## **Friends of Highgate Library Charitable Foundation** ## **Report of the Trustees for the year 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024** The trustees present their annual report and income and expenditure statement for the year from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024 and concers and sta? from Camden in a Highgate Library Management Group (“HLMG”). The operation of letting the HLCCC has similarly been delegated to a small group “the Hall group.” Each group reports to the full trustees at meetings. 1 ## **Recruitment and appointment of trustees** During the year 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024 there were eleven trustees. Sarah Harrison, Linda Lefevre and Margot Kafno were each reappointed as trustees on 8 June 2023. Caroline Anstiss was appointed as a trustee on 4 March 2024 and Patrick Lefevre was reappointed on 4 March 2024. Sarah Carrier and Fabian Watkinson resigned as trustees after the end of the year in question on 18 June 2024. Toby Faber continued as President. ## **Objectives and activities** The objects of the charity are set out in the charity’s constitution as follows: - 1 To advance the education of the public in Highgate by providing, or assisting in the provision of, a public library and associated services, including but not limited to, information and study facilities, educational programmes, courses, classes, and lectures. - 2 To provide or assist in the provision of facilities at the Highgate Library and the Highgate Library Civic and Cultural Centre for meetings, classes, lectures and recreation or other leisure time occupation for those individuals living and or working in the London Borough of Camden and the surrounding area in the interests of social welfare and with the objective of improving the conditions of life of the said individuals. - 3 Such charitable purposes for the public benecers had been aware of the poor state of the building for some years and had been pushing for serous maintenance work. It was therefore a relief to hear early in the summer of 2023 that Camden Council was applying for Salix funding from central government with the intention of ciency of the building by insulating the inside of the external walls wherever possible and appropriate, insulating the one part of the Foor that is accessible, replacing all the cient to repair the original parquet Fooring and replace the original blinds. Some trustees and other volunteers played an important role in discussing the initial designs, putting forward proposals that led to signicult for many to a?ord to heat their own homes. FOHLCF introduced a “New Book” table which led to many people popping in to check what new books had arrived. The use of the Meeting Room (designed and funded by the FoHLCF) was increasing slowly although our awareness that the Library would be closed for the refurbishment from Christmas meant that we did not publicise it as we would normally have done. This will be a priority once the Library reopens. The trained FOHLCF Library volunteers continued to sta? and manage the library throughout the period until Christmas, with at least one volunteer in the Library throughout the opening hours. The number of volunteers doing weekly or monthly sessions or providing cover for holidays remained steady, with two volunteers leaving and two new volunteers joining. We had enquiries from several people wanting to become volunteers but decided to put these on hold until the library re-opens after the refurbishment. In Autumn 2023 Camden Libraries proposed trialling a new management arrangement at Highgate Library. We now have a Community Library Manage, Iqbal Hussain, who is responsible for Highgate and another Library, e?ectively reducing it to a part-time role. To balance the resulting reduction of management input and to ensure adequate Library sta? input, the front-line Library O>cers were increased from one to two, except on Saturdays where only one sta? member was present. It was agreed that this arrangement would be reviewed in April 2024. To date it has been working well administratively, but the Trustees have concerns that the time it allows to develop the Library as a neighbourhood hub is 4 insu>cient. Expanding the role of libraries to become neighbourhood hubs is a key aim of Camden Council. It was agreed that the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), drawn up in 2015, needed to be updated. The MOU is the legal agreement that sets out the terms on which Camden Libraries and FOHLCF work together to manage and sta? Highgate