Bristol Samba Charity Number: 1165208
Trustees' Annual Report & Financial Statements for the Period 1[st] September 2023 to 31[st] August 2024
December 2024
Bristol Samba
Trustees’ Annual Report & Financial Statements for the Financial Period from 1[st] September 2023 to 31[st] August 2024
Reference & Administration Details
Charity Details:
Name : Bristol Samba
Number: 1165208
Address: The Trinity Centre, Trinity Road, Old Market, Bristol BS20 0NW.
Names of the Charity Trustees who Manage the Charity
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Name Role Dates
Jan Davies Chair/Safeguarding Officer
Elizabeth Elliott Treasurer
Charlotte Allen Secretary 27/11/23 - 11/12/23
Maria Paessler Bulletin Coordinator Co-opted 12/12//23
Secretary 29/2/24 to present
Lois Cox Bookings Coordinator
Tracy Whale New Members' Coordinator
Claudia Spoto Social Media Coordinator
Laura Chapman Dancers' Representative
Sophie Axford Merchandise Coordinator
Traceydawn White Transport Coordinator
Jon Mills Vice Chair 27/11/23 - 14/9/24
Sandie Badman Equipment Coordinator
Jonathan Walford Non- portfolio
Charlotte Allen Non- portfolio 12/12/23 to present
Sally Hare Bulletin Coordinator Co-opted 29/2/24 to present
Mike Gleed Vice Chair Co-opted 30/9/24
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With thanks to the following non-Trustees who have helped the Committee over the period: Tom Hinton (IT).
Structure, Governance and Management
Description of the Charity's Trusts
Type of Governing Document
Constitution.
How the Charity is Constituted
Unincorporated Association.
Trustee Selection Methods
Trustees are elected or reappointed by the members during the Annual General Meeting (AGM). In accordance with the Constitution, Trustees are appointed or re-appointed for a term of three years. Trustees may be co-opted in accordance with our Constitution.
Recruiting New Trustees
Vacant Trustee posts are advertised to existing Bristol Samba (BS) members prior to an AGM via the weekly email bulletin. Advertisements include a person specification and listed desirable qualities for each role. Those interested are invited to talk to existing Trustees, or postholders, to find out further information.
How New Trustees are Inducted and Trained
When a BS member is elected to be a Trustee, they are given various documents detailing their responsibilities including the Charity Commission’s document Becoming a Trustee. They are given access to the BS shared Google Drive, which contains all previous documentation relating to BS. New Trustees are given a thorough handover to enable them to complete their role.
Trustees’ Meetings
The Trustees had 6 meetings during the financial year, with an average level of attendance of 76 %.
Objects and Activities
Summary of the purposes of the charity as set out in our governing document:
‘... to advance, improve, develop and maintain public education in, and appreciation of, the art and science of music in all its aspects by any means the Trustees see fit, including through the presentation of public concerts and recitals.’
Statutory Declaration on Public Benefit
The Trustees of Bristol Samba declare that they have complied with their duty to have due regard to the guidance on public benefit published by the Charity Commission in exercising their powers or duties.
Executive Summary
We were mindful of the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit when considering both the development of our members and the performance bookings that we accepted as Bristol Samba.
Activities, Achievements and Performance
In accordance with our Constitution we welcome anyone (18+) to become a member of Bristol Samba regardless of faith, gender, disability, background or personal circumstances.
Bristol Samba engages friendly, knowledgeable, talented, enthusiastic and experienced tutors to teach, inform, encourage and develop the various groups of Bristol Samba through their passion for music and dance, as well as being part of Bristol Samba.
Each tutor has superb individual qualities that they bring to their classes: the beginners’ teacher nurtures and develops confidence; the later group’s teacher develops and challenges the players to push themselves to excel; the dance teacher encourages and develops those involved to become confident and expressive dancers. Their quality teaching and commitment to Bristol Samba enables us to advance and to achieve what we are today: a distinctive and well-loved samba band.
