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2024-02-29-accounts

Romsey and District u3a

TRUSTEES’ REPORT and CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

For the period ended 31[st] March 2024

1. REFERENCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS

Name: Romsey & District u3a

Registered Charity No. 1082501

We are affiliated to the Third Age Trust

Address: 2 Windfield Drive Romsey SO51 7RL

2. OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES

The formal objective of the charity is: ‘ the advancement of education, and in particular the education of older people and those retired from full time work, by all means including associated activities conducive to learning, and personal development in Romsey and the surrounding areas.’

We provide a programme of activities which includes monthly speaker meetings and regular interest group activities which provide members with physical, mental and social stimulation to support active living. Members learn from each other, through sharing their knowledge, skills and experience. Our interest groups provide opportunities for physical activity e.g. table tennis and pickleball, learning activities e.g. French & German and Genealogy and creativity e.g. painting and creative writing and study e.g. Latin literature. A full list of current interest groups and contact details is on our website.

Public Benefit : Due regard has been given to complying with public benefit guidance. The charity proactively encourages and supports anyone in the local community who is no longer in full time employment or raising a family to learn through mutual educational, creative and leisure activities.

3. STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT

The charity is governed by its constitution adopted on 30[th] March 2022. The charity is managed by a committee of, a maximum of 12 and trustees elected annually. During the period of the report it comprised:

CHAIR and Accessibility Officer Bob Shemilt Elected May 2023
VICE CHAIR Tim Holmes Elected May 2023
SECRETARY Trisha Meredith Elected May 2023
TREASURER David Percival Elected May 2023
TRUSTEE (Joint Membership Secretary Jan Tudball Elected May 2023
TRUSTEE (Joint Membership Secretary) Jean Wilks Elected May 2023
TRUSTEE (Groups Co-ordinator) Margaret Marchbank Elected May 2023
TRUSTEE John Scarborough Elected May 2023
TRUSTEE Diana Blakeman Co-opted September 2023

They have met 6 times during the year and during this time have been assisted by other member volunteers whose work has been invaluable.

Our u3a is part of the Southwest Hants u3a network. Representatives of the u3as in the network meet bimonthly to receive updates from the trustees for the Southeast Region of the Third Age Trust and share ideas and good practices. There has also been a peer group meeting for Secretaries this year to enable them to share their procedures.

4. THE FUTURE OF ROMSEY AND DISTRICT u3a

In line with many organisations in the voluntary sector, we continue to find it difficult to secure a sufficient number of trustees to maintain our charity. Our legally binding constitution requires us to have a Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary, Treasurer and at least one other trustee. As a result of this continuing trend much of the

trustees’ time and attention this year has focused once again on ensuring the survival of Romsey and District u3a. We have continued to communicate the importance of identifying members willing to stand as trustees through our newsletter and monthly meetings with little success.

5. ACHIEVEMENTS AND PERFORMANCE

Operational roles

Our u3a is run for members by members who volunteer to undertake specific roles. Some are trustees, others lead interest groups, some look after the arrangements for our monthly meetings and others undertake communication activities. We have about 70 volunteers who do this which is approximately 10% of the membership. Without them the charity would be unable to operate.

Every person who does something for our charity e.g. trustees, group convenor, the refreshments team, is a volunteer. The trustees place on record their thanks to each and every one of them for their valued support.

Membership

Membership, as in all years, has fluctuated. We are very pleased that some 70 people were attracted to join our u3a during this year leading to a closing total of 603 members. Jan Moody has continued as our ‘New Member Buddy’ welcoming and helping them to settle in.

Communication with Members

We have a newsletter editor, John Dick, who produces an edition each quarter providing updated information on interest groups together with photographs leaders have provided of group activities. The newsletter has been sent to all members either by email, hand delivery or by post. Copies have also been made available on the website. John continues to receive positive feedback from members on the layout and content.

John has also been spending a large amount of his time working with the siteworks team and attending several hours of training in readiness for our migration to the new website provider. John is planning to hold training sessions for group leaders and trustees. Once migrated members will see a new look front screen which we think will be attractive and much more user friendly when seeking information. The trustees would like to put on record their thanks for all his hard work and support on this.

Members have also been provided with warnings of online scams and how to deal with them.

Interest Groups

Throughout the year we have maintained around 50 interest groups with changes throughout this time with new leaders, new groups and ones that have ended.

Changes to Interest Groups April 2023 to March 2024

New Groups

Closed Groups

Change of Leader

Monthly Meetings and other events

Gill and Timothy Bailey continued in the post of Programme Secretary this year and have carried out the role excellently. Due to technical restrictions in the Crosfield Hall we have not been able to offer the option of joining the meetings via Zoom they have all been held in person and attendance has been good with between 80 and 100. Speakers have been well received with a wide range of topics. A reminder is sent out to members in advance of the meeting giving details of the speaker and the topic.

Risk Management

The trustees recognise that they continue to have a duty of care to their members and group convenors are required to produce risk management plans taking into account health and safety risks arising from group activities. The trustees monitor and record all incident and accident reports received from groups.

Website

Our website is managed by John Dick and he has been involved with the sitebuilder migration, attending online training and keeping trustees informed of progress and available training for trustees and group leaders.

Our Zoom licence continues to be managed by Michael Ward.

6. FINANCIAL REVIEW

Reserves

We maintain a reserves policy which is regularly reviewed. Our policy is to maintain a reserve of 50% of running costs averaged over the preceding 3 years.

Subscriptions

The annual subscription remains at £15 with members who pay their Third Age Trust capitation through another u3a paying £11.

Financial Overview

Our finances are organised into three bank accounts – Main, Reserves and Groups, on a receipts and payments basis. All accounts are managed by the Treasurer who is signatory together with the Secretary, Vice Chair and John Scarborough, Trustee. Our main income is from Membership Subscriptions and the claiming of Gift Aid on eligible Subscriptions.

All the bank accounts had an independent auditor examine and authorise them.

Outgoings: The Third Age Trust fees include yearly membership fee, cost of the Third Age Magazine (TAM), plus the annual fee to use the Beacon Membership Database. We purchased one yearly Licence for Zoom. We continue to pay for speakers attending the members meetings at Crosfield Hall.

Main Current Account : The balance at the beginning of the year (01.03.2023) was £7466.44 and ended with a balance of £11933.81 (29.02.24)

Reserve Account: The balance at the beginning of the year (01.03.2023) was £5954.53 and ended with a

balance of £6011.22 (29.02.2024)

Groups Bank Account: The balance at the beginning of the year (01.03.2023) was £7056.53 and ended with a balance of £9151.87 (29.02.2024)

8. OUTLOOK

Not unusually during the year some volunteers have given up their role and we thank them for their commitment and contribution to the success of our u3a.

The coming year will not see any changes within the committee as all the current trustees have agreed to stand for a further term to ensure the continued success of Romsey & District u3a and continue providing opportunities for members.

The current trustees do need to highlight the fact that more trustees would help to share the load and bring more ideas to the running of Romsey & District u3a and to help with future planning and continuity.

  1. DECLARATION

The Trustees have approved this report.

Signed on their behalf

Bob Shemilt Chair

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