The Glass Society Charity Number 1185397 Chairman’s Annual Report 2022
Welcome to our AGM
The time period covered by this report is from 1 August 2021 through to 31 July 2022. This is the period of our financial year and is the reporting period required by the Charities Commission. In complying with the Charities Act 2006 and Charities Commission guidance this report contains a review of the main activities undertaken by the Society to further the charitable purposes for the public benefit during the year.
We are now reporting annually as The Glass Society and as such we are loosely tied to holding an AGM in February each year. In fact attendances by Zoom exceed those for in person events so having the AGM in the winter is maybe a fortunate corollary. Our banking affairs, including any savings, have been aligned to The Glass Society, although the old accounts are still live to assist with the collection of legacy payments.
Once again, our activities over the previous year have been affected by the ongoing pandemic with in person meetings opening up only slowly through the calendar year of 2022.
The Committee
Committee meetings have been held on line, by Zoom, over the course of the last year. All committee members are connected by email, so interchange of information can take place easily.
I would also like to thank Laurence Maxfield for his financial assistance as treasurer of the former Glass Circle. Laurie retired from the committee at the end of the financial year.
Sadly a number of former officers of the Society have passed away over the year and their memory lives on within our group today: Anne Towse, Alan Comyns and Peter Beebe.
Our Accounts
Maurice Wimpory, our treasurer, has this year presented consolidated accounts and his brief annual commentary is enclosed. Financial issues are discussed at every meeting when Maurice Wimpory has attended. The 2021 / 2022 accounts have been examined and approved, although it was
noted that our reserves were high in relation to comparable societies. Our continued thanks to Maurice for pulling all this together and for having the willpower in continuing to grapple with the banking fraternity.
Charitable Giving
It has been noted that our reserves are at a high level and indeed this is a feature that has arisen over the last few years and pertinently since the two societies merged. It is not the intention of the committee to grow and maintain our reserves at this level, although our efforts to find suitable avenues to ‘invest’ our money have proven difficult. Partly this is yet another feature of the pandemic. Positive news can, however be reported for the period since the end of the current financial year, in that we made larger than normal awards at the 2022 Biennale. The Biennale itself should have taken place in 2021, but was held over until September 2022 due to the pandemic. In addition, and after a long period of gestation, we have pledged an award to the National Glass Centre in Sunderland, part of the university, to be presented in early 2023. We have also made a donation to the Stourbridge Glass Museum (BGF). Other discussions continue, although the committee do not wish to change our evaluation process in the light of our excess reserves.
Events
In the continuing absence of physical meetings, the Zoom talks assumed a major part of our activity. We did, however, have a couple of small gatherings near to Winchester in the Spring of 2022, and also in Norwich; although this was originally planned for the Spring of 2020. We also held two events at the new Stourbridge Glass Museum that opened in April 2022. At the time of writing the museum is coming up to its first anniversary and we look forward to holding similar events as the museum develops further.
Among the Zoom highlights this year three are worthy of special mention for their slightly unusual themes. Miranda Lowe from the Natural History Museum in London gave an interesting talk on Blaschka models, the incredibly detailed glass reproductions of sea creatures. Again with a nautical theme, Ayoko Tani showed us her modern reproductions of ships in bottles, which featured in an exhibition at the Biennale. Simon Cottle took us through The Grand Tour describing its important contribution to collecting. In addition, there were other talks by member Mathij van der Meulen on his own collection, Thomas Moser on Galle, concluding with Nigel Benson giving a brilliantly illustrated talk on early twentieth century glass.
We also established the capability to simultaneously transmit a talk on Zoom, given by a speaker in front of a live audience. This was the case with talks by Simon Cottle and also by Thomas Moser. Our thanks to the IT guru, John Newgas for facilitating this.
Over the years most of our members have amassed considerable quantities of books on glass. Intermittently we have taken the opportunity
to advertise and sell the books within the society and this has raised our profile as well as funds.
