Annual General Meeting Tuesday 5[th] October 2021 7.15 for 7.30 pm via online meeting platform
MINUTES
Present: Frances Churchward (FC); Marty Climenhaga (MC); Nigel Fayle (NF); Hilde Gronsberg (HG); John Miller (JM); Marina Murphy (MM); Mike Sanderman (MS); Mike Page (MP); Vicki Stacey (VS); Julie Catling (JC); Odette Nolan (ON); Roger Murphy (RM); Hannah Tilley (HT); Tom Kitcher (TK); Stan Brooke (SB); Ralph White (RW); Jamie Evans (JE); Deborah Page (DP); Mark Turnbull (MT); Martin Caveney (MC); Nicky Caveney (NC); Bruce Larner (BL); Simo Gorry (SG).
Apologies: Joanne Clements (JCl);
Quorum: Exceeded the minimum requirement with 22 members present
Attachments: 2020/2021 end of year accounts
Welcome & Apologies FC welcomed everyone. Apologies from JCl
AGM 2020 Minutes
Minutes were accepted by everyone as a true copy.
Chair’s report
Since our last meeting, I have continued to hold regular Zoom meetings with Marina during the course of which she has kept me updated on her work and we have discussed any issues that have arisen.
I have also had a meeting with Nigel, telephone conversations and emails during the course of which we have discussed the way forward for the two organisations and the need for a Memorandum of Understanding to be drawn up in order to clarify the roles and responsibilities of Parklife and FoSJP.
There were no further questions.
Safeguarding Nothing outstanding.
Treasurer’s report
Shared on the screen and talked through by ON. Thanks to John Miller for his help in preparing the accounts.
There were no further questions.
Election of Trustees
Odette Nolan has resigned as a trustee
Mike Sanderman was re-elected as a trustee
Election of new trustee – Ralph White
RW was voted in as a trustee with a unanimous vote of 20
Election of new trustee – Stan Brooke
SB was voted in as a trustee with a unanimous vote of 20
Community Coordinators report
Community Room Drop-ins
The drop-ins are ticking along with some regulars attending each week. Our new sessional community worker Hannah is settling in well. She has been encouraging attendees to create the lovely bug house hotel posters.
Networking
Partnership work that has come out of networking:
Carers Southampton – working together to set up a walking group around the Park on Wednesdays. A support worker from their organisations attending our Drop-Ins on a monthly basis to provide information.
Early Intervention Psychosis Team approached us about using the tennis courts on alternate Wednesdays. They are supporting a lot of people who have been struggling with anxiety due to the pandemic. Encouraging them to be active and outdoors. With the potential of anyone interested attending our Drop-In.
Serendipity Group
I meet with Autism Hampshire to discuss the fact that they are starting to open face to face groups across Hampshire and how we work in partnership with them. I will be drafting a document to clarify how this partnership works in practice. They have had lots of enquiries from people wanting to attend groups. We discussed how many people we can accommodate in consultation with our regulars in order to take their feelings into account. We also
discussed how new referrals will be welcomed to our Group. This will be monitored should we have to re-evaluate due to increasing numbers of infection as we approach winter months.
Table Tennis
I have met with Mark who is the man wanting fundraise for another table tennis. He is a local business man who is incredibly enthusiastic about finding the funding and working alongside FOSJP and The Council to make it happen. In his own words:
“I regularly walk my dogs in St James's Park as they love it there. One thing I've noticed is the fantastic multicultural community around the table tennis table of an evening. There are Persian, Welsh, Polish, Chinese, Moroccan and many more nationalities. I've spent some time talking to them and the group spirit is amazing.”
Since our meeting last week, he has already sent me PDF’s, minutes from our meeting and put things into action. He wants to involve an individual who plays with the group and who has found a way of communicating despite language barriers. I will keep you posted.
Policies
I have been going through, with the help of Frances, our various policies both for volunteers and paid staff to ensure they are up to date.
Insurance
This has been renewed. It does not cover anything related to COVID.
Developing the Gardening Side
Over the last few months there has been an increase in the number of requests to become a gardening volunteer. As you may have seen there is often a group of up to 12 people which is fantastic and has a knock on effect on costs of refreshments which we are currently able to cover. The other side of this is that I am also getting regular requests from organisations and individuals who have physical or mental health difficulties wanting to join our team but they need support to volunteer. What I am proposing is to apply for funding to create a new sessional post to head up this project i.e. manage the volunteers; decide what needs doing; run 2 sessions a week; provide support to volunteers that have disabilities; develop work with schools, etc.
