2025-07-31-accounts - University Of The Third Age Farnborough And District

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– Farnborough & District u3a AGM 2025

’ – 28 October 2025 14:00 St Mark s Church Hall

Chair’s Report

1. Commitee Membership

The Committee for the year ending 31-Jul-2025 was :

Committee Officers

Jerry Carlsson Chair Treasurer Pam Hay Vice Chair Secretary Andy Nelson Secretary Tina McCain Secretary Ian Hutchings Treasurer

Whole year 01-Aug-24 to 29-Oct-24 Whole year 22-Jan-25 to 12-May-25 01-Aug-24 to 21-Jan-25 12-May-25 to 31-Jul-25 29-Oct-24 to 31-Jul-25

Other Committee Members

Paul Banner Events Co-Ordinator Whole year Mary Culverhouse No specific role Whole year Roger Elliott Venues Co-Ordinator 01-Aug-24 to 29-Oct-24 Neil Hay Groups Co-Ordinator Whole year Beacon Co-Ordinator Whole year Stephanie King Membership Secretary 01-Aug-24 to 31-Mar-25 No specific role 01-Apr-25 to 31-Jul-24 Judith Layzell No specific role 29-Oct-24 to 31-Mar-25 Membership Secretary 01-Apr-25 to 31-Jul-25 Richard Llanwarne No specific role 01-Aug-24 to 29-Oct-24 Dave Minnett Communications Co-Ordinator Whole year Peter Wickwar Monthly Meetings Co-ordinator Whole year Colleague i.e. undertook a role but was not a Committee member Roger Elliott Venues Co-Ordinator 29-Oct-24 to 31-Jul-25

Whole year Whole year 01-Aug-24 to 29-Oct-24 Whole year Whole year 01-Aug-24 to 31-Mar-25 01-Apr-25 to 31-Jul-24 29-Oct-24 to 31-Mar-25 01-Apr-25 to 31-Jul-25 01-Aug-24 to 29-Oct-24 Whole year Whole year

No changes to the composition of the Committee have occurred between 01-Aug-25 and this AGM other than me taking over as Venues Co-Ordinator.

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The composition of the Committee over the past year has not been as hectic as the above summary might suggest. The main points are :

1.1. Our Secretary, Andy Nelson, sadly died on 21-Jan-25. His steadfast dedication together with his infectious ability to generate calmness in others will be unforgettable. Until the end, and despite his painful illness, Andy’s at ude remained ‘I’ll do what I can for as long as I can”. His contribution was wonderful.
1.2. Having previously acted as a temporary Secretary to the Committee Pam Hay took on the role of Secretary whilst a permanent successor was sought.
1.3. In due course Tina McCain offered to take on the role of Secretary. She was duly appointed by the Committee and is seeking re-election at this meeting.
1.4. Prior to last year’s AGM, Stephanie King had indicated that she would be standing down from the Committee with effect from this 2025 AGM. As a result of this fore-warning, she was able to gradually hand over the role of Membership Secretary to Judith Layzell.
1.5. During the year Mary informed the Committee that she would be resigning with effect from this AGM.
1.6. Roger Elliott did not seek re-election as a Committee Member at the 2024 AGM. However, at that time he did offer to continue undertaking the role of Venues CoOrdinator until 31-Jul-25. During the nine months from the 2024 AGM until that date and not having anyone else on the Committee willing to undertake the task, I sought to gradually establish what the role entailed and how it was accomplished. I now hope to be able to pass this information on to someone else.
1.7. The Committee wishes to record at this meeting our fulsome thanks to each of Andy, Stephanie, Mary and Roger (again) for their efforts on behalf of our u3a.

2. Finance

2.1. The outcome for the year was a cash surplus on Core Activities of £16,589. Further details are set out in the Statement of Receipts and Payments.
2.2. The overall financial position is set out in the Statement of Assets and Liabilities. This shows Accumulated Reserves of £39,107.
2.3. Both of these Statements will be dealt with in more detail in the Treasurer’s Report.
2.4. The recommendation of the Charity Commission is that charities, such as ourselves, should have sufficient Reserves so that, in the event of the need to immediately cease operations, there remains the ability to cover expenditure for between four and six months.
a) As at 31-Jul-23 we were at the low end of that range having reserves available to cover 4.2 months of expenditure.
b) As at 31-Jul-24 we are at the high end of that range with available reserves that could cover 5.8 months of expenditure.
c) As at 31-Jul-25, and despite having given membership rebates for 2024-2025, we are significantly above the upper level of their suggestion being in a position to cover 11.0 months of expenditure. The exceptional level of this increase is dealt with in more detail in the Treasurer’s Report.
d) We do not see this level of increased financial ‘health’ continuing to grow. However, it has allowed us to make certain beneficial changes to our Budget for 2025-2026.