During this financial year we offered four taught classes – two sessions for drummers and two for dancers, for beginners and performers respectively.
Our beginner drumming class usually starts in September each year. It develops the participants’ musical knowledge as well as advancing their practical skills in Brazilian percussion. Beginner drummers spend a year learning about Brazilian styles of music before advancing to the later class, which develops the participants’ ability and confidence to enable them to perform, should they wish. This year we delayed the start of the new group until January ’24 and slimmed it down from 30 to 20 members to compensate for the large number of members in the main group. Our last session in December will see our current beginners group graduate, ready to join our main band in January ’25.
Dancers begin their journey in the beginners’ class throughout the year, moving to the established performance group, which practises alongside the drummers when appropriate. We have seen a number of dancers start their Bristol Samba journey at our free dance workshops, so we are looking to continue with these to keep recruiting beginners
Members
On 25[th] of September 2023, we celebrated the class of 2022-23 beginner drummers’ graduation to the later group with a debut performance to family and friends – the audience were enthusiastic and thoroughly enjoyed being part of the celebration.
The trustees decided to delay the start of a new beginner’s group. We wanted the now large group of later group drummers to settle in. We were also aware that we only had enough instruments for the number of drummers that were currently playing with the inclusion of the new graduates. Dom in his role of acting Music Director lead the teaching of this large group, with enthusiasm, developing their skills to play together and consolidate their learning. He was supported by Sam B, who helped teach such a large group of drummers.
In December, Silas made a welcome return to teaching, leading a couple of master classes to the later group, refining their playing.
A new cohort of drummers started in January – this was only a small group of 20 drummers compared to the usual 30 that we usually recruit.
From a gentle introduction to samba, tapping on the floor with sticks, sounding out rhythms, to selecting a preferred drum, the group gradually came together under the expert tutelage of Silas, supported by Sam during the initial settling in phase. Their first ‘crossover’, where the group played with the performing drummers, created an immense sound where many of the early group felt part of the bigger BS ‘Sambafam’ for the first time. Members of the later drumming group regularly attended the sessions to play alongside the beginner’s class
Our directors settled into their new roles as the year progressed. Dom developed the introduction to samba reggae and Sam introduced a brilliant new drum and bass rhythm to develop our repertoire. In September Dom was officially made our Music Director.
Retention of the drummers from the class of 2022-23 has been good, and they have continued to develop along with the other players in the later group, on their learning journey. Former members have returned to the band, swelling our numbers even more. We are proud to see our established players helping and supporting both the beginners and those who have recently graduated to become confident players.
In June we surveyed our members on various aspects of BS. The response was overwhelmingly positive. We asked for suggestions on how we could improve things and many of these were implemented and have been really successful. Examples include an online suggestion box and moving the time of the break in rehearsals to half-way through the session.
Our cohort of established, enthusiastic dancers remain at the heart of our performances. Our dance performance group has grown slowly in number over the past year or so and it was great to see so many dancers performing at our larger gigs over the summer such as Pride and St Werburghs Farm Fair. The dedication and commitment shown by the newer members of the performance group has been amazing, and it was great to be able to share the experience of performing over the summer to large crowds in and around Bristo l.
Performances
Every public performance by Bristol Samba is a celebration of our members’ achievements in developing their skills, whether by playing or dancing.
This year has seen some fantastic gigs for Bristol Samba and we have played our rhythms and got people’s feet moving on the streets of Bristol and beyond. The band and dancers have continued to play and perform come rain or shine. We saw the return of many of our favourite events as well as a few new ones:
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In October we celebrated with the hula hooping community at SWHoop, playing late into the night and entertaining crowds who hooped and boogied in their incredible costumes. Such excellent fun!
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We paraded with the lanterns at Uley lantern festival in November and lit up our drums (and bodies!) to join them.
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In April we celebrated samba and drumming, playing with bands from Bristol and beyond at Tambor. We were lucky to be selected to play and it is an event showcasing talent and celebrating each other, from our ‘home’ at Trinity.
