OpenCharities

This text was generated using OCR and may contain errors. Check the original PDF to see the document submitted to the regulator.

2021-03-31-accounts

Botanic Gardens Education Network Annual Report 2020-21

Photo: Bgen Conference 2019 at Royal Botanic Gardens Kew

Botanic Gardens Education Network c/o Museum No.1 Royal Botanic Gardens Kew Richmond TW9 3AB

info@Bgen.org.uk www.Bgen.org.uk Bgen is a registered Charitable Incorporated Organisation no: 1103482

Bgen Annual Report 2020-21, prepared January 2022

This Annual Report summarises Bgen activity since the Bgen AGM on Thursday 12th November 2020.

In early 2021 the Bgen Board launched a new strategy for the organisation for the next four years, with a renewed vision to inspire, innovate and influence how people engage with plants and the environment by empowering a strong network of organisations and building capacity in the membership.

Our new strategy will guide the Board to continue to serve our members and strengthen the network with a focus on more inclusive and accessible services and opportunities; position Bgen as experts in the field of learning and engagement with plants and the environment; and become a more resilient organisation, through strong relevant governance and financial stability.

A two-year action plan is helping us implement these objectives and evaluate our success year on year, with the support of Bgen’s Coordinator, advisors and members.

1. Bgen Annual Conference

Our Annual Conference is an important strand of Bgen’s offer and although our 2020 Conference was cancelled due to Covid, we were delighted to be able to develop our 2021 Conference online.

The theme for the Conference was Climate Change – Action Through Plants and was held in our regular November slot, coinciding with COP26. With the UK hosting COP26 in Glasgow there was heightened awareness of and commitment to tackling the climate and ecological emergency. For people who had plants are part of your education and engagement programmes, our Online Conference aimed to build on this awareness and focus down on how plants can be the catalyst for climate action.

By taking part in the Conference people working in botanic gardens, outdoor spaces and heritage sites were able to:

Bgen Annual Report 2020-21, prepared January 2022

The Conference attracted a lot of interest from Bgen members and the wider heritage education community with 115 delegates and speakers joining us over the 2 half day sessions share ideas, learn skills and develop new ways of thinking. As the Conference was online, for the first time we we were able to invite speakers from other countries and were grateful for the contributions from the USA, Canada, Republic of Ireland and Sweden as well as homegrown talent from the UK.

This year Bgen received support from the Finnis Scott Trust, enabling us to offer half-fee bursaries o early career plant educators, plant educators and horticulturalists working in small teams or as sole educators and those who have limited access to support and training.

We received very positive feedback from delegates including:

“Inspirational, clear speakers with energy and passion”

“A great collection of speakers covering the topic of climate change from many different angles.”

“Great to hear what is happening in other countries would be good to have input from front line parts of the world.”

“I want to thank you for organize this event. It's help us to improve our educational activities in our botanic gardens and to stimulate us to relate with other educators and different experts from all world.”

“Every session had something that I found useful and informative.”

Conference 2022: We are looking into the feasibility of holding a hybrid Bgen Annual Conference in 2022, bringing together the benefits on face-to-face networking, in-garden inspiration and online accessibility.

Bgen Annual Report 2020-21, prepared January 2022

2. Training and Events

With the ongoing nature of the pandemic, the Board took the decision to move all Bgen training online and have been very pleased with the response from both participants and speakers.

This shift to virtual engagement and programming also support our new strategy and plans to strengthen the network by providing more inclusive and accessible opportunities for training, networking and support, as well as responding to our members’ needs, interests and sector trends.

‘Engaging Teenagers and Young Adults in the Outdoors’ was scheduled to run at University of Bristol Botanic Garden on 27[th] March 2020 but was postponed due to Covid-19. All the scheduled speakers agreed to take part in the online version of this training, which was held on 4th & 11th March 2021 (morning sessions). A total of 61 participants and speakers took part in this training.

‘Developing Interactive Digital Engagement’ was held online on 26th May & 8th June 2021 (mornings only) with 51 participants and speakers taking part. Digital trainer Dr Jamie Gallagher provided the first morning training session and the second session showcased good practice from gardens and green spaces.

