## TROWBRIDGE AREA COMMUNITY LINK SCHEME ## **Minutes of the 24th Annual General Meeting held on Wednesday 2nd July 2024 at 7.00 pm at Trowbridge Rugby Club, Hilperton, Trowbridge BA14 6JB.** **Present:** Paul Boyce (Chair) Nicola Blackmore (Deputy Chair), Maureen and Chris Brent, Sandra Fry (treasurer) Margaret and Peter Goodall, John and Sarah Sneesby, Brett Davies, Steve Lilley, Ann Smales, Julian Calvin, Peter Binns, Dave Watson, Mike Sheppard, Mike Burrows, Kevin Foster, Carol McCaw, Steve Roberts, Peter Richardson ## **1. Introducton and Welcome** Paul welcomed everybody to the meeting. He thanked everyone for all their hard work and support over the last difficult year. ## **2. Apologies** Trevor Carbin, Sue Collins, Christine Hayter, Sue Holt, Les Huntley, Peter Champlin ## **3. Minutes of the 23rd AGM held 3rd July 2024** The minutes, which had been previously circulated, were approved and signed. No other matters arising. ## **4. Presentaton** Mike Burrows gave a presentation on ‘South Korea through the lens’. It was an interesting talk about his time working in South Korea and showed us places of interest that he visited during his time there. ## **5. Chairs and Trustees Annual Report** The AGM is here once again, This is my 7[th] AGM although we missed 2020 because of lockdown. This is my opportunity to thank you all for the extremely hard work that you do and the wonderful support you give the committee and coordinators. We continually receive praise for the service we provide to the Trowbridge area, not only from clients but from surgeries, hospital clinics and the clubs the clients attend. This is encouraging for the coordinators and minibus management and make our efforts worthwhile. As the only voluntary organization of its type in the BA14 area, it does mean that we are not only taken for granted particularly by the medical profession, but we are also taken advantage of by them. Furthermore we are a victim of our own success in that word of mouth continues to bring a steady stream of new clients. Raleigh Court, Florence Court and others must by now see almost all of their residents being our clients. We are blessed with a number of new volunteers joining us over the last year. This relieves much of the pressure of work particularly at times when a number of drivers and coordinators are not available due to holidays, family commitments or illnesses. The minibus and car transport and the coordinators are constantly looking for new recruits. Once again the minibus has proven to be a resounding success. Nicola will provide a more detailed report. Future plan to migrate our database over to the Wiltshire County cloud-based system has been on hold this year due to ongoing pressures this is still under planning. If the new IT system does get up and running it will enable the drivers to access and complete their expenses online and submit them to the Treasurer at the end of the month. Training will be provided. The transfer of our link phone to a new contract was completed last year. With each coordinator having their dedicated mobile, early hiccups had to be overcome. Our overall financial situation in the year 2024 to 25 has been satisfactory and stable. We have just about broken even. I must emphasize that certain aspects of training must be given to ensure the safety of clients, drivers and escorts. Primarily, training in manual handling is essential in that some of the walking aids and wheelchairs can be very heavy and unwieldy posing a risk to the handler. Safeguarding handouts have also been distributed. Please note all aspects of safeguarding must be passed directly to Sarah. Our aim is simply to help people in need, mostly the elderly and those with disabilities, for whom using public transport and taxis is not a feasible option. Our clients remain our priority with considerate compassionate and caring drivers, with escort when in the minibus and with a much reduced time for them because their driver is ready to take them home with the minimum delay time. Many of our clients are lonely and the link coordinator and driver can often be the only person they’ve spoken with or seen for a while. For clients going to hospital appointments, this can be stressful for them without them having to worry about transport there and back again, so I think a major impact we provide is to distract them from their transport worries. In addition to providing volunteer drivers to take the client to doctor’s dentist’s physio, optician’s and hospital appointments we also offer minibus drop-offs to and collecting from clubs, shopping trips, picking up food packs from the food bank and even a befriending service for people who suffer from loneliness. The subject of donations is something we’ve chatted about quite a few times. We inform our clients of the approximate cost of the trip that we pay our drivers and add that if they can cover that cost it would help us to continue our service. We do emphasize that if they can’t afford this then simply put what they can into the envelope. We do understand how some suffer from financial hardship it is still vital we continue to provide them that service we shouldn’t judge their situation. We are a charity and the money given is a donation not a charge. Contrary to the Good Practice Gude which states that link may operate a tariff system for long drives outside Wiltshire County we rarely actually do so. ## **Our Coordinators What do they do?