Minutes of FoAL A.G.M. Chairmans/Trustees Report and
Treasurers Report
Wednesday 23[rd] February 2021 at 7pm in Adlington Library
1. Present: Alison Evans, Andrea Barnard, Caroline Hesketh, Philip Pilling. Penny Panting. Margaret Jackson, Gerry Fielding, David Carpenter. Carole Turner (library manager)
- The Chair’s welcome. Members were welcomed by Alison Evans the Chair of FoAL.
3. Apologies were Received from Carl Fazackerley. Erica Fazackerley. Peter Walkden. Terry Diviney. Margaret Burgess. Jeanette Lowe. Audrey Yates. Kathy Maidment. Don Hesketh
- 4.. Minutes of the 2021 AGM. These had been previously been sent out to members .
Their acceptance was proposed by Philip Pilling and seconded by Margaret Jackson. Voted on and approved as accurate
5.. FoAL committee
5.1 Resignations . No resignation have been received.
5.2 The re-election of all existing committee members was proposed by Andrea Barnard Voted on and approved.
5.3 New members. We have one possible new member but he was not able to attend the meeting. He will be contacted and if he wishes to join will be co-opted onto the committee for 2022 .
5.4 Re-election of the existing executive Chair…Alison Evans, Secretary …Caroline Hesketh, Treasurer… Philip Pilling. Vice-chair…. Margaret Burgess. The re-election of the executive was proposed by Andrea Barnard. Voted on and approved.
6. Chair’s report . Alison Evans read her chair’s Report to the meeting.
See Appendix 1 for Chairs report
7. Treasurer’s report
7.1 The accounts were presented to the committee and members. Mr Pilling pointed out that most of the funds raised in 2021 were from grants as we had not been able to have any big fundraising events. These grants are mainly for specific events that will take place in 2022. Mr Pilling was thanked by The Chair.
7.2 Acceptance of the accounts were proposed by Caroline Hesketh and seconded by Andrea Barnard. They were voted on and duly accepted.
7.3 Mr. Donald Hesketh was proposed as auditor for the 2023 accounts by Andrea Barnard and seconded by Gerry Fielding. Voted on and approved. Mr Pilling asked for his thanks to be passed on to Mr Hesketh
8. Subscriptions. It was proposed that for the future we do not have paid subscriptions and this will no longer be discussed at future AGM meetings unless circumstances change. Proposed by Caroline Hesketh, Seconded by Gerry Fielding. Voted on and approved.
Andrea Barnard proposed that we have membership forms available in the library so that new people can join.
9. FoAL Groups. The Chair, Alison Evans asked the organisers of each group activity within FoAL to give a report on their group.
Family History Group... Meet 1[st] Tuesday at 7pm. During the lockdown 6 members regularly met every month via Zoom. Since October 2021 face to face meetings have resumed with an average of 10 members per meeting. At the beginning some of the meetings are themed but now they are general meeting with members discussing what they are working on and help being given where possible. A Lancashire Adult Learning course is being planned for the future and this will probably be in the daytime with information being passed onto the monthly group. New members are welcome
French Group… The French Group has been meeting every Monday evening for 3 years now. Whilst the Library was closed we met on Skype but it's really good to be back in person now.
We have a regular group of 4 and we practice conversation, listening, reading and writing.We're using Longman'a A3 textbook. Everyone seems to enjoy it and we have a bit of a laugh. Anyone who has a reasonable level of French is welcome to join us.
Alison Evens, Chair, said how important this group was for the young mum’s in the community and their babies, and thanked Andrea and Margaret.
Reading Group….. This was due to resume on Friday 18[th] Feb but was cancelled due to the storm. The group will start again soon.
Films for All… Report sent by Margaret Burgess.
The coronavirus outbreak and restrictions unfortunately delayed the launch of our project After lengthy discussion with LCC a large drop down screen was installed in the library. The remaining equipment was delivered by Soundsmith in November and training took place re its use.
We have a couple of volunteers who show the films but it would be helpful if we could recruit a few more.