History Report
Please find our update on Shirley Local History Group activities in the past twelve months:
SPITFIRE MAKERS COMMEMORATIVE PLAQUE FOR SHIRLEY PARISH HALL
In November 2020, Shirley Local History Group started a fundraising campaign to raise the funds for a Spitfire Makers commemorative plaque to be placed on Shirley Parish Hall to recognize its location as a hidden Spitfire factory during WWII. We were amazed – and very grateful – to raise over £600 within a fortnight and now have additional funds which will be put towards funding a second Shirley-located plaque. Our thanks to the individuals and
families who kindly donated and to Dan Clarke & team at St. James-by-the-Park for their input and support for the plaque. Although it has taken a while to get the relevant permissions in place, we are pleased to confirm that the plaque is currently being manufactured and hope to set a date for the ‘unveiling’ of the plaque soon to which sponsors will be invited to join us to mark the event.
POSTPONMENT OF AUTUMN TALKS & ALTERNATIVE SPITFIRE TRAIL
After taking the sad decision to postpone our 2020 Autumn Talks series, we decided to work with our friends at the Spitfire Makers Charitable Trust to put together a ‘self-guided’ trail from St.James Park around the local Shirley area which shared the story of WWII in our area, in particular the various ‘hidden’ locations of dispersed Spitfire production. Thanks to National Lottery Reaching Communities funding, we were able to ask Sarah Powell (who designed the window art in the Parklife Café as a student) to design the trail map and were able to offer this both online and as a printed trail map. The trail maps have been a great success and we have had lots of positive feedback. We were able to provide printed copies of the trail map to the Parklife Café team to sell to raise funds for the café. Due to the popularity of the initial maps, we have recently reprinted more which can be purchased from the café.
After the disappointment of last year, we are delighted to be able to offer our free public talks again this coming year. A lot of planning has gone on within the history team (both over Zoom & in Madge’s garden!) to ensure these can be held safely. Our talks this year will include:
- Shirley Local Hero: A Family Research Story - 3rd October 2021
Louise Helps will be sharing the story of her grandfather who was awarded the Carnegie Hero’s Medal and how this led her onto researching her family history.
- Shirley Common (1777 – 1829) – 7th November 2021
Madge will be sharing the fascinating research that she’s managed to undertake (despite lockdown!) into the history of Shirley – or Withedswood – Common before Enclosure.
- Shirley & the Trams – 5th December 2021
We welcome Martin Petch from the Southampton Tram Project who will talk about the history of the trams with a focus on Shirley.
FESTIVE CHEER DELIVERIES
Volunteers from Shirley Local History Group & FoSJP were able to deliver over 70 ‘Festive Cheer’ giftbags to older people in our local community in December 2020. Our thanks to children from Hollybrook School who provided some seasonal songs which were shared on CD. SLHG volunteers were also pleased to help Hilde & Marina with the Easter Cheer deliveries over the Easter Weekend 2021.
SUPPORTING RE-LAUNCH OF FOSJP WEBSITE
Following training in using WordPress, Vicki worked alongside Hilde and Jamie (Modutel) to get the content of the FoSJP website up to date to enable the site to relaunch in July 2021. This was no mean feat given the quantity of information stored and there is still a need to review the historic content from the original FoSJP website to ensure that the whole FoSJP ‘journey’ is reflected in the current website content.
CONTINUING CONTACTS
During the past twelve months we have had numerous queries coming in via Facebook and email and – amongst other questions - have provided further information on World War One Prisoner of War camps in Shirley, shared research into local railway schemes and helped to locate Pond Terrace for a family historian.
We were also able to Zoom with Louise Helps who shared her family history and, as a result, we were able to invite her to talk at our 2021 Autumn Talks series. Both Michaela and Vicki have been involved in the heritage workshops for the City of Culture 2025 bid and other members of the group have taken part in the Hampshire Archive Trust / Hampshire Field Club online workshops.
MEMORY LANE NEWSLETTER
We were able to provide three further issues of our Memory Lane Newsletter which we set up in March 2020 to stay in touch with our members during the initial lockdown. We have been very grateful for the kind comments and also all the ‘snippets’ of information which people have shared with us as a result of the newsletter articles. Although this was set up as a ‘temporary’ communication whilst we have been unable to meet face-to-face, we hope to be able to continue with a couple of issues per year as the newsletter has been a great way of sharing local memories as well as research undertaken by various people in the group.
FoSJP Gardening Team Report
This time last year following easing of lockdown restrictions we had around 6 members attending each week. We concentrated of keeping the area around the café and the childrens play area tidy, but managed to get some pruning and removal of ivy from the trees before activities were again suspended. We had a brief 3 week spell back just before Christmas when 2 lorry loads of chippings organised by Dave Clothier were with the assistance of a team from SCC spread over the borders to keep the weeds down.
