**MALMESBURY & DISTRICT LINK** **AGM** ## **Minutes of Annual General Meeting held on Wednesday April 8[th] 2026 at Goss Croft Village Hall Reporting on the year January to December 2025** ## **Present:** Louise Chamberlain (Chairman), Sarah Chester (VRSO), Kevin Noble (Treasurer), Jean Butcher (Deputy Treasurer), John Wilkins (H&S), Alix Pentecost (DPO), Jane Bartholomew (Safeguarding), Judy Paginton (Secretary to the Trustees), Chuck Berry, David Boyle, Susie Brassey, Marie-Clare Brind, Charlotte BurnabyAtkins, Steve Cameron, Fi Carpenter, Philip Carter (C), Philip Carter (H) (auditor), Georgina Carter, Steve Chester, Emily Clarke, Alastair Davies, Lynda Fleming, Vicki Graham, Mike Green, Pam Green, Patrick Green, Bridget Haines, Lucy Hay, Gerda Hayes, Jonny Hobson, Graham Instrell, Ian Kidd, Amanda Lean, Philly Lynch, Phil Malcolm, Tina McAllister, Robert McLachlan, Gillian Noble, Stan Paginton, Roy Pentecost, Keith Player, Bill Reed, Phil Tabinor, Mike Tarrant, Colin Wootton, ## **1. Apologies received from:** Mel Beeching, Liz Cooper, Paul Froggatt (Link trip), Tony Gregson, Aileen Hood, Jane King, Allan McCouig, Tina Rigby, Bryn Stew, Lindsay Tilley (coordinator duty), Janice Vincent, Mark Vincent, David Warrick, ## **2. Minutes of meeting on 7[th] May 2025** These had been circulated and were accepted as correct. **3. Matters Arising -** There were no matters arising. ## **4. Welcome and thanks – Louise Chamberlain** On behalf of the Trustees Louise welcomed all present – drivers and coordinators, as well as special guests, Philip and Georgina Carter. For many years, Philip has donated his time to complete our annual financial audit, and his wife Georgina is also a previous Link volunteer and Secretary. Louise introduced Sarah Chester to her first AGM as a Trustee; Sarah took on the role of Volunteer Recruitment & Support Officer at the end of 2025, and has had a busy start, welcoming and training new volunteer drivers and also getting to grips with the role of coordinator. Another new officer on the board of Trustees is David Warrick, who is our new Technology Officer. David has sent his apologies today, but his support since taking up the post in December has been enormous. She also thanked Lucy Hay, who has stepped down as PR & Marketing Officer, and John Wilkins, who is stepping down as Health & Safety Officer. These are both essential roles and they will both be missed, but they are both staying on as drivers. Alix Pentecost has kindly agreed to take on the role of H&S Officer. The PR and Marketing role remains unfilled. Another person who is owed a big thank you is our Secretary Judy Paginton, who not only documents all our meetings – the AGM, drivers’ meetings and coordinators’ meetings, but also quietly gets on with a lot of work in the background, including sending welcome letters to new clients, and maintaining w3w references for addresses of both clients and destinations. Judy also multitasks as a coordinator. ## **5. Chairman's Report – Louise Chamberlain** Our new website is now live. It is an upgrade and improvement on our previous one, with useful information for anyone interested in what we do, especially prospective clients and volunteers. The volunteer page includes our recruitment video. There is also a password-protected area where existing volunteers can sign in and view documents, such as policies. This replaces the drivers’ area of the Link Microsoft account. We will be emailing you all with the password for this area. In 2025 our drivers clocked up a total of 1319 trips; many of these were last minute arrangements, and many were to more distant hospitals, requiring a huge sacrifice of time for our drivers. None of these trips would happen without our team of coordinators, who work efficiently and with great kindness towards our clients when taking bookings and then following through to delivery of our service. Our clients are, on the whole, incredibly grateful to our volunteers. We receive many expressions of gratitude, including this 1 example: “I was taken to my appointment this morning, just wanted to say thank you so much. What a fantastic service you do, and such a lovely gentleman”. Our lunch today serves as another expression of gratitude from the Trustees to all volunteers. Thanks go to the following people for this lunch: Helen Carter, Charlotte Burnaby-Atkins and Jane Bartholomew for the beautiful flower arrangements. Thank you Gillian Noble, Gerda Hayes, Charlotte and my fellow Trustees for the food, and especially thank you Alix for so efficiently overseeing the whole operation. ## **6. Treasurer's Report for Year Ending 31st December 2025** (Balance sheet at end of