LEO Computers Society
Registered Charity Number 1182253
Annual Report: 2020 - 2021
I hope that members and their families have managed to cope over this last year. 2021 marks the 70[th] year since LEO first started work and we have been making efforts to ensure that its heritage is brought to a wider audience. Circumstances around the pandemic have prevented us from holding face to face celebrations, but as I report, the Society has had an active and busy year. We were delighted to receive a letter from the Queen in February marking the 70[th] anniversary of her visit in 1951 as Princess Elizabeth to see LEO at Cadby Hall while it was still being put through its paces.
The Society’s finances remain in good shape with enough funding to cover our activities. We do not charge a membership subscription but some members do make a voluntary donation each year.
Our membership numbers remain strong. We have nearly 700 members living in 27 countries. Sadly we know that we have lost some of our members since the last AGM, but we have been delighted to welcome 36 new members – many of whom have not worked directly with LEO, but are interested in its history or in computer education. We would like to increase our membership – particularly among this group.
As you know, I hope, we were awarded a further grant by the National Lottery Heritage Fund in conjunction with our partners, the Centre for Computing History in Cambridge. The pandemic has delayed some work on the project but nevertheless we have made progress. The three major aspects currently underway are building the archive, developing a virtual reality display of LEO l and producing a LEO film for educational and publicity purposes. The Society is very grateful to the lottery funders who have made all this valuable work possible.
The project recruited an excellent archivist, Jude Brimmer, who worked hard and enthusiastically with the help of CCH volunteers, to catalogue and digitise much of the mass of LEO documents which form the archive. I recommend that you look at the CCH website - http://www.computinghistory.org.uk then look for the NLHF project ‘ Swiss Rolls, Tea and the Electronic Office’. There is a blog which will help to see what progress has been made. Sadly Jude has had to resign from her post because of a health problem, but we have recently appointed her successor who will start work later this month.
I would like to thank very warmly those many members who have contributed to our collection of LEO artefacts and documents which are then being donated on long loan to the growing archive at CCH. We are still looking for more and are also continuing to gather written reminiscences and record more oral history interviews, so please let us know if you are willing to be interviewed or willing to carry out an interview.
The work on the VR project has been progressing, led by Chris Monk. Research and appeals led to the gathering of over 100 photos of LEO l and its rooms: this has helped enormously to build the VR display. Some early VR work has been demonstrated and the full package should be available early in 2022.
The project commissioned, the film company Boffin Media, following a competitive tender, to make a 15 minute film about LEO. The film production is going well and the film itself should be available this Autumn.
We have yet again decided, because of ongoing concerns about Covid, to postpone the Reunion until April 10[th] 2022, still at the Victory Services Club, Marble Arch. We should have displays and should be able to show the film and the VR display of LEO l.
During the year, we have, like many other institutions, begun to explore the use of Zoom to replace physical meetings and this has enabled us to provide members with a monthly forum where they can see and talk to
members from all over the world. These have been well attended and we have had members logging in from Australia, Canada, USA, Trinidad, South Africa, Poland, Ireland and Italy. Sometimes we have started with a talk about LEO or Lyons and one forum, scheduled to coincide with International Women’s Day, consisted of a very interesting discussion of women’s role in the LEO story. The Society has made a concerted effort this year to ensure that this aspect is better recognised than it has been in the past. We plan to continue these regular zoom forums even after some sort of “normality” has returned.
We continue to work hard to publicise the LEO story. Over the year around 13 talks and presentations have been delivered mostly via zoom by a variety of speakers, notably two of our trustees, John Daines and Neville Lyons to both general and specialist audiences. These talks have reached nearly 1,000 people and have proved an excellent way of telling the LEO story. We have seen the LEO story told this year as part of the BBC TV programme ‘Antiques Road Trip’ and look forward to further publicity in an episode of ‘Inside the Factory.’(Oddly this will be included in an episode visiting the Soreen malt loaf factory.)
