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2020-12-31-accounts

Trustees' Annual Report for the period

Period start date Period end date 01 Jan 2020 31 Dec 2020 From To

Section A Reference and administration details

Charity name

Richmond upon Thames University of the Third Age

Other names charity is known by

Richmond upon Thames U3A

Registered charity number (if any) 1012343

Charity's principal address

32 Orleans Road Twickenham Middlesex Postcode TW1 3BL

Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20		 Trustee name Office (if any) Dates acted if not for whole
year		 Name of person (or body) entitled
to appoint trustee(if any)
Chris Hack Chairman
LibbyBarton Vice Chairman
Susan Wood Secretary
John Cardwell Treasurer
David Wood Membership
Secretary
Norma Cook
PeggyRoe
Herbert Wirth
Chris Barclay
Bob Litherland

Names of the trustees for the charity, if any, (for example, any custodian trustees)

Name Dates acted if not for whole year

TAR

March 2012

1

Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information) Type of adviser Name Address Examiner of the Accounts Danny Rybowski 1 The Drive, Isleworth, Middlesex, TW7 4AB

Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information)

Stephen Jakobi

Section B Structure, governance and management

Description of the charity’s trusts

Constitution Type of governing document First adopted 25 Feb 2003 and subsequently amended on 28 Feb 2006, (eg. trust deed, constitution) 27 Feb 2007, 28 Nov 2012, 28 Feb 2018 Unincorporated association How the charity is constituted

Elected by the membership at the annual general meeting of the Trustee selection methods organisation (eg. appointed by, elected by)

Additional governance issues (Optional information)

You may choose to include additional information, where relevant, about:

The Richmond upon Thames U3A is a member of and is affiliated to the Third Age Trust (reg charity no 288007).

We follow the Principles of the U3A Movement as set out in the Mission Statement of the Third Age Trust.

Section C Objectives and activities

Summary of the objects of the charity set out in its governing document

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.

TAR

March 2012

2

Because of the Covid-19 pandemic which has swept the world, 2020 has proved an unusual year. For much of this period the UK has either been in lockdown or under some sort of restrictions. Either way, it has drastically affected our U3A’s ability to operate as we would have liked and as we have done in previous years, preventing all face-to-face meetings which normally constitute the bulk of our activities. However, it has often bought out the best in us to persevere and we our particularly grateful to the many of our Group Leaders who have found a way of keeping their groups functioning by meeting on-line.

Summary of the main activities undertaken for the public benefit in relation to these objects (include within this section the statutory declaration that trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit)

Zoom has clearly been a real asset, at least for those with adequate internet access and who have felt comfortable using it. That is, understandably, by no means everybody. We have managed to conduct many of our monthly meetings using Zoom, and they have proved very popular. Our monthly committee meetings have also continued on Zoom and this has been vital for helping our U3A adapt to the strange circumstances which we have experienced.

We have also published more newsletters than in a normal year, in an attempt ot keep our membership informed and amused. We now publish every two months rather than the previous four monthly intervals. Email communications to members keeping them informed of upcoming events have also increased in frequency.

One major change undertaken during 2020 was to transfer all our membership records onto the Beacon platform, an Internet based membership system created and supported by U3A National Office. This has made the administration of our membership details and groups much easier as well as facilitating communication within our organisation.

Additional details of objectives and activities (Optional information)

The organisation is entirely run by volunteers. None of the trustees/ officers nor individuals running groups receive any payment from the organisation for their services.

You may choose to include further statements, where relevant, about:

TAR

March 2012

3

Section D Achievements and performance

Summary of the main achievements of the charity during the year

The number of members in Richmond upon Thames U3A has declined over the course of the year from 1455 to 1269, largely as the result of the pandemic with many not seeking to renew their annual membership when it expired in September .

The number of groups which members can join is currently around 144 of which 62 were active in some form at the end of the year. Normally each group would meet at least once a month, some as often as weekly, but with Covid-19 restrictions for many groups this has not been possible since March 2020. Those groups that could still function by meeting online were able to continue, but all those involving physical activity such as dancing, music or sports had to close down. Nor could we carry out our normal programme of visits to places of interest.

Each month we have continued to hold a monthly meeting, open to all our members, via Zoom with an invited guest speaker. These have been used to disseminate information about our U3As activities.

During the year 5 newsletters were published and mailed to all members. These are in addition to the publications produced by the Third Age Trust which are mailed to all members five times a year.

We maintain our own website which contains information on all groups and events arranged by our U3A. We also produce a printed Prospectus containing this same information in printed form, required because many of our members do not use the internet.

The main mechanism for keeping members informed of future events and new groups is by email. We typically send out 4 to 6 emails a month to all those of our membership who are on email (around 95% of the membership).

TAR

March 2012

4

Section E Financial review

We try and maintain a minimum balance on our accounts equivalent to 3 Brief statement of the month’s worth of operational expenditure – currently equivalent to £9,000 charity’s policy on reserves – though because the bulk of our income is received during August and September when members pay their annual subscription, the balance during the preceding summer months is inevitably somewhat lower.

Details of any funds materially in deficit

Further financial review details (Optional information)

Our principal source of funding is the annual subscription. Single You may choose to include members pay £15 p.a.; joint members pay £25 p.a. for two people at the additional information, where same address. These rates have been maintained at the current level for relevant about: the last 9 years.