A number of additional items needed to be purchased ie cable reels and cable covers. The blackout blinds have now been installed
Films for All
Our first screenings took place in December with a Christmas film for adults and one for children.
Further films are to be shown in February. Including, Harry Potter and Downton Abbey. Everyone has been impressed by the picture and sound quality produced by the equipment . We also purchased a popcorn machine and serve drinks etc which helps to enhance the experience.
Numbers attending have been a little disappointing but we understand not everyone is comfortable attending large gatherings while COVID 19 is still affecting large numbers of people.
But perhaps we should also think about advertising more widely.
We have some suggestions for future films and should look to producing a programme of future screenings.
Purchasing Blu-ray films is relatively cheap the main cost is the purchase of copyright licenses and if the Community Cinema needs to be self sufficient we will have to charge a small amount for tickets .
The library staff would like to use the equipment to complement some of their activities. However the lengthy process of running cables etc makes it difficult for them. We need to approach LCC to ask if some of the cabling could be installed as a permanent feature this would make preparations for screening much quicker and easier for us and enable the library staff to use the equipment. I had hoped to do this earlier but as Shelley Verran our community library contact was leaving her post I felt I should wait till we could meet with her replacement
Report from Library Manager… See Appendix 2 for Library Mangers Report
10. Future Projects and Events.
Coffee Mornings are back to being weekly and numbers are building up. With the themed colouring and crafts for children we are now seeing some families attending the coffee morning.
Fashion Show on 22[nd] April. Clothes and accessories by St Catherine’s Hospice Charity Shop. Tickets are now available.
Future Films for All events are planned for 2022
Postponed VE Day event. This was due to take place in May 2020. This will now take place on Saturday 7[th] May 2022 in the community centre. Tickets are now available
11. AOB There was no other business.
12 Next AGM will be held in February 2023
The meeting closed at 7.55pm
Appendix 1
Chair’s Report for year ending 31 Dec 2021
Welcome to the Friends of Adlington Library AGM 2022.
A busy year and a positive one for us at FoAL. Once again, a special thank you to our secretary Caroline, whose communications with members and organisations have been invaluable in continuing our work as a community group, offering social and learning opportunities for all ages throughout 2021/22 and the ongoing pandemic.
Thank you again to all our volunteers and members for their ongoing involvement and contributions. Since October we have been back in the library, dressing up, moving shelves, watching, learning, crafting and socialising, making up for a bit of lost time and coming up with plans for the coming year.
Events and Activities:
Learning and classes: - reports from individual groups: French, IT, Family History
Meetings – FoAL members attended a socially distanced meeting held in Caroline’s garden in July and had our first back in the library in October. We remain flexible in our use of Zoom for meetings and although face to face is everyone’s preferred format, we are able to use a mixture to ensure safety and inclusion.
In Bloom – members of FoAL met up with Adlington in Bloom in August to weed prune the garden at the front of the library and the new Adlington narrow boat planter has been installed, awaiting new flowers for the spring.
Lancashire Day - Co-op funding was used to purchase Lancashire Day items for displays and to pay for a folk singing duo/trio to perform on the day. Items such as beer token, poetry books and historical postcards of local scenes were exhibited in the library and our Saturday coffee morning was transformed into a singalong of local folk classics.
Play and Stay – detailed in a separate report. Many thanks to Andrea and team.
Saturday Coffee Mornings – although libraries were reopened on 12[th] April, full recommencement of activities only began in October when we were allowed monthly coffee mornings. These were we’re well supported and those who attended the first one following lockdown 2020 could feel the relief and excitement of being able to meet again. Since January we are back to our regular weekly coffee mornings, each with a themed focus to add interest and engage all ages. Many thanks to Audrey and our team of volunteers for organising and staffing the rotas and ensuring we have refreshments – especially the lovely homemade cakes - available.
Community Fitness – FoAL applied for and received TIF grant funding from Sports England and Active Lancashire. This has been used in conjunction with LCC and Adlington Library to provide fitness and well-being activities at Adlington Library for different ages, to promote
health and reduce social isolation. More activities are planned to make the most of the funding received.
FILMS FOR ALL PROJECT – detailed in separate report. Many thanks to Margaret and our newly formed tech team for making this happen.
Caring Cards: Christmas cards were made in December over a number of sessions at the library for the residents of Grove House and Marley Court and we’re well received.
Harry Potter Christmas event : Adlington Library was host to wand-making, chocolate frogs and a magical Harry Potter train set, complete with miniature wizards, Hedwig and Hogwart’s Express. Thanks to Caroline for providing the artistic skills and craftsmanship. A real treat, enjoyed by all.
Steering Group:
Caroline has been successful in FoAL’s communications with LCC and achieved action on the following:
-
Further improvements to the library - new blackout blinds have been installed around the top windows of the main library room to ensure the best lighting conditions for the cinema
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Request for Christmas tree bracket was actioned and this year and, thanks to support from Adlington Town Council, we had a lit up Christmas tree attached to the side of the library
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Book Bench – our book bench has now been re-homed – moved from Chorley town centre and secured at the front of Adlington Library.
What’s next?
Over the next year, we look forward to continuing activities at the library to promote health and well-being, including: film-making; Fashion Show in conjunction with Adlington’s St Catherine’s Hospice Charity Shop; a community event on May 7th in place of the cancelled 2020 VE Day celebration; a commemoration of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee; and a wide range of events to engage, entertain and support local communities within our very special library.
Alison Evans
Chair of Friends of Adlington Library
Appendix 2
Report by Carole Turner Adlington Library Manager
Library Update for FoAL AGM 2021/22
Firstly, and most importantly, thank you for your support over what has been another difficult 12 months with the Library open in various guises.
Since the last AGM we have had new heaters installed, the wifi and network cabling upgraded, a new people counter put in, recruited a Culture Hack (Amelia) and finally seen the re-introduction of events and activities.
Events since re-instatement in October
The Library regular activities and groups such as Storytime, Baby Bounce & Rhyme/Toddler Time, Reading Group, Knit & Natter, Patchwork & Quilting have restarted. We also have FoAL groups Pram Club, French, Family History and coffee mornings back. The Reading Group was due to restart 18[th] February but the storms put paid to that! We have new activities under the Together Fund (formally Tackling Inequalities) banner, namely Exercise in Chairs, Baby Yoga & a new one of Men's Health & Nutrition talks – thanks for your help in managing the finances for this scheme. All our old groups seem to have retained their membership, the children's groups have had mixed success – Toddler Time seeming to be the one with a slow take up – Pram club has really taken off since moving to an afternoon.
For the Together Fund, we have permission to buy a boccia set and a Bluetooth speaker as these will form part of our legacy from the funding. There is also a boccia training course that Alison found the details for. I forwarded this to our project lead and she has circulated it around the other libraries to see if they would be interested in joining the course, as you can have up to 18 on it, with the cost divided pro-rata.
We have had 'one-off' activities/events for Hallowe'en, Lancashire Day, Diwali, Christmas Card making, Harry Potter wand making and Random Acts of Kindness Day crafts & colouring. There have also been 3 successful film showings, with another to come next week.
During National Storytelling week we had all 5 classes from Adlington Primary come along for a visit and a story, reception joined us for Storytime and made some lovely Chinese lanterns.
I have emailed Ian Bagshaw to try & book him in again to do the talk on the History of the Post Office that was scheduled for April 2020! We also have a local author, Jen Carney, who is keen to come in and talk to us about her children's books (The accidental diary of B.U.G., Basically Famous & Sister Act)
Plans for 2022/23 around the Libraries Connected calendar and our core offer
These are dates in our library calendar. Some all Libraries are expected to do something for and others are optional but at least one in each district (for us Chorley) should be doing something so if we plan ahead we can get in first! All the ones marked in red are the 'all libraries' ones. We will have our plans/thoughts but any ideas, help & support is, as always gratefully received.
Thursday 3[rd] March sees the 25[th] anniversary of World Book Day. This is our baby Bounce/Toddler Day and we will be encouraging fancy dress on the day.
