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← Friends Of Greenhill Library

2024-03-31-accounts

Friends of Greenhill Library

Registered Charity Number 1158656 Greenhill Library, Hemper Lane Sheffield S8 7FE Telephone:0114 2377657 email: admin@greenhill-library.org greenhill-library.org

ANNUAL REPORT TO THE 2024 AGM (Final)

This report covers activities from October 2023 to September 2024 and the finances for the year ending 31[st] March 2024.

Foreword

It has been another strong and busy year for Friends of Greenhill Library. The library continues to offer a professional standard of library service and a vibrant program of activities and events to meet the needs of local residents. The new section in the children’s library, complete with murals and bean bags, has proved very popular with our younger users. Our finances remain very healthy, and we look forward to celebrating our 10[th] anniversary as a volunteer-run library at the end of September — a brilliant milestone and a proud achievement for all those who have been and continue to be involved in Friends of Greenhill Library.

Main Achievements During the Year.

A) Library Service.

Our opening hours remain as last year at 26 hours per week. We are grateful to all the volunteers in customer-facing roles, especially our operational lead Ann Hartley who works extremely hard to ensure smooth operation of the service. We continue to welcome around 6000 visitors each quarter and total book loans continue to grow. “Yellow sticker” book loans, (those not on the council’s library catalogue) for the 12 months ending 19/08/2024 were 15,378, up 5% from the figure for the previous 12 months. For the 12 months ending 31/3/2024, Yellow sticker loans made up 62% of our book issues. The current figure is likely to be higher. In the last 12 months we have registered 271 new users comprising 81 adults and 190 children. In a climate of nationally decreasing library usage, these are very encouraging figures.

Our sub-branch library, Lowedges, which shares a space with the Terminus Initiative in the Meeting Place continues to operate although our opening hours have reduced to 10 hours per week (down from 12.5 hours per week), due in part to Catherine Samengo-Turner, our lead at Lowedges, taking maternity leave from 23 March 2024, returning in January 2025.

Our Summer Reading Challenge for children run at Greenhill Library in 2024 was a

success. Co-ordinated by Clive Opie and in addition managed by a range of volunteers, the challenge attracted similar numbers to last year though with less completers at the time of writing. The table shows data for the last four years.

Signed up Completed Completed
Year Boys Girls Total Boys Girls Total
2021 39 75 114 16 35 51
2022 56 81 137 17 31 48
2023 64 102 166 22 49 71
2024 61 97 158 15 35 50

We continue to expand our selection of books both through donations and the purchase of new titles. We are grateful for the £1,000 book grant from Sheffield City Council and for an award of £1,000 from the Freshgate Trust which is being used to buy audio and large print books. Donated books we cannot add to our catalogue ensure our ever-popular bookshop remains well stocked. We continue to sell books to World of Books. This ensures books get the best possible chance of being used or recycled. We really appreciate people’s donations as book sales provide us with steady income. However, during the year Revival Books stopped accepting damaged or unusable books for pulping. To avoid a storage crisis, we have been forced to be more selective in the donations we will accept. Recently we have started taking some donated books to book sales tables at local supermarkets, and to Hardwick Hall.

B) Community Outreach & New Activities.

Our strategic objective is to grow outreach into our community and new activities. These would be to fulfil our mission “to work with local residents, groups and organisations to promote other educational, cultural, recreational and social activities that respond to their needs and contribute to community cohesion and development”.

Our activities program continues at a similar level to last year. Our offer over the last year has included:

Greenhill

morning but offer help on a “by appointment” service.

Lowedges

Overall, activity at the Lowedges library is at a lower level than last year. However, a range of onsite activities continues:

Lowedges Community Links

considering options around the premises. We are working with them to minimise disruption. These questions are preventing us making firm plans for the future. Until this is resolved we feel that we cannot fully resolve our staffing problems or book loans or consider new initiatives to enhance the service.

Communications (Greenhill)

Our website continues to be the most definitive source of information particularly for our events program.

Our 8-page printed newsletter continues to be distributed every 4 months alongside a digital newsletter sent out monthly to just over 600 recipients (up from 500 last year) making it one of our most effective publicity channels.

We continue to maintain a significant presence on Facebook; Greenhill now has 1823 followers (up from 1609 last year) and Lowedges has 298 followers (up from 233 last year).

Plans to create a web site specifically for Lowedges have been abandoned.

C) Organisation & People.

Our strategic objective is to maintain a workforce of volunteers with the skills, capacity and motivation to operate the library to the same standard as those operated professionally, and to provide a high-quality offering of community events.

