FRIENDS OF ADLINGTON LIBRARY 2025 AGM
Held in Adlington library on Tuesday 25[th] February 2025 at 7pm
1.Present at the meeting… Caroline Hesketh, Andrea Barnard, Philip Pilling, Peter Walkden, David Carpenter, Jeanette Lowe, Pat Marchant, Eileen Thomasson, Don Hesketh, Michael Withington, Patrick Kehoe, Russell Ramsden, Valerie Ramsden, Janet Withington,
2. Welcome & apologies
Chairman Caroline welcomed everyone to the meeting,
- Apologies were received from:- Terry Diviney, Gerry Fielding, Penny Panting, Kate Burgess, Audrey Yates, Margaret Burgess, Kate Burgess, Cathy Maidment, Carole Turner (Library Manager),
4. Minutes of meeting
The minutes of the 2024 AGM had previously been sent to the committee and to FoAL Members.
(Proposed by David C. , seconded by Andrea B. ) Vote. The 2024 Minutes were accepted as a true record.
5. FOAL Committee
5.1 Resignations were received from Terry Diviney, Audrey Yates, and Gerry Fielding..
- 5.2 Re-election of existing committee – (Proposed by Jeanette L. , seconded by Peter W. ) Vote. Accepted
5.3 New committee members –Pat Marchant, Michael Withington, Patrick Kehoe. (Proposed by Caroline H, seconded by Andrea B) Vote. Accepted 5.4 Election of Officers
Chair – Caroline Hesketh
Treasurer – Philip Pilling
Secretary – Pat Marchant
(Proposed by David C. , seconded by Jeanette L.) Vote. Accepted
6. Chairman’s Annual Report by Caroline Hesketh
Welcome to the Friends of Adlington Library AGM 2025.
Firstly I would like to say Thank you to all our committee, volunteers and members for their time, energy and contributions
Events and Activities:
Meetings – FoAL committee members met regularly throughout the year to plan social activities that support mental and physical health and wellbeing and organise fundraising and social events.
Saturday Coffee Mornings – Our regular Saturday Mornings continue to be successful, with adults and children of all ages attending. Many thanks to Audrey, Jeanette and our team of volunteers for organising this popular social event . The themed children’s craft activities and LEGO, which are held during the coffee morning, continue to be popular, with Andrea, Pat, and myself running these.
Learning and classes: See reports from individual groups:
Play and Stay –The group continues to be popular with young families. Many thanks to Andrea and her team. Details are in a separate report to be given by Andrea.
Films For All show regular movies aimed to appeal to all interests and ages. We have joined with St Paul’s School PTFA on a number of film events for children, which has worked out very well. A report from Margaret Burgess will be given.
Community Fitness , the Chair yoga with movement and meditation now has 4 groups, With the help of a grant from the National Lottery, we are now able to run this for a further 2 years. . We share funding of the fitness and movement groups with SVP Chorley Buddies. There is the walking group promoting health and wellbeing, and Baby Yoga for the little ones.
Crafts – Throughout the year art and craft activities and events have been offered during school holidays as well as on a Saturday morning. During the summer holidays we had craft events every week, with large numbers of children attending. Thank you to Andrea, Pat, and the young library hacks, and the staff for their help. We have had to split the craft mornings into two sessions because of the popularity of the events. Special Events:
The Fashion Show – A successful fundraiser and social event in conjunction with St Catherine’s Hospice We held the fashion show in June and it was very well attended, A very enjoyable event which also helped to support a local charity. We plan to have another show this year.
Murder Mystery, – Lots of fun was had solving another murder at the library – great social and fundraising event in November. Thanks go to Chris Martin and his team of volunteer actors. We plan to hold another murder Mystery in 2025.
Speakers- FoAL have had a number of speakers and authors talks during the year. Thanks to all the speakers involved and those who attended.
Other topics
The magnificent Christmas Tree in the library received many great comments, with people coming in especially to see it. Sadly the tree in the bracket attached to the outside of the building did not light up. The company have been informed. We were able to put lights on the bushes and hope that we will be able to have an outside Christmas tree this year.
