UK Society for Co-operative Studies IRegistered charity, number 11752951 Annual report and financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2024 Page Contents Trustees, annual report Receipts & payments account Statement of asset5 & liabilities Notes to the accounts
UK Society for Co-operative Studles Trustees, annual report for the year ended 31 March 2024 Full name: The UK Society for Cwerative Studies Organisatlon type: Charitable Incorporated Organisation Reglstered charity number: 1175295 Prlndpal address Holyoake House Hanover Street Manchester M60 OAS Trustees lan Adderley Secretary Francesca Gagliardi - Trustee Ruth Hall Vice-chair Janette Hurst Membership Secretary John Maddocks Treasurer Elisavet Mantzari - Co-opted May 2023 Nick Matthews - Trustee Jan Myers - Resigned October 2023 Rory Ridley-Duff Resigned June 2023 Mike Wistow Chair Anita Mangan Ex-officio (Editor in Chief of the Joumal) Gillian Lonergan Ex-officio (Produttion Editor of the Journan Governance and management The charity is operated under the rules of its constitution adopted I September 2017. Trustees are all members of the charity and apart from ex-officio officers are appointed by members at the AGM. The trustees may also co-opt members to the executive committee during the year. Co-opted trustees must stand for election at their first AGM following co- option to confirm their appointment.
Objerts and Activities The socievs objects are to advance the education of the public conceming all aspects of the co-operative movement, and co-operative forms of structure, and, in particular, to assist, commission and/or identify and publish research into the aforementioned areas. and to promote the exchange of information and experience on c(TroperatFve studies and research. The main activtties of the society include production of the Journal of Co-operative Studies, supportin8 Study networks. organising seminars, online conversations and hosting a conference. Annual General Meeting We held our Annual General Meeting {AGMI as a standalone event in the evening of 2 October 2023. We presented our annual report and accounts for the year l April 2022 to 31 March 2023, and held trustee elections. Membership Type and Contart with Members On March 31st 2024, UKSCS had 101 Individual Members and 6 Organisational Members. The Constitution allows for a 'grace period, of six months between subscriptions falling due and Membership being terminated. [It may be worth notingthat. at the time of writing (July 20241 a number of overdue Memberships have been successfully followed up since that date.] We are also pleased to note that Members have received two- three e-mailed Briefings each quarter. This has been a significant increase on earlier years and has covered both notification of upcoming events and reporting back on UKSCS activities. The following pages give an overview of activities that UKSCS has undertaken in the 2023- 2024.
Public benefit statement The trustees confirm that they have complied with the duty in section 17 of the Charities Act 2011 to have due regard to the Charity Commission's general 8uidance on public benefrt {PBI, PB2. and PB31. Summary of the main artlvltles undertaken for the public benefit: Main activities during the financial year included: Publication of the Journal of Co-operative Studies Hosting a Lecture Organising the annual Co-operative Studies Conferen H05ting the Co-operative Conversations Series Supporting other events across the Co-operative Movement Summary of the main achievements during the period We are grateful to our members for their continued support and additional subscribers to the societVsJournL71. In particular. we recognise the many hundreds of hours put in by volunteers acro55 all aspects of the activities described below. Publlcation of the Journal of Co-operative Studies The Journal of Co-operative Studies is published three times a year. It is a journal that accepts both peer-reviewed articles from academic contributors and short articles from practitioners. It is distributed in Canada in co-operation with the Canadian Association of Studies in Co- operation ICA5C) and in Ireland in co-operation with the Irish Society for Co-operative Studies. While one role of the Journol is the dissemination of the results of research, we remain keen to ensure that its contents also reflect the role of the UK Society for CcFoperative Studies in acting as a bridge between theory and prartice in advancing knowledge and understanding of co-operation. 2023-24 has been a busy and productive year for those of us involved in the production of the Journol with two open issues and one special issue. The new editorial team has established itself and a productive working relationship has been established with the international Editorial Advisory Board. The most significant development in 2023 is that following consultation with the Journal's