During the year, we have had articles about LEO’s history published in four periodicals – and these have yielded good feedback from readers. We are keen to get more articles about LEO published, so please tell us if you know of any journals or magazines that might like to receive an article from us.
Elisabetta Mori, our doctoral scholar at Middlesex University, has now completed and submitted her thesis on LEO and is awaiting its formal assessment. Elisabetta has already contributed much to the Society – giving several papers on LEO and early computing to academic conferences around the world and conducting some oral history interviews for us.
I must just mention that the IEEE wishes to mount a plaque to celebrate LEO near where Cadby Hall was. After much research into where this might go we have provisional agreement to install it at The Queens Head pub in Brook Green, which we have come to regard as the Lyons/LEO pub. The process for getting and installing the plaque is likely to be long so this may not happen for a couple of years.
Our committee has worked hard and, despite the pandemic, we have achieved most of the Society’s aims for the year. I wish to thank all the committee for their efforts on our behalf but I would like particularly to mention Hilary Caminer for sterling work in minuting our meetings and for editing our twice yearly newsletter, LEO Matters. She has also managed many of the donations of memorabilia from members to the society. John Daines has successfully taken over the technical advice role of the Society from our sadly passed-on colleague, Tony Morgan. John has also given some excellent talks about LEO to our members and a number of organisations in the UK and beyond and enthralled hundreds of people. Neville Lyons has continued to give his excellent talks about Lyons to many organisations and again to a worldwide audience with much acclaim. Vince Bodsworth has been busy on our behalf, and this year launched our splendid new website which is easier to navigate and provides members with up to date news. Statistics for the year up until August show that The website was accessed nearly 11,000 times from 10 different countries, the top 5 being UK, Australia, USA, China (we have not had any obvious interest from China) and Canada. Vince also manages the membership aspects of the Society and organises our Zoom Forum sessions. Mike Storey has been keeping his finger on the pulse of our Reunion and has been advising on numbers and managing the postponements and rearrangements that we have to make for the Reunion . John Paschoud looks after the Charity aspects of the Society and manages our Facebook pages. Frank Land has been hard at work as our Historian, giving advice from his longstanding knowledge of LEO and has been updating and managing the Society’s reference guide, LEOpedia. We are grateful that he has continued this work despite the sad death of his wife Ailsa earlier this year. Bernard Behr continues to manage the finance providing detailed accounts for the Society’s committee meetings . Philip Cleary joined the committee as a Trustee in December last year and has been our advisor on social media matters, keeping our social media presence updated and expanding our use of it. Bob Stevenson, who developed and managed our website for over 20 years until he retired from that role last year, is also standing down as a trustee. Bob has been a committee member and then trustee for over 30 years. So thank you Bob, I shall miss the help and support you provided during that time.
In saying thankyous for their Society work I must make special mention of Lisa McGerty of CCH , manager of our joint NLHF project, who we co-opted on to our committee. Despite all the difficulties that Covid has put in its way, Lisa has worked tirelessly to keep the project on track, managing the staff, the accounts, the volunteer hours and
preparing all the documentation needed to commission outsourced work. She has also been our representative in discussions with the National Lottery Heritage team.
It will be great when we can operate in some form of normality, however I think the Society can be proud of what we have achieved despite the pandemic. We have particularly enjoyed seeing and hearing from our members worldwide on zoom, and look forward to continuing that kind of contact in the future.
