Trustees' Annual Report for the period
Period start date Period end date 1 January 2024 31 December 2024
From
To
Section A Reference and administration details
Charity name THE ARCHIVE OF MICROCARS (1) THE REGISTER OF UNUSUAL MICROCARS Other names charity is known by (2) RUMCARS Registered charity number (if any) 1177304 Charity's principal address 2 RIDLANDS GROVE
LIMPSFIELD CHART, OXTED SURREY Postcode RH8 0ST
Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity
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Dates acted if not for whole Name of person (or body) entitled
Trustee name Office (if any)
year to appoint trustee (if any)
CHRIS THOMAS (1) CHAIRMAN
(2) TREASURER
1 (3) REGISTER
DATABASE
MANAGER
(4) DVLA LIAISON
MALCOLM (1) ARCHIVIST
2 PARKER (2) WEBSITE
ADMINISTRATOR
MACOLM EXHIBITION DISPLAY
3
DUDLEY COORDINATOR
4 NICK HADDON CLUB LIAISON
5 JOE CURL SECRETARY
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Names of the trustees for the charity, if any, (for example, any custodian trustees)
Name Dates acted if not for whole year
Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)
Type of adviser Name Address
Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information)
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Section B Structure, governance and management
Description of the charity’s trusts
Type of governing document
CONSTITUTION
- (eg. trust deed, constitution)
How the charity is constituted
CHARITABLE INCORPORATED ORGANISATION
- (eg. trust, association, company)
Trustee selection methods
APPOINTMENT
- (eg. appointed by, elected by)
Additional governance issues (Optional information)
You may choose to include additional information, where relevant, about:
2024 was our seventh year of operation as a charity.
-
policies and procedures adopted for the induction and training of trustees;
-
the charity’s organisational structure and any wider network with which the charity works;
-
relationship with any related parties;
-
trustees’ consideration of major risks and the system and procedures to manage them.
Section C Objectives and activities
The major objective of the charity is to provide educational material to the world at large on the subject of Microcars. We hold and preserve an archive of documents and images that were collected or donated over many years by the Register of Unusual Microcars, which was our predecessor organisation, and which now forms part of the archive. We continue to publish the quarterly magazine RumCar News .
Summary of the objects of the charity set out in its governing document
Malcolm Parker took over from Chris Thomas as Archivist at the beginning of 2022. In March 2022, we were informed that the present site of the physical Archive building in Kent was to be sold. Over the next few months, considerable work was done to identify a new site, closer to Malcolm Parker’s home in Somerset. A suitable site was located just outside Frome and, on 7 July 2022, the two conjoined climate-controlled shipping containers that house the Archive were transported on the back of a lorry to its new home.
It was agreed at the 2022 AGM that from 1 January 2023 responsibility for the management of the Register database and DVLA liaison would move to Chris Thomas from Malcolm Dudley, and Malcolm Dudley would become responsible for Exhibit Display Coordination. These changes duly occurred.
Throughout 2024 the Archivist has continued with the work of cataloguing
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the material held by the Archive. The Archive’s material has now been put in chronological order and duplicate material has been identified and stored separately. The Archive holds c.169,000 pages of documents, not including duplicates. The next phase is to scan the material and upload it to a new website and make the archive available to the world at large. The new website is delayed until we can find a suitable volunteer to manage the project.
An in-person AGM took place on 8 September 2024, which was held to coincide with the National Microcar Rally in North Yorkshire. It is anticipated that in-person meetings will continue to take place at least annually.
The primary objectives going forward are to continue with the process of cataloguing that is now underway and to make the archive material available to the world at large through a process of scanning and uploading onto a new website. A new computer system was purchased during 2023 for the use of the Archivist. A new A3 scanner was acquired towards the end of 2024 to assist with this process.
Our biggest challenge remains recruiting a younger trustee to ensure the continuity of our work in the future. It is proving to be difficult to identify a suitable person. Our main strategic objective in the next period is to develop a fully functional website to enable full external access to the archive.
Summary of the main activities undertaken for the public benefit in relation to these objects (include within this section the statutory declaration that trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit)
We are fulfilling part of our core objective by publishing a quarterly magazine, which has been produced in-house for the last 40 years. This document satisfies one segment of the target audience we seek to accommodate.
We intend to make the archive publicly available by electronic means in the next phase of activity, which will be progressed as funding and volunteer’s time permits.
