage & printer costs<br>Governance costs total<br>6 Capital costs|500|
|---|---|
||28,895<br>175|
||29,070|
||-|
||-|
||2,670<br>1,019<br>5,670|
||9,359|
||5,280<br>1,505<br>60<br>7,464<br>1,415<br>3,361<br>1,871<br>204|
||21,160|
||Unrest<br>General<br>2023<br>300<br>-<br>462<br>101<br>416|
||1,279|
||-<br>378|
||378|
||1,657|
||-|





7 These accounts have been prepared on a cash basis. They should be read in conjuncton with the at 

|U3A IN BATH<br>Notes to the account 28 February 2023<br>8 Actvity Funds<br>Actve adventures<br>Choir<br>Table tennis Groups<br>Art Groups<br>History Groups<br>Badminton<br>Digital Photography<br>Swing band<br>Other groups<br>Group balances held in main bank accounts<br>Theatre Group - Barclays Bank current account<br>Outngs Group - Natwest current account<br>Total reserves of Groups at 28.2.23|Balance at<br>28.2.23<br>1,112<br>1,460<br>1,515<br>323<br>-49<br>567<br>495<br>468|
|---|---|
||5,891<br>1,924|
||7,815|
||854<br>4,898|
||5,752|
|||
||13,567|



## 9 Reserves Policies 

The Trustees believe that the retained reserves should be equivalent to four months gross expenditure 

This view takes into account any significant reduction in revenue and any potential loss on any contrac This policy is reviewed every three months by the Trustees. 



## for the year ended 28 February 2023 

|tricted<br>Total<br>Groups Funds<br>2023<br>2023<br>-        29,070<br>26,342      26,342<br>26,342      55,412<br>-          9,359<br>26,173      47,333<br>-          1,657<br>26,173      58,349<br>169 -      2,937<br>13,398      55,752<br>13,567      52,815<br>7,815      26,061<br>20,952<br>50<br>7,815      47,063<br>854           854<br>4,898        4,898<br>13,567      52,815|Unrestricted<br>Total<br>General Groups Funds<br>2022<br>2022<br>2022<br>21,991<br>21,991<br>22,328      22,328|
|---|---|
||21,991      22,328      44,319|
||2,949<br>2,949<br>17,111      20,656      37,767<br>1,966<br>1,966|
||22,026      20,656      42,682|
||-35<br>1,672<br>1,637<br>42,389      11,726      54,115|
||42,354      13,398      55,752|
||34,928        5,958      40,886<br>7,376<br>7,376<br>50<br>50|
||42,354        5,958      48,312<br>1,922        1,922<br>5,518        5,518|
||42,354      13,398      55,752|



eir behalf by 

## - John Weinle 

|ricted<br>|Total|Unrestricted<br>|Unrestricted<br>|Total|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|Groups<br>|Funds|General<br>|Groups|Funds|
|2023|2023|2022|2022|2022|
||23,376|21,870||21,870|
||4,395|-||-|
||624|118||118|





|500<br>-        28,895<br>175<br>-        29,070<br>26,342      26,342<br>26,342      26,342<br>2,670<br>1,019<br>5,670<br>-          9,359<br>26,173      26,173<br>5,280<br>1,505<br>60<br>7,464<br>1,415<br>3,361<br>1,871<br>204<br>26,173      47,333|-<br>-|
|---|---|
||21,988               -        21,988<br>3<br>3|
||21,991               -        21,991|
||22,328      22,328|
||-        22,328      22,328|
||814<br>814<br>525<br>525<br>1,610<br>1,610|
||2,949               -          2,949|
||20,656      20,656<br>5,453<br>5,453<br>586<br>586<br>99<br>99<br>3,690<br>3,690<br>805<br>805<br>3,789<br>3,789<br>2,689<br>2,689<br>-<br>-|
||17,111      20,656      37,767|



contnued 

|ricted<br>|Total|
|---|---|
|Groups|Funds|
|2023|2023|
||300|
||-|
||462|
||101|
||416|
|-|1,279|
||-|
||378|
|-|378|
|-|1,657|
|-|-|



|Unrestricted<br>|Unrestricted<br>|Total|
|---|---|---|
|General<br>|Groups<br>|Funds|
|2022|2022|2022|
|300||300|
|||-|
|441||441|
|71||71|
|294||294|
|1,106|-|1,106|
|500||500|
|360||360|
|860|-|860|
|1,966|-|1,966|
|-|-|-|





## ached Treasurer's Report 

contnued Balance at 28.2.22 1,024 1,422 1,197 -280 123 485 478 349 4,798 1,160 5,958 1,922 5,518 7,440 13,398 

e. 

ct. 



## U3A in Bath 

## Charity number 1004449 

## Independent examiner’s report on the accounts for the year ended 28[th] February 2023 

## Respectve responsibilites of trustees and examiner 

The charity’s trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts. The charity’s trustees consider that an audit is not required for this year under section 144 of the Charities Act 2011 (the Charities Act) and that an independent examination is needed. 

It is my responsibility to: 

examine the accounts under section 145 of the Charities Act, 

to  follow  the  procedures  laid  down  in  the  general  Directions  given  by  the  Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Charities Act, and 

to state whether particular matters have come to my attention. 

## Basis of independent examiner’s statement 

My examination was carried out in accordance with the general Directions given by the Charity Commission. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts and seeking explanations from the trustees concerning such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit, and consequently no opinion is given as to whether the accounts present a “true and fair” view and the report is limited to those matters set out in the statement below. 

## Independent examiner’s statement 

In connection with my examination, no matter has come to my attention 

- 1 which gives me reasonable cause to believe that in any material respect the requirements: 

to keep accounting records in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act; and 

to prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records and comply with the 

accounting requirements of the Charities Act 

have not been met; or 

2 to  which,  in  my  opinion,  attention  should  be  drawn  in  order  to  enable  a  proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. 

## Signed 

dated 

## David Hughesdon FCA 

165 Newbridge Hill, Bath, BA1 3PX