FoAL and Adlington in Bloom have worked hard to maintain and improve front garden of the library. We have also purchased two wooden planters for the side of the library and three small ones for the children’s play area at the back of the community rooms.
What’s next?
We will continue to fund our events and have a continued programme of activities for the community.
We purchased a large number of items for the library and for our events during 2024. We will look at other projects during 2025 but hopefully expenditure will not be so high.
More film showings, another Fashion Show, Author talks, Speakers, and other social events.
We have purchased a video camera and hope that a film group can be started up this year. Involving people of all ages including school and college students.
Friends of Adlington library will continue to serve the local community and promote our library .
If anyone has any ideas for talk and events that we can hold please let us know.
FRIENDS OF ADUNGfoN UBRARY.FINANaAI sfATEMENT FOR year ending 3111212024 INCOME DONATIONS 510 from Supporter Public donations EVENT FUNDRAISING EXPENDMJRE Insurance Other (inc. Tree. Wreath.Chairs) Films for All screenings Chair Yoga &Wellbeing Refreshments+Event Expences Murder Mystery 322 76 78 94 57 1890 Coffee Mornings Murder Mystery Fashion Show 1798 49 172 19 522 547 225 10 01 Sign Langurage course Talks/Educational Craft Equipment Baby yoga Adlington in Bloom Vacuum Cleaner Popup Tent Planters+Garden Equipment Ststionary/printing/Card Moveable Shelving Panasonic Camcorder Blu-ray player Art Trolley ATC Hanging Ba5keTS 75 270 235 660 500 109 Films for All Craft events 50 64 99 90 21 75 Easyfundraising 93 221 96 3867 1385 430 GRANTS National Lottery Adlington TC Mayor's chartty June Molyneaux CBC 95 250 Jack Simmons Trust 376 100 13 Sub TOTAL Saving Account Interest {1) Saving Account Interest (2) 10011 28 11210 181 58 TOTAL TOTAL INCOME 10651 22644 11429 5187 OTAL EXPENDITURE 11210 21445 11888 5369 24 38727 559 39286 C105ing Balaft T5B 31112123 1.Savinss Accounts- closing balance 2.Savin8s Account-dosing balance Petty Cashrflosing balance TOTAL OPENING BALANCE 99 70 93 aosing Balare in TSB 31112124 Lclosing Balan. United Tt 69 51 24 Petty cash/cash in hamd balance OTAL CLOSING BALANCE 2023 Expenditure over Income 39286 62 28 62 39286 Treasurec.. Auditor.- LgULI- I,Ji/a3-
7 Treasurers Report and Financial Statement.
7.1 The statement of the 2024 account was presented by Philip Pilling (Treasurer). Although FoAL made a loss this year we realise that it has been an expensive year and we have purchased a lot of items. We do not intend to purchase as much in 2025.
Mr Pilling explained some of the expenditure and income and asked for any questions. Mr Pilling was thanked for his report.
Don Hesketh, the auditor, was thanked by Philip Pilling.
7.2 Acceptance of Statement & report - (proposed by David C. , seconded by Caroline H. vote. Accepted.
7.3 Acceptance of Mr Donald Hesketh as auditor for 2025 (proposed by Phillip P. seconded by Andrea B. )
8. Reports on FoAL Groups.
Family History report by Andrea Barnard
We continue to meet on the first Tuesday of each month. Usually 10 – 12 people attend while a few others come when they need assistance with their family trees.
With the aid of Kim and Janette we are soon guided to the right track with helpful information on how to track down newspaper articles.
These are an aid to look at incidents and how everyday life affected our ancestors.
Kim uses her knowledge to help people understand DNA results and how to assess and progress any family links revealed.
Janette uses her local knowledge of families and the area to provide an historical perspective.
Andrea Barnard
February 2025
French Group Report: by Margaret Jackson presented by Andrea B.
The French Group continues to meet every other Monday evening at 6.45pm in the library. We usually have 5 students. We are now using the fourth book of Longman’s and making good progress with our French speaking as well.