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3. Achievements

Website

The major achievement this year has been the development and implementation of a new website for our u3a. This project was led by Pam Hay, our Vice Chair, together with free guidance and assistance from the Third Age Trust (“TAT”), the over-arching organisation encompassing all u3as in the country.

Pam’s team consisted of Charlotte Brown, Peter Hoyle, Judith Layzell, and Naomi Ward together with Mike Pinnegar (the husband of an existing member who was made an Honorary Member of our u3a for this project). Pam’s description is “The website couldn't have been done as well, as efficiently or as quickly without their commitment and the hours of effort which they put in. They all deserve a special mention for stepping forward with their generous offers of help.”

Subsequently, Peter Hoyle has become our new Website Manager

Beacon

As mentioned in my report last year, we had implemented Beacon, the membership database system specifically developed by TAT for u3as.

This year, mainly thanks to significant customisation work by Neil Hay, we have developed our use of the system which, in turn, has provided significant administrative and financial benefits. Apart from increased accuracy in information available to us, it has taken much of the labour (and guesswork) out of many processes and lightened the load of the Membership Secretary. We are looking forward to continuing to discover new areas in which Beacon can assist us.

4. Actvites

For the year ending 31-Jul-2025 we started the year with 86 activities although one of them, Garden Visits, never really materialised. During the year, mainly through lack of interest from members, the two Line-Dancing groups needed to merge into one group. Furthermore, due to non-availability of the location for a second session the two Ladies Gym groups had to become one group. In addition, the two (out of phase) fortnightly Italian groups (one being a face-toface meeting in one week and one being a Zoom based meeting on the alternate weeks) merged into a weekly face-to-face group. Finally, the Pickleball activities held at the Decathlon store have gone from strength to strength with three extra sessions being added.

For the year commencing 01-Aug-2025, we have merged the two (out of phase) fortnightly Bridge groups into one weekly group (which in essence was already the case) and added two extra groups at Camberley Leisure Centre namely Walking Football and Pickleball (played on a full-size court). We have also removed Croquet Beginners from our offerings with any new-tocroquet members now being accommodated within the existing groups.

Finally, whilst discussing activities it should be noted during the development of the Budget for the forthcoming 2025-2026 year the comments at last year’s AGM were taken on board in respect of the previous reductions in the length of terms. Consequently, for this 2025-2026 year we have increased the number of weeks of courses by 15% from 33 weeks to 38 weeks per year. The underlying number of classes has increased by 17% (effectively 7 classes in 20252056 for every 6 classes in 2024-2025). We are happy to have been able to achieve this growth in our programme of sessions without any similar increase in our membership fees.

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5. Membership

Our membership for the new year is fairly static at about 725 members.

We have introduced a new category of Membership, called Associate Membership. The reason for this is that for every u3a member throughout the country a Capitation fee (currently £4 p.a.) is payable to TAT. This is mainly to cover the insurances that TAT put in place for all u3a activities. As a result, those of our members who are also members of another u3a could, unwittingly, end up paying two Capitation fees to TAT, one from each of the u3as of which they are members. Accordingly, upon providing proof of membership of another u3a, an individual can become an Associate Member of our u3a and pay £4 less to us since the Capitation fee for him/her will be paid over to TAT by his/her other u3a.

As has been pointed out before, we believe that the greater number of members we have, the more interests/activities we can cater to and the better our u3a can become. We therefore ask that all members do whatever they can to ‘spread the word’ and try to get other folks to join us.

Nevertheless, any expansion of interests/activities is dependent on one of our members volunteering to be the Group Leader of the extra group. The Committee and others have on occasions come up with ideas for new groups only to find that in general members might be interested but no Group Leader can be found. So please think about how you might be able to help in this context.

