## **Chair’s Report - AGM 2025** Trustees, members & guests, welcome to the Shinfield Players Theatre AGM and thank you to everyone who has supported me in my first year as Chair of the society. The year has been quite a challenge, as I have got to grips with all the aspects of the theatre and ensuring that we provide a varied season of enjoyable productions, but I have been very lucky to have a great group of people around me for which I am very thankful. ## **Productions** At the heart of our theatre are our productions and I want to thank Maggie Smith who has coordinated our production liaison team and Sam Turner the team lead for backstage, both ensuring that our shows successfully move from proposals to rehearsals and on to the stage. This year, we have welcomed new directors and cast members as well as welcoming back old friends. We have performed to full houses with all the excitement that brings, and we have seen all the joy that live theatre brings to cast and audiences alike. Our last seasons’ shows will be celebrated later in the evening at our Shinnies award ceremony, but I want to mention, Gordon Bird, Karen Bird, Debbie Wheeler and Millie Wilkins who were all awarded District 14 NODA awards for their performances and contributions to the theatre last year. Congratulations to all of you. Our backstage crew once again have produced some excellent sets which have enhanced the shows and as always, our scenic designers have produced a brilliant array of backdrops for the pantomime, as well as painting Rudyard Kipling lines on flats and cleverly painted an art deco set for And Then There Were None. Also, Pete Ashton and his team who with their technical know-how have provided lighting, sound and projections for our productions. Thank you also to Debbie and Graham who have run costumes and props this year, always managing to source items that are right for the era and at times a little obscure. And to quote my Granny “we are not short of anything we’ve got” here at SPT! I am very grateful to Pete and Heidi Ashton who have taken on running front of house this year and for all their hard work welcoming our audiences. They would love to hear from you if you would like to get involved with front of house for our shows. Even if you can spare just a little time, this would be extremely helpful and much appreciated. Thanks also goes to Lara and her team for running the box office. Our youth groups are a very valuable part of SPT, and it is under the guidance of our dedicated leaders that the young people gain a love of theatre and learn the skills that will take them forward into their theatrical future. Thank you to Jamie and Lara who have run the junior and middles group this year and Gordon, Rachel, Millie and Pete our senior youth group leaders. ## **Fund Raising** There are a few aspects to our theatre that are going to need considerable amounts of money going forward, so, this next year is going to be a year of major fund raising and I am delighted to welcome Sharon Young as our new fundraising lead. Many of you will already know Sharon as she directed the pantomime Snow White and the Four Swedish popstars and is currently directing our next musical Calendar Girls. She has lots of brilliant ideas for fundraising and we look forward to many social events and outside hires in the coming years. As Sue will be mentioning in her report, we are setting up ways that people can donate to the theatre including Just Giving. One new venture we have coming up is a comedy night in October. Hocus Jokus brings professional comedians and magicians to our stage and will be, I am sure an excellent and entertaining night. We will also be welcoming Woodley Light Operatic Society for a oneweek hire for their production of the musical “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels”. Hopefully these will both become partnerships going forward into the future. If you would like to get involved in fundraising events at the theatre, or you have ideas for how to raise money, Sharon would love to hear from you. ## **The Building** As you will all be aware, we have an issue with the floor in the new toilet block. This has now been investigated by a building surveyor and the damp proof course and some of the building structure was found to be inadequate. This has allowed water to penetrate the floor, causing the wood to rot. On our behalf our surveyor has applied for retrospective planning permission, and we should hear in the next couple of weeks if that has been granted. We will then on the advice of the surveyor and building inspector get quotes for the remedial work that is needed. At present we do not have an estimate for the works, but from some initial advice, it is clear that we will need to raise a substantial amount of money (tens of thousands of pounds) before we can commence any remedial work. Once I have more information on all of this, I will inform members of our next steps. On a more positive note, we have had major work done on the furniture store roof and other roof repairs. The Facilities team have arranged upgrading our alarm, installed CCTV and an audio system for the SM and dressing rooms, as well as undertaken the regular inspections & maintenance of the theatre. Details of all that they have been done can be found in their report. A major change which you will all have seen this evening is the refurbishment of the foyer which was led by Pete Ashton. We were grateful for all the help we received for this project, especially those who have donated money and/or time (and by the way, the Just Giving page is still open if you are kindly able to help us reach our funding target). A special mention goes to Pete as well as Heidi Ashton and Millie Naylor who have worked tirelessly to complete the work ready for the AGM. ## **Committee** I would like to thank my fellow committee members for all their hard work and positivity over the year and for the support that they have given me in my first year as Chair. Each one of them has the theatre at the centre of whatever they do and as a result, I feel confident that we will be able to continue to do great things here at SPT. Unfortunately, we have lost several committee members this year due to work commitments and personal circumstances. In the first half of the year, **Mark Read, Becca Read and George Apap** stood down and now at the end of the year, we have two members, **Phil Gowen and Jess Wilkins** who have come to the end of their terms and have decided not to re-stand, but more on them later. **Catherine Wilkins** has stood down as membership secretary but is continuing in her role of running our social media. **Jamie Milburn** has stood down from his youth group leader role, but we will be seeing again him next year directing Bake Off. A