Minutes) - i. **Accounting Basis** - This report is based on the state of the accounts from 1 Jan 2025 to 31 Dec 2025. - ii. **Activity** Trip numbers were down by approx 11% compared to last year with typically 90 -110 trips per month and a peak of 146 in October. - iii. **Administration** General Administration costs were up slightly this year, but a PR video was also commissioned in summer to advertise M&D Link services on the website at a cost of £500. - iv. **Insurance** Insurance increased from £625.78 to £659.94. - v. **Telephone** Our monthly telephone bill with Buzz Networks in March remains unchanged at £23.88. Thus there was a slight decrease in annual phone bill compared to the previous year with the ending of the BT contract early in 2024. - vi. **Gift Aid** Gift Aid is only claimed on Donations. Gift Aid received for the last HMRC tax year Apr 2024-Mar 2025 was up slightly from the previous year at £4217.08 - vii. **PPE / Client Aids** PPE and Client-aid expenditure was only £23.98 for 2 “Car Handles”. ## viii. **Reserves** Cash reserves are held in Cambridge and Counties Bank in a 95-day notice account; the interest rate has reduced steadily, following reductions in the Bank of England base rate, to 3.25% in Dec 25. To reduce the excess amount in the Lloyds current account, £6000 was transferred to the Reserve account in Jan 25. Total interest accrued for the year was £771.99. Total Reserves now stand at £20,480.47. - ix. **Summary** Income from clients decreased by approx 7% to £22,005.65, but driver claims increased by approx 6% to £20,539.40. Overall admin costs increased slightly, although, as noted above, the only significant extra expenditure was £500 on a new PR video. As in most previous years, total expenses exceeded client donations, this year by £1291.29, but this was more than made up by the Gift Aid claim of £4,217.08 plus the £771.99 interest on reserves, leading to an overall surplus of £3,697.98. Thus our combined balances of Current and Reserve accounts has increased by that amount (approx 12%) to £34265.22. In 2025, Lloyds Bank announced they would start charging, primarily for cash and cheque deposits; I estimate this would cost approx £200 per year. The Trustees therefore decided to investigate other suitable free charity accounts. The result was that the current account is in the process of being moved to a Charity Account with the Coop bank which will be free of such charges. In Dec 25, the Coop account was opened with a trial amount of £100 and 3 individual trial payments of £10 back to the Lloyds account were made to test the ‘2-to-authorise’ procedures. The net transfer to the Coop was therefore £70. The intention is to transfer the remaining balance from the Lloyds to the Coop when and if the Trustees are satisfied the new account meets our needs, then close the Lloyds account. There are currently 4 named authorisers for the Coop account: Kevin Noble (Treasurer), Jean Butcher (Vice Treasurer), Louise Chamberlain (Chair), and Alix Pentecost (Trustee). **These accounts for the year ended 31[st ] December 2025 have been examined and confirmed as a true and correct record.** 2 ## **7. Volunteer Support & Recruitment Officer’s Report for period January to December 2025** - **Statistics** - We carried out a total of 1319 trips in 2025. Trip numbers since our last meeting in Nov 2025 total 532. Driver hours totalled 2732 in 2025 (against 2962 in 2024) with 44440 miles travelled. 2026 data so far shows: |||||| |---|---|---|---|---| |MONTH|TRIPS|CLIENTS (&New)|TRIPS 2026|CLIENTS (&New)| |||||| |Jan|99|62 (12)|116|71 (9)| |||||| |Feb|102|62 (8)|96|67 (8)| |||||| |March|134|81 (11)|107|70 (9)| |||||| - In 2025 March (at 134) and October (at 145) were our peak months for client trips . So far in 2026, the pattern has not repeated itself this March with trip numbers remaining in line with other months. Whilst 2025 figures were around 4% less than 2024, 2025 data was significantly higher than 2023. Trends continue upwards. - It is worth noting three or four clients who used our services a lot last year (mostly to get to the PCC) are no longer needing our help. The maximum number of trips by one such client last year was 63 and another who sadly has been in hospital made 48. Such frequent trips skew the true picture a little. The number of clients using our services is actually slightly higher this year. 2025 saw us help 299 clients in total. - Malmesbury PCC continues as one of the most popular destinations apart from the hospitals (94 tips this year), where Swindon GWH has had the most trips (114 trips this year) and RUH (41 trips). In 2025 we visited the PCC 403 times, GWH 373 times and