6. The forthcoming year

6.1. We already believe that membership for 2025-2026 will have fallen marginally from that of last year. Furthermore, it is marginally lower than that included within our Budget for 2025-2026 and, as you would expect, we are already exploring what steps may need to be taken as a consequence.
6.2. Committee Membership
a) I know of one new member who intends to stand for election to the Committee and a further one new member who is considering whether to stand. This is encouraging and will allow the workload to be spread over more people.
b) Notwithstanding that, we would obviously welcome any further members who would like to join the Committee, or who would be willing to provide assistance in any other way, to contact either Pam Hay, our Vice-Chair, or myself. If any of you can help our u3a we want to hear from you!
c) Among the tasks that I would like to see achieved during 2025-2026 is an overall review of what we do, how we do it, and whether we could re-arrange the way we do things to be more efficient and effective.
- Let’s try to work smarter but not necessarily harder!

Jerry Carlsson Chair 12-Oct-2025

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Receipts & Payments 2024r25 2022123 ,SUBSCRPTIONS. WPUT DATA Membership U3A for cutreffl year AM $ub8CJiPb(xis for CurTent Yew ttef 18es for Cunent Year ubtola . fees for Cufrent Membef5hip fees in &Jvance lor next ye AM foes in advance for next year 19.994 335 150 20.479 14.074 24.079 31.446 24,379 10.545 31,446 12.015 Subt. fees in •Jvance lor next 14.190 10,795 , 34.624 12.015 43,461 CA81 TAM fees receThed in CY al Nkntter fees rKeN&J in CY Subt¢X81 . To181 Membershi ccrual . U3A Membership n wJvan¢e re¢eNed in PY 34.669 10,545 35.174 43.461 14.074 12.015 936 Nffth8er fees in advance receive*J in PY Subtola . Membefshi . TAM and Nleft otsl UIA MembersP &£nJmg CY otd TAM 8ubscnFkns CY tocy ftryn Pf 14.190 ' 10.795 30.539 $55 12,015 36.094 936 32.382 tocy 31.274 36,394 32.382

I IICOME 30.539 1 36.094 32.382 TAM wual {irKIling recew in advance for next yew) T¢xal wual Man Membershi Loss ReceiOS in Adv¥Ke ft>r nexl Ye 31274 36.394 32.382 10.545 (220) 130 20.479 12.015 Sub Tthal . exdudes re1 IAdd PY Recspts in Advance ftx CY 24.379 31.446 14.074 10.545 TAM SubsaFINxis Sub - indudes T(%al d above two Subt15 = incfxne in CY 14.190 34,669 10.795 35.174 593 12.015 43.461 212 2.122 21.184 202 26.398 45 UIA Events (nol) Bk Interest l LO Bonus TAT Rewa Fund 106 T(tsl Inccrn 59.350 63.075 67.517

ExPENIjRE IRcK)m Hwe 28.126 291 10.105 29,027 Tutor Fees 14.707 651 2.852 11.177 AdminotrntK)n 5.910 273 (2.050) 2,636 232 261 TAT Re9.x)n81 Fund R¢JJTrJi ure 42.760 16.590 50.259 17.258 1 Net Relxi 9.689 STUDY Group• 76.252 L 78.803 71.974 90.721 1 4.278 11.918 58,445 70.870 12,425 Gr Nei Re£ei 12.2291 4.833 17.osn 10.626) 8.5ni I l l.CQ2)

Assets & Liabilities 2024r25 2023r24 2022r23 CASH FUNDS 72.099 51231 51 53.460 51 TOTAL ASSEf3 72.150 51.282 12. 229) 53.511 Group Vtsits (soo beky•) TAT Re9xX1 Fund Gate Fund subSFAM. s in Advancxy W. TAM and Printing & Dth'txrtK Outstandiry Room Hkne Co 10.054 17.696 203 14.190 1.923 10.795 1 12.015 291 3,165 Memberthp relurnts lor 24r25 k) t• m•Je in 2¥26 Oiher Liabdrt TOTAL UABILMES lrnse in &abkns 33.042 25.158 (10.912) 36.070

RESERVES Cash al Year EThJ 72,150 1 51.282 125.157 26.125 53.511 36.0701 17.441 35% TOTAL RESERVES Reserves as % d T(Xd Expen(urn 39.107 91% 11 12982 GROUP VlTs AIIALYSES 17.696 30.121 Roundings C(xre¢li Income lor the per. .. 78,803 L71 899] . 190.721 58.445 0.8701 Gardeni + Walkn. Fri 1 d¢Yj to u3a fund8 10,054 , 17.696 Am 312 63 2,137 Gardeniry. 8.163 Tcwn & thnty Wthry.Fr1 12 710 5.7TI I (11 919) 11,057 548 17,696 10.054 4.277

C?£ .111 i.,ii:iill, £B££8<£8