## **Hawkhurst Community Trust 2018 Charity Number: 1180085 AGM Annual Report and presentation 16[TH] NOVEMBER 2023**
## **The following presentation script provides a summary on our work for November 2022 to November 2023.**
## **An additional document to report on income and spending is available and is submitted to the Charity Commission.**
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|1 - 2|Welcome to Hawkhurst Community Trust (2018) Annual General Meetng. Let me frst
introduce myself, I’m Anita Stevens and I’ve been chair of the Trust for a year now, I’ll
be taking us through tonight’s AGM which will include: A short presentaton on the
work of HCT over the past year, treasurers report, nominaton of Trustees and a look
ahead to 2024.
Firstly David, please can I check for any ‘apologies’. (No apologies made)
Secondly, please can I check that you have all read the minutes from the AGM for
2022? Are there any comments? (No comments were made)
Thank you all, I can sign them then as approved.
**Decision**: AGM minutes approved for 2022.|
|3|The Hawkhurst Community Trust 2018 (HCT 2018) was set up as an independent
charity to improve community facilites in Hawkhurst.
HCT 2018 is focused on bringing our community together.
You will see our mission statement here, let’s have a look at how we achieved this in
2023.
Mission statement:**Bringing together the Hawkhurst community with events and**
**projects to help make Hawkhurst a great place to live**|
|4|At the beginning of the year we set out 3 goals to work towards.
They were to:
Keep steady by running our existng programme
Focus on branding and publicity
Re-positon ourselves as a community connector|
|5|
We remain a small band of Trustees (8 Trustees, we have room for 4 more).
We all live in the village and are all volunteers.
We’ve worked together for some years now and meet regularly to plan and
develop actvity to bring added value to living in Hawkhurst.
We are also supported by a small pool of brilliant volunteers (Ruth, Susie,
Gavin, Bridget, Sally, Isobel) who help out at events.
At the 5k/10k race we were well supported by many people who volunteered
as marshalls.|
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|6|You can see how the year looked here. We always have a range of free take part
events for children and families, and to do this we seek community grants, and
sponsorship from local businesses. Our biggest events contnues to be the Hawkhurst
10k and 5 k run and here we work closely with Nicework as well as other local
organisatons.
X4 Newsleters: free publicaton to update on HCT2018 actvity, village wide
circulaton. Raise awareness of local charites and organisatons some of whom we
partner with. A summary of local contacts.
Partcipated in x2 local community events: St Lawrence Flower Festval and Village
fete.
Led x 5 community wide events: Easter trail, Hawkhurst 5k and 10k, Playday, Makers
at the Moor
Supported actvity for Hawkhurst in Bloom|
|7|We’re hugely pleased to have connected with so many people this year. We know
that we can achieve our goals by working in partnership with others, and this has
strengthened further in 2023 and we have worked with 21 local organisatons and
businesses.|
|8|So now for a litle tour through the year. Our frst event was the popular, Easter
Eggbox scavenger hunt.
With dry weather in our favour, this was our best year yet – 127 partcipants. Now in
our 4thyear, this free to enter actvity, supported by Tescos, has become an
established part of the village calendar.|
|9 – 10|In June, we held the 5k and 10k race, this we do in partnership with Nicework, an
established running events company, Rachel Fagg and Highgate Hawkhurst WI.
This is a major partnership event for us, and it takes a lot of planning and organising
from all sides, in fact we’ve already set a date for 2024!
In its third year, this event also benefted from being known. We met our target of
300 runners. And 40 youngsters taking part in the free childrens race.
We had great support for the warm up, medals, trophies, advertsing from local
businesses and were thankful for League of Friends, sponsoring our frst aid as it was
one of the hotest days of the year.
Funding comes from a sponsorship package for local sponsors and recruitng a team
of volunteers for this event specifcally.|
|11|In August, we joined in with Playday, a natonal day to celebrate and create
opportunites of the importance of play for children.
This was our 4thyear of leading this event, and we always work in partnership with
local children’s servicesproviders,as well as developingactvites ourselves.|
||It’s important that this event is inclusive and to that end, it is remains free, including
free refreshments. We were supported by a donaton from Waitrose to fund a
storyteller, and league of Friends for frst aid support.
Whilst we normally hold this event outside, a large storm meant we had to re plan.
With the help of Hands of Hope community garden we were able to host it there and
despite rain all day, we had over 200 children and families playing that afernoon.
We’d like to note our thanks to all our partners on that day who were resourceful and
fexible in changing plans at the last minute, everyone put children frst that day, and
as you can see here they had a great afernoon!|It’s important that this event is inclusive and to that end, it is remains free, including
free refreshments. We were supported by a donaton from Waitrose to fund a
storyteller, and league of Friends for frst aid support.
Whilst we normally hold this event outside, a large storm meant we had to re plan.
With the help of Hands of Hope community garden we were able to host it there and
despite rain all day, we had over 200 children and families playing that afernoon.