By this time most of the fences along the botanical walk had failed and we were kept busy removing them. The Tulip tree planted for the WI Centenary was damaged with some of the lower branches broken off, but the council tree team came out and trimmed it back, and it seems to have survived OK, as the tree is now 7 years old we are hoping to see it flower in the spring.
We also had a number of buddleias and some oak saplings donated and these were put in before the last lockdown arrived. Fortunately during this time SCC continued to work and kept the park paths clear of leaves and also replaced the botanical walk fencing with plastic, which should be a bit more durable.
We now have Richard Smith-Waite as our SCC contact following the loss to covid of Nigel Fullbrook last year. Nigel was a great supporter of our park and we are planning to plant a tree in his memory.
One the lockdown restrictions were lifted we were back again, but unfortunately the weeds had taken advantage of our absence giving a huge amount of catch up to do, but the work done in replacing the fencing had also resulted in a bit of clearance to surrounding area’s which gave us help in providing some new planting for lots more donated plants, these are now turning into a good display.
One of our regular attenders, Dave Clothier was taken ill in February and subsequently passed away, Dave was a much valued member of the team and will be greatly missed, we are hoping to plant another tree in his memory.
Once we got going again we again focussed on keeping the area around the café clean and tidy, the planters have given a lovely splash of colour through the year again thanks to the donation of plants for which are very grateful. It’s very gratifying to hear the number of comments from people using the park thanking us for our efforts, and on one occasion as we were enjoying a welcome cuppa at the end of a session, a local resident and her daughter appeared and presented us with the box of goodies, cakes, water, biscuits, all sorts of useful items, we were very humbled.
The Bee bee tree in the middle of the children’s play area suffered some damage in the summer, we attempted to repair it several times, but the patches were also removed, however despite this the tree continues to grow, we are amazed.
As the summer progressed the efforts of Hilde and Marina in attracting volunteers resulted in the team expanding into double figures attending each week. Some are able to attend only briefly, we had one who had come over from Portugal to visit her boyfriend for a few weeks, but still made time to come to work with us whilst she was here, but however long or short their visits, they are all welcome and all bring their own talents to the park.
A strange year, but a brand new bug hotel made locally for us, and presentation of the Green Flag award again, makes it all worthwhile.
Parklife Report
Parklife café report and update. FoSJP AGM Tuesday 5/10/21. This year the Café has built upon it’s achievements in 2020 and has now, through the hard work of the Parklife Team, become a stable and financially secure business operation with an ongoing commitment to be an asset and support for the benefit of our local community, we have come a long way since 2016 when the Café faced closure due to its poor financial state. We now welcome customers to a bright and clean Café, re-decorated and with new tables and chairs, in stylish bright steel and wood, there are smart posters advertising our menu with a heading of our cheerful, new, company Logo, our food offering has been honed to provide a range that is simple and speedier to prepare, thus improving our efficiency and our improved sales figures prove its popularity, health and hygiene standards have been maintained to a high level throughout the Covid 19 epidemic to protect the safety of both our customers and staff, this will continue to be of paramount importance, maintaining these standards of cleanliness and efficiency falls to our wonderful staff, we know how popular they are with our customers, because our
customers tell us so!. The café has recently purchased a brand new Air Source Heat Pump system to heat the building as economically and in as an environmentally friendly way as we can make it, it replaces an older, similar system that failed and for which replacement parts were unavailable, we continue to work with Southampton City Council who are responsible for maintaining the outside public toilet, we have regularly been forced to close this toilet but hope that the latest upgrade by the council will solve the immediate problems, long term the drains will have to be improved, his will happen when we are able, hopefully soon, to replace the decking areas that are now deteriorating fast, the drainage problems can then be sorted at the same time. Our community support, food service continues apace, in this we daily collect surplus food from local supermarkets, thanks to Marks and Spencers and Sainsburys, and is sorted and distributed to those who require it, this is a joint project between ourselves and members of our partner organisation Fosjp, we are grateful for their constant support on this project, this has now been operating for 20 months and demand for our service shows no sign of weakening. We have established working relationships with several local businesses and are grateful for their support, the stand out company is Ahmad Tea of Chandlers Ford, they were looking for an organisation that they could support with food donations to those in need during the Covid crisis, by luck they found us and have been incredibly generous in a large, weekly donation of foodstuffs to boost what we get from the supermarkets, others to mention are Utilita Energy, Home Instead Senior Care, Asda, Waitrose and McCarthy Stone, we have also been very fortunate to receive a large amount of funding from a range of charitable organisations who identified our work in the community during the Covid crisis as worthy of support, we have also recently been told that our claim for loss of business during our forced closure last year has been accepted by our insurance company, this will mean added financial security during the lean, winter months ahead for the Café trading. In a slow return to normal times, the café has begun to run new community groups meeting in the Café, we have introduced support for groups of people under our Happy Café banner, we reintroduced the Lego sessions, the Art Group are again meeting indoors, a women’s fitness group has started, a Toddler group has been established and the regular drop-in sessions run by FoSJP are up and running. Parklife Community Interest Company has come through some very difficult times of late, stronger and better, and our commitment to the community we serve is undiminished, working together with our partners at Friends of St James Park, our focus in the year ahead is to progress on the firmer foundations we have established and to go on building towards a brighter future for the St James Park Project.
