Rock ‘n’ Soul Singers Registered Charity Number 1173836 Annual Report and Financial Statement 1[st] August 2021 - 31[st] July 2022
Presented and approved for publication by the Rock ‘n’ Soul Trustees in accordance with the Charities Act 2011.
Rock ‘n’ Soul Singers CIO st Annual Report and Financial Statement for Year Ending 31 July 2022
Objectives, aims and activities
Objectives
The Rock ‘n’ Soul Singers CIO was established as a registered charity (1173836) on 17th July 2017.
The objectives of the choir are:
1) To advance, improve, develop and maintain public education in, and appreciation of, the art and science of music in all its aspects by any means the trustees consider suitable, including through the presentation of public concerts and recitals.
2) To further such charitable purposes for the public benefit as are exclusively charitable according to the laws of England and Wales as the trustees may from time to time determine, in particular through the making of donations.
Aims
The choir’s aims for the financial year 1[st] August 2021 – 31[st] July 2022 were as follows:
-
Rebuild the choir after COVID restrictions were lifted by recommencing rehearsals inside and seeking to expand the number of choir members after several departed during COVID.
-
Ensure that the position of Musical Director is filled permanently following the departure of Dave Gibbon the previous MD.
Activities
The choir moved their rehearsals back into the Church from outside meetings in September 2021, maintaining social distancing and implementing other COVID19 measures as laid out in the choir’s risk assessment. It was a great achievement, welcoming back the choir’s regular pianist Teresa and around 60% of choir members who returned to regular indoor rehearsals. Alan Shepherd the deputy Musical Director ran the rehearsals for the choir whilst confidence was being rebuilt.
A small group of choir members visited the Yorkshire Building Society in December 2021 to sing carols.
A Christmas social event was arranged for choir members, at which a few Christmas songs were sung as a whole choir. On that occasion members of the choir also presented Dave Gibbon with a gift of thanks for his many years as Musical Director, which he very much appreciated.
In March 2022 the choir held their first performance at the Elderberries over 60s Social Club. Although the choir was quite nervous after nearly two years of no public performances, the event went well and the choir was received very enthusiastically by the audience.
In June 2022 a tea party was held at Underwood Community Centre to commemorate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. The choir joined the celebrations and performed songs from the seven decades of the Queen’s reign. Again, it was a very enjoyable occasion, and the singing was very much appreciated.
Throughout the year, the choir grew in size as new members joined, and others came back to rehearsals.
Achievements and performance
Rebuild the choir
Choir members were quite nervous when rehearsals began inside the Church. However, with masks being worn when not singing and sitting apart, the choir’s confidence grew. Members were asked to take a Covid test before attending and only attend if they tested negative and didn’t have any symptoms. The sound was thin to begin with, but week by week this grew stronger, as more members returned to rehearsals. Several new members joined the choir as a result of an advertising campaign, and word of mouth. As confidence grew, the choir moved physically closer together and the strength and quality of the singing was markedly improved. Taking part in concerts once more really helped to boost morale, and improve confidence further. Much of this was as a direct result of the skills shown by Alan Shepherd in bringing the choir together and making rehearsals a fun place to be.
Permanent Musical Director
In June 2021, David Gibbon gave notice of his resignation from the post of Musical Director, giving the option of either stepping down immediately or continuing until Christmas 2021. The choir committee made the decision to ask Dave to step down immediately as Alan Shepherd the Deputy MD had offered to take his place in the short term in order to rebuild the choir. Whilst Alan did a really good job of building confidence, he stated that he thought the best way forward was to eventually recruit someone younger to take the choir to a different level. In early 2022, the choir committee decided to look at different options to fill the MD post on a permanent basis. Teresa Mills the choir accompanist had offered to have a trial at taking on the MD role, but decided not to go forward with this on a permanent basis. A recruiting campaign was then undertaken which resulted in two candidates applying for the role and undertaking a trial rehearsal, and subsequently an interview. This resulted in the recruitment of Rachel Cropley, who commenced in the role of Musical Director in July 2022.
Summary
Overall, this period was very challenging for choir members and committee, dealing with the reestablishing of indoor rehearsals, recruiting new members to fill vacancies and the recruitment of a new Musical Director. However, the choir is now in a much stronger position than at the beginning of the reporting period with continued expansion of membership and improvement of singing quality.
Structure, governance and management
The Rock ‘n’ Soul Singers choir was established as a CIO and registered charity (number 1173836) on 17th July 2017. The choir is governed by a Constitution which was adopted in February 2017 and amended in July 2017.