At present we have 160 members , of whom 129 are registered as volunteers, 1 is an employee (Catherine Samengo-Turner) and 30 are Friends contributing at least £20 p.a. Around 75 people regularly volunteer.

At the time of this report, we have six Meadowhead School students (three boys and three girls aged 16-18) volunteering at the library as part of their Duke of Edinburgh award . They are assisting at the Craft, Coding and Lego Clubs for youngsters from our community. One is helping the Library carry out a survey of our customers' needs and attitudes with a view to helping us determine our future.

Trustees Chris Brown Chair Michael Corbishley Vice Chair Lyndon Henard Secretary Dawn Davis Treasurer Ann Hartley Operations Manager Lynne Raven Volunteer Coordinator Wendy Crookes Janet Crowther Kirsty Atkin Lindy Stone

We were greatly saddened by the death of Laurence Coates in February 2024. Laurence was a staunch supporter of the library since 2014, having been, at various

times, session leader, secretary and treasurer. His meticulous attention to all he did, his gracious demeanor and his prodigious memory, were a tremendous asset to the library and are greatly missed. The position of treasurer has passed to Dawn Davis who has worked hard to get up to speed in the role.

Chris Brown will be standing down as chair and as a trustee, having served the maximum term allowed by our constitution.

Trustees are elected, usually for a period of 3 years, by the membership of the Friends of Greenhill Library. They meet monthly and review FROGL’s policies and procedures on a regular basis.

Volunteers can access the minutes, policies and procedures on the Three Rings website. Members and library users may also consult them in the library on request. Additionally, Lyndon Henard has organized the collation of handover documents for key roles in the library to shore up our succession planning, these are also available on Three Rings.

D) Finance for the year ending 31/3/2023.

Our strategic objective is to maintain financial sustainability with multiple diverse funding streams.

Receipts in 2023-24 were £70,833 (2022-23: £76,645) and Payments £63,461 (2022-23: £143,484 – this large figure was due to building improvements) giving a surplus on the year of £7,371 (2022-23 deficit £66,860)

We are grateful to Sheffield City Council for their annual grant as well as for the support of their libraries staff. Fundraising and earned income for the year were £20554, coparable to £22,231 the previous year. We continue to maintain multiple diverse income streams including library hire, photocopying and printing, book sales, village markets, coffee morning, and the open gardens weekend, among others.

Reserves Policy. On 31/3/23 we carried forward funds of £166,339, of which most were unrestricted reserves. The trustees’ policy is to designate as Reserves an unrestricted sum equal to 5 years gap between expected unrestricted receipts and payments (i.e. circa £27,000) but also to designate funds for significant matters. The fund for major repairs is now £28,500. £16,513 is designated to fund community events over the years. During the year some reserves were invested in interest-bearing accounts with the Charity Bank and the Hampshire Trust Bank.

E) Building.

Our strategic objective is to have a fit for purpose and developing building.

No building development took place during the period of this report. However, we are actively pursuing plans to modernise the main front office (which got “left behnd” during last year’s building work). This includes the replacement of the remaining single-glazed windows (3 in the office and some smaller windows in rooms further back).

We are also hopeful of a grant from the Royal Foundation to fund the building of a community room which has long been on our wish-list. There are several hurdles to

clear for this to become a reality, but it remains a tantalising prospect.

Greenhill and Lowedges Library both joined the wider Sheffield ‘welcoming space’ network providing a warm space during the colder months again demonstrating how we meet a myriad of needs in the local community.

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees

Chris Brown (Chair of Trustees) Date: Sept. 2024

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ik . CHARITY COMMISSION! — Independent examiner's FOR ENGLAND AND WALES report on the accounts

Section A

Independent Examiner’s Report

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Report to the trustees/ a
members of | Friends of Greenhill Library
On accounts for the year | 31 March 2024 Charity no | 1158656
ended (if any)
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| report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended 31 March 2024.

|

Responsibilities and As the charity trustees of the Trust, you are responsible for the preparation basis of report of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”).

| 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, | have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act. Independent | have completed my examination. | confirm that no material matters have examiner's statement come to my attention in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect: e accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or

e the accounts do not accord with the accounting records

| 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.

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Name: | Christopher John Woodhead
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Relevant professional | BA (Hons), FCA, ICAEW qualification(s) or body

(if any):

Address: | 158 Hemper Lane, Sheffield, S8 7FE

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October 2018