Journalist access to the archive has been made available when requested, and information has been provided to owners who have registered their cars with the Register of Unusual Microcars. Due to the location of the archive at present, public access is not possible, but as mentioned above we hope that electronic web access will be possible within the coming years.
Additional details of objectives and activities (Optional information)
You may choose to include further statements, where relevant, about:
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policy on grantmaking;
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policy programme related investment;
-
contribution made by volunteers.
Section D Achievements and performance
Summary of the main achievements of the charity during the year
During 2024 we have continued to ensure the stability and integrity of the collection. We have consolidated the collection at its new home where we hoped it will be able to remain for the foreseeable future.
Donations were slightly down in 2024 compared with 2023, although well within the margin of variance experienced over the last five years. Magazine subscriptions continue to hold up well. Total expenditure increased in 2024 slightly compared with 2023 but only
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Section D Achievements and performance
within a few per cent. We maintain a comfortable financial cushion.
We m
Section E Financial review
The policy is the charity will only spend the cash reserves that it has to Brief statement of the fulfil the work highlighted in the business plan. It does not intend to charity’s policy on reserves borrow funds.
Details of any funds materially in deficit
None
Further financial review details (Optional information)
You may choose to include additional information, where relevant about:
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the charity’s principal sources of funds (including any fundraising);
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how expenditure has supported the key objectives of the charity;
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investment policy and objectives including any ethical investment policy adopted.
Section F Other optional information
Section G Declaration
The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.
Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees
Signature(s) Full name(s) Chairman Secretary Position (eg Secretary, Chair, Chris Thomas Joe Curl etc) Date 3 October 2025
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Charity Name No (if any)
The Archive of Microcars 1177304
Receipts and payments accounts CC16a
For the period Period start date Period end date
To
from 01-Jan-24 31-Dec-24
Section A Receipts and payments
Unrestricted Restricted Endowment
Total funds Last year
funds funds funds
to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £
A1 Receipts
Donations UK 529 - - 529 1,049
Donations Europe 16 - - 16 16
Donations USA 5,976 - - 5,976 5,008
Magazine subscriptions UK 1,681 1,681 1,615
Magazine subscriptions Europe 554 554 383
Magazine subscriptions Rest of the World 1,052 1,052 929
Old Magazine and Book sales 458 458 150
Bank account interest 71 71 13
Dating Certificate service - - - - 23
Vehicle registration fee 11 - - 11 11
- - - - -
Sub total (Gross income for AR) 10,348 - - 10,348 9,197
A2 Asset and investment sales, (see
table).
- - - -
- - - - -
Sub total - - - - -
Total receipts 10,348 - - 10,348 9,197
A3 Payments
Magazine printing and postage 2,230 - - 2,230 2,092
Office supplies and expenses 358 - - 358 1,069
Archive document purchases 616 - - 616 198
Insurance a fees for club services 141 - - 141 130
Rent and utilities 1,995 - - 1,995 2,020
Website and web maintainence 921 - - 921 520
- - - - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
Sub total [ 6,261 ] - - 6,261 6,029
A4 Asset and investment purchases,
(see table)
- - - -
- - - -
Sub total [ - ] - - - -
Total payments 6,261 - - 6,261 6,029
Net of receipts/(payments) 4,087 - - 4,087 3,168
A5 Transfers between funds - - - - -
A6 Cash funds last year end 28,044 - - 28,044 -
Cash funds this year end 32,131 - - 32,131 3,168
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CCXX R1 accounts (SS)
05/10/2025
1
| Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period | Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period | Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Categories Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees B1 Cash funds B2 Other monetary assets B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use B5 Liabilities B3 Investment assets |
Signature Details Details Archive cheque account Archive Paypal account Archive saving account Details Details Total cash funds (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) Details |
Unrestricted funds Restricted funds to nearest £ to nearest £ 21,626 - 478 - 10,071 - 32,175 - Agreement Error OK Unrestricted funds Restricted funds to nearest £ to nearest £ - - - - - - - - - - - - Fund to which asset belongs Cost (optional) - - - - - Fund to which asset belongs Cost (optional) - - - - - - - - - Fund to which liability relates Amount due (optional) - - - - - Print Name Christopher Thomas Joe Curl |
Endowment funds to nearest £ - - - |
| - | |||
| OK | |||
| Endowment funds to nearest £ - - - - - - Current value (optional) - - - - - Current value (optional) - - - - - - - - - When due (optional) Date of approval |
CCXX R2 accounts (SS)
05/10/2025
2