Editorial Advisory Board, the UK Society for Co-operative Studies Board opted to remove the six-month embargo on publications and to add Dols (Digital Object Identrfiers) to all new papers. Our green open access policy means that neither readers nor authors are charged fees. As an international peer-reviewed journol. we think that this is an important way of supporting the co-operative ecosystem because it makes published research accessible to readers, while also ensuring that prospettive authors do not face prohibitive costs. The 56{31 Winter issue was the first with Dols and without a six-month embargo period. Volume 57 will be the first full year of green open access without an embargo period and with Dols on all papers. Work is ongoing to add Dols to the recent archive. We are continuing to promote thejournolthrough our website and social media channels and to improve access and visibiltty both for those publishing in the Journal and to potential readers and subscribers. The UKSCS website has received 22.931 views (18.776 in 2022- 23) from 116 countries over the year. There has been an increase in traffic ft)r all countries in the last year. The Journal pages remain the most popular first visit with 1,751 file downloads of current and past issues of the Journal, and related material. The open call Summer issue Vol 56 No. I featured articles about Canada, South Korea, England, and Wales. written by both academic and prattitioner authors. Themes included the potential for worker co-operatives to provide social care, the connections between the Hansalim Life Movement and New Cooperativism. co-operative publishin& the evolution of the Centre for Alternative Technology. and the joys and difficulties of worker co-operatives. The Autumn issue (Vol 56 No. 2 was also an open call. butthe papers were broadly similar in that they all addressed the future of co-operatives by investigating areas such as the sustainable development goals {SDGs), business models. Strategic Renewal, and the role of education in promoting social transformation. Examples came from Turkish co-operatives, Irish credtt unions. consumer c(Foperatives around the world (UK, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Italy. France. Canada. Australia, South Korea, and Japan). and the Preston Cooperative Education Centre. We received positive feedback on the Winter issue, Robert Owen and COper0t10n, L. Vol 56 No. 3) which was a special issue prodUd to mark the 250th anniversary of Robert Owen'5 birth. The issue showcased the global reach, diversrty, and continued relevance of Owen's work. It explores Owen's legacy. adult and co-operatNe education, utopian and realism in co-operatives. Sand reform, civil rights, ccwperative and labour movements. and a co-operative model of entrepreneurship. The special issue was guest edited by Professor Chris Williams, who brought together an impressive group of scholars from around the
world. The Editorial Team were shocked and deeply saddened to learn of his untimely death. Chris brought vast knowledge, skill. friendship, and ¢(peratiVe spirit to the special issue. He was also a valued member of thejournals Editorial Advisory Board. During the year, we also issued calls for ers for special issue5 on co-operative education {schedule for Autumn 20241. worker co-operatives {scheduled for 2025). and co-operative futures in China (scheduled for 2025). All the suggestions from the last AGM on potential contributors / contributions were gratefully received and have been followed up for inclusion in future issues. Finally, thanks go to all contributors. and everyone involved in reviewing, editin& proofin& printing, and distributing both the online and hard copy editions of the Journal. Hosting a Lecture In December 2023, we hosted co-operative law expert, lan Snath, in 'Reflections on Co- operative Law. The event took place online duringthe day on Monday 4 December 2023, with the recording available on ourwebstte and YouTube Channel: htt www.ukscs.coo events reflections-on-co-o erative-law-with-ian-snaith lan gave his reflections on the field of co-operative law, and his thoughts for the future. with a Law Commission review of the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014 underway. Organising the Annual Co•operative Studies Conference th Our 55 conference took place on March l and 2 2024. It was held in Lichfield and UKSCS was supported by Central CO-OP With venue and arrangements. The Conference title was "Sustoinobility Of The Co-opemtive Ecosystem.. The Role Of SecondGry Co-operatives And Fedemtiond, The keynote presentation was from the Chief Executive of Central cOp and the subsequent Panel Session consisted of senior representatives from: the Federation of Worker CO-OPS; the Building Societies Association- the strate & Intelligence function in Co-op Group. The Conference is intended to be a national focus for Co-operative practitioners and researchers and the format included the opportunity to visitldiscuss: Central Co-op community stores; the city of Lichfield and the reasons forthe location there of the new Central Co-op office buildings- Central coPS apprenticeship schemes.