Any other business
No points raised
Frances expresses thanks to Hilde for organising the Zoom meeting. It was lovely to see new faces at this AGM and we all hope for a better year.
Friends of St. James' Park - Charity No. 1177957 Statement of Assets and Liabilities as at 30 April 2021
| Monetary Assets Cash at bank and in hand Current Account Petty cash Paypal National Lottery Card Total Monetary Assets Represented by Funds Unrestricted Funds General Fund Restricted Funds History Funds Reaching Communities Other Funds Total Funds |
6,295.38 29,396.43 945.66 |
2021 £ 40,988.81 108.86 128.92 41,226.59 4,589.12 36,637.47 41,226.59 |
2020 £ 29,198.01 63 150.14 1,000 30,411.15 3,347.12 27,064.03 5,944.47 19,111.60 2,007.96 30,411.15 |
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Friends of St. James' Park - Charity No. 1177957 Receipts and Payments Account for the year to 30 April 2021
| Receipts Grants Donations History Events Miscellaneous Payments Room Hire Expenses Fees Events Equipment Office Insurance History Miscellaneous Surplus Balance brought forward at 1 May 2020 Transfer of Unused Restricted Funds to General Fund Defibrillator Snows Balance carried forward at 30 April 2021 |
General Fund Restricted Fund Total £ £ £ 614.27 78,232.50 ####### 312.05 - 312.05 - 733.16 733.16 315.08 - 315.08 - - 0.00 1,241.40 78,965.66 ####### - 490.57 490.57 - 6,507.31 6,507.31 - 50,235.40 ####### 20.00 - 20.00 - 3,226.11 3,226.11 - 984.94 984.94 - 636.12 636.12 - 2,041.61 2,041.61 - 5,249.56 5,249.56 20.00 69,371.62 ####### 1,221.40 9,594.04 ####### 3,347.12 27,064.03 ####### (79.40) 79.40 100.00 (100.00) 4,589.12 36,637.47 ####### |
|---|---|
Notes to the accounts
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These accounts are prepared on a receipts and payments basis, with all revenue and expenses shown on a cash basis.
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The charity has two funds: an Unrestricted General Fund and a Restricted Fund arising from the receipt of grants for specific purposes.
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During the year two Restricted Fund balances were transferred to the General Fund The Defibrillator fund which had been overspent and a donation from Snows which could not be spent as intended due to COVID
CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examinerfs report on the accounts Spclion A I ndependeiit E xainiiier s Re F)url Report to th• tru8tO•81 Fiiends ofst Jrn, Park On accouiit• ftr th• Year ErKlirvJ 30 A.1 2021 Ch•rlty no (If any) 1177957 S•t out on p•0• I rerx)rt to tho tnote•8 on rny exwninalioTr of the account8 of the above dwrity (fv Tnjst) for the year ended 30 Aprbl 2021. RMpon•lbllitlM and A8 the charity trustee8 Tru8( you are regpon8ible lor the prnparation ba81s of rnport of Ihe arzounts In accordance wth the requIreMts of the Chariti•• Act 2011 Acr). I rept in respe( of my examination ol the TrusV8 accounts ¢arried out under se(lion 145 of the 2011 Ad and in carrylng out my examlnation, I have followed the appli¢able Directions gven by the Charity Commi88ion under section 145(5Mb) of the Act. I have comploted my examination. I confirni that no m8t•rial mattws have come lo my att6ntion ift c¢nn8Ction wlth the examination which give8 me cause to believe that in, any material respect.. accouniing records re not kept in acrdanC• wllh 8edon 130 of Iha Ad or Ind•p•nd•nl oxamln•rf• 8tat•m•nt I have no cortem6 and have come avo88 no other mattors in conrnciion with the examlnation to whith attertion Should drawn in order to enable proper understan in of the accounts to be reached. 81on•d: 0211012021 Nwn•: John Miller R•l•v•nt profo•slonal qualMlcatlon() or body (If any): PA FfA Addr••s: 123. Church Street SouthamFlon SO15 SLW Sectioi) B Oisclosiire Only (xxnpléte rf th8 examiner needs to hghlight matt8rs of concRrn (T•ee CC32. Independent examinat of (arity acc. directions ar guidanc for examirrs}. IER October 2018