Chair
Hello and good evening, explorers! It's my pleasure to welcome you to this year's Annual General Meeting. One year on from the return from lock-down and I am pleased to say that BEC has continued to grow and evolve. I've been blessed to have seen a year with such a committed, supportive and hard-working committee along with section leaders, deputies and members who have all worked so hard to make it a truly memorable year. So, to start, big thank you to everyone that helps out, be it on a regular basis or just when you can, it all adds up to making BEC the great club we all enjoy being a part of.
Over the past year various sections organised successful trips to places like North Wales, South Wales, Devon, Cornwall, Dartmoor, France, Portugal and even further afield! The diary has been full of local mountain biking, indoor & outdoor climbing, water-sports, walking,runing and social events at the club.
The (still quite new) website continues to operate well and a massive thanks to Chetan who continues to add features and patiently work through each new teething issue as they crop up. Thanks also to those on the committee who have helped (and continue to help) get the suprisingly large and disorganised BEC archive sorted through so we can make relevant parts available on the website.
BECs relationship with the Sailing Club continues to strengthen with many members regularly socialising together & joint parties happening over the year with iSwim and beach tennis also getting involved. The Sailing Club have recently said goodbye to the Surf Lifesavers who have moved to a new home at the Sea Lanes and while it is sad to see them go this does mean that all clubs can now freely use the facilities on a Saturday and opens up the possibility of regular Saturday events at the club which I’m sure we will all take advantage of over the year.
The clubhouse has always played a big role in BEC and is often where trip ideas are conceived and realised. Many members, often including myself can be found here of a Wednesday evening throughout the year planning trips, greeting new members and generally socialising.
New Members meetings have proven consistently popular throughout the year, even in the colder months. Thanks to Val and Leah for running them so well and to all the members that socialise with the prospective members afterwards. It all helps to make them a friendly and welcoming introduction to the club.
Our charitable aims are to encourage people of all ages and young people in particular to participate in outdoor activities. BEC continues to meet these aims and we have made progress raising our visibility to a younger demographic.
Paddle-sports continue to be very popular and with the arch refreshed ahead of the start of the season we are in a great position to continue to grow this very popular arm of the club. This year saw 45 people signing up for Kayak induction and 43 for Sup induction raising £450 and £430 respectively. Thanks to all the leads, deputies and experienced club members who work together to make BEC water-sports happen and special mentions for Pat, Colin & Stef who have worked particularly hard in their sections running inductions. Many club members have come forward to assist in running the ever-expanding SUP section and with their help we can look forward to busy year of BEC SUP. Kayaking trips were again popular and we have begun to build collaborative relations with other kayaking clubs to expand our range of paddlesport opportunities including a recent sea-kayaking trial at the Martlet Kayak Club. Swimming pool based training sessions helped the section stay busy through the winter and saw many improve their kayak skills and learn to roll.
This year we hope to be able to grow this opportunity and extend it to include SUP section too. Stef continues to be our representative and liaison to British Canoeing and has put great effort into organising and sometimes even running training courses for our water sections so thank you Stef!
Surf Section has seen a busy year with many trips including cornwall, south wales, devon, the bristol indoor wave and even Ericera in Portugal! Tim and Cat continue to do a great job making the trips happen and already have many in the works for this season. The Portugal trip also deserves a second mention as this was the highlight of several people’s year and a big thanks to Judy for organising. BEC members also did a great job supporting the Surfers Against Sewage paddle-out protest last weekend with some members acting as martial’s and even getting the club mentioned in news reports about the event. Thanks go to everyone who took part and Katie Wootton especially for her work organising the volunteers.
Climbing had an excellent season for top-roped sandstone climbing last summer, thanks to the bone-dry weather, and ran club sessions on most Friday evenings from June to August using the BEC sandstone kits. Many members were very helpful in sharing experience and lifts, including Colin Sandry, Colin Glenny, Susie Browning, Sue Haseltine and Alasdair McGregor.