Publications: Glass Matters
Once again, I can report that Glass Matters continues to be a pleasing fixture of our Society. It continues to amaze and please me that our members contribute such a wide variety of articles and deep learned knowledge. Consider the most recent magazine where a member took us through his collection of piano insulators. There is, apparently, another avid collector living in America, and a few extremely rare items held elsewhere in the UK, but in our midst we have the definitive expert on the subject. Contrast this to the inventory of glass to emerge from Letheringsett Hall in Norfolk during the early Georgian period. I was also pleased to see smaller notes following on from last years Show and Tell event at the AGM.
Indeed, during the pandemic, the magazine remained our only method of contact with the membership apart from the Zoom meetings. Despite the increasing costs of print and also postage we remain committed to maintaining a hard copy version which, as many members remind us, is the main point of contact they have with the Society.
Our continued thanks and praise are conveyed to Editor, Brian Clarke, for bringing the magazine together three times a year.
We have in addition taken the opportunity of completing the process of scanning all previous Glass Circle and Glass Association publications. The process was brought up to date with the scanning of more recent Glass Society Matters and Journals. Digital copies are now available with full search facility.
The Future
As I mentioned last year, and the same platitudes abound, we are all a year older. Your society cannot continue to function and provide events, talks and publications without the input of key, dedicated people. We badly need to spread the burden and at the same time reach into other new and exciting areas. Without new hands we will eventually expire.
As ever we must make a continued plea for further involvement from our membership. Too much of our activity is vested in too few people. Technology has really helped to ease the burden, many hands, however, make for lighter work.
Please get in touch if you would like to help in any capacity.
David Willars
Chairman, The Glass Society
Glass Society Treasurer’s Report AGM 24 February 2023
The membership is down a little compared with last year. I am thankful that many of our members pay their subscriptions by standing order. If possible, please in future set up a standing order to minimize the administration & workload.
Our administration costs continue to be much lower than previously because all our administration activities are & will continue to be conducted via Zoom.
Our charitable aims and activities have been outlined in The Chaiman’s Report.
M Wimpory 30[th] January 2023
----- Start of picture text -----
GLASS SOCIETY ACCOUNTS Year to 31 July 2022 Year to 31 July 2021
INCOME
Members' subscriptions & Donations 13257.85 14414.88
Gift Aid Tax reclaim 0.00 0.00
Investment Income 474.27 519.40
Sales of publications. 400.18 181.95
0.00 0.00
Meetings National & Regional 1130.00 29.38
Bank charge refund 0.00 14.00
Total incoming resources in the year 15262.30 15262.30 15159.61 15159.61
EXPENSES
Administration expenses
Committee expenses Post & Office Supplies (690.38) (222.98)
Website, Domain & Insurance (482.80) (381.88)
Currency Loss (111.20)
(1,173.18) (1,173.18) (716.06) (716.06)
Expenditure applied to charity functions:
Glass Matters 12-14 Publishing & Distribution (6,945.00) (6,366.42)
GS Journal 0.00 0.00
Literature Scanning 0.00 0.00
Meetings National & Regional (1,169.74) 0.00
0.00 0.00
Grants Sponsor Donation Education (700.00) (5,838.88)
(8,814.74) (8,814.74) (12,205.30) (12,205.30)
Surplus /(Deficit) of Income over expenses 5274.38 5274.38 2238.25 2238.25
Balances brought forward 1 August 2021 99393.30 97155.05
104667.68 99393.30
BALANCES @ 31 July 2022
Bank Accounts 66519.73 55146.79
NSI Investments 0.00 5816.09
Savings Accounts 40515.95 40130.80
Subs & Donations in advance (2,369.00) (1,701.38)
Cash Float 0.00 0.00
Meetings in advance 0.00 0.00
Other 1.00 1.00
0.00 0.00
TOTAL ASSETS 104667.68 104667.68 99393.30 99393.30
Version AGM A4 print
----- End of picture text -----