Trustees report to the members year end 31/03/2022 Our charitable aims are:
For the public benefit
The advancement of amateur sport by promoting the game of bridge for the benefits of the
residents of Preston and the surrounding area; the provision of facilities for the learning, teaching
and playing of bridge for the benefit of the residents of Preston and the surrounding area with the object of improving conditions of life.
During the year we have carried out the following in accordance with our aims:
Face-to-face assisted play has now re-started with some success but there is still room for others to join in, contact Christine or any member of the Committee or Trustees if interested.
During the past year we have carried out the following according to our aims:- we have successfully run supervised play sessions for our improvers, initially on-line but now face to face in the club. Unfortunately, because of lack of students, we have no new total beginners coming forward for lessons - this is a continuing concern for the club.
In the past we have made our facilities available to the Lancashire Contract Bridge Association
No face-to-face tournaments have taken place this year, so LCBA has not used our premises.
Online Bridge
Preston have continued to participate in the BPS project providing online bridge to all Preston members who wish to play online. In the region of 100 members have used this facility
In September, BPS was replaced by a Lancashire wide partnership of which Preston is a member. There are online sessions available to all Preston members, but it does require you to register, which is free.
This year we have promoted our services to the people of Preston by:
We have a Facebook page which is regularly updated by Dave Parkin.
Along with our website this promotes our facilities, lessons, and novice sessions to all who might want to learn more about Contract Bridge and to experienced players who may want to join us.
Financials
Accounts for the year 21/22 are presented at the end of this report. A surplus of about £5.5K has been achieved, due mainly to income from online bridge and not having to pay rent for our premises.
Note to members
Face-to-Face bridge restarted this year. Unfortunately, we are not getting the numbers attending to make the club viable in the long term - expenditure is projected to exceed our income.
A message from the Chair
Hi all
At least we are getting back to some sort of normality. This means that we are working hard to get members back to playing bridge at the club, so that we meet other people and have the social interaction that is so good for our mental wellbeing.
The Committee and Trustees have been working hard to keep the club intact through these difficult times and we will persevere in our attempts to get back to where we were before Covid. We cannot do this without the support of members and volunteers to help with day-to-day tasks. We need more volunteers for these activities, hands on tasks (no need to be on the committee and attend meetings). Please let me know if you can help in this way.
The Trustees and Committee will continue to strive to rebuild our club and will review our progress in 12 months’ time.
I look forward to seeing more of you at the club in the coming months. Why not decide that you will commit to playing at the club at least once or twice a month?
Christine
Treasurer’s Report to the Trustees and Members
The year ended March 2022 shows us making a modest surplus in difficult times. This is due to the continued provision of online bridge and the great efforts by Christine and Rowena to get people playing at the club.
We are due to start paying rent in November and I am budgeting for a small loss this year, which will become a large loss in future years when we pay a full year’s rent. If we do not get more people playing, we have a bleak future, if any future at all.
I still have hope that as we learn to live with Covid the bridge world will return to at least something like normal but I fear we will have lost a large number of players to online bridge.
The Budget
Budgets are always a guess but this one more than most as there is no real past year to compare it with.
Income
We debited membership charges of £2050 net of reversals on the 1[st] of April I am sure there will a few more reversals plus some people paid in advance or had enough in their accounts already to cover it. Hence the much lower figure in the budget.
We debited £282 for sessions and £165 for assisted play and I have assumed these will continue along similar lines for the next few months hopefully picking up a little towards the last 2 quarters but in reality, who knows?
LOP earnings received in April are £218.25 and no more will be received in the first quarter as LOP is changing to quarterly payments, we can expect the first one in the second quarter.
Expenditure
Rent commences in November giving us 5 months of the year to pay. Obviously, the effect will be more severe the following year.
Some expenses are independent of the number of sessions such as telephone and broadband, insurance etc. Some are directly related to the number of sessions such as EBU costs.
The non-variable charges are very much a guess or aspiration we will need to watch costs carefully.
