## Friends of Pontardawe Arts Centre Trustees Report 2020 ## **Governance** 1.The Friends are a registered Charity - Reg No 1181401, 1/3 trustees are to be [re]elected at AGM. If required Trustees can be co-opted during the year. ## **Purpose** 2.To advance education of the public in the arts in all its forms by providing and assisting in the provision of facilities at Pontardawe Arts Centre as a cultural, educational, and recreational Centre through the activities of the Friends, in particular but not exclusively by the provision of volunteering opportunities, practical and financial support. The activities referred to have been undertaken with the public benefit of the local and wider community in mind. ## **Achievements** 3. We are in our third year and despite the impact of the corona virus pandemic on all our lives our charity has remained active and sustainable. Despite the closure of the arts centre in March 2020 we have continued to have monthly meetings by embracing zoom, fresh air chats and, as always, lots of time spent battling the challenges of the internet and technology at home. 4. Maintaining contact with members and supporter has been difficult during lockdown and remains a priority for the group. Regular newsletters have been distributed during the year. Membership has remained constant and we had 98 paid up members on 31st December 2020.The impact of covid and the closure of the arts centre has meant that opportunities for recruitment in a social setting during fund raising events and other art centre events has disappeared. Membership remains at £10 and through diligent hard work, by a small number of committee members, we have successfully transferred a great number of our cash paying members to standing order membership this year. This is a positive move in sustaining membership and future proofing our charity. The total income through membership was **£968.** 5. **Fundraising Events** These events have always proved very popular and are an ongoing means of increasing foot fall in the arts centre and a base for recruiting membership to our cause. The year started well with two events kicking off the social calendar. On 24January a Folk Night was held and on 21 February the Stereo Hearts Fund Raising Event took place. The total income for these events was **£988.19** made up of ticket sales, raffle income, and donations. £20 of that income was from the Blues and Soul Benefit night held on 15th November 2019. All future social events were quickly cancelled when the arts centre closed in March. As well as the money raised for the Friends, these social events have also had a positive impact on the Arts Centre by increasing the bar takings on events nights 6. Preliminary work is under way to provide a cinema, enhanced circulation and bar areas – completion of this radical development is scheduled for mid-2022. The Friends group has established a strong working relationship with the Arts Centre team and the newly appointed Director, Meirion Gittins. Consideration will be given to assisting the Centre with refurbishments to existing areas when the new development is completed. The Friends committee were part of the consultation process when plans were being considered. 6. **Expenditure** — Very little expenditure has taken place this year. Other schemes we are supporting – including through funding – such as a developing volunteer scheme – have also been suspended. Two payments have been made. The first one was a donation to the arts centre of **£250** for equipment. This was to pay for a drum kit, which has become the property of the arts centre and is available for user groups when classes take place. The second payment was for the sum of **£2000.** This was a donation from Tesco in 2019 and we used it to part fund the ‘Mess up the Mess’ project, which was based at the arts centre in 2019 and 2020. This arts based project, is run by an organisation aimed at engaging and encouraging younger people to use the arts centre and its facilities. 7 **. £6000** of the money held in the bank will be paid to Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council to part fund a Volunteer Coordinator’s salary and scheme we are supporting. This will be paid once the arts centre reopens and the role is filled. ## **Trustees and Committee work** 8. During the year we have had– as is natural – some turnover. David Davies stepped down as Secretary, replaced by Heather Pudner who we co-opted as a Trustee, though David remains a Trustee. He was the drive behind many of our music nights and these skills will be exploited by ourselves again! Anthony Harland stepped down as a Trustee – thanks to him for his work since we started, including for our first Treasurer/Membership Secretary – we will take him up on his offer to continue to help us ‘out-of-committee’. We also thank Sian Harris and Michelle Davidson for their contributions and who are also standing down as Trustees. 