In April we have Autism Awareness Week 28/3-3/4 and I have approached Anderton Primary Year 4 about doing something with them as they produced a leaflet at Christmas after studying autism. There is also National Gardening Week 27[th] April-2[nd] May that we could maybe do something with Adlington in Bloom for? I also have the cabinets booked for a display on some anniversary of the
Youth Movement (can't quite remember how many years!) We have Easter and the school holidays (over 3 weeks) too.
For May there are the Jubilee plans for the long weekend and some of these will be held in conjunction with High Five, who are a support group for children with severe disabilities and their families.
We will be looking to hold events for Get Creative Festival in May – this is usually one week but seems to be for the month this year – some of the Jubilee activities will come under this umbrella.
We also have Dementia Action week16th-22[nd] May, when I would like to either have a taster session for Sporting Memories (where I volunteer outside of work) or look at a Playlist for Life display or activity.
SCART will launch at the end of June. We also have the Jubilee celebrations running into this month. Loneliness Awareness Week is 13[th] -17[th] and I may look at the Sporting Memories taster for this if dementia week is too busy for the other volunteers. World Environment day (5[th] ) is this month too
July has Health Information week 4[th] -10[th] and the Commonwealth games 28[th] -8[th] August.
August will mainly be our SCART activities and we will probably stick to our Thursday half day to run these.
September sees Roald Dahl Story Day on 13[th] , international Literacy Day 8[th] and banned books week 18[th] -24[th]
Hopefully in October we will get to be a Fun Palace again (1st October), and it's never too early to start thinking about activities for this. We also have Libraries week following straight on from this, with National Poetry Day in the middle of this week (6[th] ). There is also Get Online Week 10[th] -15[th] and Family Learning Festival 19[th] Oct-2[nd] Nov
November is men's Health week (who knows we may have a walk leader by then 😊), it's also selfcare week (12[th] -18[th] ), Lancashire Day 27[th] , International Games Week 7[th] -13[th] and, of course, the World Cup starts this month!
December sees the World Cup conclude. We also have International Day of People with Disabilities, small business Saturday (3[rd] ) and Grief Awareness Week (2[nd] -7[th] ).
LAL also have some, but not all, of their courses back available. We do need to be sure of a minimum of 5 attendees before we book them and I can provide a list on request.
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FRIENDS OF ADLINGTON LIBRARY .FINANCIAL STATEMENT FOR year ending 31/12/2021
£ p £ p
INCOME EXPENDITURE
DONATIONS Insurance 178 47
Public 25 EVENT EXPENSES
EVENT FUNDRAISING TIF Baby yoga and chair 250
Coffee Mornings 203 40 Lancashire Day 2021 project 434 35
Christmas Tombola 73 Hire of Popcorn machine 100
Harry Potter craft 24 93
Refreshments 38 81
Jubilee Project (2022) 36 92
PURCHASES
TIF yoga mats 293 79
SALES 5 Book Bench 516
Craft Equipment 61 72
Popcorn Machine 179 99
Stationary/Printing/Card 83 22
GRANTS Christmas Tree and decs 71 48
Co-op 3725 34 Items for Events 48 32
Adlington Town Council 312 Cinema for All
TIF grant. 1470 Films and licences 23 36
Chorley B Council 250 Subscription cinema for All 95
Equipment 116 52
Saving Account Interest 2020 217 37
' 85 70 Sanitizers etc 6 75
RBL Wreath 17 99
TOTAL INCOME 6366 81 TOTAL EXPENDITURE 2577 62
Closing Balance in TSB 31/12/20 12006 Closing Balance in TSB 31/12/21 15492 12
Savings Accounts - closing balance 15322 66 Closing Balance. United Trust Bank 15625 73
Petty Cash-closing balance 24 Petty cash/cash in hand balance 24
TOTAL OPENING BALANCE 27352 66 TOTAL CLOSING BALANCE 2020 31141 85
Income over Expenditure 3789 19
31141 85 31141 85
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Treasures…
Auditor…