2025-03-31-accounts - Chess Valley University Of The Third Age

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Chess Valley University of the Third Age

Report of the Trustees for the year ended 31[st] March 2025

The Trustees present their report along with the financial statements of the charity for the year ended 31[st] March 2025. The financial statements comply with the charity’s Constitution. Chess Valley University of the Third Age (CVu3a) is a charity registered with the Charity Commission under registration number 1126990.

Objects

The object of CVu3a is:

The advancement of education and, in particular, the education of older people and those who are retired from full-time work, by all means including associated activities conducive to learning and personal development.

This object was adopted by CVu3a at its Annual General Meeting on 14[th] June 2018. Its wording follows the recommendations of the Third Age Trust, the national body for the u3a movement, and complies with discussions held between the Trust and the Charity Commission.

Activities

CVu3a advances its objects by:

Holding monthly General Meetings where members hear speakers on a variety of topics (for example, on history, geography and science)
Operating a number of activity groups focused on specific topics (for example, art, gardening, history)
Organising educational visits to places of interest to the membership (for example to historic houses, museums and gardens).

Achievements and Performance

2024/25 saw CVu3a operating normally, much as it had before the hiatus caused by the COVD-19 pandemic.

CVu3a has lost a few more activity groups during 2024/25, due to their Convenors (group leaders) standing down and no-one stepping forward to replace them. This unwillingness to take an active role in u3a seems to be a widespread problem, judging from discussions with other u3as.

A major challenge for all u3as, including CVu3a, is to recruit new and, ideally, younger members. There is no pressing requirement to grow the overall membership, but there is a need to replace members who, for one reason or another, do not renew their memberships, and to provide a source of new Convenors and Committee Members.

Financial Review

The current financial position of CVu3a is presented in the attached accounts. Overall, the organisation generated a very small surplus in 2024/25. Although as expected, the cost of hiring venues has increased, not least because of higher energy costs, these increases have not been as high as anticipated and, consequently, the charity’s finances have not been adversely affected. Nevertheless, the changes to taxation and employment costs that have resulted from the government’s November 2024 budget and 2025 Spring Statement can be expected, indirectly, to have an impact on our operating costs in the coming year.

The subscription was kept at £27 per member per annum with effect from 1[st] April 2024 and, in view of the current level of reserves, have also be kept at that level from 1[st] April 2025.

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As was mentioned in previous Trustee Reports, many items of equipment owned by CVu3a – computers and data projectors for example – are at or past the end of their useful lives and the Committee has authorised the purchase of replacements.

Reserves Policy

Following the advice of the Third Age Trust, the Trustees consider that a reserve of about six months’ operating expenses is sufficient to deal with unforeseen problems and/or to ensure an orderly dissolution of CVu3a if that were to prove necessary. Currently, reserves exceed this figure, a continuing effect of the reduced expenditures experienced during the COVID-19 restrictions. The reserves reduced very slightly during 2024/25 and are expected to reduce further during 2025/26 due to the increasing costs of operation and the reduced number of members compared with before the pandemic.

Membership

Total membership of CVu3a at the end of the year 2024/25 was 629, All were ordinary members, our last Honorary Life Member having died in February 2024. This compares with 612 members in 2023/24 and a peak of 744 members before the COVID-19 pandemic. This reduction in membership has been experienced by other u3as and by the u3a movement at a national level but there are continuing signs of a gradual pick-up in numbers now that we have returned to normal activities.

Plans for the Future

As in 2024/25, a major aim for CVu3a in the coming year will be to increase our membership or at least to replace members who, for one reason or another, have left. In the absence of effective recruitment campaigns by the national body, the Third Age Trust, this will have to be done through more local recruitment initiatives, perhaps in collaboration with other neighbouring u3as. It is hoped that the recent appointment of a dedicated Publicity Coordinator will assist in achieving this aim.

Structure, Governance and Management

Our Constitution, the governing document for our charity, was adopted in its present form by the membership at the AGM held on 14[th] June 2018.

The Trustees are appointed at an Annual General Meeting (AGM) for a fixed term of two years and may be reappointed for further terms at the discretion of the members. We are affiliated to the u3a National Organisation, the Third Age Trust, and to the u3a Thames Valley Network.

All Trustees are volunteers and receive no remuneration or other benefits in return for their services.

CVu3a is managed for its members by a Committee consisting of the following Trustee positions:

Chair	James Cadle
Vice-Chair	Position vacant
Business Secretary	West Marshall
Treasurer	Geoff Naylor
Membership Secretary	Jim Wilkie
Groups Coordinator	Sue Broad
Speaker Organiser	Peter Windsor
Events Coordinator	Jackie Cobb
Webmaster and System Administrator	Valerie Garrood
Newsletter Editor	John Bunyan (assisted by James Cadle)

In addition, Jim Campbell, a non-Trustee has assisted in the management of CVu3a.

The accounts of CVu3a are reviewed by an independent Examiner. For 2024/2025, the Examiner has been Ernest Newhouse, a member of Chiltern u3a and a former Financial Controller of BBC’s World Service and Director of Finance at the Barbican Centre.

The activity groups (51 as at 31[st] March 2025) each have one or more Convenors who organise their programmes, book venues, arrange speakers and so forth. They receive support from the Groups Coordinator and from the Committee in general.

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Approvals

The report was approved by the Trustees and signed on their behalf:

Name: James Cadle Position: Chair Signed: Date: 6[[th]]

6[[th]] May 2025

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