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We came together to celebrate the birthday of one of our long standing dancers Jackie, and had an absolute blast in Wales, everyone let their hair down and had a fantastic time.
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Once again, we had a great time playing for the runners of the Bristol 10k and half marathon – including some players from Bristol Samba – a long gig, but so worth the looks on the runners’ faces as they sped past us. We enjoyed breakfast sandwiches supplied by our drummer Celia and the early start was definitely worth it!
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We had our biggest band yet for St Werburgh’s and returned this year to entertain the streets surrounding the farm fair. We loved this gig, as always, and feel so lucky to be asked time and time again to light up St Werburghs with our rhythms.
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Bristol Pride was another highlight, as always. We once again collaborated with NatWest and Pride to accompany the parade in colourful costumes. Our efforts are always appreciated and celebrated and there is plenty of dancing and huge smiles. This event is an incredible celebration of diversity within the LGBTQ+ community, the atmosphere made drumming and dancing in the blazing sun feel almost easy.
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We played two festivals in late summer: Shambala and Forwards. We had nearly every weather type between the two and we played through it all, rain, wind and blazing sun! We had the usual challenge of having limited tickets to these events and worked hard to ensure that selection was fair and equitable across the band. It was great to see dancers step up to lead the dancers at these events in particular. Gigs at both of these events were adored by audiences – even in the pouring rain at Forwards, we also enjoyed playing ‘how many band members can we shelter in our van!
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We enjoyed other local community events, school summer fairs, fundraising events throughout the year, these events keep our calendar rolling and are all great fun with fantastic audiences. We also took part in various items of filming, including for ITV out by the Bristol suspension bridge. Our members enjoy getting involved in such
an eclectic mix of events, drumming, dancing, waving, smiling and shouting and we love them all .
Contribution by volunteers
The Trustees remain hugely grateful for the contribution made by our member volunteers who perform with incredible enthusiasm, promoting Bristol Samba to and for the general public benefit.
We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the gig organisers and volunteer van drivers, without whom we wouldn’t be able to perform.
Our superb team of directors lead us when we perform for public enjoyment. Without their willingness and commitment to learn to direct and lead, Bristol Samba simply would not be able to perform as often as we do and in different spheres/arenas/to different audiences. We continue to train gigging directors to maintain our capacity for public performance.
Thank you to each and every one of you who has been part of this journey, through either playing or dancing, and who are still with us – being part of the Bristol Samba family. We are so proud to say that we are Bristol Samba – the longest-established samba band in Bristol.
Financial Review
State of the Charity’s finances
Bristol Samba’s income in 2023-24 was £28,718.42 which was a decrease from the previous year. The total expenditure was £29,634.88, giving an overall loss of £916.46. Our accounts are prepared on a receipts and payments basis.
The principal source of income for the charity comes from members’ subscriptions (£19,282.42), which enable members to access tuition as well as to perform with the band at festivals, carnivals and other events. Our overall income from membership subscriptions have decreased this year, mainly due to a smaller than usual group of beginner drummers who started the course in January 2024 rather than September 2023. This meant we did not receive income from beginner drummers between September 2023 and January 2024. This was partially offset by lower rehearsal venue rental costs during that period. We have not raised the individual subscriptions rates this year, though we have changed the system of members subscriptions payments from 8-week blocks to monthly payments. The remainder of our income came from bookings for performances (£4,230.00). Also listed as sources of income are sale of merchandise and Shambala festival tickets to members, which are sold at cost.
The main costs to the charity are the payment of tutors and directors (£14,072.50), hire of our rehearsal space and storage of equipment (£5,549.60), equipment purchase and maintenance (£1,295.36), the maintenance of our van (£2,830.70), and ad hoc expenses such as our insurance and other sundry items (£1,511.72). In 2023-24 we invested in
maintenance of our existing instruments, which was seen as essential due to the number of members we now have.