‘Equality and Diversity: a transformative programme’ was devised following feedback from members at one of Virtual Coffee Mornings. This bespoke programme of monthly sessions has been created and run by Judy Ling Wong, Honorary President of the Black Environment Network and was fully booked with 15 participants.

‘Virtual Coffee Mornings’ In the absence of face-to-face events, we have been running monthly events on Zoom to connect members together, share thoughts and experiences and get a feel for what future support Bgen can provide. To date 4 events have taken place, each focussing on a particular theme:

The Bgen Board are very grateful to the contributors to these virtual coffee mornings - especially Judy Ling Wong, Honorary President of the Black Environment Network, Royal Meteorological Society, PlantNetwork and The Royal Parks.

Bgen Annual Report 2020-21, prepared January 2022

3. Bgen Board

3.1 Bgen Board Meetings: The Bgen Board has continued its programme of meetings, all held online:

Each Board member serves on one specialised workstream group: Training, Conference, Fundraising, Communication & Membership and Governance and regular meetings of each of these workstreams have been held. The focus of activity for these workstreams have been:

3.2 Bgen Board Members (12.11.20 – 19.01.2022): The Bgen Board has continued working through the pandemic though some of the members have been furloughed. Here are details of Bgen Board members (pre-AGM Jan 2022) and the workstreams they are involved in:

Bgen Annual Report 2020-21, prepared January 2022

The Bgen Board is supported by Sue Dampney (Bgen Coordinator), 3 Hours West (website) and Sandy Openshaw (bookkeeper) and would like to thank Dominic Grantley-Smith, BGCI for supporting the Conference and training meetings.

Our grateful thanks go to our amazing Coordinator Sue Dampney, who has maintained the organisation through her sterling service throughout what has been such a difficult period for all. Her dedication to keeping Bgen's communications, events and administrative activities going for not only members, but also the Board, has been exceptional and is hugely appreciated. The Board would like to officially record their thanks to her.

3.3 Bgen Board Member changes agreed at Annual General Meeting on 19[th] January 2022:

Re-election: Catherine Addison, Felicity Gaffney, Gail Bromley and Susie Kelpie have all come to the end of their 3 year term of office. Felicity, Gail and Susie would like to stay on and seek re-election at the AGM in January 2022.

Resignations: Catherine Addison has decided not to stand for re-election, having moved into a new job away from the plant education sector. Catherine has been a very active member of Bgen since joining in 2015, bringing fresh energy and perspective to the Board and reinvigorating communication and membership services. Catherine was also an active member of the BIAZA committee and worked hard to share experiences and connect these two organisations.

Election: An open call to Bgen members was made in May and December 2021, and we welcomed the following people to the Board:

Therefore the Bgen Board members from January 19[th] 2022 are :

Bgen Annual Report 2020-21, prepared January 2022

Bgen Annual Report 2020-21, prepared January 2022

4. Bgen Membership

Bgen currently has 329 members, this includes members from 30 Organisations and 18 individual members.

Bgen provides:

5. Reference and administrative information

Bgen successfully converted from a Charitable Company to a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) on May 4th 2021.

The current information for Bgen is as follows:

6. Accounts for financial year 2020/21

Treasurers Report

The financial year 2020-2021, not unexpectedly, resulted in a huge impact on Bgen’s finances due to Covid 19 restrictions. We were unable to proceed with any face-to-face training or run our annual conference on site as per normal, both of which normally contribute hugely to our annual income.

We took the decision as a Board to make the move to online provision where possible which required a refurbishment of the website and a restructure of the training programme. Many members were furloughed as a result of Covid 19 and with lowered staffing opportunities there were no adverts, another of Bgen’s income sources, adding to our loss of income.

We maintained good communications with and support for our members through on-line Virtual Coffee Mornings and discussions re the future of learning provision in botanic gardens and similar organisations and as a result were able to maintain our membership

Bgen Annual Report 2020-21, prepared January 2022

income. Online provision of training was resumed towards the end of the period which enabled us to move forward and regroup ahead of the 2021-22 financial year. Bgen was able to maintain the services of our excellent Coordinator, albeit with reduced input which allowed us to maintain a reasonable service for members.

