**Friends of Street Library Annual Report for the year ending 5[th] April 2022** Another strange year for us all with the pandemic causing so much uncertainty. However, it looks as if normality is returning, even if it is not quite the normality we remember. We began the year with the library only open for ‘click and collect’ service and have worked our way through various restrictions and conditions and now, as we end the year, the library is fully open with no restrictions, although there is still a very high degree of caution around. All the uncertainty and restrictions have limited our activity through the year. The members have managed to continue to meet monthly via Zoom, which, although far from ideal, has allowed us to keep up to date and share our thoughts and ideas. The trustees have finally been able to hold a face-to-face meeting after several virtual meetings, ensuring that FoStL keep working toward the goals we set when we became a CIO. The regular meetings with the library staff have been reinstated, allowing us to continue to provide the resources needed by them. We were very pleased that a high number of people maintained their membership and their subscriptions have helped to boost our funds in a year in which we were unable to hold many fundraising events. The Summer Reading Challenge was somewhat different from what we have been able to do in previous years. Because of the restrictions in place at the time, we were unable to visit any of the local schools and numbers were severely limited within the library, so most of the ‘Wild World Heroes’ challenge was run online. Because the numbers participating were collected centrally by Somerset Libraries, we do not have the individual figures for Street this year. We were only able to organise one craft session in the library during the summer holidays and Covid fears seemed to affect the numbers attending. However, thanks to Hindhayes School Holiday Club there were enough children to make it a success. We hope that in 2022 we will be able to provide more activities in the library and help to raise the profile of the Summer Reading Challenge once more. In September we were able to participate in the Merriman Park Fun Day. This was a fun event on a beautiful day, and we were able to provide storytelling and competitions, as well as quizzes and a second-hand book stall. All of which helped to provide some much-needed funds and to maintain our profile in the area. We are very grateful to Kate Midgely who has designed a flyer to highlight the presence of the library in Street, this has been printed and distributed throughout the area. Other events planned for December and January were sadly cancelled because of rising infection rates and fears of another lockdown. Fortunately, we have been able to rearrange the author talk to follow our AGM and are looking forward to several future events. During this year we were able to provide some books for the Summer Reading Challenge, as well as donating several prizes for the writing competitions and treasure hunts organised by the library staff. We made a donation towards providing new blinds in the library. We also agreed to provide some sponsorship for the first Strode Literary festival which took place over the first weekend in April. A number of workshops for both adults and children were held in the library over the weekend, which has helped to raise the profile of both the library and the Friends. A stall was set up at Strode Theatre during the festival, manned by volunteers from FoStL, which we hope will yield some new members, and make more people aware that the library is fully open for business again. Throughout the year Liza Markham has continued to provide her very popular quizzes, including one specifically for the Literature Festival. These helped to raise further funds for the library. We are very pleased that as the library opens up again most of the usual activities are returning to normal business, in particular the book groups and poetry group. The Digital Den, offering 3D pen activities and video games, has started again as well as Lego Club. We have also been fortunate enough to have students from Strode College on work experience who have been offering IT help to customers. Sadly, in September, our chair, Claire Axton, announced her intention to step down in December after several years of invaluable work ensuring that a library continued to exist in Street. As part of her role was to train and coordinate the volunteers for the library, she took the decision to separate this role from the chair and invited Marilyn Fletcher to take over. Marilyn has made a great success of this task, organising the weekly rota of volunteers for the library, as well as ensuring that any new volunteers receive all the training they need to join the team. Volunteer numbers have been depleted during the pandemic and Marilyn has been very active in further recruitment to ensure we are able to keep the library open. Sarah Ivory agreed to step into the role of chair for the remaining part of the year, and with immeasurable help from Peter Fry and Angela Southern, FoStL has continued its work. In conclusion we look forward to the coming year as an opportunity to resume ‘normal service’. We hope to have a new chair confirmed at our AGM, some new trustees appointed and lots more activities planned, which will enable us to raise the funds to support the library and ensure it continues to provide such an essential service for Street. Friends of Street Library final accounts for the year 2021- 2022 Income and expendlture for the year 61412021- 51412022 Income Expendlture Cash in bank (06/04r2021) Reserve al¢ Current al¢ Cash in hand 2022-2023 subs paid early Subs since 06104Q020 Donations Income from stalls Quiz sales Book sales Refreshment sales Refunds Gift Aid Printing costs Hall I facility hire Stationery. postage elc Readinghvriting challenges Resources for library Website costs Quiz pittes Insuran¢e 1310S12021 Sundries Refreshment costs 81.00 15.00 14.04 371.90 634.86 0.00 20.00 150.83 83.68 0.00 6332.48 122.99 80.00 805.00 388.00 58.00 124.00 000 24.93 211.53 Tot81 Income Total Expenditure lus Cash in b8nk (0￿022) 1691.46 1371.31 320. 15 ReseNe alc Current alc Cash in hand 0.00 6688.61 87.01 Total 8146.93 Total 8146.93 Signed: Peler Fry (Treasurer) Date 21 Inde endent examiner's re ort I have examined th¢ above accounls of ihe Friends of Street Library for the period 0610412021 until 0510412022 (Ihe end of iheir nomial accounling period) and compared them with Ihe books and records of the charity. J confirm they are in accordance Iherewith and with the explanations given. Julie Hillman Dale