## **Hats Off for Bootsie**
## **Trustees’ Annual Report 2022**
## **Charitable Incorporated Organisation**
## **Registration no. 1165319.**
**www.hatsoffforbootsie.org.uk**
**The Summit, 2 Castle Hill Terrace, Maidenhead, SL6 4J**
**Hats Off for Bootsie - Trustees’ Annual Report 2022**
## Report of the Trustees for the year ending 31 December 2022
The Trustees are pleased to present their annual report together with the consolidated financial statements of the charity for the year ending 31 December 2022.
## Chair’s Report
Hats Off for Bootsie (HOfB) was incorporated as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) on 26[th] January 2016 under registration no. 1165319.
HOfB’s objects are ‘to promote and protect the good health of Combat Veterans who are homeless or who are overcoming mental trauma, in particular but not exclusively, by providing them with opportunities to rehabilitate using the arts as a medium.’
and expenditure of £1,025. As in previous years, it was pro-bono services, not income, that was the major enabler in 2022.
2022 started with two setbacks which seemed insurmountable. First, Stoll broke the news that they could no longer afford to host the joint event in which both our charities were to bring to the public’s attention the plight of homeless veterans. Secondly, the problems with Nigel’s back increased, making it almost impossible for him to travel to attend meetings, or network face to face in order to negotiate a new partnership, when it became necessary.
By September, however, Nigel could travel again. This enabled him to secure Tip Cullen to replace Stoll as our ‘Partner’. Tip’s determination and extensive network of contacts would prove vital in bringing our ambition of a film launch to a successful conclusion in 2023.
As the prospects of live theatre became increasingly decimated by Covid, the importance of our film, _SNLR,_ increased. While we were trying to replace Stoll and launch the film, we took the opportunity to improve SNLR’s quality. It was to become our calling-card.
May I thank Supporters and Friends, as well as Trustees and Ambassadors for the generous help they have given us this year. Most of our enablement was made possible by pro-bono work undertaken by them in support of our aims and activities.
In October, our much loved and greatly respected Chair, Chris, resigned so that he and Carol could retire abroad. The success that HOfB is starting to enjoy would not have been possible without the foundation that he was instrumental in building during HOfB’s first seven years. In Nigel’s words: “The combination of Chris’ integrity and can-do attitude was a great support for me personally, and a huge benefit to HOfB. We wish Chris and Carol all the very best. May the sun never scorch them, and their glass be ever full.“
Lucinda Howland
Chair (since October 2022)
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**Hats Off for Bootsie - Trustees’ Annual Report 2022**
## Governance
During 2022, our board consisted of five Trustees, except when the outgoing and incoming Trustee and Chair, Chris and Lucinda, overlapped from October ’22 to February ’23, during which time there were six. The Trustees have a variety of backgrounds and experience pertinent to both our proposed activities and the high standards of governance of a CIO. Lucinda is keen to her medical and psychological know-how and knowledge to contribute the board’s already impressive range of expertise. HOfB’s decisions are reached either through a majority vote at Trustees’ Meetings or, as our constitution allows, through a majority vote online. The Trustees met three times in 2022.
## Objectives and Activities
HOfB’s objects are ‘to promote and protect the good health of Combat Veterans who are homeless or who are overcoming mental trauma, in particular but not exclusively, by providing them with opportunities to rehabilitate using the arts as a medium.’
HOfB was established on 26 January 2016. During 2022, the initial objectives continued to be developed and pursued:
1. Establishing a plan of activities to support the longer term objective of putting on a theatrical production using military veteran actors.
2. Developing the relationships required to deliver item 1
3. Developing relationships, including our network of volunteer ambassadors, to promote a positive perception of veterans overcoming mental trauma and homelessness
4. Raising grants or other sizeable funding to deliver item 1.
## Achievement and Performance
Objective 1
A costed plan previously developed continues to apply. The plan is to stage a play, _The Terminus_ , which has as its central character a homeless war veteran suffering from PostTraumatic Stress Disorder and the onset of Alzheimer’s Disease. The cast and crew will consist mostly or entirely of former servicemen and women. Objective 1 is the main plank of HOfB’s strategy to achieving its charitable objects. For further details, specifically how this will be delivered and who will be involved, see Objective 2.