These discusslons were followed in the evening with the opportunity for networkin& a session from Co-operative Education, a presentation on worker co-ops in Catalonia. and a presentation on the work of Central Co-op in Malawi. Day 2 continued to provide a focus for networking and considered discussion, with the focus on recent academic insights from leading Co-operative academics from the Ireland and India as well as the United Kingdom. Though attendance was smaller than the previous year, feedback was positive and the Conference was financially successful. Hosting of a Co-operative Conversations Series UKSCS has developed an online conversation format. which is now called 'Co-operative Conversations.. This hour-long evening event involves interviewing a member of the co- operative movement about their personal history and contribution, supplemented by broader discussion amongst members. During the year Conversations have been held WFth: Laura Dunne. Heod of Marketing & Membership ot Lincolnshire Co-op, and Tom Blount. Science Pork Director bncoln Rory Ridley-Duff, Pmfrssor of Cfroperotive Social Entrepreneurship at Sheffield Hallum University ondfvrmer UKSC5 Choir Henry Leveson-Gower, Founder and CEO of Pmmoting Economic Plurolism Rose Marley, Chief Executive of Co-operatives UK Tanya Noon. Dirertor of Centr(71 Co-op, Dirertor of CO-OPS UK (Gmongst othets) Graham Boyd. Founder of Evolutes1X. Supporting other events across the Co-operative Movement This year. the Society has actively worked with other orBanisations in the coperative movement in support of its charitable objective to advance the education of the public
concerning all aspects of the co-operative movement, and co-operative forms of structure, and, in particular, to assist. commission and/or identify and publish research into the aforementioned areas, and to promote the exchange of information and experience on c operative studies and research. The Editor-inQhief of the Journol and the Associate Editor (Production) are members of CoRNet, the co-operatives research network. The Editor in Chief represented the Journal at a 'Co-operative publishing. session at the ICA Conference. University of Dundee, 24-26 June 2024.
Indication of Reach It is not possible, nor probabty useful, to be statistically encompassing about the reach of UKSCS- one idea from one conversation with a particular individual might significantly change an approach to national policy, for example. Howeverthe UKSCS website does provide us with numbers and the following are some ot the key ones for the year April 2023- March 2024: Measure Number of users .........-.................-.......... Number 5.91x1 Comment Up from 4.2k the previous year Total views of pages and screens ........... 22,931 Up from 18,776 the previous year Top five pages viewed The importance of the website as means of accessing the Joumol is also highlighted when looking in detail at the number of interactions lie clicking a button or submitting a form etc, rather than passively viewing a web pagel which was more than 11,000 Journol of Co-operotive Studies .-....-. UKSCS ..........................................-............ UKSCS- Home...................-.................... UKSCS Conference 2024......................... About us .....................-.................-.......... 3499 3235 1559 910 771 International Reach (Users) UK................-............................................... USA....-..........................-.......................... Poland ....................................-.................. Canada ............................-.................-.... India 2076 950 423 245 223 The figures to the right are the top five from a list of 116 countries identified. File Downloads JCS. 551112022 Special issue: Johnston Birchall- An appreciation ....-.................. Conference 2024 ....................................... JCS. 55(312022 Special issue= New cooperativism ............-..-...-.--.....-......... 143 The figures to the right are the top five identified from a total of 1,751 123 i) 95 JCS. 54131 ................................................... JCS 55121 ..............................................-....