Library. The process of amending of the MOU is in hand, and it is intended that the revised agreement will be signed in the near future. April 2023 to March 2024 was a year in which FOHLCF made major contributions to Highgate Library. These included providing trained volunteers to sta? the Library throughout the opening hours; introducing new initiatives and facilities; and, playing an important role in the plans for the major refurbishment of the building. FOHLCF contributed over 4,000 hours of volunteer work and over £3,000 worth of equipment and books during the year. The arrangement for FOHLCF to jointly and equally manage and sta? Highgate Library with Camden Libraries has been shown to bring major bene**from**||**01/04/2023**
**Period start date**||**To**|||**31/03/2024**
**Period end date**|| |**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**|||||||||| |**Hall Lettings**
**6,796**
**-**
**- 6,796**
**7,660**
**Warm Spaces Grant**
**-**
**-**
**- -**
**2,618**
**Donations**
**665**
**-**
**- 665**
**862**
**Surplus Book Sales**
**95**
**-**
**- 95**

**Bank Interest**
**720**
**-**
**-**
**720**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**_Sub total(Gross income for AR)_ 8,275**
**-**
**-**
**8,275**
**11,140**
**A2 Asset and investment sales,**
**(see table).**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**_Sub total_**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**_Total receipts_**
**8,275**
**-**
**-**
**8,275**
**11,140**
~~=—==>==~~
~~————~~|||||||||| |**A3 Payments**|||||||||| |**Toy Library Service**|**2,732**||**-**||**-**|||**2,732**|**2,606**| |**Warm Spaces Furniture**|**-**||**-**||**-**|||**-**|**2,594**| |**Brookfield School Prizegiving**|**143**|||||||**143**|| |**Management Software**|**574**||**-**||**-**|||**574**|**404**| |**Chess Club Tutor**|**-**||**-**||**-**|||**-**|**750**| |**Volunteer Recruitment, Training etc**|**572**||**-**||**-**|||**572**|**298**| |**Audio Visual Equipment**|**490 -**|**490 -**|**490 -**||**-**|||**490**|**414**| |**Insurance**|**296**||**-**||**-**|||**296**|**394**| |**Children's Xmas Event**|**103**||**-**||**-**|||**103**|**99**| |**Library Materials & Repairs**|**1,901**||**-**||**-**|||**1,901**|**981**| |**New books & Subscriptions**|**15**||**-**||**-**|||**15**|**15**| |**_Sub total_ **|**6,827**||**-**||**-**|||**6,827**|**8,555**| |**A4 Asset and investment**
**purchases, (see table)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**_Sub total_ -**
**-**
**-**
**_Total payments_**
**6,827**
**-**
**-**
~~SSS ~~||||||||**-**
**-**
**-**
**6,827**
|**-**
**8,555**
~~—~~| |**_Net of receipts/(payments)_**
**1,449**
**-**
**-**
**1,449**
**2,585**
**A5 Transfers between funds**
**-**
**- -**
**-**
**-**
**A6 Cash funds last year end**
**47,832**
**- -**
**47,832**
**45,246**
**_Cash funds this year end_**
**49,280**
**-**
**-**
**49,280**
**47,831**
~~===~~|||||||||| CCXX R1 accounts (SS) 07/06/2024 1 |**Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period**
**Categories**
**Unrestricted funds**
**Restricted funds**
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**49,280**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**49,280**
**-**
**OK**
**OK**
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted funds**
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which asset**
**belongs**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which asset**
**belongs**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**liability relates**
**Amount due**
**(optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Signed by one or two trustees on**
**behalf of all the trustees**
**B5 Liabilities**
**B3 Investment assets**
**Details**
**Details**
**Details**
**B2 Other monetary assets**
**Details**
**_Total cash funds_**
**(agree balances with receipts and payments**
**account(s))**
**B4 Assets retained for the**
**charity’s own use**
**Details**
**Cash at Bank**
**B1 Cash funds**
**Print Name**
**Paul Harris**
**Virginia Kerridge**
**Signature**|**Endowment funds**
**to nearest £**| |---|---| ||| ||**-**| ||**-**| ||**-**| ||**OK**
**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**| ||**-**| ||**-**| ||**-**| ||**-**| ||**-**| ||**-**| ||**Current value**
**(optional)**| ||**-**| ||**-**| ||**-**| ||**-**| ||**-**| ||**Current value**
**(optional)**| ||**-**| ||**-**| ||**-**| ||**-**| ||**-**| ||**-**| ||**-**| ||**-**| ||**-**| ||**When due**
**(optional)**| ||| ||| ||| ||| ||| ||| ||**Date of**
**approval**| ||**18/06/2024**| ||**18/06/2024**| CCXX R2 accounts (SS) 07/06/2024 2