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2023-03-31-accounts

AGM: Meeting of the Trustees (= Members), plus social event with Supporters and Volunteers

Date: Tuesday 12[h] December 2023

Time: 18:30hrs

Venue: Saji’s, Gateshead

Iris Weber (T), Daryl Oprey (T), Muhammad Ali Anwar (T), Dr Shahid Rasul, Suleiman Sultan Hiam, Muhammad Ali Gohar, Leila Abdullah, Raja Tahir, Rashid Sadiq, Khansa Sadiq, Zeeshan Ayub

These were noted, as they had been received by e-mail, Whatsapp, or verbally to the Trustees in attendance. As per the IETUK current constitution, the meeting was quorate (as a minimum of 3 Trustees were present, and with the requisite share of the overall Trustee numbers at that time, and with no objections lodged by any trustee [member] after the duly and timely given notice of this AGM (including the location, this time in Gateshead].

These are on the Charity Commission website, but also were available on the day in hard copy.

There were reviewed, found to be accurate, and signed off by the attendees, with no outstanding actions to be resolved.

• Agenda Items

Item 1 – Report on Activities since mid-December 2022 (as previous activities in 2022 were covered in the last AGM in Newcastle on the 15st of December 2022)

Mehrban Sadiq (Chair) and Richard Kotter (General Secretary) delivered a verbal update report and narrative [please see bullet points below], with taking & responding to questions also.

of January 2023) which went to Syria, Afghanistan and Palestine (Gaza) - on 30 January , Kasguma Health and Welfare Trust - through IETUK received - 200 family Aqua boxes for delivery to Afghani refugees in Pakistan

In March , pro-bono advice rendered by IETUK trustee to Rescue 1122 Emergency Service Academy regarding development training course on high rise residential and commercial building, especially with regard to community watch - civic responsibility for building occupants - standardized training module and content

• 22nd/23rd November : Asian Fire Service Association (AFSA) Winter conference and Awards ceremony; IETUK (Mehrban) receives national prize for impact and IETUK delegation is present on the evening for networking and collectively collects the award; this is captured during & afterwards by Asian / Pakistani digital media channels.

1st December : Mehrban and Richard represent IETUK at the UK Fire and Emergency Services Excellence Awards, where IETUK is a – twice over! - Finalist (aka shortlisted) in very select and illustrious company. Effective networking right across the UK during the afternoon. Earlier in the day, impromptu networking with a Mental Health U & Asan charity, and - afterwards also with Hugh Sandeman (https://www.linkedin.com/in/hugh sandeman-39924ab9/?originalSubdomain=uk) through Richard – both in London.

Item 2 – Partnership Updates for 2023/24

We are still actively carrying out a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Kasguma Health and Welfare Trust [a UK registered charity out of Oldham, in the North West of England], negotiated and signed in 2022.

This negotiated (Mehrban Sadiq and Richard Kotter, in Oldham earlier on in 2022) relationship (with no costs to IETUK, and full due diligence and public sector partners [e.g. Rescue 1122] has worked well so far and has given us also more (media and visibility) exposure, as well as in-kind professional warehousing capacity and professional international logistics transport to across Pakistan. This has also been critical in 2023 again for IETUK - at no cost to itself – to ship major consignments (in terms of value and impact of in-kind technical / WASH and emergency shelter) donations) IETUK was offered and has received from AquaBox charity in Wirksworth, Derbyshire to several regions, locations, communities and families across Pakistan, Turkey / northern Syria in 2023.

We are building and developing, agreed in principle in the latter part of 2022, a mutually beneficial (training, fundraising, sharing expertise) relationship with the North East Centre for Autism / Autism Society in the North East: through Mehrban Sadiq a range of communities on Tyneside had free support / training available from them.

IETUK is not looking to take on staff or paid-for office premises in 2024 – we are resolved (for the time being at least) to keep out overheads to a bare minimum.

We retain our strong link with the Emergency Services Academy in Lahore, Punjab, as our most significant regional hub in that region, with in-kind and logistical support from them.

We are in touch constantly with Rescue 1122 in Pakistan

We are in contact now also with Search and Rescue UK (> earthquake in Turkey)

We are now developing a strong link with Scottish Search and Rescue Dog Team – visit to them in 2024.

Continued networking with Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service – and particularly heir Wild Fire training & response team.

Future developments - Indonesian, Bangladeshi and Ski Lanka Disaster Management authorities - received requests to work with them, and we have in-country contacts ourselves

Item 3 – Financial Report

Since February 2022 IETUK has a digital (only) charity banking account with Virgin Money.

TBC : A summary was tabled. The summary was discussed, and found to be sufficiently robust and informative. IETUK has no debts, no outstanding obligations, has extremely low operational costs (and no staff, offices, warehouses).

A fuller annual report of activities, focussing on the major in-kind donations from various national UK channels (largely the UK emergency

services (including through UK Fire Aid) plus majorly the AquaBox charity based in Wirksworth, Derbyshire (through UK Aid) will be prepared – the estimated volume that IETUK handled in 2023 is about £ 0.5 million TBC , not just to Pakistan but a range of countries including Morrocco and Libya (through NOT financially going to the IETUK accounts as all in-kind and not as financials and n financial transactions connected with it).

Item 4 – Trustee updating (retiring, continuing, and proposed to be appointed)

Proposed: Dr Iqbal Sayed, Nasir Jamil, Daryl Oprey, Mohammed Ali and Iris Weber to be retained as IETUK Trustees going forward, as were Mehrban Sadiq (continuing by popular request as Chair also] and Richard Kotter (continuing as General Secretary).

Item 5 – Fundraising and Sponsorship

Supermarkets - such as e.g. Tesco - locally may be willing to host bucket collections for IETUK causes if well communicated and targeted as part of the CSR / ESG efforts.

Item 7 – Charity & Team Communications

new website development

We as IETUK communicated our work on an ongoing basis on social media (Twitter and Facebook, plus LinkedIn at times), and do present per invitation both formally and informally on our objectives, ways of working, activities and partnerships with

Internationally, we also continued our key information and publicity sharing with Rescue 1122 in Pakistan - and were followed / retweeted from there / covered in their newsletters.

Nationally in the UK, we were covered / featured – and present in networking and stalls – at several Asian Fire Service Association meetings across the UK and – for the first time – shortlisted also a Finalists [x2] at the UK (and international) Fire & Emergency Excellence Awards in December 2023], with IETUK supporters also out in – for instance – India to do First Aid & Emergency Response training in 2023.

IETUK will develop a standard “Thank You” letter for use of communicating with donors, supporters and supporters [this can then be customised also, as needed case-by-case] in the first half of 2024.

Item 8 - Charity Developments:

speak, with a tweak to the IETUK logo also [removal of country flags]. Hopefully, some parts of this – within reason [cost / budget] – will be more interactive presentation of material.

Item 8 - Any Other Business: