Trustees’ Report 2023-2024
The last year continued to be a busy year for Evesham & District u3a. Our membership numbers remain buoyant with over 1000 members including associate members. Visiting members from Cotswold Link u3a groups continue to attend an Evesham group as per the Cotswold Link agreement. It is a great benefit to all of our members as it opens a great many more interest groups across the region. This year we have benefitted from advice from fellow officers across the link. In addition, we hosted the March annual general meeting which was held at Honeybourne Village Hall.
Inevitably, some interest groups have ceased to exist during this year but have quickly been replaced by others. Some groups have developed 2[nd] or 3[rd] groups to cope with numbers and the Concert Group has occasionally had to hire a second coach to transport concert goers to the Symphony Hall. There are also a number of groups which have started this year or are preparing to start. Some groups are running with small waiting lists and the Groups’ Coordinator continues to monitor the situation and support group leaders where necessary.
Our annual Open Day was held in November at All Saints Church and only happens due to hard work by both committee members and our non-committee ‘experts’. It continues to be an important shop window for our organisation. This year we asked attendees where they had learned about u3a and the Open Day and despite advertising in local press and magazines, word of mouth and seeing the banners in town were the most common answers.
Financial transactions have continued to be more and more complicated as the face of banking changes. We have continued to encourage our members to pay using online facilities, but we understand that some of our members prefer not to. However, paying by cheque, and more especially cash, are beginning to get more difficult. Venues are also beginning to refuse cash and cheque payments which makes life difficult for some groups. This will be the focus of the finance sub-committee in the coming year.
This year the website has changed. Evesham has been in the trial group for this new website and we could only do that because we have a very skilled and hard-working website team had what turned out to be almost a full-time job setting it up. The website is now much more attractive, professional and easy to use.
The committee continues to meet on a monthly basis at Richmond Villages Wood Norton. Four members are standing down in the coming year which will leave the committee short of volunteers. We will continue to contact members regarding joining the committee and look forward to hearing from willing members so that we can continue to benefit from all that our u3a can offer.
Although some costs have risen this year, we are proposing to keep our subscriptions at the same level. We expect the Third Age Trust to increase their costs over the coming year before the next AGM.
Deborah Andrews 02.05.24
| Evesham and District U3A | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Financial Statement at 31 March 2024 | |||||||
| Printed 2nd May 2024 13:07 | |||||||
| Income & Expenditure, 1st April - 31st March | |||||||
| Financial Year | 2023/24 | 2022/2023 | |||||
| Category | In | Out | In | Out | |||
| Admin - Membership | £ 207.90 | £ 129.20 | |||||
| Admin - Misc | £ 0.98 | £ 31.99 | £ 223.77 | ||||
| Beacon Access | £ 974.00 | £ 1,015.00 | |||||
| CLA licence | £ 64.20 | ||||||
| Cotswold Link | £ 177.55 | ||||||
| Donations | £ 9.48 | £ 72.50 | |||||
| Gift Aid Reclaim | £ 1,289.07 | ||||||
| Grants To Groups | £ 231.29 | £ 50.00 | |||||
| Income fromgroups | £ 90.38 | ||||||
| Local Newsletter Printing | £ 2,876.78 | £ 3,938.02 | |||||
| Meetings - Refreshments | £ 67.69 | £ 62.06 | |||||
| Meetings - Speakers | £ 609.48 | £ 692.20 | |||||
| Meetings - Venue Hire | £ 381.00 | £ 456.30 | |||||
| Membership | £ 12,853.50 | £ 45.50 | £ 12,387.50 | £ 26.00 | |||
| Misc | £ 81.00 | £ 14.00 | |||||
| Open Day | £ 489.70 | £ 150.00 | £ 598.59 | ||||
| Outings Group | £ 5,822.00 | £ 5,780.90 | |||||
| PayPal commission | £ 169.06 | £ 0.01 | £ 174.86 | ||||
| sumupCommission | £ 13.80 | ||||||
| TAMpostage | £ 2,734.95 | £ 2,188.16 | |||||
| TAT Mem Fee-Capitation | £ 3,608.00 | £ 3,804.00 | |||||
| U3A External Meetings | £ 30.00 | ||||||
| Sub-totals | £ 12,684.34 | £ 12,682.99 | £ 13,866.01 | £ 13,182.16 | |||
| Outings and Concert Group | £ 15,778.60 | £ 14,864.12 | £ 13,867.00 | £ 14,887.68 | |||
| Other Groups | £ 27,124.79 | £ 27,216.99 | £ 25,117.03 | £ 25,077.74 | |||
| Brought Forward | £ 23,548.12 | £23,845.66 | |||||
| Total Income | £ 55,587.73 | £52,850.04 | |||||
| Total Expenditure | £ 20,251.08 | £ 54,764.00 | £53,147.58 | ||||
| Total at end ofyear | £ 24,371.85 | £23,548.12 | |||||
| Balance Sheet | |||||||
| Current Account | £ 20,251.08 | £19,355.15 | |||||
| Groups Balance | £ 4,120.77 | £4,212.97 | |||||
| Total | £ 24,371.85 | £23,548.12 |
CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examiner's report on the accounts Section A Independent Examiner's Report Report to the trusteesl members of On accounts for the year ended 3I-03- IDZ Charlty no (if any) Set out on pages I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charlty ("the Trust") for the year 8nded Responslbllitlas and As the charity trustees of the Trust, you are responslble for the preparation basls of report of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 ("th6 ACV,). I report in respect of my examlnation of the Trust's accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed the applicable Dlrections given by the Charty Commission und8r section 145(5)(b) of the Act. I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters havB come to my attention (other than that dlsclosed below ') in connectlon with the examination which gives me Cause to believe that in, any material respect.. aGcountlng records were not kept in accordance with sectlon 130 of the Act or the accounts do not accord with the accounting records I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. Please delete the words in the brackats rfthey do not apply. Independent examinerfs statsment Signed: Namo: Relevant professlonal qualificatlon{s) or body (If any).. KS LPfKJ OTr Lkc) Address: IF-b IER October 2018
Section B Disclosure Only complete rf the 8xaminer needs to highlight m atters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: directs'ons and guidance for examiners). Glve here brlef detalls of any Items that the examiner wlshes to disclos8. IER October 2018