** Clients phone in with a request for a volunteer driver giving appointment details. Coordinator takes details selects drivers from those available phone the driver gives details of trip then phones client to confirm driver’s name and pickup time. That’s how it works on a good day! It’s not always straightforward but it usually works out in the end. We do have enough coordinators to cover each day of the week and things can turn a bit pear shaped when holidays and illnesses require individual coordinators to work two or even three days in a week. In short we are constantly looking for new coordinators and despite encouraging noises from interested people we are not very successful. One of our drivers, Sue Collins has stepped in a few times after a couple of training and practice sessions, when we were desperate for someone to help us with coordinating. I would like to give my thanks to all the coordinators and to Sue too for the often long days sitting at the laptop and trying to keep cheerful when the phone rings. ## **Our Drivers** These committed devoted volunteers are those at the front line of our service. Those who use their own cars and their time, and those that drive the minibus and act as escorts, deliver our service direct to our clients. As I mentioned just now the clients regularly state their appreciation of the charm and friendliness of these devoted volunteers along with gratitude for the quality service that our drivers provide. Occasionally a driver will bring to our attention that a client is suffering from hardship or a challenge they may face in caring for themselves in their own home. For times such as this we have a Safeguarding policy, thanks to Sarah that the drivers should all have a copy of. Drivers also run foul of parking and clean-air zone wombles, resulting in the imposition of fines. It is the committee responsibility to provide all the support that the drivers require. All the coordinators and members of the Committee will join me in thanking our Drivers and the minibus escorts for their sterling efforts in covering the tasks that we ask of them. Despite the pressure, they make our work as coordinators a pleasure. Our Management Committee is a cohesive team that meets every quarter, They conduct a vast number of hours in the management of the scheme, as you can see on the audit form in your AGM pack, including advising me of the problems and successes. Paul thanked all the members of the committee for all their hard work over the year, individually. Special thanks to Sue Holt retiring after 17 years for all her help with publicity setting up new web site and the new leaflets. Wishing her all the best for the future. Also Christine Hayter due to her commitments resigning from committee for now. We hope to see her return once her commitments come to an end. A copy of the Chair’s full Report is available for those unable to attend the meeting. A copy of mileages, trips and donations for Trowbridge Area Community Link Scheme is also available. Aside from the link volunteers, I would like to mention the external organisation that give us so much advice and support: The Link Project Team – it is based with Community First in Devizes. Its website is www.wiltshirelink.org.uk Paul would like to thank all members of TACLS who make his post as Chairman enjoyable and fulfilling. ## **6. Vice Chair Report /Community Minibus Report** Unfortunately my position as vice chair has mainly been to sort out parking fines. Our drivers continue to receive them even though the car reg no are registered at some hospitals this is mainly due to drivers over staying the time limit parking. Although very frustrating and time consuming they have all been cancelled. By the end of October we would have been running our new minibus for a year a total of 3 years now since the service started. For those who don’t know despite fundraising and raising a large sum of money to enable us to purchase our own bus it was decided to lease on a 5 year term as we managed to negotiate a very good deal which covers servicing and safety checks. This also takes the pressure off as we would need to keep raising money to replace the vehicle in the future but this way we will have a new vehicle every 5 years. Our day to day transport of running users to clubs continues to increase in numbers. We have a few regular groups that hire the bus at weekends. We also have a steady flow of bookings to take groups on day trips.. I can’t thank all the drivers and escorts enough for all their help often giving a full day to assist wheelchair users on day trips. And