We had enjoyable lead-climbing weekend trips to Gilwern in Wales and Portland in Dorset. Alasdair McGregor and Chetan Padia organised a long weekend of bouldering in Fontainebleau which proved very popular and may be repeated this year. There was also some climbing on the BEC multi-activity trip to the Gower peninsula last July. Over the February half-term week Alan Gornall and Colin Sandry even organised a trip to Costa Blanca in Spain. I couldn’t make it but it sounded like a lot of fun.
Throughout the winter there was an active group of BEC members climbing at High Sports on a Monday evening. These evenings have proved an effective forum for BEC climbers to keep in touch and welcome new members to the club.
Turning to the new financial year, BEC’s first sandstone session of 2023 ran last Friday, thanks to Susie Browning for taking the lead on organisation. We hope to continue them as long as the weather and light permit, likely until mid August. This year, despite the wet spring, we have also already had a lead-climbing weekend in Portland, and a day trip to the easier sport-climbing crags near Swanage.
There will be more to follow, we have a “BEC climbing organisers” WhatsApp group to throw trip ideas around in and will try to keep the trips coming. Thanks to Stephen Wilmot for his report.
Caving has had a slow restart after shaking off the shackles of lockdown and has had a relatively quiet year but they have recently run one beginner friendly trip, have another planned for June and hope to run more in the near future. Thanks to Antonio and Matt for their continued support.
Cycling has continued to run several sessions each week over the year. Thanks go to Susie Llewelyn, Rachel & Maisie Pettiger, Martin Packer, Judy Eaton and to everyone else who leads these regular local rides. I'm sure there is always scope for more people to lead rides so please volunteer if you can.
Running section has enjoyed its first year and was particularly active during the summer with Leah and Wairimu organising seafront and trail runs from 5km to 15km.
Walking has continued to organise regular walks locally and some further afield including a very well received trip to Madeira that also featured in this years Explorers Tales! Thank you Bea and Elizabeth for all your hard work and I'm sure that there is always scope for more people to lead walks so please volunteer if you can.
Tennis and Badminton took place this year as usual. Thanks to Henna and David for organising and I would like to offer particular thanks to David who is stepping down as tennis section leader this year for a great job facilitating the role. If anyone could step up to lead tennis section this year that would be greatly appreciated!
Social – Angus and Felix have shared the position of Social Secretary this past year and have worked brilliantly together delivering some memorable and well attended parties. More will be coming soon with the Summer Party on the 12[th] August and Christmas party on the 16[th] December so get those dates in your diary. BEC is now responsible for running the bar on the second and fourth Wednesdays of every month and helpers are always greatly appreciated so please reach out to Angus or Felix to get bar trained and come and get involved. Also any ideas for more parties/events are appreciated so please pitch those at them too.
Matt, Stephen and Wairimu are stepping down from their positions on the committee this year from the positions of Vice-Chair, Treasurer and PR Secretary respectively. Stephen and Matt have both played pivotal roles over their 3 years on the committee and their commitment and dedication will be fondly remembered as they move on to new roles within the club and a well deserved rest from committee business. I hope you both enjoy all the extra free time and I hope I can still rely on you for the odd piece of advice. Wairimu has been fantastic as PR secretary and has successfully juggled starting up a running section alongside her committee duties. You have all been a pleasure to work alongside and id like to thank you on behalf of myself, the committee and the club.
Committee Monitor Damian has been a great help in his role as monitor and I am very grateful to him for agreeing to be nominated for a further year so that we can continue to rely on his advice and experience. He also ran a very successful series of Explorers Tales over the winter and If you have any tales of adventurre you would like to share its never too soon to get them lined up so please contact Damien if you’re interested.
I would also like to thank Sumitra for her work updating and streamlining BEC spreadsheets and other online procedures.