9. The Committee continued to meet regularly during the pandemic via Zoom and maintained contact with the retained staff in the Centre. We have welcomed the support/ and input of Ian Hancock and John Puzey. Carwyn Jones has maintained our social media presence. ## **Funds and Reserves** 10. As Trustees we ensure funds are used to support the purposes of the Friends and (as part of that) the Business Plan of the Arts Centre. We took the decision last year to ‘ringfence’ the bulk of the money we have raised to support the Cinema project and ancillary projects. This remains our policy and we will work with the Arts Centre to use it to best effect to support the Art Centre, for example in encouraging greater community use and access to the Arts Centre. **Friends of Pontardawe Art centre Statement of Financial Activity January 1st 2020 — December 31st 2020** |**01/01/2020**||**BANK OPENING BALANCE**|**BANK OPENING BALANCE**|**28630.60**| |---|---|---|---|---| |**INCOME**||||| |**Membership Fees**|Income ongoing throughout the year|||968.00| |**AWEL Wind Turbine**|**Co-operative**|||| ||Interest from shares held|||| ||24/02/2020||1000.00|| ||29/10/2020||833.33|| |||||1833.33| |**Fundraising**||||| |24/04/2020|Blues and Soul Benefit Night (outstanding 2019)||20.00|| |24/01/2020|Folk Night||340.00|| |21/02/2020|Stereo Hearts Fund Raising|Event|195.00|| ||Ticket Sales, raffle income, donations for all events 433.19|||| |||||988.19| |||**TOTAL INCOME**||**3789.52**| |**EXPENDITURE**||||| |09/01/2020|Match Funding for Mess Up The Mess Project(Tesco Grant)|||2000.00| |28/02/2020|Payment for equipment for Pontardawe Art centre (Drum Kit)|||250.00| |||**TOTAL EXPENDITURE**||**2500.00**| |**ASSETS**||||| |**31/12/2020**||**BANK CLOSING BALANCE**||**30170.12**| |**OTHER ASSETS**|Shares in AWEL wind Farm Co-Operative|||1.00| ||(Nominal Value as shares cannot be sold)|||| |**CREDITORS**|NPTCBC for part funding of PAC Volunteer|||| ||Coordinator’s salary (to be|paid once the role||| ||is filled)|||6000.00| |**TOTAL OF ASSETS**||||**24171.12**| |**I verify that to the best of my knowledge these are an accurate set of accounts for year ending 31st December**||||**2020. Kathleen**| |**Davies, Treasurer Friends of Pontardawe Arts Centre.**||||| |**Date:…………………………………….**
||**Signed:……………………………………………..**||| ## **Statement of Financial Activity Year Ending 31st December 2020** We are now in our third year and despite the impact of the corona virus pandemic on all our lives our charity has remained active and sustainable. Despite the closure of the arts centre in March we have continued to have monthly meetings by embracing zoom, fresh air chats and, as always, lots of time spent battling the challenges of the internet and technology at home. As a registered charity with the Charities Commission we are required to submit a Statement of Financial Activity: our accounts show what we have received and what we have paid out followed by a list of our assets. The accounts presented in this report will be submitted to the Charities Commission in our annual return next month. — **Membership** Membership has remained constant this year and we had 98 paid up members on 31st December 2020.The impact of covid and the closure of the arts centre has meant that opportunities for recruitment in a social setting during fund raising events and other art centre events has disappeared. Membership remains at £10 and through diligent hard work, by a small number of committee members, we have successfully transferred a great number of our cash paying members to standing order membership this year. This is a positive move in sustaining membership and future proofing our charity. The total income through membership was **£968.** **Interest Income** — As we are a community group, we hold nominal shares in AWEL Wind Farm Co-operative. We are paid 5% of the nominal value of £20,000 and we have received a total of £1833.33 in share interest over the year in two payments: £1000 on 24/02/2020 and **£833.33** on 29/10/2020. — **Fundraising Events** These events have always proved very popular and are an ongoing means of increasing foot fall in the arts centre and a base for recruiting membership to our cause. The year started well with two events kicking off the social calendar. On 24th of January a Folk Night was held and on 21st of February the Stereo Hearts Fund Raising Event took place. The total income for these events was **£988.19** made up of ticket sales, raffle income, and donations. £20 of that income was from the Blues and Soul Benefit night held on 15th November 2019. All future social events were quickly cancelled when the arts centre closed in March. As well as the money raised for the Friends, these social events have also had a positive impact on the Arts Centre by increasing the bar takings on events nights. — **Expenditure** Very little expenditure has taken place this year. Only two payments have been paid out of our account. The first one was a donation to the arts centre of **£250** for equipment. This was to pay for a drum kit, which has become the property of the arts centre but available for user groups when classes take place. The second payment was for the sum of **£2000.** This was a sum of money donated by Tesco in 2019 and was used to part fund the ‘Mess up the Mess’ project, which was based at the arts centre in 2019 and 2020. This arts based project, is run by an organisation aimed at engaging and encouraging younger people to use the arts centre and it’s facilities. **Assets** — Cash held in the bank on 31/12/2020 was **£30170.12.** Our **other assets** are shares in AWEL wind Farm Co-Operative with a nominal value of **£1** , as shares cannot be sold. **Creditors** — **£6000** of the money held in the bank will be paid to NPTCBC to part fund a Volunteer Coordinator’s salary, this will be paid once the arts centre reopens and the role is filled. **Total Assets** held on 31/12/2020 are **£24171.12** **Kathleen Davies FPAC Treasurer 27/04/2020**