2022-04-06-accounts

The Friends of Dinosaur Isle (A Charitable Incorporated Organisation)

Report and financial statements for the Year Ended 31[st] March 2022.

Charity Number 1170688

The Friends of Dinosaur Isle

Report of the Trustees for the year ended 31 March 2020 .

The Trustees present their report and financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2022.

Reference and Administrative Information.

Charity Name: The Friends of Dinosaur Isle CIO

Charity registration number: 1170688

Registered office and operational address.

Dinosaur Isle Museum,

Culver Parade Sandown Isle of Wight PO36 8QA

Trustees Committee

Dr J Lockwood (Chair)

Mr A Peaker (Treasurer and Membership Secretary)

Mrs P Ash (Social Secretary)

Mr J Ash

Mr S Hutt

Mrs P Lockwood

Mr S Smith

Mrs F Trowbridge

Mr T Trowbridge

Ms T Wilson

Non-voting committee members

Dr M Munt

Mr P Pusey

Bankers: Lloyd’s Bank, 22 St Thomas' Square, Newport. Isle Of Wight, PO30 1SQ

Solicitors: Belcher Frost Solicitors Ltd. 3 West St, Elmsworth, Hampshire. PO10 7DX

Our Aims and Objectives.

Our charity’s purposes as set out in the objects contained in the company’s memorandum of association are to:

To advance the education of the public in palaeontology and geology for the benefit of the public, in particular by assisting Dinosaur Isle Museum in developing and displaying its collections for the benefit of the public and promoting the study of the Isle of Wight’s palaeontological collections and facilitate contact between all interested persons.

Our aims are to see a greater understanding of palaeontology and a co-ordinated approach to ensuring that specimens are safeguarded for education and scientific research. We believe that our aims fully reflect the purposes that the charity was set up for.

Ensuring that our work delivers our Aims

We review our Aims on an annual basis generally during the first meeting of the Trustees following the AGM. We also review and feedback on all of our activities to ensure that they are fulfilling the aims of the charity.

The main objectives for the year have been to:

• Support Dinosaur Isle Museum by raising funds to support the acquisition of equipment and specimens, and to receive contributions to support Dinosaur Isle Museum’s projects.

• Hold lectures, discussions, displays, workshops and seminars.

• Organise and assist in helping to promote special events, activities, field trips and visits.

• Give practical help and assistance on a voluntary basis under the direction of museum staff.

• Support the Museum through the current process of its disposal by the Isle of Wight Council by working to ensure that the accreditation status of the museum is always maintained and that the collections remain safe, well cared for and available for scientific research. This objective is discussed in more detail later in this document.

Review of Activities and Achievements.

The year was very much affected by the Covid pandemic as many of our events from quiz evenings to Blast from the Past were unable to proceed.

We now feel that we should resume normal activities and intend to implement a full schedule of events commencing in January 2023.

During this time, we took the opportunity to redesign our website and our thanks go to Trudie Wilson for undertaking this task.

New Dinosaurs

Even though Covid adversely affected many things, it didn’t slow down the discovery and publication of four Isle of Wight dinosaurs that were new to science.

FOUR NEW DINOSAURS. Talk via Zoom FRIDAY 4th MARCH 7:00 pm

The last year was a particularly spectacular one for Isle of Wight dinosaurs, with four new species being described. These include two types of spinosaurid, fish-eating dinosaurs, Ceratosuchops inferodios , ‘Hell’s Heron’ and Riparovenator milnerae named after Angela Milner, a world-renowned palaeontologist who worked at the Natural History Museum but sadly died last year. Also appearing was Vectiraptor greeni , a small but undoubtedly ferocious, feathered dinosaur, named after island collector Mick Green, who originally found the material. And last but not least, Brighstoneus simmondsi, a new iguanodontian dinosaur named after the village of Brighstone.

To celebrate this, we had an evening of talks on Zoom. Dr Neil Gostling, lecturer in Evolution and Palaeobiology at the University of Southampton talked about the new spinosaurids, Professor David Martill, palaeobiologist at the University of Portsmouth looked at the Raptors of the Isle of Wight, and Dr Jeremy Lockwood explained the importance of the new iguanodontian find on the island. The poster shows some pictures and details of the event.

Promoting Palaeontology and Dinosaur Isle Museum.

Our meetings continue to promote palaeontology by fielding local lectures and allowing people to experience recent finds first hand, although unfortunately Covid has curtailed much of our activities.

Volunteers

The Friends have played an important role in attracting volunteers who continue to play a vital role in enhancing the collection, both by undertaking preparatory work and collecting specimens. Indeed, we now have a strong team of dedicated volunteers including Eleanor Foxwell, Sandra Garbett, Tegan Hicks and Martyn Hornett who continue to make substantial inroads into the preparation, conservation and display of specimens.

Equipment

The Friends provided the funding for some new preparation tools for the Dinosaur Isle lab.

Specimens

A particularly fine specimen of an Early Cretaceous turtle from Yaverland was acquired by the Friends for the museum.

Organisational Structure

The Friends of Dinosaur Isle is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation. The Trustees Committee meet formally four times a year with other ad hoc meetings arranged as appropriate. The Trust is governed by its constitution. A maximum of twelve trustees are allowed by the constitution.

Conflicts of interest are assessed at the first meeting after the AGM which is usually in January using our conflicts of interest policy.

A third of the trustees must stand down each year and this is rotated over a three-year period. Trustees may stand again for office and voting is undertaken at the AGM which is usually held in December of each year.

A policy on how we control personal information has also been drawn up to ensure that we comply with The Data Protection Act 2018.

Future of Dinosaur Isle Museum

The problems with the future of the museum continue. Our plans to erect a new museum building in Sandown with an accompanying dinosaur theme science park, have been abandoned by the Isle of Wight Council, as it was felt that the extra land required would take up too much of the Brown’s Golf site. We fully understand that the golf attraction is important to many people in Sandown but doubt its sustainability in the long term. Developing an internationally known palaeontological museum would be a huge advantage to the Isle of Wight with enormous potential. This could become central to the Isle of Wight acquiring UNESCO Geopark status as well as providing jobs and income from increased tourism. A similar project in the town of Lourinhã in Portugal led to 5 million euros of inward investment over a three-year period. We still have backing to fund our project and are currently actively looking for a new site on the island to build a new museum and park. The collection is undoubtedly of international importance and in the last few years its standing with the palaeontological community has increased considerably with the discovery of several new taxa. We will continue to work hard to ensure that the collection remains in an Arts Council England accredited facility and is available for public benefit.

Friends of Dinosaur Isle CIO Registered charity number 1170688

Statement of Financial Activities (including Income and Expenditure account) for the year ended 31[st] March 2022.

These accounts represent the fifth statement of financial activities that the charity has had to submit.

Values have been rounded up to the nearest pound.

We have no fixed assets (tangible assets or investments)

We hold no stock and have no debtors.

There has been no asset or investment sales or purchases in the time frame covered.

There is a single fund and there has been no transfer to or from other funds.

All our funds are unrestricted. We have received no restricted or endowment funds.

Incoming resources	£(2022)	£ (2021)
Membership Fees:	560	1048
Expenditure
Purchase for the Museum:
Prep tools.	455
Specimen purchase	1000
Other event expenses2: Catering for SVPCA 2019.	58	0
Total expenditure	1910	0
Net income	(1350)	1048

Reconciliation of funds

Total funds brought forward £12409 Total funds carried forward £11059

Dr J.A.F. Lockwood Chair of Trustees