## **HIVE Trustees’ Report**
For the year ending 31 March 2024
## **Administrative Information**
Hive is a charitable incorporated organisation, registration number 1165566.
## Registered office: **Hive Community Hub, School Street, Sudbury, Suffolk CO10 2HA.**
## _**Trustees**_
Shirley Moore (Chair) Lesley Ford-Platt Robin Hodgkinson (Secretary) Andrew Welsh Tony Willson (Resigned January 2024) Gloria Woods (appointed April 2023, resigned November 2023) Robert Spivey (Treasurer) (Appointed June 2023)
As well as the Trustees, the organisation has a forum who usually support the Trustee Board in planning activities. Membership of the forum is open to voluntary and community sector groups in the local area, as well as relevant statutory agencies.
## **Structure, Governance & Management**
## **1. Nature of governing document**
The activities of Hive are governed by a Constitution approved by the Charity Commission on 12[th] February 2016.
## **2. Recruitment and appointment of trustees**
The trustees and staff are always on the lookout for potential new trustees who can bring their skills and expertise to assist in the organisation’s governance. Potential trustees have access to the chair to discuss their involvement. When recruited, new trustees are inducted through meetings and an induction pack, which not only covers information about the organisation but their roles and responsibilities as trustees.
## **3. Review of the financial position**
The accounting year this year runs from April 1st 2023 to 31[st] March 2024. Total income for this period was £45,245 (including £32,464 restricted funding) and expenditure £41,946 (including £24,514 restricted expenditure).
The net result was a surplus on the year of £3,299 thus leaving a fund balance of £30,067, including restricted funding.
## **4. Financial Management**
Hive finances are managed by a Treasurer who reports to the Trustees at their quarterly meetings.
The Bank account is now held at NatWest PLC. All cheques and internet banking transactions require two signatories.
The systems of internal control include reports submitted by the Treasurer at the regular Trustee Board meetings. Also, consideration of the financial results and forecasting of possible funding shortfalls are discussed in detail at Trustee meetings.
## **5. Reserves Policy**
At present Hive has no reserves policy. If, however, sufficient surpluses are made in the future, the Trustees would designate a proportion of these as a general reserves fund.
## **6. Risk analysis and plan**
There are a number of areas that the Trustees consider as potential risks. These are as follows:
Inability to raise funds for existing activities Inability to recruit trustees in the future Lack of interest in the activities and services offered by Hive
With the purchase of the URC Church and Hall, there are also additional risks of managing an old building and ensuring that this is:
a) fit for purpose
b) that income from hiring, events and fundraising activities meets the expenditure costs.
## **7. Funding**
Funding was received from a variety of sources. These are listed in the Achievements and performance section of this report.
## **8. Objectives and Activities**
Hive’s objects are primarily for the benefit of the inhabitants of the Sudbury and District area to:
- a) provide training and learning activities and resources to local voluntary and community groups;
- b) provide information services to local groups;
- c) provide opportunities for local groups to work in partnership with other
- agencies; and
- d) offer funding or funding advice to help local groups to develop
- e) provide a building and space for local organisations to hire for their activities and services.
Hive has fulfilled its objects in a number of ways:
- Redesigning its website to contain more information about local groups and online resources.
- Developing an e-bulletin sent out to its mailing list of 80 groups, with news of events, service and resources
- Providing quarterly steering group meetings giving groups the opportunity to discuss local issues and exchange information. Several new groups have found these a very useful way to establish contacts and learn about potential funding sources.
- Developing a programme of free training courses, in normal times, in subjects as diverse as 1[st] Aid, Social Media, Trustees’ Roles and Responsibilities and Managing Volunteers
- Purchasing the URC church and hall as a venue for local charitable organisations to hire at reasonable rates, less than commercial rates. Commercial hirers are welcome, but they pay higher fees.
## **9. Meeting the Principles of Public Benefit**
Hive meets the Charity Commission’s Public Benefit Principles in a number of ways:
- It helps new and small groups to establish contacts and learn about current projects and developments through the regular steering group meetings. A regular email newsletter is also sent out
- through providing support to new groups through one-to-one meetings on issues ranging from business planning to setting up as a charity, training courses and online resources
- Through the purchase of the URC Church and Hall and managing this building as a place for hire and for staging events.
## **10. Achievements & Performance**
Having bought the URC Church and Hall in November 2021 and carried out sufficient remedial work to make the building usable again, this year has been one of consolidation and building up a reasonable client base.
The significant progress this financial year on the building was to draw up plans for our use of the building and improvements to the infrastructure. These plans were submitted in June 2022. Planning permission and listed building consent was granted in October 2022 by the local planning authority. These plans include replacement of all wooden windows, doors, removing the pews from the ground floor, and forward-facing balcony of the church, re-flooring the uneven surface of the old church and building a porch at the entrance to the old church hall. Our priorities for the future include making the access to all areas for wheelchairs, and to that end we have already installed a step-lift that links the old church and the church hall. We have also taken the opportunity of installing LED lighting in the old church hall, as well as upgrading the old electrical distribution panel to one of a more modern design with circuit breakers rather than fuses. Some of the pews have already been removed.
During the year the building has been used by a number of hirers including Sudbury Choral Society who performed a number of concerts in the Joy Abbot Hall, The Befriending Scheme, various classes including low impact exercise classes, a WI group, Newstalk (a recorded newspaper for the blind), the Bridge Project, Offshoot films (a charity that provides a film making school for disadvantaged children), the annual Sudbury Music Festival and the Jesus Reigns Ministry. New bookings included the University of the Third Age, Weavers Court, Woodpeckers Nursery as well as a number of Community Energy events, including Babergh and Mid Suffolk District Council’s Community Climate Action Roadshow in October 2023.
During the Summer, Hive ran a series of weekly lunchtime concerts kindly organised by Roger Green and Lesley Ford-Platt. This included 11 concerts featuring a mixture of musical styles including folk singers, choral groups, classical instrumentalists and vocalists. In addition there were a number of evening concerts during the year featuring organ concerts and including a concerts by the Accidentals and the Djangoliers in the Autumn.
Sinead Johnson, Hive’s part-time Administrator provided a very efficient service organising bookings, sending out quarterly newsletters, packed with information about Hive and local voluntary and community sector events and information. Two local Forum events were held including a funding session with Nicki Bray of Suffolk Community Foundation and Jatinder Purewai from the National Lottery Community Funding. In March 2023 the Forum welcomed speakers from Abbeyfield Leisure and Community Action Suffolk.
Hive also re-activated the Sudbury and District Volunteer Awards, which was held in June 2023 to coincide with the end of Volunteers Week.
In the year under review, donations for the project were received from:
The Hillier Trust (£10k) and Suffolk Community Fund (£5k) (funding Hive’s Part-time Administrator), Locality Grants from Babergh District Councillors: Adrian Osborne (£640) (for bicycle racks), David and Jane Mann (£5,000) towards the cost of the M & E report, Sudbury Rotary Club (£500), Anonymous Donation of £3500 (for ceiling repairs), Sudbury Market Town Partnership (£3,050) and ASDA Foundation (£1,413) for the kitchen refurbishment. Approximately £700 was also raised by Hive Trustee, Andy Welsh and his wife Janet from a coast to coast walk which they completed. a 192 mile walk from St Bees in Cumbria to Robin Hoods Bay in Yorkshire to take place over 17 days in May 2023.
## **11. Future Plans**
Future plans include raising money to continue the refurbishment of the Hive Community Hub, gaining permission to change the heating for Friars Hall, increasing the number of bookings and programming events and concerts within the building.
I would finally pay tribute to my fellow Trustees, who have discharged their duties and responsibilities as Trustees and Directors with pragmatism and good sense. Thanks should also go to Sudbury Rotary Club for their continued support and assistance.