We have been helped by the arrival of a French lady who comes to chat with us in French for the first hour of the lesson. She is very good and enthusiastic. We will continue to develop the 4 skills, reading, writing, listening and speaking
Stay And Play Group: report by Andrea Barnard
Numbers on average are 6-8 children but occasionally up to 11 attend. The group which started with us after Covid ( Mums who had become isolated because of lack of involvement from services) are mostly in pre-school and will start primary school in September.
They have grown up together and formed friendships; adults have sympathised with each other; found out useful places and groups to visit and have met up for children’s parties.
We have welcomed a different set of children - a mixed baby and toddler group, put out different equipment each week for development and social skills. We follow our set routine of play and tidy away, toast and banana and our sing song at the end of the session.
Margaret has been missing for a few weeks recuperating after a hip replacement. Parents have helped out with Pat coming in to help with refreshments
We are pleased to say that Margaret is on the road to recovery and will be back with us soon.
Andrea Barnard
FILMS FOR ALL report by Margaret Burgess presented by Caroline H
We have continued to offer free screenings of films for both adults and children at approximately monthly intervals.
Audience numbers vary, but generally attendance was greater at film shows for adults.
We have recently shown a couple of films in collaboration with St Paul’s PTA. St Paul’s providing the film and using our equipment and expertise,
As an experiment we will have a bar at our next film show, which we hope will make for relaxed enjoyable evening.
Thank you as always to everyone for setting up the room ,serving refreshments and particularly to Carl and Mike for working the equipment.
Sign language Group report by Caroline Hesketh
All are welcome to this group whatever their ability.
The number of attendees ranges from 8 to 15.
We meet on the 4[th] Wednesday of each month.
We try to do a different topic each month.
We have a wonderful new tutor Nicola, who is a sign language interpreter.
Topics covered have included seasons, holidays, shopping, Easter; Halloween; Christmas Carols; Food and Beverages; and types of clothing. Family. And obviously spelling and the BSL alphabet. .
After each class the sheets and videos used are sent to the group so that we can continue to practise.
Friday ‘Health Walk’ Group.by David Carpenter
The walks are on Fridays from approx.. 10am to 12pm. With refreshments and hot drinks in Adlington library at the end.
Originally run in conjunction with Active Lancashire, the group has several regular walkers and has between 6-14 people attending weekly.
The walks range .from 1 to 2 hours.
There is a social support and social inclusion element, whereby Paul and Steve, from Active Lancashire, sometimes bring some of their clients in need of help, out on the walks with the group. One young man went from hiding in a hoody and not speaking to any one, over several months, to joining in conversations and eventually getting a job. One regualar of the group suffers from dementia and finds the group helps her a great deal.
Some of the regulars have formed strong friendships and do other activities together, meals, trips, a Christmas party and even going on holiday.
Wot The Dickens Reading Group by Kate Burgress. Presented by Caroline H
Wot the Dickens continues to go well with a core attendance of about 8 people, sometimes more. We are well supported by the library service who provide all the books which means the group is accessible regardless of income, however it does slightly limit our choices of books.
Sarah a librarian and a very avid reader leads our group admirably, and we are grateful for her support.
We have changed to a more regular pattern of meetings which helps with planning for the group generally the third Tuesday of the month.
The discussions continue to be varied and interesting with people rarely coming to the same conclusions, which leads to really good conversations and debate.
We had a fab social night at the end of 2024 and would like to thank members of the FOAL committee for attending and for your continued support and promotion of the group.
We welcome new members and are happy to chat with anyone who might be interested ahead of the meeting, always reminding people that the first rule of book club, is that you don't need to read the book
Gardening Club report by Andrea Barnard
Garden Club started on 4[th] November 2024 following a request from the library when we received money for new planters to be placed at the side of the library and to replace broken ones in the small attached garden. The 2 large and 2 small planters were waterproofed and filled with compost ready for planting.
Members of Stay and Play helped by Andrea and Jeanette planted daffodils and crocus bulbs in the small planters and topped them with winter pansies.
The larger planters were placed on the Highfield Road side of the library and again with the aid of a few children planted with spring bulbs, winter pansies and violas.
We continued to meet every fortnight usually with older stay and play children. Over the weeks, we have made bird feeders, drinking trays, planted up pots of hyacinths and crocus, made collages with leaves and leaf rubbings.
We have planted basil and watercress seeds and talked about animal habitats. We spend time outside, weather permitting, and planted the boxes by the bench with tulips.
With the help of Adlington in Bloom, we hope to achieve an R.H.S. award in the future.
Health & Wellbeing Chair Yoga report by Carole Turner presented by Caroline
Exercise in chairs – Janine Noblett has delivered weekly sessions since October 2021, initially funded by the Tackling Inequalities Fund and Chorley Buddies. This has taken off massively over the last 12 months and we now have 4 classes per week that are up to capacity at virtually everyone. We are bursting at the seams now and are continually moving furniture around to accommodate the numbers. People are booking weeks in advance to secure their places. Most of the new attendees are from word of mouth. These classes are now funded by FoAL and Chorley Buddies with each organisation paying for 2 classes.
Baby Yoga – Carol Unsworth continues to deliver weekly sessions with an attendance ranging from 4 to 8 babies and their parent/carer. The numbers here are restricted due to the size of the room. There is also a greater changeover of attendees as the babies start to walk or parents/carers return to work
Library Review report by Carole Turner (Library Manager)
Firstly, thank you one and all for your support again over the last 12 months, it is very much appreciated.
As this is just a precis of the last 12 months it will mainly be the activities that have been run and the attendance figures. I will head them up with our core offer titles.
Reading
This is, obviously, our core area!
We have our weekly Storytime session on Tuesday afternoons which we do struggle with numbers for but can have weeks with 4 or 5. This is mostly down to a lot of children of the target age being in nursery. We may look at changing the time in September to keep it in line with Baby Bounce & Rhyme and Toddler Time so that if children progress through the chain only change is the day! It has been historically on Tuesday afternoon as that used to be our half day opening (1.30-5pm).
We have 3 Reading Groups; Adlington Avid Readers, who meet in the library 1[st] Friday of the month; Wot the Dickens, the FoAL group who meet on a Tuesday evening; Reading Friends who meet 1[st] & 3[rd] Mondays and they read short stories and extracts etc aloud rather than the same book to discuss.
We have 3 reading schemes for the children. Explorers for the 0-2/3s which is just a sticker book reward system, Little Steps for 2-5s using colourful flashcards with recommended reading around various topics and then Lancashire Reading Trail for those at Primary School and maybe into years 7 & 8 where they work their way round a map of Lancashire and collect Top Trumps style cards along the way.
Reading Heroes is our biggest focus in the calendar.
Wellbeing
We have worked with partners such as LCC's Children and Family Wellbeing Team for a couple of sessions, we work with Chorley BC's Social Prescribing and Community Engagement Teams and have helped some of our yoga members to become Dementia Friends to help them support one of the ladies there. We have had NHS health checks available on the car park (booked in again for 18[th] March). We also had our Bibliotherapy Manager here to talk about Lancashire Health Hub and Vanessa from Inspire with advice about keeping warm this winter and Sunny the Bear from Lancashire Mind came to the Play and Stay session as part of Children's Mental Health Week and Storytelling Week.
Digital and Information
We continue to offer our Get Online sessions on Monday afternoons where a member of staff is available to help guide people through several modules, Learn My Way, available for self-learning. Staff can also support with getting online outside of these sessions if required.
We have also offered events etc around key calendar dates such as Safer Internet Day, Lego Robotics for National Coding Week, Code & Go Mice at Fun Palace.
School Q&A visits with Adam Henley (Chorley FC & ex-Blackburn Rovers) and Sir Lindsay Hoyle.
Big Green Week – Talk by a representative from Waste Management Services to 2 schools' eco councils about recycling.
