THE GALITZINE – ST PETERSBURG TRUST
Annual meeting of Trustees held online at 12.30 pm on Thursday, 15th October 2020
In attendance: Catherine Galitzine (KG) Mark Sutcliffe (MS) Katherine Walker (KW)
MINUTES/combining Trustees Annual Report
KG welcomed Mark Sutcliffe and Katie Walker for attending online and thanked Andrew Levens for helping us once again with the accounts for the year beginning 1st September 2018 to 31st August 2019.
KG read through the Minutes for the AGM held on 10th July 2019. All trustees agreed there were correct.
KG thanked KW for organising the meeting with The Grove Trust earlier that year and apologised for the late timing of this AGM, we had hoped to have a ‘real’ meeting at some point, but due to the pandemic, we had been unable to meet and hence resorted to the online format.
AL presented the financial statement for the year ending 31st August 2019, which needs to be submitted to The Charities Commission by 30th October 2020. Trustees all agreed and understood the figures.
KG reported that the current account at RBS has been transferred to the account at Coutts & Co. There is still a US$ account open in RBS, in order to keep this open, we had to leave £1 in our RBS current account. Thankfully the account is open, because various ‘Friends of The Galitzine Library’ pay their annual donation of £52 into this account. It was noted that the ‘Friends’ should be informed that the Library is now no longer financed by the Trust, but encourage them to remain interested in supporting some of our new causes and projects.
The majority of our funds are invested through Coutts & Co. Over the last 3 years we have paid in £370k and at the end of 2019 accounting year, our investment was valued at £384,795. So a healthy gain of almost £15k, which was our estimated amount needed per annum.
(Obviously this investment has fallen dramatically over this past year, 2020 - but we were not discussing the recent financial year at this meeting.)
KG reported on Fund Raising.
Donations during this year, were mainly from the legacy (2 donations of £10,000 each - May 2020 and October 2020) and from the event held at The Queen’s Gallery, ‘Russia and the Romanovs’ on 16th April 2019. KG would like to thank Mark Sutcliffe and Nicholas Laing for their donations of £500 each towards the venue.
The main purpose of the event was to announce the handover of The Galitzine Library to the Mayakovsky Library in St Petersburg. 100 guests attended and overall the evening was great success. We raised £6,655 gross. The Royal Collection costs were a standard rate for charities of £3,324. Numbers were limited to sales of 100 tickets, we asked for a donation of £50 per ticket, £3,331net, was therefore raised after expenses, from ticket sales and donations.
Distribution of funds was made to help 11 projects which work with children with physical disabilities and their families; (P4EC; Strannik; Rodnik; AO Spine Orthopaedic Hospital; Boarding House No 3 “Artemka”; Rehabilitation for the Child; Children’s Hospice; Orthodox Mission ‘Tenderness’; Studio ‘Da’; Petershed Theatre group; MojMio) totalling £132,173 of the £170,500 legacy that was left to us in April 2020; the legacy included £10,000 to be given as a donation to PGGMF.
From last year, Hunters has given KG an HMRC form (R185) signed and allocating PGGMF for Tax Relief from the invested legacy. KG has asked advice from outside accountants. Gift Aid has been applied for successfully.
KW immediately got in touch with someone to help with the application. KG has since been in touch with another of KW contacts, who is looking into this further.
On Thursday, 5th December 2019, on the celebration of 25 years of The Prince George Galitzine Library, the official handover was made to The Mayakovsky Public Library in St Petersburg, through Zoya Chalova, the Director. It was a celebration of 25 years, attended by many loyal supporters and readers. Letters of appreciation were written and read out
from the Cultural department of the Mayor of St Petersburg, the Director of Peterhof Museum, the Director of Peter and Paul Fortress. KG met with lawyer in St Petersburg with regards to a new registration of The Prince Galitzine Memorial Fund ‘institution’ in Russia. We must change our registration address, it is legally allowed to use a domestic address. We would need to keep Accountant Elena V. Chernorez and pay her a small salary, plus tax. Role needs to be defined more specifically. A new Director needs to be nominated. Until we define our role, we shall remain registered (in limbo) as The Prince George Galitzine Memorial Library, with Elena V. Konyukhova as the Director.
Obviously, due to Covid, no further action has been taken on this.
Alina Rubtsova went on maternity leave in July 2018.
She is registered as a member of staff with the Mayakovsky Library, but having worked for us for almost 10 years, she is eligible to some maternity pay from us, a percentage of which will be paid through the Russian bank account, the rest we pay her in 3 instalments.
The agreed stipend for Elena Konyukhova of £600 a month is being paid. Alina’s salary with the Mayakovsky is almost equal to what she was receiving through us. £2,200 is still being paid annually into the Russian bank for taxes and accountancy fees, while we keep the old registration.
KG has been looking for someone to help with the new website for the Fund; JA George would charge £2,000. Trustees discussed this and thought perhaps £1,000 a fairer rate, as we will then need to have it translated into Russian as well.
Fund has been paying for the web address: www.galitzinefund.com
It was decided that we meet again to discuss a Newsletter, to bring loyal supporters up to date and in creating a newsletter, we can work on the website content at the same time.
KG would approach Nicolas Slater, regarding his new translation of “Dr Zhivago” published by The Folio Society and suggest an online event, presenting the new work, together with pictures by his grandfather, Leonid Pasternak. KW mentioned ‘zoom-fatigue’, so we should discuss the format in which this should take.
Trustees pencilled in meeting ‘online’ again during the week beginning 9th November 2020 to discuss the above event and the Newsletter. Meeting ended 13.20
The Prince George Galitzine Memorial fund Receipts and payments account year to 31/8/20
| The Prince George Galitzine Memorial fund Receipts and payments account year to 31/8/20 |
|
|---|---|
| Receipts donations and legacies to support projects net event receipts investment income Payments Library expenditure projects for children/young people with disabilities in Russia bank charges other expenses opening balance excess of receipts over payments/(paments over receipts) transfers between banks transfer to investments closing balance of current accounts |
2020 170500 12500 |
| 183000 | |
| 15667 126153 75 296 |
|
| 142191 | |
| 85326 40809 0 -70381 |
|
| 55754 |
2019
104 3621 0 3725 9315 139466 892 948 150621 232222 (146896) 85326
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The Prince George Galitzine Memorial fund
| Investments with coutts bank balances Total funds |
statement of funds at 08/31/2020 341670 55754 397424 |
august 31 2020 08/31/2019 312010 85326 |
|---|---|---|
| 397336 |
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Independent examiner's report on the accounts
Section A Independent Examiner’s Report
Report to the Charity Name trustees/ members The Prince George Galitzine memorial Fund of 31[st] August 2020 Charity 1015036 On accounts for the no (if year ended any)
Set out on pages 1 and 2 1 and 2(remember to include the page numbers of additional sheets)
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended 31/08/2020 DD / MM / YYYY .
Responsibilities and basis of report As the charity trustees of the Trust, you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”).
I report in respect of my examination of the Trust’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.
Independent I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material examiner's matters have come to my attention (other than that disclosed statement below *) in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect:
accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or the accounts do not accord with the accounting records
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
- Please delete the words in the brackets if they do not apply.
Signed: Date: 14/08/2021 Name: Andrew levens
1
IER
October 2018
Relevant Institute of Chartered Accountants England and Wales professional qualification(s) or body (if any):
Address: 6, Happyland, Ashton Keynes, Swindon, SN6 6PN
Section B Disclosure
Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and guidance for examiners).
2
IER
October 2018
Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose .
Nothing to disclose
3
IER
October 2018