Shirley Moore
Date: 7[th] August 2024
Chairman
## **Annual Accounts 2023/4**
## **Section A Receipts**
## **and payments**
|**A1**
**Receipts**|**Unrest**
**ricted**
**funds**
**to the**
**nearest**
**£**
**12,781**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**12,781**|**Restric**
**ted**
**funds**
**to the**
**nearest**
**£**
**1,839**
**15,000**
**4,000**
**10,507**
**1,118**
**32,464**|**Endowm**
**ent**
**funds**
**to the**
**nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|**Total**
**funds**
**to the**
**nearest £**
**14,620**
**15,000**
**4,000**
**10,507**
**1,118**
**45,245**|**Last year**
**to the nearest £**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
General Funds|**12,781**|**1,839**|**-**|**14,620**|**19,800**|
|Adminstrator|**-**|**15,000**|**-**|**15,000**|**15,000**|
|Maintenance|**-**|**4,000**|**-**|**4,000**|**-**|
|Refurbishment||**10,507**|**-**|**10,507**|**25,486**|
|Organ|**-**|**1,118**|**-**|**1,118**|**1,019**|
|**_Sub_**
**_total_**_(Gros_
_s income_
_for AR)_|**12,781**|**32,464**|**-**|**45,245**|**61,305**|
**A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table).**
|**_Total_**||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|**_receipts_**|**12,781**||**32,464**|||**-**||**45,245**|||**61,305**|
|**A3**||||||||||||
|**Payments**||||||||||||
|Salaries and||||||||||||
|support|**-**||**6,272**||**-**|||**6,272**||**5,991**||
|Office Costs||||||||||||
||**4,503**||**-**||**-**|||**4,503**||**3,121**||
|Premises||||||||||||
|Costs|**12,861**||**3,841**||**-**|||**16,702**||**15,173**||
|Refurbishment||||||||||||
|Costs|**-**||**14,401**||**-**|||**14,401**||**32,235**||
|Misc||||||||||||
||**68**||**-**||**-**|||**68**||**-**||
||**-**||**-**||**-**|||**-**||**-**||
|**_Sub total_**||||||||||||
||**17,432**||**24,514**||**-**|||**41,946**||**56,520**||
|**24,514**
**7,950**
**-**
**5,182**
**15,823**
**18,591**|**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|**41,946**
**3,299**
**-**
**26,768**
**30,067**||
|---|---|---|---|
||||**56,520**|
|||||
|**7,950**|**-**|**3,299**|**4,785**|
|**-**
**5,182**|**-**|**-**|**-**|
|**15,823**|**-**|**26,768**|**21,983**|
|**18,591**|**-**|**30,067**|**26,768**|
## **Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period**
|**Categories**
**B1 Cash**
**funds**
**B2 Other**
**monetary**
**assets**|**Details**
Bank Balances
**_Total cash funds_**
(agree balances with
receipts and payments
account(s))
**Details**
Sundry Debtors|**Unrestri**
**cted**
**funds**
**to nearest**
**£**
**11,476**
**-**
**-**
**11,476**
OK
**Unrestri**
**cted**
**funds**
**to nearest**
**£**
**2,510**
**-**
**-**|**Restricte**
**d funds**
**to nearest £**
**18,591**
**-**
**-**
**18,591**
OK
**Restricte**
**d funds**
**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**|**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||OK|
|||||**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**|
||Sundry Debtors|**2,510**|**-**|**-**|
|||**-**|**-**|**-**|
|||**-**|**-**|**-**|
**----- Start of picture text -----**
Fund to
which Cost Current value
asset (optional) (optional)
Details belongs
B3
Investmen - -
t assets - -
Fund to
which Cost Current value
asset (optional) (optional)
Details belongs
B4 Assets Hive Building Restricted
265,000 265,000
retained
for the - -
charity’s
own use - -
- -
Fund to Amount due When due
which (optional) (optional)
liability
Details relates
B5 Sundry Creditors Unrestricte In 30 days
d 2,046
Liabilities
-
Signed by
one or two
Date of
trustees on Signature Print Name
behalf of all approval
the trustees
Shirley Moore, Chair of 7 [th] August
Hive 2024
Robin Hodgkinson,
Trustee and Secretary
7 [th] August
2024
**----- End of picture text -----**