EMERGENCY VOLUNTEERS ACTION GROUP
A ROTARY/INNER WHEEL PARTNERSHIP Registered charity no. 1168765
EVAG Annual Report for 2024
Emergency Volunteer Action Group is a hybrid organisation of Rotary International and Inner Wheel and other volunteers. We respond to callout by local authorities in Dorset, Somerset, and Wiltshire in the event of civil emergencies. We continue to attend both internal and external training courses to keep up with developments. We have our own store which holds essential response equipment, and we also issue flood prevention gear with very small charge, to households in danger of flooding.
Throughout Spring 24 and Autumn 24 – EVAG placed on standby by Local Authority several times to help man potential evacuation centres. At least 3 officially declared storms wreaked havoc across southern England. Thank fully there were no evacuations but there have been many dwellings who have suffered ingress of flood water.
Helping individual homes to avoid a recurrence of flooding has been a significant involvement for EVAG this year. We have purchased new style equipment – Snake Barriers, Toilet seals and Air Brick covers. We are investigating new style water barriers and currently have some £20,000 of stock.
In Feb 24, we moved to our new store at Big Bull just off the M5 motorway. All 5 Trustees now have direct access to the store.
Large Exercise . Our biggest exercise to date was ARC 5 involving 5 local councils and a central control centre. This exercise was a collapsed road bridge with many seriously injured civilians. EVAG had a representative in the control centre and, with the police, manned the biggest evacuation centre dealing with all the victims. EVAG arranged for Rotary volunteers to act as survivors of this serious incident
Flood Resilience – This year there has been a vast increase in demand for our services. We exhibited at 2 resilience gatherings in Wiltshire, 6 in Somerset and 1 in Bath and N E Somerset. Resulting from these, we have attended over 60 properties with another 60 awaiting our attention. We have commissioned 3 satellite stores in Bath, Crewkerne and Minehead.
Membership – The work of EVAG is not for everyone. It can be quite demanding. We lost 2 members but gained 4 in the year.
Finances The financial summary is shown below. We have £21532.24 at the year end, compared with
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£4129.73 at the previous year end.
EVAG FINANCIAL REPORT – 2024 YEAR END
The year 2024 has been a success financially in addition to our success in community service.
Our surplus in the year was £16830.83, thanks to generous support and sponsorship, especially from our partners Somerset Prepared and a grant from SSE.
The Somerset Prepared grants have been ring fenced in our accounts, to be utilised only for the purchase, storage and distribution of flood resilience pack in Somerset.
The cost of storage has been zero – other Rotary funding has supported the use of a commercial storage facility. The cost of distribution has been zero, as our members have not claimed mileage expenses this year.
The result of Somerset Prepared activity is shown below –
| 2024 | 2024 |
|---|---|
| SOMERSET PREPARED ACTIVITY |
£'s |
| SOMERSET PREPARED GRANT | 4000. 00 |
| INCOME FROM CLIENTS' DONATIONS |
3349. 99 |
| TOTAL SOMERSET PREPARED INCOME |
7349. 99 |
The summary shows that we have been relatively successful in requesting donations from parish councils, community groups and households to fund the 20% outstanding on kit cost, as Somerset Prepared have a limit of 80% on grant usage – quite rightly, to encourage community awareness and engagement.
We never refuse kit; those households which cannot afford to donate are put under no pressure; we do n’t even raise the issue in the visibly poorer households – we turn to our EVAG funds on those occasions.
For most of the year 2024 we were unable to support households in Wilshire and Dorset, due to lack of funding. Late in December we were fortunate to receive a grant of £14727.00 from SSE, to be split equally between the two Counties in ring fenced accounts.
Our mission includes training and low-level publicity, including the finding and usage of satellite ‘phones. Thus we have funds for our use as an organisation.
The EVAG funds, together with a summary of all of our ring-fenced funds are shown below –
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| INCOME CALENDAR YEAR 2024 | £'s |
|---|---|
| Somer ValleyRC | 500 |
| Portland RC | 200 |
| G & H Ilminster | 1000 |
| Wellington RC | 500 |
| SSE | 14727 |
| Somerset Prepared Grant | 4000 |
| Donations for food kit issued | 3349 |
| Arc5 reimbusement Somerset Council | 175.78 |
| TOTAL | 24451.78 |
| EXPENDITURE CALENDAR YEAR 2024 | £'s |
| Kitpurchases | 6145 |
| Bank charges | 74.4 |
| Fowers on retirement | 31.48 |
| Printed materials | 379.56 |
| Meetingcosts | 229.47 |
| Arc5 Cateringcost | 175.58 |
| Garmin cost | 14.99 |
| TOTAL | 7050.48 |
We will continue with the very successful partnership with SEVAG and Somerset Prepared (who have provided an increasing amount of support as we address communities) and look forward to close cooperation with the relevant authorities in Wiltshire and Dorset.
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