Arch management has been a particularly busy area this year with the implementation of the planned arch refurbishment. This has taken a great deal of time and effort over the year from meeting with suppliers and external contractors over the summer, planning and carrying out their foundational works around activities through the autumn and into the herculean effort by BEC members in finally realising the new arch design. A process that has dominated the winter months to make sure it was complete in time for the start of the water season. To celebrate the completion of these works i’d like to invite everyone to join me in thanking all those involved in making this project happen. Particular credits go to Alex Robins for his excellent design, everyone who volunteered within the build crew, and an honourable mention for Dan Richards for putting the work in every session over the months of work and, of course, the one, the only, Brian Orsola! He organised, project managed, haggled, motivated, put more physical work in than any one else, adapted to the many speedbumps that came up, lead by example and remained positive and upbeat throughout! Truly inspiring and we are all indebted to your efforts so thank you Brian! We now intend to have a few months using it in its current configuration while collecting feedback from members and water leaders. We will then meet with all the relevant section leaders to discuss any potential tweaks or alterations.
Now, I would like to comment briefly on the matter of how we communicate with each other within the club. Communication in BEC can be tricky with so many messages flying around by email, Whatsapp and Signal. It hasn't escaped my attention as Chair that there have been some negative
experiences related to club communications. Please be mindful of how your messages may affect others and do reach out if you're having a tough time. The committee will do our best to support you where we can, and if necessary, enforce the code of conduct which is designed to protect our members. There is never an acceptable reason for treating any club member in a manner not befitting the code of conduct. I am sure that you all, like I do, aspire to a club that looks for constructive, collaborative solutions to any hurdles we may encounter.
Please remember that those on the Committee, the Section Leaders & Deputies, the trip organisers and everyone else who contributes to BEC give of their time freely and we all do our best to keep BEC running smoothly despite other commitments in our lives. BEC is a members club and as such each and every member should try to help in some way in the running of this fabulous club. This could be something as simple as helping behind the bar, helping tidy the arch, organising a BBQ on a Wednesday, helping to run a trip alongside someone else etc.
As I’m sure many of you know this has been my first year as Chair. Much of it has been enjoyable and those times it has been difficult I am grateful to have such a supportive & constructive group of people around me to help put in the time and mental energy to resolve those hiccups and keep BEC looking forward with positivity. I look forward to another year working with members old and new to keep BEC inclusive, exciting and fun.
Ducklings AGM Finance Report
YE March 23 Performance
I am pleased to report that the accounts for the year ending March 23 have now been completed. I have put the headline numbers into the table below and have compared them to the year ending March 22 as a comparison:
| Y/E Mar 23 | Y/E Mar 22 | Variance | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Turnover | £132,662.05 | £123,272.74 | £9,389.31 |
| CostofSales | £88,140.34 | £82,354.01 | £5,786.33 |
| GrossProft | £44,521.71 | £40,918.73 | £3,602.98 |
| Overheads | £21,987.53 | £22,898.84 | -£911.31 |
| Net Proft | £22,534.18 | £18,019.89 | £4,514.29 |
This year has seen a return to profit for Ducklings in terms of financial performance. There isn’t a great deal of difference between this year and last as we have been full for the last 2 years so there is only a difference of just under £10k. We had an increase of £3,360.75 for pre-school sessions, £2,666.92 increase on Breakfast club and £361.50 decrease for after school club sessions. But we did have a huge increase last year for after school club so we knew this would settle down.
I am also pleased to say that fundraising for year ending Mar 23’ was £2898.23. This has been spent on resources, the roof covering the two porta cabins and the outside classroom.
Cash Position/Credit Control/Banking
I can also report that the Ducklings cash position continues to remain healthy within its two bank accounts with a balance of £82,297.72 with £25k in reserve.
Credit Control is now being done regularly to help collect outstanding monies. Everyone involved are now proactive with Credit Control which is closely monitored. We are currently owed just over £3K but we still have a month for further payments to be made as some are paying monthly.
Other Matters
We have found that doing all the accounts in house has really worked again this year and we now understand the financial side of the charity much better. We can keep on top of missed payments and then re send statements out each month, so this helps parents keep on top of payments. We also now have some parents pay their invoices over the term so we can also keep up to date on sending them reminders on this too. We also now have a Sum-up machine and this has been amazing on our fundraising events. We are looking to add to our reserve account so that we are in line with recommendations for the Charity commission having at least 3 months salary for each staff member in case of closer/offer redundances. This term we
have also put some monies by for repairs to the building as the property isn’t getting any younger!
CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examinerfs report on the accounts Section A Independent Examlner s Report R•port to th• trusts•s Hunsdon Ducklings Pre School On accounts frr th• y••r •nded 3110&r2023 Charlty no {If any) 1042209 Set out on pages 2-5 IN1nrnb•t to Th• ib•iiyi I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above chanty 1.the Trusf) for the year ended Responslbllltles and basis of report As the charity's trustees, you are responslble for the preparation ofthe accounts in 8¢xordan¢e with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 I rew1 in resp8c of my examinati(Jn of the Trusfs a¢¢(Kmts carTied out under secbon 145 of the 2011 Ad and in Catr9 out my examinatJon, I have follod all the Wicile Dire¢tion$ given by the Charity Commission under section 145(51{b) of the Indedent charitys gross income exceeded £250,000 and l am quafified to examinerfs statomont undertake the examinaOn by teing a qualffied member of [inswt name of apph(xbie ltsted bodym. Lblgte I l rfnot applicab. I have c¢xnWed my examinalion. I confim that no material matters have come lo my attention in Connection wrth the examination {other tharTr thal disdosed telow ') whi¢h gives me cause lo believe that in, any rnaterial the acojuntwy records we not kept in accordance wbth sedion 130 of the Chartknes Act: or the accounts did not accord wtih the accountiThJ records,. or the aco)urts did not comF4y with the applicable reqrefflents concemlro the fomi and content of aCunts set out in the Charrtie8 (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2Crf)8 other Ihan any rwirement that the accounts give a 'true and fairf view whi¢h is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination. I have no concerns and havo come acfOSS llo Qther matters in Gonn8Ction th th8 examination to which attention should b8 drawn in this report in ordei to @nable a proper understanding of the accounts to be re8ched. ' Pl88se delete Ihe In the brackets rfthay (k) not apply. L+. li- Name: Relovant professlonal qu)lIficaonI$1 w btsdy
Proflt & Los3 0110412022 to 312023 TURNOVER CODE TOTAL t15.2& Fndt Momy £6KI.67 ,)17.ry 4(KJS 11TLW2 4010 £8,9795J After SLtyJ Clkn. To4.Y) 17,2013) 4ot2 £16.617 4020 18,36525 41fM> £47.894.73 4102 ES.4C&70 4202 £&wJ. £I,tyM.24 £42.LKI 4304 Card FthrvJ. Bwd Nlght È2.3n29 4310 £2167 £S5t.00 E45.B3 £10. TolalTuriknr £132,662ffj5
Hunsdon Duckllngs Pro4chool Profft & Loss 0110412022 to 3110312023 LESS COST OF SALES , CODE NAME TOTAL £69.74 £4S4.54 Stsff , £80.4.97 £5,471.77 £470.29 7401 Fwth[nk. Brngkl8s1 aub 7402 £474.Q3 7403 i Total Cost Of Sales £88,140.34 Gross Profft £44,521.71
Hunsdon Duthllnw4 Prkn8¢hool Proflt & Los• 0110412022 to 3110312023 LESS EXPENSES TOTAL CODE NAME £$4.0 J03 £7.570.83 5101 £705.31 Slaff Traknh19 E4.146.48 SYJ2 £1.521.21 7103 £742. £744.$9 7201 £2280.95 7YJO 7301 £313.95 74Ctyl £92.20 74L £248.26 £342.7fj 75fQ £77S.60 7YJ4 £634.40 £83.gJ £70.(> £462.70 £13.99 £88.51 E¥ps. Bahd NLgfrt £782.27
Hunsdon Duckllngs Prn4chool Profft & Loss 01104r2022 to 3110312023 CODE NAME TOTAL FW#jrabl Off £1CQ,fy) Totsl Exponses £21.987.53 Net Proflt £22,534.18