Section F Other optional information

Section G Declaration

The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees

Signature(s) Chris HACK Full name(s) Ernest John CARDWELL Position (eg Secretary, Chair, Treasurer Chairman etc)

TAR

March 2012

5

Date 29 June 2021 TAR March 2012

Richmond-upon-Thames University of the Third Age

Accounts for the Year to 31 December 2020

Note
INCOME
Subscriptions
1
Monthly meeting takings
2
Group payments
Short trips income
Gift Aid
Sales of SLP Books
EXPENDITURE
Monthly meeting speaker fee
Monthly meeting room hire
3
Monthly meeting catering
Printing and photocopying
4
Stationery
Postage
5
Group room hire
Group leaders and Volunteers lunches
6
IT Costs + Communications
7
Presents and Donations
National U3A News
8
U3A membership subscription charges
9
SLP Books
Coach/Short trips expenditure
Affiliation fees
Bank charges
Copyright licence
Refunded subscription
National Conference
10
New Members Teas/Lunches
11
OPERATING PROFIT
12
DEPRECIATION
13
NET PROFIT
14		 Year to 31/12/2019

£
£

22,789.50

1,132.40
12,722.35
7,064.00
4,066.81
101.00
47,876.06
780.00

667.50
238.93

3,978.76
122.71

4,349.06
15,444.15

3,025.75

28.64
227.21

3,431.30

4,931.50
0.00
6,738.13
86.00
395.20
0.00
52.00

54.45

850.72
45,402.01

2474.05

0.00

2474.05		 % Change
-13%
-85%
-56%
-100%
6%
-100%
-38%
-67%
75%
-100%
-13%
31%
2%
-65%
-100%
5066%
16%
7%
-100%
-59%
-31%
381%
-100%
-77%
-42%
33%
33%		 Year to 31/12/2020
£
£
19,735.50
172.70
5594.95
4,299.09
29,802.24		 Year to 31/12/2020
£
£
19,735.50
172.70
5594.95
4,299.09
29,802.24
29,802.24
255.00
1,166.00
0.00
3,472.80
160.40
4,451.57
5,454.45
0.00
1,479.40
0.00
3,978.44
5,278.00
0.00
0.00
35.00
274.00
60.00
250.00
0.00
195.00
26,510.06
26,510.06
3292.18
0.00
3292.18

Please read the following notes which form part of these accounts.

Richmond-upon-Thames University of the Third Age

Notes to the Accounts as at 31 December 2020

1. Subscriptions The annual membership fee remained the same at £15 for individual membership, £25 for joint
membership. At year-end there were 1269 fully paid up members, compared with 1455 last year,
a decrease of 12.5%.
940 members paid their renewal subscription either by Standing Order or Direct Credit, 74% of the tot
213 members (2019/20) had not renewed their subscription by the end of the year so their membershi
was deemed to have lapsed.
2. Monthly meetings Admission to our monthly Wednesday meetings remained at £1 for members. £2 for visitors.
Only two physical meetings were held in 2020, one being the AGM for which entry was free of charge.
We also held two on-line monthly meetings via Zoom for which we made no charge.
3. Monthly meeting room hire Most of this expenditure was incurred in 2019 and only billed in 2020.
4. Printing and Photocopying We published five newsletters in 2020, two more than normal, but did not produce a prospectus.
5 Postage This covers the postal charges for mailing of newsletters to those members who elected to receive
a paper copy. Also mailing of membership cards to those members who renewed their membership,
and reminder notices to those who didn't.
6. Group leaders lunch Due to Covid-19 restrictions, we were not able to hold our normal lunch events in 2020,
7. IT Costs The bulk of these are for the Beacon licence fee, charged at an annual rate of £0.83 per member.
We transferred our membership records onto Beacon and started using it on 1st April 2020.
8. National U3A News National Office now charge us £3.10 per address per year for the 5 issues of TAM, up from
£2.90 in the previous year.
9. U3A membership This year we paid the Third Age Trust a fee of £5278, calculated as £3.50 for each of 1508 members.
Subscription Charges This compares with £4931.50 for 1409 members last year. The fee of £3.50 has remained the same.
10. National Conference The U3A National Conference in August was held on-line so no attendance expenses were incurred.
11. New Members Lunches No new members lunches were held during the year.
The expenditure shown was for room hire incurred in 2019 and only billed in 2020.
12. Operating profit/loss We made a profit of £3292 for the year.
13. Assets and depreciation Our existing assets no longer have any residual value so depreciation is zero.
14. Bank balance 2019
2020
Balance as at 1st January
19,528.93
22,002.98
Operating profit/loss for the year
2,474.05
3,292.18
Balance as at 31st December
22,002.98
25,295.16
The balance excludes the funds belonging to SW London Network of
£692.93
Actual balance
25,988.09
ACCOUNTS EXAMINED AND APPROVED but due to COVI9-19
without verification of support documentation

940 members paid their renewal subscription either by Standing Order or Direct Credit, 74% of the total. 213 members (2019/20) had not renewed their subscription by the end of the year so their membership was deemed to have lapsed.

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15/02/2021
Danny Rybowski
U3A Member No.2310
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15/02/2021
John Cardwell
Treasurer
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REGISTERED CHARITY NO. 1012343

Independent Examiner’s Report to the Trustees of The Richmond upon Thames University of the Third Age

I report on the accounts for the year ended 31 December 2020.

Respective Responsibilities of Trustees and Examiner

The charity 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(2) of the Charities Act 2011 (the 2011 Act)) and that an independent examination is required.

It is my responsibility to:

Basis of the Independent Examiner’s Report

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 these records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts, and seeking explanations from the trustees concerning any 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 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 trustees have not met the requirements to ensure that:

  2. a) proper accounting records are kept in accordance Section 130 of the 2011 Act and

  3. b) accounts have been prepared which accord with the accounting records and which comply with the accounting requirements of the 2011 Act; or

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

Danny Rybowski

23/2/2021