Although the UK will record 2022 as a year that had little or no lockdown, plans for presenting a play or a film in public were still hindered by a fear of Covid and a lack of confidence in any venture that required a considerable audience to break even. Televised sport without any spectators was a notable exception. Investment would be, of course, much less forthcoming in a climate of low confidence.
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**Hats Off for Bootsie - Trustees’ Annual Report 2022**
HOfB set about trying to finish its short film, _Service No Longer Required (SNLR)_ as soon as it could in 2022, knowing it was an interim objective, but one that was of far greater significance for HOfB than originally planned.
The film raises issues facing veterans overcoming mental trauma and homelessness, particularly issues concerning their value to society. A more positive public perception of such veterans will not just be for those involved in the project, but also for thousands of others with similar challenges.
The Covid-19 pandemic, however, had two other major and unforeseen, negative consequences. First, our Partners in the proposed reception for _SNLR_ , Stoll, said they were forced to withdraw: a combination of Covid lowering their income and the invasion of Ukraine hiking up their fuel prices. Stoll’s part of our partnership was to provide the reception, while HOfB was to provide the film.
Secondly, we began 2022 having had no progress in our fund-raising for Object 1 for nearly two years - since March in 2020. Nor was there any likely prospect for raising money as the year progressed, as the market/audience for theatre remained sceptical of being part of a crowd, so audience numbers were down .
## Objective 2
There were three people who were key in the making and launching of _SNLR_ : Shaun Johnson, a HOfB Ambassador, was the Producer and Nigel Fair, our Founding Trustee, was the Director. Neither accepted a fee, and both put a considerable sum of their own money into post-production. Many others involved during 2021’s filming and 2022’s editing and post-production accepted lower fees than they would command in the marketplace.
The third person who was key in the making and launching of SNLR was Tip Cullen. Not only did he take the central role of Bootsie in _SNLR_ , but Nigel persuaded him to become The Executive Director for _The Terminus_ . An ex-Serviceman at the end of thirty-seven year military career who had re-trained as an actor, he was ideal to become Mentor to everyone on set, stage or backstage. His friendly manner and intelligent engagement made him a natural Ambassador for HOfB.
Tip did find a new organisation to host the launch of _SNLR, and_ at an event which shopwindowed HOfB’s ethos and activities. However, that launch event is for next year’s Trustees’ Report. In 2022, Tip started to introduce many people to Nigel. Several not only proved to be of direct value to HOfB, but they also attracted many people who found what we were doing worth supporting. Tip’s contacts gave HOfB a much wider reach and, I think,
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**Hats Off for Bootsie - Trustees’ Annual Report 2022**
has provided us with relationships that will, sooner or later, enable us to achieve Objective 1, the main plank of HOfB’s strategy to achieving its charitable objects.
## Objective 3
HOfB’s wider network of volunteer ambassadors continues to be valued. HOfB is most grateful for their enthusiasm and dedication to impact their own home and work communities – mainly by conversations and social media, but also speaking to small, local groups. Tip, who is our third major Ambassador, has given a considerable boost to the numbers of our volunteer ambassadors. Despite Covid, when numbers of ambassadors fell away due to the lack of opportunity to talk to people, it now appears that the reach, effectiveness and enthusiasm of our volunteer ambassadors is more than it was pre-Covid.
## Objective 4
A major dependency for achieving Objective 1 was and continues to be the ability to raise the necessary funding.
In November 2020, The Veterans’ Foundation gave HOfB our first grant of £4,708, to cover the filming of _Service No Longer Required_ . The Trustees hope that the release of the film will generate sufficient interest and, with it, income to support further smaller films or potentially even adequate funds to enable a theatrical production. The public’s response to _Service No Longer Required_ will be considered by the Trustees in order to determine what course of action should be taken going forwards in order to support Objective 1. (SNLR was finally launched in May of 2023.)
The Trustees had previously made two decisions that have a strong bearing on the fundraising activities:
1. Not to pursue actively funding from the public in general until such time that a sufficiently large grant/donation had been secured to give a realistic prospect of achieving Objective 1.
2. Until such time that such grant/corporate donation had been secured to cover a high proportion of the cost of Objective 1, no commercial commitments would be made to any partner or supplier. Specifically, the box office revenues would largely be discounted from the funds required for Objective 1.