Trustees of Rock ‘n’ Soul Singers CIO (August 2021 – July 2022):
| Kathleen Heap | Chair |
|---|---|
| Georgina Allen | Secretary |
| Rosemary Lynam | Treasurer |
| Alan Shepherd | Deputy Musical Director |
| Muriel Bell | Librarian |
| Timothy Plant | Charity Compliance |
| Anne Hicking | Committee Member |
| Victoria Dean | Committee Member |
| Clare Cooper | Committee Member |
The trustees are responsible for the day-to-day running of the organisation, and make all the decisions required to do this. Decisions made outside the board of Trustees are group decisions voted on by the choir membership, and include choosing charity partners, changes to the constitution and other major decisions that affect the membership as a whole.
Trustees are nominated and voted into post by members of the choir, the appointment process taking place on an annual basis.
To the best of their knowledge, the Trustees have complied with their duty to have due regard to the Charity Commission’s public benefit guidance wherever relevant.
Reference and administrative details
Rock ‘n’ Soul Singers Principle Office address:
50 Alfreton Road Underwood Nottingham NG16 5GB
Banking Services
TSB Bank plc 80/82 Nottingham Road Eastwood Nottingham NG16 3NQ
National Association of Choirs
The Rock ‘n’ Soul Singers CIO is a member of the National Association of Choirs, which provides support in areas such as legal advice and best practice guidance.
Financial Summary
Income
The choir started their financial year with £1976.41 carried forward, which was down on last year, mainly due to the fact that membership had not returned to pre-Covid levels.
As the choir was now paying Alan Shepherd as MD, wished to increase Teresa’s fee, and would shortly be looking for a new MD, the trustees were concerned that costs were sometimes not being met with income through members’ donations. (As a charity, it is expected that there is a financial buffer). The donation to St Michael’s church for use of the building for rehearsals had also increased and was likely to be increased further in the months to come.
Members’ contributions
The voluntary regular contributions remained very low at £3 per week, only payable when a member attended. The trustees ascertained this was not sustainable as overheads, including church hire, had to be paid regardless of the number of attendees.
It was decided that from the beginning of March 2022, members’ contributions of £3 per week would be payable every 12 weeks (£36). If any members were unable to do this, there was an option to pay £4 per week, on a weekly basis. This appears to be working well, with the majority of members paying by cheque or BACS transfer every 12 weeks.
Other income
The choir successfully applied for a grant of £250 from Selston Parish council. Two past members donated a total of £150 for music not returned and a current member donated £500. Gift Aid raised £191.75. Concert fees generated £115. We generally charge between £100 and £150 per concert, but this has necessarily had to be flexible: e.g. it’s important to support the local community as well as making money. Community groups such as Elderberries have in the past given us £50 or £60. This could be regarded as part of our charitable works. Concert fees are always under review.
Charity Collections and Donations
The choir raised £508.38 for partner charities through bucket collections at various events and a donation from Brinsley Women’s Fellowship. Those collections together with gift aid claimed have enabled us to donate £126 to the Motor Neurone Disease Association and £600 to Maggie’s Cancer Support Centre.
Expenditure
Church – £780, representing £20 per week. This is likely to increase shortly.
MD - When Alan took over as MD in August 21, he asked only for expenses. However, it was agreed to pay him £25 per week and a concert fee.
Accompanist ’ s expenses – Teresa’s fees amounted to £1460, rising from £25 per week to £30 per week in March.
– Concert expenses no expenses
– Music Only £93.09 was spent on music this year.
Equipment – £53 for PAT testing. Tim organises this as he and Wendy very kindly store most of the equipment at their house.
Other - insurance including Public Liability - £105.62. NAC membership - £40. £17 for a Poppy wreath for remembrance day. Other expenses £28.06 (storage files, photocopying, stationary etc).
End of year balance stands at £3438.27, this puts the choir in a good position for increased expenses in terms of Church, MD and Accompanist costs.
Assets
Assets held include £1650 worth of equipment and over £4400 worth of purchased sheet music.
Financial Due Diligence
Because of the choir’s relatively low turnover, with an income of less than £25,000, it is not necessary to submit a copy of an independent examiner’s report.
Financial checks for the choir are undertaken by a Finance sub-group which comprises of three trustees, and regular monthly checks take place to verify the accounts.
The Financial Statement for 2021-2022 is detailed in a separate document.