Volunteers' Week and Mental Health Awareness Day coffee mornings with representatives from various organisations sharing information on what services and support they offer.
Staff have been available to help with getting Voter ID sorted for the elections for those without photo ID.
Information about the anaerobic digester plans locally have been displayed and details of how to appeal, supplied by Adlington and Heath Charnock Town Councils in collaboration. The films that FoAL show regularly also fall into this objective.
Culture and Creativity
The biggest activities around this KPI is the crafts etc during the school holidays, the Reading Heroes in summer in particular. We saw our best figures yet over the summer for children both signing up and completing the scheme in full. Thanks for this goes to staff, FoAL volunteers and our Culture Hacks and Pat for making enjoyable events and ensuring the reading side was met – the stats show that those children who don't read over the summer holidays fall back in their literacy levels when returning to school in September. We have seen good numbers over the various holidays and the 2 x 1 hour sessions, bookable online have helped to make these more structured and organised.
Fun Palace is also a major event in this category, and I personally feel it has been calmer and easier to manage over the last couple of years when we have concentrated on less activities meaning people are not rushing around from one to the next. We will wait and see if we do something this year as it will be down to staff availability. We may go for single events at set times over the Friday and into Saturday but there's plenty of time to think about that!
LAL courses – Slow down and Destress; Make a Festive Wreath; Make Festive Decorations - these all got good positive feedback. I am waiting to hear about my requests for either History of lancashire Women or History of Lancs Women & the decline of the textile industry, I have requested one of these for Women’s History Month in March. We will look at what else we can book in the coming year.
D day display & Armistice Day marked as part of the Community.
Gardening Club started in October, slow to build up but I have shared with all 4 primary schools, and we did get a couple of new children from that so hopefully word will spread. We may have to wait until the warmer months to really kick off though. Thanks to Andrea for taking this on, on behalf of FoAL.
Murder Mystery night comes under this heading too.
Looking at how all this ties in with our Business Plan:
Deliver Better Service – The targets: To focus on inclusive services for Children and Young People with SEND; Adults with SEND/Communication difficulties; Adults with dementia and their carers; People seeking sanctuary. For this we used the sensory tent and other resources and now have the scanners silenced and some lights off for the first hour the first Tuesday of the month. We held the LAL course 'Slow down and Destress through creativity' which 9 people attended. We held a Dementia Friends awareness session with 12 attendees and have requested a Memory Box to use with Marley Court, Chorley FC Community Friendship Group and at a coffee morning. We have also developed links with at least one new partner (internal or external) per quarter, these have included Chorley FC Community Foundation, Children and Family Wellbeing, Social Prescribers, NHS Community Engagement Team, Breakthrough Recovery Chorley, Lancashire Mind, LCC Libraries Bibliotherapy Manager, Inspire Youth Zone, NHS Health checks and Chorley Buddies.
Caring for the vulnerable – The targets were: to engage with local partners whose focus is working with vulnerable residents. We have involved Chorley BC Social Prescribers in some of our events, the PCSOs came to Fun Palace and have made regular routine calls since then helping keep ASB incidents to a minimum. We have worked with Inspire Youth Zone, LCC Children & Family Wellbeing, NHS healthcare checks and Lancashire Mind. The Galloways coffee morning will also fit under this. We also said we would do a display and/or event around Autism Week, HiVis Fortnight and Refugee Week and used the sensory pebbles and tent along with tactile board books and silenced our scanners and switched some lights off.
Support economic growth – Target minimum of 2 LAL courses requested . To date we have requested 6 and 4 have run with a total of 31 attendees. We also have Adlington Law coming on Friday 14[th] March with their free Will Workshop where they can give help and advice around wills and POAs at a drop-in session.
Protect our environment – Targets: Keep Library, offices, and staff spaces as attractive as possible by reducing clutter and adhering to health and safety policies; Plan and deliver an event around Big Green Week (June); Utilise outdoor spaces/gardens to raise awareness of environmental issues/climate change. We have removed several unused/obsolete items from the front office meaning the Christmas tree and decorations can now be housed there, saving lifting heavy boxes onto and off the high cabinets in the staff area. We have acquired a filing cabinet to help with storage of FoAL items in the storeroom and have been given a bookcase that can be used instead of the folding table. The storeroom does need addressing again and only items that are used on a regular basis should be stored in there . Maybe some of the materials (such as craft materials) can be combined so we have one central point for all to use? We held the event with Waste Management Services for Big Green Week when the eco councils came in for a talk on recycling. Gardening Club started in October and is slowly picking up – thanks to Andrea for this. We also have the battery recycling box (official) and collect newspapers for the hedgehog rescue (unofficial) to help with recycling.
Culture and creativity – Targets: Deliver a wide range of quality events and activities to reflect diverse communities and to align with the Cultural Services campaigns calendar and Libraries Connected calendar of events. This includes Fun Palace; 50[th] anniversary of LCC – Sir Lindsay Hoyle did a Q&A with a year 5 class; Women's History Month – display to be prepared; International Youth Day – Culture Hacks science treasure hunt for Reading Heroes; Black History month – display done; Libraries Week (theme green/sustainability) – Gardening Club launched.
Health & Wellbeing – Target: Raise awareness of the health and wellbeing offer by promoting relevant stock and delivering a range of events. We planned to cover Health Information Week (January) – Bibliotherapy Manager promoting Lancashire Health Hub and Inspire promoting services to help keep warm/cost of living etc; Children's Mental Health Week (February) – Lancashire Mind and Sunny the Bear visited the Stay & Play group; Dementia Action Week (May) – Dementia Friends training; World mental Health Day (October) – coffee morning with various stallholders from mental health groups.
Information and Digital – Targets: Develop and deliver a programme of STEM activities to engage children and young people and to help develop valuable life skills- min 1 session per month – Lego Club on its own covers this but we can also include the half term crafts, Reading Heroes and some of the things we do at Storytime. We have also used the Code and Go mice and had LAL Lego Robotics as well. The robotics also covered coding week in September. Get online week was October and we promoted services such as Borrowbox and Press Reader.
Reading – Targets: Ensure all babies and toddlers have the best start in life and have access to books and resources to encourage reading for pleasure and language/communication developmen t – our weekly sessions for pre-schoolers come under this, also the reding schemes. Events include national Storytelling Week – 2 x year 2 classes in for a session with Karon & Pat as well as the regular Storytime. Roald Dahl Day – Display done. World Nursery Rhyme Week – our Baby Bounce and Rhyme/Toddler Time fed into this.
Promote reading and develop a range of events and activities to engage children in different library reading schemes on offer. The biggest engagement is Reading Heroes, but we then hope to sign those completing onto the Lancashire Reading Trail (or Little Steps if slightly younger).
Promote reading for adults and deliver a range of events and activities linked to our reading offer. The 3 reading groups fall under this heading. We have also worked with Reading Friends for poetry day in October and have Shakespeare Week in March to plan. We have had author visits from Dom Conlon and Nick Oldham.
We are still waiting for the 2025/26 business plan format to be signed off but expect it to be in a similar vein and a lot of the campaign calendar events will be the same so we can look at planning around some key dates soon.
9. Future projects and Events.
Weekly coffee mornings are very popular & will continue. With the kids craft table providing more projects for the children.
Films for all will continue, if anyone has any ideas for future films or any other talks/events - please let the committee know.
FOAL now has a film making equipment and a Film Group will be formed with plans to record aspects of people and places in Adlington & district.
We are planning another Fashion Show in conjunction with St Catherine’s Hospice Shop, in June 2025.
We will also be organising more talks. The next on taking place on 3[rd] April. 2025
We will also hold another murder Mystery Event later in the year.
We will continue to work with other organisations such as St Paul’s PTFA, Galloways Society for the Blind, St Catherine’s Hospice Shop. And other organisations in the village.
10. AOB
There was no other business.
11. AGM 2025
Will take place in February 2026 – date to be confirmed.
Meeting closed at 20:05