**The Friends of Dinosaur Isle (A Charitable Incorporated Organisation)** **Report and financial statements for the Year Ended 31[st] March 2024.** **Charity Number 1170688** ## **The Friends of Dinosaur Isle** ## **Report of the Trustees for the year ended 31 March 2024** . The Trustees present their report and financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2024. ## **Reference and Administratve Informaton.** **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 Commitee** Mr M Hornett (Chair) Dr J Lockwood (Events) Mrs B Sibbick (Treasurer) Ms T Wilson (Social Media) Mr J Ash Mrs P Lockwood Mr P Pusey (Membership Secretary) Mr S Smith Mr W Thurbin (Secretary) ## **Non-voting committee members** Dr M Munt (Museum Curator) 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 Objectves.** 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 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. - 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.** ## **FODI ORGANISATION** The Friends of Dinosaur Isle is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation and the Trustees Committee have met formally four times this year with other ad hoc meetings arranged as appropriate. The Trust is governed by its constitution with conflicts of interest being assessed at the first meeting after the AGM using our conflicts of interest policy. ## **EVENTS** The charity has arranged a number of events during the reporting period. We continue to arrange two ever-popular quiz evenings with a Christmas Quiz and get together in December and one in February. We have also arranged two talks, the first by Dr Jeremy Lockwood on Dinosaur Anatomy in April 2023 and in Jan 2024 a talk by Dr Simon Penn on the ancient pond life of the Wessex formation, both of which were well attended. After the talk in January we organised a beach walk to the site described by Dr Penn and the participants found not only a dinosaur sacral vertebra but also the braincase of a crocodilian. This year’s bone day was also well-attended with a significant support to the event provided by the FODI volunteers. FODI as usual organised a summer BBQ which was well attended and again provided an excellent venue to allow members to get to know each other better. **The** Friends also supported the Blast from The Past event in November. All events have provided the opportunity for fundraising and have been a useful source of income for the Friends. Another source of fundraising are the collection boxes at the museum reception and at some of the meetings. ## **VOLUNTEERS** The Friends continue to play an important role in attracting volunteers to the museum, who support the museum with work at the museum and in the laboratory but also by collecting and donating important specimens. We now have a very strong team of volunteers who are providing significant support to the museum in the preparation, conservation and display of specimens. The museum organised a substantial scientific dig at Yaverland during 2023 with a number of students and members of the public involved. FODI volunteers provided significant support to the event which was very successful and added to the scientific understanding of the Wessex formation sediments in the succession at Yaverland **.** ## **FUTURE OF DINOSAUR ISLE MUSEUM** The Isle of Wight Council (IWC) decided to dispose of Dinosaur Isle Museum in September 2017. The Friends put in an expression of interest and teamed up with Dinosaurier Parks as a consortium. However, the procurement exercise was abandoned by the IWC and what followed was a series of workshops in 2023, supported by the Friends, that decided to transfer responsibility for the museum to a Trust. Hampshire Cultural Trust was chosen as the likely candidate to take over the museum responsibility and talks with the Friends charity were undertaken to see how we could support the transfer to trust control. However, the IWC have now decided to carry out another procurement exercise in 2025. Therefore, the future of the museum remains uncertain. However the Friends are committed to supporting the transfer of control to a trust and will continue to work hard to realise this goal. **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 2023.** 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. ||**£**|£| |---|---|---| ||(2023/24)|(2022/23)| |**Incoming resources**||| |**Membership Fees:**|641|550| |**Donatons:**|1255|20| |**Expenditure:**||| |**Purchase of Specimen for the museum**|2000|1000| |Total expenditure|**2000**|**1000**| |Net income|**1896**|**570**| ## **Reconciliation of funds** Total funds brought forward (April 2023) - £11,627 **Total funds carried forward (April 2024) - £** 11,523 Wg Cdr M C G Hornett, BSc (Hons), RAF (Rtd) - Chair of Trustees