Document Approval
This document is approved on behalf of the Trustees board
Date: Date: Name: Name: Signature: Signature:
| ROCK“N”SOUL | SINGERS | 1173836 | CC16a | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Receipts and pay | ments accounts | ||||
| For the period from |
01/08/2021 | To | 31/07/2022 | ||
| Section A Receipts and payments | |||||
| Unrestricted ~~funds~~ |
Restricted funds | Endowment ~~funds~~ |
Total funds | Last year | |
| to the nearest ~~£~~ |
to the nearest £ | to the nearest £ | to the nearest £ | to the nearest £ | |
| A1 Receipts | |||||
Members donations |
4,474 | - | - | 4,474 | - |
| Grants & donations | 400 | - | - | 400 | - |
| Charitable activities | 115 | - | - | 115 | - |
| Gift Aid | 192 | - | - | 192 | - |
| Charity collections | 508 | - | - | 508 | - |
Receipts for uniform |
105 | - | - | 105 | - |
| - | - | - | - | ||
| - | - | - | - | ||
| Sub total(Gross income for AR) | 5,794 | - | - | 5,794 | - |
| A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table). |
|||||
| - | |||||
| - | |||||
| Sub total | - | ||||
| Total receipts | 5,794 | 5,794 | |||
| A3 Payments | |||||
Accompanist’s fee |
1,460 | - | - | 1,460 | - |
| Rehearsal venue | 780 | - | - | 780 | - |
| Concert expenses | - | - | - | - | |
Donations to charity |
726 | - | - | 726 | - |
MD’s fee |
925 | - | - | 925 | - |
| Sundry | 244 | - | - | 244 | - |
| - | - | - | - | ||
| - | - | - | - | ||
| - | - | - | - | ||
| Sub total | 4,135 | - | - | 4,135 | - |
| A4 Asset and investment ~~purchases(see table)~~ |
|||||
Sheet music, equipment & |
93 | 93 | |||
Equipment |
104 | 104 | |||
| Sub total | 197 | 197 | |||
| Totalpayments | 4,332 | 4,332 | |||
| Net of receipts/(payments) | 1,462 | - | - | 1,462 | - |
| A5 Transfers between funds | - | - | - | - | - |
| A6 Cash funds last year end | 1,976 | - | - | 1,976 | - |
Cash funds thisyear end |
3,438 | - | - | 3,438 | - |
| Section B Statement of assets and l | iabilities at the end | of the period | |||
| Categories | Details | Unrestricted ~~funds~~ |
Restricted funds | Endowment ~~funds~~ |
|
| to nearest £ | to nearest £ | to nearest £ | |||
| B1 Cash funds | Bank account+pe | tty cash | 3,438 | - | - |
| - | - | - | |||
| - | - | - | |||
| Total cash fund |
s |
3,438 | - | - | |
| ~~(agree balances w~~ payments accoun |
~~ith receipts and~~ t(s)) |
OK | OK | OK | |
| Unrestricted funds |
Restricted funds | Endowment funds |
|||
| Details | to nearest £ | to nearest £ | to nearest £ | ||
| B2 Other monetary assets | Tax reclaims due | - | - | ||
| - | - | - | |||
| - | - | - | |||
| - | - | - | |||
| - | - | - | |||
| - | - | - | |||
| Details | Fund to which ~~asset belongs~~ |
Cost (optional) | Current value ~~(optional)~~ |
||
| B3 Investment assets | - | - | |||
| - | - | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| Details | Fund to which ~~asset belongs~~ |
Cost (optional) | Current value ~~(optional)~~ |
||
| B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use |
Sheet music | Unrestricted |
303 | - | |
| Equipment | Unrestricted | - | |||
| Uniforms | Unrestricted | - | |||
| Assets introduced | : | - | - | ||
| Piano, amps, acc | essories | Unrestricted | 1,331 | - | |
| Roller banners | Unrestricted | 125 | - | ||
| Music and folders | Unrestricted | 5,300 | - | ||
| - | - | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| Details | Fund to which ~~liability relates~~ |
Amount due ~~(optional)~~ |
When due ~~(optional)~~ |
||
| B5 Liabilities | - | ||||
| - | |||||
| - | |||||
| - | |||||
| - | |||||
| Signed by one or two trustees on behalf ~~of all the trustees~~ |
Signature |
Print Name | Date of ~~aroval~~ |
||
| ~~pp~~ | |||||