As the financial year 2019-20 closed with £27,680 in the bank, the Board agreed to use banked monies to redesign and refurbish the website enabling us to be better prepared for future on-line delivery of training, our conference and communications to members. The summary of income and expenditure for this period is:

Income £2,444 and Expenditure of £12,347, which is a loss for the 2020-2021 financial year of £9,903 (see Receipts and Payments form on next pages for detail).

You will see that the accounts for 2020-2021 have been moved to a ‘’Receipts and Payments’ accounting system as we became a Charitable Incorporated Organisation in 2021 – allowing us to move to a simplified accounting system which will reduce our accountancy costs substantially.

The accounts have been discussed by the Board of Trustees and accepted as accurate. We will be seeking your adoption of the accounts at the AGM so that they can be filed with the Charity Commission before the end of January 2022.

My grateful thanks to the Board, the Treasury Group and our Coordinator for all their support over this difficult period.

Gail Bromley MBE, Bgen Treasurer

[See Bgen Receipts and Payments 2020-1 on next page]

Bgen Annual Report 2020-21, prepared January 2022

No (if any)

Botanic Gardens Education Network

Receipts and payments accounts

CC16a

For the period Period start date Period end date To from 1.4.2020 31.3.2021

Section A Receipts and payments


Unrestricted
funds		 Restricted
funds		 Endowment
funds		 Total funds Last year
to the nearest
£		 to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £
A1 Receipts
TrainingDays 1,150 - - 1,150 3,600
Membership 804 - - 804 1,881
Adverts 490 - - 490 1,050
Conference - - - - 18,120
Grants - - - - 1,800
Miscellaneous - - - - 37
- - - - -
- - - - -
Sub total(Gross income for
AR)		 2,444 - - 2,444 26,488
A2 Asset and investment sales,
(see table).
- - - -
- - - - -
Sub total - - - - -
Total receipts 2,444 - - 2,444 26,488
A3 Payments
Administrator 5,135 - - 5,135 10,826
TrainingDayExpenses **64 ** - - **64 ** 1,571
Marketing 6,000 - - 6,000 -
Computer & Software 127 - - 127 915
Consultancy& Professional **52 ** - - **52 ** 1,148
Bookkeeping 759 - - 759 **1,182 **
Bank Charges 210 - - 210 460
Conference Expenses - - - - 10,346
Bursaries - - - - 2,200
**Sub total ** 12,347 - - 12,347 28,648
A4 Asset and investment
purchases, (see table)
- - - -
- - - -
**Sub total ** - - - - -
**Totalpayments ** 12,347 - - 12,347 28,648
Net of receipts/(payments) - 9,903 - - - 9,903 - 2,160
A5 Transfers between funds - - - - -
A6 Cash funds lastyear end 27,057 623 - 27,680 -
Cash funds thisyear end 17,154 623 - 17,777 - 2,160

Bgen Annual Report 2020-21, prepared January 2022

Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period

Categories Details Unrestricted
funds		 Restricted
funds		 Endowment
funds
to nearest £ to nearest £ to nearest £
B1 Cash funds Bank 17,117 623 -
- - -
- - -
Total cash funds 17,117 623 -
(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))
Unrestricted
funds		 Restricted
funds		 Endowment
funds
Details to nearest £ to nearest £ to nearest £
B2 Other monetary assets Debtors 1,004 - -
- - -
- - -
- - -
- - -
- - -
Details Fund to which
asset belongs		 Cost (optional) Current value
(optional)
B3 Investment assets -
- -
- -
- -
- -
Details Fund to which
asset belongs		 Cost (optional) Current value
(optional)
B4 Assets retained for the
charity’s own use		 Laptop 595 199
- -
- -
- -
- -
- -
- -
- -
- -
Details Fund to which
liability relates		 Amount due
(optional)		 When due
(optional)
B5 Liabilities Creditors 1,527
-
-
-
-

Bgen Annual Report 2020-21, prepared January 2022

Thanks to Bgen Board of Trustees for their work this past year and to our members for their continuing support in sharing ideas and advice, learning, skills and resources with their fellow members, to continue to instilling passion and knowledge for plant and nature education.

Bgen Annual Report 2020-21, prepared January 2022