RUH on 138 occasions. - Cancellations are running at consistently small levels; only 2 have been due to driver unavailability, 27 have been cancelled by clients and 17 by Health Care Providers. - We currently have 52 drivers with 41 drivers having completed trips so far this year. Many many thanks to everyone. Obviously, we are delighted that some of our drivers are able to carry out at least two journeys each week, but we couldn’t cover all our client requests without such a huge team effort form everybody. Thank you again - **A few reminders:** - When renewing or changing insurance, please could drivers remember to tell the company that you are a volunteer driver. - It’s very important to phone the clients the day before a trip. As well as reassuring the clients that they have a driver for their forthcoming appointment, it has proven useful as occasionally they have given us incorrect details. - As part of our Health and Safety procedures it is important that any driver who is 79 takes the extra ‘Drive Plus’ course. Once completed, please let VRSO know so that drivers can continue to transport clients. - Our ID badges should be worn at all times. It reassures everyone that we deal with that we are with Link. - It is important to notify the DBS update service if you change your email address. Also check Junk folders regularly as these have been known to end up there! - When claiming for a coffee/sandwich (if a trip lasts over three hours), please take a screen shot of your receipt and then send it to Kevin the treasurer when submitting your expenses claim. - **New, returning and retiring volunteers** - David Keen has now retired. 3 - Tina Rigby has returned. - At the end of the year, we welcomed two new drivers Stephen Cameron and Bryn Stew. Stephen from Little Somerford and Bryn from Corston. - Although word of mouth continues to be our main source of new volunteers, in January we attended the ‘Oaksey Evening of Village Collaboration’ organised by the local Parish council. We were delighted by the level of interest shown. As a result, we recently welcomed, Allan McCouig as a new driver and Chuck Berry as well; with another one or two new drivers in the pipeline. - None of this could happen without our team of amazing Co-ordinators. We currently are looking to recruit another co-ordinator to the team so would welcome any volunteer either from our existing team of drivers or via a new introduction! ## **8. Election of Officers:** - a. Chairman:– Louise Chamberlain and existing Trustees:- Kevin Noble, Jean Butcher, Alix Pentecost, John Wilkins, Jane Bartholomew and Lucy Hay - b. New Trustee - Sarah Chester (VRSO) Proposed by Lucy Hay Seconded by Fi Carpenter Proposed by Jane Bartholomew, Seconded by Alix Pentecost - c. New Trustee – David Warwirck (Tech) Proposed by Kevin Noble, Seconded by Judy Paginton All were unanimously elected. ## **9. AOB** - Jean Butcher, Deputy Treasurer, thanked her “Cash Counting Elves” for helping each month when she opens clients’ envelopes and counts the donations. These are Pam Green and Charlotte BurnabyAtkins, with reserves Gerda Hayes, Tina McAllister and Phil Malcolm. - Coordinators have suggested donations for the most common destinations. - Drivers should give in an empty envelope where the client is donating by BACS so that Jean can look out for payment. - Lynda Fleming reminded us how LINK started 20 years ago – 230 client, 12 drivers and 1 coordinator. There was no database, no email, just the landline but 919 trips were completed The meeting closed after 40 mins Signed: Date: 4 ## **Malmesbury & District link Charity Number 1043099** ## **Summary of Income and Expenditure and Balance Sheet for the Year Ending 31 December 2025** ||**Year Ending 31 December 2025**|| |---|---|---| |||| |**2024**|**Income**|**2025**| |£23703.00|Client Donations|£22005.65| |£3778.89|(Apr23-Mar24) Gift Aid (Apr24-Mar25)|£4217.08| |£591.92|Bank (Reserves) Interest|£771.99| |£28073.81|**Total Income (a)**|£26994.72| ||**Expenses**|| |£441.18|Telephone|£352.50| |£905.02|Administration|£1125.47| |£625.78|Insurance|£659.94| |£35.97|PPE/Client Aids|£23.98| |£121.86|Advertising & PR|£595.65| |£2129.81|Total Admin Expenses (ie excluding driver claims)|£2757.54| |£19341.83|Driver Claims|£20539.40| |£21471.64|**Total Expenses (b)**|£23296.94| |£6602.17|**Income Less Expenses (e = a-b)**|£3697.78| |£23965.27|Fund Balance from Previous Year (f)|£30567.44| |£30567.44|New Fund Balance (e+f)|£34265.22| |£16858.96|Lloyds bank Balance 31 Dec*|£13714.75| |-|Transfer to new Coop Acct Dec 25|£70.00| |£13708.48|Reserves Balance 31 Dec (Cambridge & Counties) *|£20480.47| |£30567.44|**Combined Balances**|£34265.22| 5