huge thanks to all of these for their contributions to the theatre. As well as saying good-bye to some of our committee members and team members, we also said goodbye to **Carol and Graham Vockins** after more than thirty years of service to the theatre and they are sorely missed. Looking forward, we have a full season mapped out for 2025/26 with lots of exciting shows and new ventures. Rehearsals for the first two of our next seasons’ shows have started and the pantomime read throughs start later this month. We look forward to welcoming you all both on and off the stage and to sharing in this wonderful theatre. _**Cate Naylor, Chair**_ ## **Treasurer’s Report: (Sue Gowen)** Profit on 2024/25 shows was £26,027 (2023/24 £24,885). We ran a full season 2 musicals, 1 panto and 3 plays as well as 2 successful youth group shows. Membership: 85 paid adult members and all youth group members paid in full. Charity receipts: £613 (2023/24: £361): Receipts from the raffles at first show nights as well as the Christmas show proceeds which will be donated to Sue Ryder, who were the charity of the year. Gift aid receipts: £1,120 (2023/24: £881): Total of £458 for prior years and £661 for this year. Please can you continue to indicate if we can claim gift aid when you complete your membership form this year. Theatre hire £1,400 (2023/24: £650): 2 elections plus hire charges for the local community meetings Overall Expenses before Special Items were £40,661 (2023/24 £39,367) Major expenses were: Building Maintenance: £11,233 (2023/24 £7,334). You will see from the maintenance report we have had to do quite a lot this year on maintenance. £1,613 on checking and making safe asbestos areas around the theatre, we now have a full asbestos register, £1,087 fire alarm and air conditioning maintenance contracts, £1,262 for a new alarm system, £1,660 for electrical work as well as £1,695 for the 3 yearly electrical inspection. We spent £552 on skips and the rest on various activities including PAT testing, wiring for CCTV, plumbing issues etc Electricity: £7,832 (2023/24 £8,957) – slight reduction due to new deal with supplier however we still need to focus on turning anything that is not needed off every time the theatre is left unattended Insurance: £9,741 (2023/24 £9,095) – Annual renewal for all insurances Furniture & Equipment: £1,665 (2023/24 £4,442): £437 for CCTV cameras and £998 on new freezer for front of house ice cream storage. Licenses: £1,030 (2023/24 £1,983): Payment of PRS licenses for background music for this season Special Items: The grant we received from the Shinfield Parish (£20,000) is in a longterm savings account since we are unable to match the £20,000 to complete this project at this time. This is due to the work we have had to complete including the roof repairs which have cost £7,572 and we have spent £1,000 on retrospective planning permission for the work that was completed on the toilets a few years ago. As you are all aware, the toilets need more work on them to sort out the floors due to drainage issues The deficit for the year after special items was £3,830 down on last year’s surplus after special items of £13,478 It is proposed that we transfer £2,500 into the building fund leaving £10,649 in the General funds. Due to the above deficit in the year and the additional work on the toilets that we will need to complete, the committee have decided to increase show levies this year to £50 for musicals (£40 concession) and £30 for plays (£15 concession). Membership will remain at £30 for all adult members. We are also proposing to charge for all social events at the theatre moving forwards. These will be at a discounted rate for members but chargeable to non-members (e.g. theatreoake). We will be looking at additional fundraising events this year as well as taking every opportunity we can to hire the theatre out when it is not in use by our teams. I would like to ask for everyones’ support with this to ensure this happens as smoothly as possible, as without this we will not be able to complete the work we need to get done. ## **Balance Sheet:** Assets less liabilities as at 31[st] July were £59,232 (2023/24 £63,062) - £10,649 (2023/24 £12,059) in the General Fund and £47,970 in the Building Fund, £20,279 is in a long term deposit account, £22,000 is in the deposit account, rest is in the current account. There is £613 in the charity fund. Assets includes £4,375 prepayments on future shows which includes prepayments for the shows this coming season Liabilities includes £765 on future shows, memberships and show levies for the shows this coming season I’m happy to take any questions on the accounts – any questions can be emailed to me at treasurer@shinfeldplayers.co.uk. I would like to propose Jon Chishick as the accounts examiner for this year, please can I get a seconder for this? The accounts have been approved through the accounts examiner Jon Chishick and I would like to thank him for his support and guidance. ## **Independent examiner's report on the accounts** ## **Section A Independent Examiner’s Report** **Report to the trustees SHINFIELD PLAYERS THEATRE** **On accounts for the year** 31[st] JULY 2025 **Charity no** 1154841 **ended (if any) Set out on pages** (remember to include the page numbers of additional sheets) I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended 31/07/2025. **Responsibilities and** As the charity's trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the **basis of report** accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”). I report in respect of my examination of the Trust’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act. **Independent** I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have **examiner's statement** come to my attention in connection with the examination (other than that disclosed below *) which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect: - the accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act; or - the accounts did not accord with the accounting records; or - the accounts did not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a ‘true and fair’ view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination. I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. * _Please delete the words in the brackets if they do not apply._ **Signed: Name:** J P H CHISHICK **Relevant professional** FCA **qualification(s) or body (if any): Address:** Conyers Green, Tidmarsh, Reading RG8 8ES **Date:** 29/08/2025 1 **Oct 2018** **IER** ## **Section B Disclosure** Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight material matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and guidance for examiners). **Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose** . 2 **Oct 2018** **IER**