Peter Byford
Chairman
September 2021
Charity Registration No. 1182253
LEO COMPUTERS SOCIETY
UNAUDITED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2020
LEO Computers Society Income and Expenditure For the Year 1st Jan to 31st Dec 2020
2:59 PM 17/02/21 Accrual Basis
Charity No. 1182253
Jan - Dec 20
| Ordinary Income/Expense Income Bank Interest Received LLoyds Donations & Grants Donations - Heritage Fund Donations - Amazon Europe Core Donations - Easy Fundraising Donations - Gift Aid HMRC Donations - Subscription Appeal Total Donations & Grants Income Reunion Income Sales - Merchandise LEO Tote Bag Total Sales - Merchandise Total Reunion Income Sales Book Sales & Publishing Book Sales Postage for Members a/c Total Book Sales & Publishing Total Sales Total Income Cost of Goods Sold Cost of Goods Sold Total COGS GrossIncome Expense Bank Charges PayPal Service Charges Total Bank Charges Computer & Web Expenses Domain Name Renewal Security Certificate SSL Web Build - Tuition Web Hosting Total Computer & Web Expenses Newsletter Postage Total Newsletter Office Expense Postage & Stamps Total Office Expense Oral History & Heritage Project Oral History OH Equipment - Recording M/c's OH Transcriptions & Secretarial OH Travel-Meetings/Sustinence Total Oral History Total Oral History & Heritage Project |
4.41 120.00 33.75 27.36 362.03 1,280.00 1,823.14 200.00 5.00 5.00 5.00 74.00 32.75 106.75 106.75 |
|---|---|
| 2,139.20 15.02 |
|
| 15.02 | |
| 2,124.28 1.88 1.88 0.00 59.99 714.00 86.26 860.25 71.82 71.82 11.44 11.44 79.00 50.06 157.80 286.86 286.86 |
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2:59 PM 17/02/21 Accrual Basis
Charity No. 1182253
LEO Computers Society Draft Accounts: Income and Expenditure
For the Year 1st Jan to 31st Dec 2020
| Presentations and Gifts Presentations Total Presentations and Gifts Publishing Postage Total Publishing Reunion Expenses Reunion Hall Hire Total Reunion Expenses Uncategorized Expenses Postage & Stamps - Merchandise Total Uncategorized Expenses Total Expense Net Ordinary Income Income for the Year |
Jan - Dec 20 |
|---|---|
| 22.99 22.99 5.59 5.59 0.00 0.00 1.50 1.50 |
|
| 1,262.33 | |
| 861.95 | |
| 861.95 |
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3:19 PM 17/02/21 Accrual Basis
Charity No. 1182253
LEO Computers Society Balance Sheet At 31 December 2020
31 Dec 20
| ASSETS Current Assets Other Current Assets Prepaid Expense Victory Services Club Total Prepaid Expense Stock LEO Remembered Stock - Other Total Stock Total Other Current Assets Cash at bank and in hand Lloyds Bank - Current a/c Lloyds Bank - Savings a/c Total Cash at bank and in hand Total Current Assets Current Liabilities Accounts Payable Accounts Payable Total Accounts Payable Total Current Liabilities NET CURRENT ASSETS TOTAL ASSETS LESS CURRENT LIABILI... NET ASSETS Capital and Reserves Accumulated Funds Restricted Funds Restricted Fund - LEO Plaque Restricted Funds-Preservation Heritage Project Oral History Total Restricted Funds-Preservat... Total Restricted Funds Unrestricted Funds Total Accumulated Funds Retained Income Net Income for the Year Available funds |
250.00 250.00 52.90 862.03 1 914.93 1,164.93 5,865.79 12,239.62 18,105.41 19,270.34 71.82 71.82 71.82 19,198.52 19,198.52 19,198.52 1,167.57 4,014.07 7,774.30 11,788.37 12,955.94 6,242.58 19,198.52 -861.95 2 861.95 19,198.52 |
|---|---|
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3:19 PM
At 31 December 2020
Charity No. 1182253
LEO Computers Society
17/02/21 Accrual Basis
Balance Sheet
| 1. | Mugs 376.25 |
|---|---|
| Tote Bags 485.78 | |
| ----------- | |
| Total 862.03 | |
| ======= |
| 2. | Year end Adjustment Debit Credit |
|---|---|
| Retained Income 861.95 | |
| Restricted Funds: Oral History - Donation 120.00 | |
| Restricted Funds: Oral History - Gift Aid 24.00 | |
| Restricted Funds: Oral History - Expenses 286.76 | |
| Unrestricted Funds 1004.71 | |
| ------------ ----------- | |
| 1148.71 1148.71 | |
| ======= ======= |
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