Our expenditure supports the key objectives of the charity: paying for the tutors, the hire of rehearsal space, along with purchasing new equipment to ensure that our sound is suitable for performance standards.
Statement of the Charity's policy on reserves
We do not yet have a policy for the charity’s reserves.
We hold cash at the bank of around £9,000, all of which is unrestricted funds. These funds are held in order to meet any unforeseen expenditure that may occur, for example vehicle repair or to account for a fluctuation in the membership numbers, or for purchasing new equipment.
Details of any funds materially in deficit
The Trustees declare that the charity had no funds which were materially in deficit at the date of the statement of assets and liabilities.
Restricted funds
We have no restricted funds.
Designated funds
We have no designated funds.
Particulars of any outstanding guarantee given by the Charity
The Trustees declare that the charity has given no guarantee where potential liability is outstanding at the date of the statement of assets and liabilities.
Particulars of any outstanding debt
The Trustees declare that the charity has no outstanding debts which are secured by an express charge on any of the assets of the charity at the date of the statement of assets and liabilities.
Declaration
The Trustees declare that they have approved the above report and authorised that it be signed on their behalf.
| Signatures | ||
| Full names | Janice Pauline Davies | Elizabeth Elliott |
| Position | Chair | Treasurer |
| Date | 13/11/24 | 13/11/24 |
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Bristol Samba Charity No: 1165208
Receipts and payments accounts
Period end date:
From Period start date: To
Day Month Year Day Month Year
1st September 2023 31 [st] August 2024
Unrestricted Restricted Total funds Total Funds Total
funds funds/ for for Funds for
2023 – 24 Endowment 2021 - 22 2022-23 2023-24
funds
A1 Receipts
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Subs early £1,940.00 £4,982.50 £4,419.00 £1,940.00
group
Subs later £14,603.00 - £8,161.25 £13,168.00 £14,603.00
groups
Subs dancers £2,739.42 - £2,500.00 £2,780.00 £2,739.42
- -
New beginners £1,495.00 -
2022-23
Gigs £4,230.00 - £3,875.00 £5,050.00 £4,230.00
T shirts, £862.00 - £758.00 £316.00 £862.00
kneepads,
earplugs
Shambala £4,344.00 - £2,322.00 £3,582.00 £4,344.00
contributions
Sub total £28,718.42 - £24,093.75 £29,315.00 £28,718.42
A2 asset and - -
investment sales
Total receipts £28,718.42 - £24,093.75 £29,315.00 £28,718.42
- - -
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| A3 Payments | 2023.24 | Restricted/ endowment |
Total funds for 2021 - 22 |
Total Funds for 2022-23 |
Total Funds for 2023-24 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Teaching and Directors £14,072.50 - £12,775.38 £12,557.00 £14,072.50
fees
Trinity Hire & storage £5,549.60 - £4,494.00 £6,667.00 £5,549.60
General Expenses £1,551.72 - £368.15 £1,578.00 £1,551.72
Van Expenses £2,830.70 - £1381.00 £1,514.00 £2,830.70
Equipment £188.89 - - £1,179.00 £188.89
Merchandise £1,207.67 £729.00 -
Shambala Contributions £4,335.00 - £2,365.20 £3,581.00 £4,335.00
Sub total £28,528.41 £22,591.40 £27,805.00 £28,528.41
A2 asset and investment £1,106.47 - £1,039.94 £1,967.00 £1106.47
purchases
(instruments)
Total payments £29,634.88 - £23,631.34 £29,772.00 £29,634.88
Net of -£916.46
receipts(payments)
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Section B: Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
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2021-22 2022-23 2023 – 24
B1 Cash funds Cash at the bank £10,512.16 £10,055.00 £9,118.27
B4 Assets retained for the Samba Van £5,750.00 £3,200.00 £3,100.00
charities own use
Instruments £9,000.00 £10,500.00 £10.500.00
Stock £1,236.00 £1,648.50 £862.00
B5 Liabilities None None None None
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