## **Cutthorpe Village Charity Registration Number 1183341** ## **Trustees Report for AGM 2023** ## **Introduction from the Chair** Welcome to our 4th annual general meeting. When we embarked on setting up the Charity five years ago, no-one knew how things would develop but we all had a passion for village life and wanted to see even more connections within our small community. I think this is definitely happening and there is more to come. Having the charity in place has enabled us to attract small and larger grants for our community which is a wonderful indictment for those who worked to so hard to set up a charitable organisation to enable this to happen. At least two of the activities over the past year would have been much more difficult to establish. We held our first two AGMs by zoom and gathered together in the village hall for the next meeting, a wonderful opportunity to meet up! We will be meeting in the hall again this year and hosting a consultation meeting for anyone in the village to attend after the AGM, complete with cake. I do hope you are able to come along and stay for this. The creativity and (fun packed) hard work that has gone on over the past year is truly impressive. It has brought a number of the ideas from villagers into reality. Our membership is now a good stable base for the Charity but we will always make room and welcome new members. The more people who become members, the more voices are heard, the greater our ability to make Cutthorpe into a stronger community. Please do consider joining us. We are sending out a short but meaningful questionnaire to the members this year to encourage those with a quieter voice to be heard. I will finish with a heartfelt thanks to everyone involved in all of the activities and events over the past year from litter pickups to container restoration, the efforts have been great. I look forward to another year of success as we come together to think about what we would like to see happen in our lovely community over the coming year. _Arlene Honeyman_ ## **Choir Report** Following the Covid emergency the choir restarted in September 2022. We have had 21 meetings during the year of September 2022 to May 2023. Covid has damaged almost all choirs, and we found we had fewer members than we had had before. However we still have a reasonable balance of voices. Our main problem has been the lack of a venue at which to perform. The Institute has some limitations, and we have had no Festival or reliable use of the Pub, which has tended to use Karaoke for entertainment rather than any other form in that year. Singing around the village at Christmas went well, as have a couple of informal events in the hall. For the next season I am looking to use more suitable venues. Discussions with the choir are still ongoing. We have been helped by Philip Hanwell who as a very competent musician has been playing for us and arranging some music. We could do with more members to sing, but I hope that will come if we are able to perform some concerts, as a concert is the best recruiting medium. _John Thurstan_ ## **Membership secretary report** The Membership has stabilised in the last year; we now have 75 members, of which 15 are associate members. This is representative of our village population, and is underlining continuing local support for the charity and its aims. _John Thurstan_ ## **Village Play Park** It was great to see the new play park open in April of this year following around 18 months of planning and preparation by the Parish Council, greatly supported by Cutthorpe Matters. We were integral to the submission of successful grant applications to fund the park through helping to design the park through the eyes of local children and by providing statements of support from the community regarding the need for a new park. In addition, our local fund raising in being able to provide the necessary 10% (£4500) of the total cost was gratefully received by the Parish Council, without this the project undoubtedly would not have not gone ahead. Thanks again to all involved in supporting this initiative which will be enjoyed by our local children and visitors to the village for many years to come. _Ken Lawrie_ ## **Cutthorpe Calendar** The Cutthorpe Calendar was produced again this year and was generally well received with complements form a number of people on the quality of the pictures. It also generated around £300 towards general funds of the charity. This is absolutely down to those of you who make the time and effort to capture the views and then send them in for consideration. It makes it very easy to put the calendar together as there is always a good selection of pictures to choose from but also makes it quite difficult in that not all the contributions can be included. Please do continue to send your contributions and not be put off if they are not included. Ideally they should be landscape but portrait can be used but may lose something as they need to be cropped to landscape. We do try and get as many different contributors as possible into each calendar. As I said last year bribery to get your picture in is still an option (with the benefit going to the charity) if you want to increase your chance of success. We would also like to encourage as many pre-orders as possible. It significantly reduces the risk of ending up with unsold calendars which eat into any surplus we make. The selection for the 2024 calendar has been made and should be back from the printer towards the end of October. Future contributions and preorders should be sent to calendarcutthorpe@hotmail.com _Tom Johnstone_ ## **Environment** The wildflower patch has provided interest and colour for the local community and passersby throughout the summer months. The patch was tidied and re-seeded in April; however there seems to be an abundance of dog daisies that take over the area at present. As well as providing colour, the area provides a natural habitat for the local insect community. Both planters within the village and the roundabout at 3 Lanes End have been maintained throughout year again providing colourful displays at the entrances to the village. _Wendy Lawrie_ ## **Tea & Toast** We are coming up to the first anniversary of this village favourite breakfast destination. The team, front of house and those in the backroom engine work tirelessly each month to create a welcoming and safe atmosphere for all to come along and feel at home. Our team not only serve the guests each month but they are keenly looking out for anyone on their own or in need of a bit of company and will happily join them until others come along, which they always do. Younger families are now joining the breakfast fun and we are thrilled. We usually have between 20 and 30 people join us and had a fabulous turnout for the King’s coronation, over 70 people came with passing walkers stopping to have a butty. It was a special morning with a brilliant atmosphere. This is one of the activities that was made more possible by the grant made by North East Derbyshire District Council. People have been very kind with the donations they make each month; we now have enough in the budget to put towards another year of monthly breakfast gatherings. Do come and join us, it’s the first Saturday of every month from 9.30am until 11.30am. If you have a specific breakfast request then let us know and we will do our best to meet it. If you want to join the team, you will be most welcomed, our youngest volunteer is 10 and our oldest refuses to be categorised as such but suffice to say, everyone has something to offer. _Arlene Honeyman & Claire Thurston_ ## **Treasurer’s report** Cutthorpe Matters Financial Report Activity in the year has been consistent with previous years with general funds being used to fund the newsletter, web site, seeds for wildflowers, upkeep of the planters, some signs to remind dog walkers to clean up after their dogs and insurance for the charity. This has been funded by sales of the calendar, surplus on the very successful Burns Night run earlier in the year and some general donations. Following all the activity from last year to raise funds towards a new play area sufficient was raised to contribute close to £4,000 towards its cost which was enough to convince other contributors to go ahead. The park has subsequently been built and looks to be a popular addition to the village facilities. The other big success in the year has been the start and continued success of Tea and Toast which takes place on the first Saturday of each month. Having been initially funded by a grant it continues to operate at a small surplus and seems to be getting more and more popular. There has been no activity in funds held for the festival but hopefully this will kick off again next year. Despite the recent upsurge in COVID cases we have also seen some activity for some of the other activities in the village with the choir and the craft club restarting. ## _Tom Johnstone_