Table 1 PBC Accounts 2021/22
| 2020/21 | 2021/22 | |
|---|---|---|
| Income | ||
| Table Money and Membership | £18,658.00 | £13977.87 |
| Bank Interest | £5.00 | £2.90 |
| Events | £338.00 | |
| Grants | £3,000.00 | |
| £22,001.00 | £13980.77 | |
| Expenditure | ||
| Repairs and Improvements | £26.00 | £425.80 |
| Housekeeping | £75.00 | £31.19 |
| Online Bridge Costs | £5,162.00 | £4683.45 |
| Donations | £413.00 | |
| Internet Telephone | £433.00 | £503.76 |
| Accounts System | £280.00 | £240 |
| Competition Entries | £40.00 | £48 |
| EBU & LCBA | £2,020.00 | £1465.41 |
| Teaching Costs | £70.00 | |
| Bridgewebs | £73.00 | £73.20 |
| Insurance | £798.50* | |
| Alarm Maintenance | £96 | |
| Misc | £100 | |
| £8,592.00 | £8465.31 | |
| Surplus | £13,409.00 | £5515.46 |
Notes
*Insurance, paid late last year for various reasons so two lots in this year’s figures.
Rent
We are currently paying no rent or service charge due to the money we have spent on the building this will commence on the 1[st] of November 2022 at a rate of £10,000 per annum including service charge.
Methods and Consequences
We currently work on a strict receivables basis so no accruals or prepayments. Whilst this is simple it may not always accurately reflect the true situation. This is particularly true where there are changes to system. In this case we are now receiving money for online bridge net of costs from LCBA March monies to be paid in April £218.
We now also have a members account which at the end of March was in credit by £1960 so that is effectively members overpayments or advanced payments
Bank Balances
Brought forward £ 30308 Surplus £ 5515 Carried Forward £ 35823 Members’ Account -£1960 Net £33863
Budget for next year is attached as Table 2
Bill Alston April 2022
Table 2 2022/23 Budget
| Table 2 2022/23 Budget | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | Totals Year | |
| Income | Budget | Budget | Budget | Budget | Budget |
| Membership | £1,500.00 | £30.00 |
£30.00 |
£30.00 |
£1,590.00 |
| Table Money | £800.00 | £800.00 |
£1,000.00 |
£1,200.00 |
£3,800.00 |
| LOP Earnings | £220.00 | £600.00 |
£600.00 |
£600.00 |
£2,020.00 |
| Lessons and Supervised Play | £500.00 | £500.00 |
£500.00 |
£500.00 |
£2,000.00 |
| Competitions net | £0.00 | ||||
| Room Hire | £0.00 | ||||
| Bank Interest | £0.00 | ||||
| Other Income | £0.00 | ||||
| Hosting Events | £0.00 | ||||
| Totals | £3,020.00 | £1,930.00 | £2,130.00 | £2,330.00 | £9,410.00 |
| Expenditure | |||||
| Rent | £1,670.00 | £2,500.00 |
£4170.00 |
||
| Repairs and Improvements | £250.00 | £250.00 |
£250.00 |
£250.00 |
£1,000.00 |
| Housekeeping | £200.00 | £200.00 |
£200.00 |
£200.00 |
£800.00 |
| Internet Telephone | £170.00 | £170.00 |
£170.00 |
£170.00 |
£680.00 |
| Insurance | £420.00 | £420.00 |
|||
| Equipment | £200.00 | £200.00 |
£200.00 |
£200.00 |
£800.00 |
| Furniture/Furnishings | £200.00 | £200.00 |
£200.00 |
£200.00 |
£800.00 |
| Electronics and Consumables | £150.00 | £150.00 |
£150.00 |
£150.00 |
£600.00 |
| EBU &LCBA | £140.00 | £120.00 |
£150.00 |
£180.00 |
£590.00 |
| Teaching Costs | £0.00 | ||||
| Volunteer Expenses | £0.00 | ||||
| Software and Web | £80.00 | £80.00 | |||
| Catering | £30.00 | £30.00 |
£30.00 |
£30.00 |
£120.00 |
| Publicity | £0.00 | ||||
| Trustees Expenses | £0.00 | ||||
| Prizes | £0.00 | ||||
| Stationery and Postage | £30.00 | £30.00 |
£30.00 |
£30.00 |
£120.00 |
| LCBA Membership | £0.00 | ||||
| Club Handbooks | £0.00 | ||||
| Playing Cards | £30.00 | £30.00 |
£30.00 |
£30.00 |
£120.00 |
| Fylde League and other comps | £48.00 | £48.00 |
|||
| Misc Expenditure | £100.00 | £100.00 |
£100.00 |
£100.00 |
£400.00 |
| Petty Cash | £10.00 | £10.00 |
£10.00 |
£10.00 |
£40.00 |
| Totals | £1,590.00 | £1,490.00 | £3,190.00 | £4,518.00 | £10,788.00 |
| Surplus | £1,430.00 | £440.00 | -£1,060.00 | -£2,188.00 | -£1,378.00 |