The impact of these decisions was that a ‘high entry bar to start’ was created. Whilst the grant from The Veterans’ Foundation covered most of the costs of producing _Service No Longer Required_ the above ethos still applies and therefore a funded step-by-step approach will continue to be adopted.
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**Hats Off for Bootsie - Trustees’ Annual Report 2022**
## Financial Review
2022 saw a total income of £1.40 (bank interest) and total expenditure of £1,025. The grant HOfB obtained in November of 2020 only starting to be spent in 2021, the delay being on account of the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown. Most of that grant funding has already been spent, on the whole to paying veterans for their services in 2021 and 2022. The remaining amount is expected to be spent on post-production work on the film before its release. HOfB continues to be volunteer lead and therefore carries minimal overheads.
As with the other pro-bono work we receive, such as legal advice, research work and the hosting and maintenance of our website (www.hatsoffforbootsie.org.uk), the work of our wider network of ambassadors has gone ahead unhindered by budgetary constraints.
All expenses incurred by the Trustees and Friends of HOfB involved in travel to meetings, consultations and rehearsals, have been borne by the individuals themselves. In 2022, Nigel travelled to London, Plymouth and Putney many times, as well as Worcester, Bristol and Belfast, also without remuneration.
The Trustees continue to be of the opinion that a major source of funding is required in order for its activities to accelerate, but consider the grant funding secured in 2020, the filming in 2021 and expected release of the film in 2022, to be good progress.
Given the ‘start-up’ circumstances of HOfB (and given decision 2 under Objective 4) the Trustees have not felt the need to have a reserves policy at this time.
## Outlook
Good progress, albeit against an interim objective, was made during 2021 in that the hiring of veterans and filming were achieved. The interim objective, to release a short, low cost, high impact drama highlighting the plight of veterans living on the streets, is very much in line with HOfB’s charitable objects.
2021 saw a number of veterans being employed to deliver a film that tells their story. A post-filming questionnaire was used to capture feedback. The response from the veterans was extremely positive.
We anticipate releasing the short film in 2022 with Stoll at a prestigious launch event and anticipate that this will help raise funding for further initiatives, hopefully including in due course the staging of _The Terminus_ . However, there was a further delay owing to HOfB losing Stoll as our partner. The recovery from this, gaining a new Partner who paid for a prestigious launch event, was relatively prompt and completely successful, even though it was a considerable and unwelcome delay.
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**Hats Off for Bootsie - Trustees’ Annual Report 2022**
## Public Benefit Statement
The Trustees believe the benefits of HOfB’s activities are:
- Firstly, for veterans who have suffered mental trauma or experienced homelessness as a result of their service to their country, and who wish to engage with the performing arts to assist in their rehabilitation and engagement with the wider community;
- To the wider community, initially family and friends of such veterans, but also the public in general benefiting from the knowledge that veterans who have served their country are being supported in their rehabilitation in an engaging, appropriate way;
- The veterans themselves are combatting the stigma surrounding mental trauma and homelessness, not only in military circles, but also where it exists in the public at large.
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**Hats Off for Bootsie - Trustees’ Annual Report 2022**
## Reference and administrative details
Charity number: 1165319 Principal Office: The Summit, 2 Castle Hill Terrace, Maidenhead, SL6 4JP Web site: www.hatsoffforbootsie.org.uk
## Our advisers
Auditors N/A Bankers CAF Bank Ltd, 25 Kings Hill Avenue, Kings Hill, West Malling, Kent ME19 4JQ Legal Advice Ashleigh Harding
## Trustees
The Trustees serving during the year and since the year-end were as follows: Nigel Fair Robin Vickers Rachael Odeniyi Ishmael Carboo Christopher Greenslade (retired 13/02/2023) Lucinda Howland (appointed 11/10/2022)
## Structure, Governance and Management
During 2022, our board consisted of five Trustees, except when the outgoing and incoming Trustee and Chair, Chris and Lucinda, overlapped from October ’22 to February ’23, during which time there were six. The Trustees have a variety of backgrounds and experience pertinent to both our proposed activities and high standards of governance of a CIO.. Lucinda is keen to her medical and psychological know-how and knowledge to contribute the board’s already impressive range of expertise. HOfB’s decisions are reached either through a majority vote at Trustees’ Meetings or, as our constitution allows, through a majority vote on-line. The Trustees met three times in 2022.