We’d like to note our thanks to all our partners on that day who were resourceful and
fexible in changing plans at the last minute, everyone put children frst that day, and
as you can see here they had a great afernoon!|
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|12|Our fnal big event and held on one of the hotest days in the year. This annual event
is in it’s forth year and we had a strong turnout of 40 local makers, artsts and crafs
people. This event provides a relatvely low cost platorm for local makers, as well as
an opportunity to meet up, connect and access diverse products. Our volunteer team
run a tea and cake stall which enables us to raise funds as well as a chance to connect
with residents and visitors.||
|13|Alongside the events where we lead the actvity, we have also been working to foster
links and encourage community connectons. We do this by producing a quarterly
newsleter, locally distributed and by taking part in community wide events and
projects, in 2022/23 this was with the Flower festval, the village fete and Hawkhurst
in Bloom.||
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|14-15|Hawkhurst community Fridge, falls under our umbrella as a charity, although it runs
independently with its own team of volunteers. Earlier this year it’s founder, Ellen
Neville stepped back from actvely leading the fridge actvity. The brilliant volunteer
team have kept everything going and the fridge makes an impact in focusing on
reducing food waste from local businesses and to
The volunteer pool remains steady, and an environmental assessment has been
completed and passed. The fridge is located in front of the Green Shop, with electricity
for the fridge provided by the League of Friends. I’d like to express my thanks to the
volunteer team for the diference they make both to reducing food waste and whilst it
is not a food bank, we do know it provides a helping hand to residents throughout the
year.||
|16-17|In summary then, how have we faired against our goals and our charitable purpose in
2023? Let’s have a look. Well we contnue to get good feedback, especially shared on
social media and in achievingourgoals we can summarise the following:||
||**We’ve maintained our programme**And turnout was higher across all events in 2023
despite the challenges with the weather.
**We’re raising our profle**4 Newsleters, regular social media and coverage in
Tunbridge Wells e-news
**Our income has grown**We can then make even more positve contributons to
projects and events for 2024
**We’ve expanded our remit**Taking the community fridge on has stretched us this year,
and we will be looking at how best to support this in 2024
**We’re creatng positve wellbeing in the community and good connectons**We
contnue to hear really great feedback about the diference we make to individuals
and to other organisatons.
**We’ve worked with more partners this year**and are seen to be a good connector to
work with.
**Our team is the same**Growing our volunteer and trustee group will be a focus for
2024|
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|18 - 20|Looking forwards to 2024, we plan to contnue our programme of events and will
focus on growing our volunteer numbers and working in partnership with local
organisatons to achieve more together to contribute to the lives of Hawkhurst
residents.
Earlier this year we agreed as a group of Trustees that the name ‘Hawkhurst
Community Trust 2018’, was a litle too clunky and perhaps not really said who we
were. So we asked all our volunteers to suggest a name, and we agreed on Friends of
Hawkhurst unanimously. In 2024 we will start to move across to using this name.|
||That concludes the chairs report. A huge personal thank you from me to all our
Trustees and volunteers and that partners we have worked with in 2023, we have only
achieved what we have because of the energy and commitment you put in to make
Hawkhurst a beter place to live.|
|20|And now we have 2 more formal parts of our AGM to complete. I frst hand to Harvey
Cobald, our Treasuer for a summary of our accounts (see spend and income report).
I now invite David to conclude theproceedings with our nominatons for Trustees.|
||To bring us to a close, I’d like to check if there any questons from the foor. (no
questons were raised)|
|21|Thank you for coming along this evening, and we hope you will join us for tea or cofee
now.|
## Hawkhurst Community Trust 2018
## Accounts 2022 - 23
( Financial year 1st Oct 22 to 30th Sept 23)
|Startng Balance|£7,792.78|||
|---|---|---|---|
|Total Income|£10,748.54|||
|Total Expenditure|-£7,538.04|||
|Final Balance|£11,003.28|||
|Annual Surplus|£3,210.50|||
|Events Income and Expenditure|Income|Expenditure|Total|
|Easter Hunt|£63.80|-£124.50|-£60.70|
|Hawkhurst Fete Childrens Marquee|£12.55|-£54.46|-£41.91|
|Hawkhurst 5k/10k Run|£6,620.54 *|-£4,884.46|£1,736.08|
|* Includes support from local businesses and LoF totalling £2,200||||
|Play Day|£61.26|-£845.96|-£784.70|
|Makers @ the Moor|£1,596.43|-£382.37|£1,214.06|
|Donatons and Collectons|£2,382.16|£0.00|£2,382.16|
||£10,736.74|-£6,291.75|£4,444.99|
|General Income and Expenditure|£266.54|-£1,246.29|-£979.75|
|of which major costs are:||||
|Hawkhurst In Bloom||-£216.50||
|Website and domain expense||-£177.60||
|Printng of Newsleter||-£139.88||
|Insurance||-£159.04||
## Community Fridge Accounts
|Startng Balance|£3,599.52|
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|Total Income|£494.04|
|Total Expenditure|-£233.44|
|Final Balance|£3,860.12|
|Annual Surplus|£260.60|
Income comes from donations, the most significant being from Groundwork UK, plus a donation in kind to cover the cost of the electricity for the fridge from HCH League of Friends The most significant expense being for operating costs, equipment, training and publicity.