The Executive Committee Attendance at Committee Meetings We held four meetings during this reporting period, all taking place online. Name Actual lan Adderley Francesca Gagliardi Ruth Hall Janette Hurst Gillian Lonergan John Maddocks Anita Mangan Elisavet Mantzari Nick Matthews Jan Myers Rory Ridley-Duff Mike Wistow Possible Valuing our Volunteers The society could not function without the generous support of its volunteers. Volunteers Organed and participated in a setting up. running and reviewing a variety of activity and events during the year including: the AGM produrtion of the annual report editing and producing theJoumol dministering and fulfilling journal orders planning and running the Conference administering membership keeping Members informed through the website, e-mails, Co-operative Conversations, individual conversations and the many small interactions vthich keep any membership organisation running managing funds bookkeeping and financial management liaising with partner organisations all the activities associated with facilitating and supporting committee meetings
Financial Revlew The Society achieved a surplus for the financial year ending March 2024, with net receipts of £3,383. The charivs main income sources continue to be a mix ofgrants and donations, membership fees. events and journal orders. There is, though, some change in the mix with a noticeable shift awayfrom print and towards digital versions of the journal. Membership income has remained fairly steady while the 2024 annual conference achieved a healthy surplus. Overall the Society continues to find rtself in a sound financial position, due in no small part to the continuing contribution of volunteers in developing and sustaining the various attivities of the organisation. The charitys policy on reserves The charity has three unrestricted designated funds established to support the activities of the charity: Operating reserve £8.[) (to cover up to 12 months core activities) Journol production and distribution fund £2.0(K) {to meet commitments) Conference bursaries fund £2,LKIO (to offer free or discounted places} Thanks Thanks to all the society members and trustees for their sUPPOrt and work over the year. Also, thanks to funders. the co-operative societies and all with whom ULSCS have worked over the year 2023 -2024 signed on behalf of the charitys trustees: Mike Wistow, Trustee and Chair Date: IS I IL( i(SX io
UK Society for C04)perative Studies Receipts & payments account for the year ended 31 March 2024 2023 2024 Tctsl FLrd5 Fur Fwd5 2.(KKJ Grants & d(Tht%S 3.21 Vembershp Joum81 rpts Conferen¢ t•s Other elents Sundry [ts Tolal lpts 3,170 120 3.870 3,170 120 3.870 6.280 12.1WJ &160 160 Ptyments Volunteets. eywnse5 ountsng sofiw8re & support Bank tharges 324 324 781 Inlemet & sile J¢JJrttal Conference Other etS Sundry payments 9.365 Total tseforn lAnr of IWKIS 837 1.&37 4,916 144 144 144 47n 2,825 27.799 14•t rv5pts Cash funds at start of thi% pj Transfers betsen lunds Cash fvnd¥ at end of thls perlod ).624 30.624 YJ,S24 34,007 34.007 li
UK Society for Co•operative Studies Statement of assets and liabilities at 31 March 2024 2023 ).624 Bank Cash hand 34.IX)7 30,624 34.007 Debtors 10 10 10 10 Assets Eptsioed for the charitys own y8e The tharity dc*s not have any items of u1pnI or other assets ièt8ined for the use Llabilili•8 Creditor5 Ibpnce rpts. 1Mal 120 120 120 120 Sion8d . Trustee Date IS (ILI IL 12
UK Society for Coaoperative Studies Notes to the accounts for the year ended 31 March 2024 l. Re¢eipts & payMts •¢¢¢unts Ripts and paytTtenls a¢J>)unts contain a summary of money ieceived and money spent during tho period and a list o13ssets and 1vb1lFt at Ihe end of the perii)d. and cash in hand. 2. Grants & donallons 3. FurKls anatysis opth9 119¢0*ts (Pments) Closthg Unrestrfcted de¥igrFated funds Operatwlg [eser Journal cOnfence {83T) (1631 16.IXKI 13
UK Society for Coknoperative Studies Notes to the accounts - continued During the accounting perx)d: no reimbursements ielatiog to trustees. Iravel and meeting expenses arose. mainty because all meeb.ngs look place online via Zoom lather fa to fe. 5. D•bto There were no debtors at year eThl. Shafes The shares are In CcwFerative Press Limit&J and have a nominal value of £10. 7. Credito There were no LYeditor5 at yr e. 8. Trust•Ès' Trmuneration Nong of the twstees were pakl any remuneratton Iluting the pericJ. 9. Gl(wary of t Advance rnuipts: These a amounts e1ved by Ihe dwtty in the accountMIg period, for use in a future per. Cr•ditors: These are amounts ¢yed by but not pabj in the a¢x¥)unting Feriod. acLountsn9 perd. Restricted funds: These are funds given to the (arty. subj'ect to spe¢> restrictions set by the dorKw. but withÉn the genal obj& ofthe d)arity. LlrK8strieted designated fvnds: These are unrestrk#&l fvnds set &ide by the trustees for 5peafic pUrSeS. 14