also thank you all for filling in since Tony had his knee replacement surgery and hopefully all being well will be back in September. I have been very lucky to have recruited a new driver/escort Sheila who is standing in as and when needed. A problem that has occurred this year is a driver trying to get his licence renewed after hitting 70. Due to medical reasons it has been along laborious process taking nearly a year to get this resolved. Unfortunately I think we will have more problems ahead as more drivers renew theirs in the near future. The minibus proves to be a huge commitment and gives me very little free time as I am on the bus daily either driving or escorting and there are rotas, cleaning inside and out, record keeping, fuel claims, attending CTA meetings and grant applications which are ongoing. But as the service is so important and means so much to the people we help it is their gratitude and thanks we receive daily that keeps us all going. ## **7. Treasurer’s Annual Accounts & Report** / **Minibus Treasurer Report** We had a fairly smooth year and the only big expense paid out was for 5 new mobiles for the Co-ordinators, this also has incurred more expense in the way of telephone bills. There are plans in the future to update the computer laptop and convert to a new system. This will obviously incur expenses in updating equipment etc. I have a copy of the expenses for last year with me if anyone would like to glance at them, but must point out that these are still for verification by the Auditor. Our balance as at the 31st March 2025 was Current Account £19,335.42 Deposit Account £18,356.67 The balance at 2[nd] July 2025 was Current Account £19,738.52 Deposit Account £18,356.67 ## **Minibus** In the last year the minibus has taken on a new minibus and things are running smoothly due to the hard work of small number of volunteer drivers. The funds have increased from the previous year due to funds raised by Nicola and the rise in passengers. I have a copy of the expenses for the last year with me if anyone would like to glance at them, but must point out that these are still waiting or verification by the Auditor The balance of the Minibus Account as at 31[st] March 2025 Current Account £17,588 Deposit Account £10,000 The balance of the Minibus Account as at 2[nd] July 2025 Current Account £18,294.68 Deposit Account £10,000 (interest to be paid August 2025) ## **8. Chief Co-ordinator’s Report** A big thank you to all the coordinators and drivers. We now have 5 coordinators so every day is covered. We all help each other when we have illness, holidays. It works well. Thank you all for your patience, good humour thank you for the anti-social hours you do going that extra mile waiting at the hospitals and taking trips at short notice. We have lots of requests for local trips but find it hard to get drivers for them the local trips are just as important as the hospital trips. Thank you once again for all you do. ## **9. Recruitment and Volunteer Support Ofcer’s Report** We have taken on 4 new drivers this last year but have lost 2 because of illness. Had a few enquiries sending out applications but nothing happening. So it is an ongoing process we need new drivers. Word of mouth seems to be the best way. ## **10. Electon of Ofcers** ## **The following nominated Officers were proposed and were elected** Chair: Paul Boyce Vice Chair: Nicola Blackmore Treasurer: Sandra Fry Deputy Treasurer: Peter Champlin Secretary: Maureen Brent Chief Co-ordinator: Margaret Goodall Nicola Blackmore Minibus Operations Manager Recruitment & Volunteer Support: Maureen Brent/Margaret Goodall Health and Safety Adviser: Sarah Sneesby Safeguarding Office: Sarah Sneesby Communication Officer: Brett Davies Minibus Treasurer: Sandra Fry Sue Collins Committee Member: Dave Watson Committee Member: ## **11. Appointment of our Independent Examiner** Need nominations for new Independent Examiner as John Freeman retiring. Paul will look into this. ## **12. Review of the Consttuton** No current changes to be made to the Constitution ## **13. Any other business** Questions were asked about the new system whether we would be able to email details to drivers about trips etc. This we will be able to do. Full training will be given to everyone once it is up and running. The setting up of the Whatsapp group by Rick Owen link driver has proved a great success. ## **14. Date of 25th AGM** Thursday 2nd July 2026 at 7.00pm venue to be arranged ## **15. Date of next Commitee Meetng** Thursday 31[st] July 2025 The meeting closed and refreshments were served. tyj M(0 04.IX> 7.7 io io 29 QJ20 trK*' Q401.1• n.•J 12 IS io 1$ F•• 2J 2Jlg 4101. ID .iizn 6Fty9W￿Y 17.* -17. Q374 17 ns l(ft TACLS Ojrffl 17 Q1#72 72 &¥LX Raceipts and Payments TACLS Year ended 31.3.25 Year •nd4d 31131J125 Yoor end￿ 3113rd024 ¢S)nX piint ¢)Surnn RECEIPTS af•nts Rec•lv*l Town Coun Other Grants T<>tsl Giant• Don*tlon• Donalom. Clent• DonaJoft•. Volunteor Drhern DoftaOon•. 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