## Governing Document
HOfB is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation governed by its Constitution dated 17 December 2015. It is registered as a charity with the Charity Commission.
Approved by the Trustees of HOfB on 30[th] October 2023 and signed on their behalf by Lucinda Howland (chair)
…………………………………………
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**Hats Off for Bootsie - Trustees’ Annual Report 2022**
## Hats Off For Bootsie
Financial Statements for the year ended 31[st] December 2022
||Total 2022|Total 2021|
|---|---|---|
||£|£|
|**Income and Expenditure Statement**|||
|Income|1|1,168|
|Expenditure|1,025|3,871|
||----------------------------------------------------||
|Excess of Income over Expenditure|(1,024)|(2,703)|
|Opening balance 1stJanuary|1,992|4,695|
|Closing balance 31stDecember|968|1,992|
|**Assets and Liabilities Statement**|||
|Total assets|968|1,992|
|Total liabilities|0|0|
Approved by the Trustees of HOfB on 30[th] October 2023 and signed on their behalf by Lucinda Howland (chair)
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**Charity Name Hats Off for Bootsie**
**CC16a**
**No (if any) 1165319**
## **Receipts and payments accounts**
**For the period** Period start date Period end date **To from** 01/01/2022 31/12/2022
## **Section A Receipts and payments**
|**A1 Receipts**|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**|**Restricted funds**
**to the nearest £**|**Restricted funds**
**to the nearest £**|**Endowment**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**|**Endowment**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**|**Total funds**
**to the nearest £**|**Total funds**
**to the nearest £**|**Last year**
**to the nearest £**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Donations|**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**918**|
|Gift Aid|**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**250**|
|Bank Interest|**1**||**-**||**-**||**1**||**-**|
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|
|**_Sub total_**_(Gross income for AR)_|**1**||**-**||**-**||**1**||**1,168**|
|||||||||||
|**A2 Asset and investment sales,**
**(see table).**||||||||||
|
**None**|**-**|||||||||
||**-**||||||||**-**|
|**_Sub total_**|**-**||||||||**-**|
|**_Total receipts_**
**A3 Payments**||||||||||
||||||||||**1,168**|
|||||||||||
|
Bank charges|**81**||||||||**97**|
|CharityCheckout GiftAid service|**494**||||||||**-**|
|Payment to Tom Stimpson for art materials|||||||||**250**|
|Payments to Veterans for SNLR film|||||||||**3,525**|
|Payment to Matteo di Cugno for SNLR|||||||||**-**|
|Payment to TipCullen for SNLR|**-**||||||||**-**|
||**-**||||||||**-**|
||**-**||||||||**-**|
|**_Sub total_ **|**575**||||||||**3,872**|
|||||||||||
|**A4 Asset and investment**
**purchases, (see table)**||||||||||
|**None**|**-**|||||||||
||**-**|||||||||
|**_Sub total_ **|**-**||||||||**-**|
|**_Total payments_**
**_Net of receipts/(payments)_**
**A5 Transfers between funds**
**A6 Cash funds last year end**
**_Cash funds this year end_**||||||||||
||||||||||**3,872**|
|||||||||||
||**- 574**||||||||**- 2,704**|
||**-**||||||||**-**|
||**-**||||||||**-**|
||**- 574**||||||||**- 2,704**|
## **Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period**
**Categories**
**B1 Cash funds**
|1
**Details**
**_Total cash funds_**
(agree balances with receipts and payments account(s))
Bank Current Account|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**to nearest £**
**686**
**-**
**-**
**686**
Agreement Error|27/10/2023
**Restricted funds**
**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**283**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**283**
**-**
Agreement Error
OK|**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**|
|---|---|---|---|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
CCXX R1 accounts (SS)
|Signed by one or two trustees on
behalf of all the trustees
**B5 Liabilities**
**B3 Investment assets**
**B2 Other monetary assets**
**B4 Assets retained for the**
**charity’s own use**|**Details**
None
None
**Details**
**Details**
None
**Details**
None
Signature|**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)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
Print Name
Lucinda Howland|**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**|
|---|---|---|---|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**Current value**
**(optional)**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**Current value**
**(optional)**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**When due**
**(optional)**|
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||||
||||Date of approval|
|||Lucinda Howland|31/10/2002
|
||||3|
CCXX R2 accounts (SS)
27/10/2023
2