Trustees’ Annual Report for 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2024
General
We continued our partnership with BFER (The Brecks Fen Edge & Rivers Landscape Partnership Scheme) which is funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, and who supported our 2024 events. We have been able to purchase new equipment, and have plans for further purchases in 2025, both to maintain existing equipment and to provide new and/or better kit. BFER donated an AED (defibrillator)
BFER helped to pay for refreshments for the Thetford River Run, and Run Breckland offered free places to volunteers who had marshalled for Run Breckland and/or BFER. Our largest expenditure costs in 2024 were medals, running numbers, two AEDs, and chip timing.
Sharon Nash was re-appointed at the 2024 AGM as a trustee for a further three year term, and to continue as administrator of the trust. Sue Colledge and Sharon Nash to remain as signatories to the trust’s bank account. It was agreed that the three trustee structure should remain the same, with Sue Colledge standing for re-appointment in 2025, and Graham Wade in 2026.
We organised twelve events in 2024:- repeats of the Thetford 5K Bunny Run; the Euston Estate Marathon/Half Marathon; the Mildenhall and Thetford 2K/5K River Runs; The Sapiston 5K/10K; the Breckland Forest 10K Run; and the Thetford 5K Santa Run, plus three, free, social group runs as part of Suffolk County Council’s Brecks Festival 2024 (Jackdaw 5K, 7.5K and 10K trail runs), and two evening free events (the 5K Spooky Run and the 5K Midwinter Run). These were very well received. They’d been introduced to encourage runners to take part in events that would be run at the speed of the slowest participants, being designed to help build confidence for those who weren’t sure about attempting longer distance events, or running in the dark with lights. We are hoping to introduce more of these in 2025 as they brought in a variety of participants who we’d not met before, and encouraged new friendships. Over the course of the year 90 volunteers were involved.
We continue to collect used trainers to send on to JogOn, who repair and reuse, or recycle them which prevents them from going into landfill. This has been well supported by our runners.
Income
Participant numbers were steady in 2024, and we kept all the prices at the same level as previous years which meant that income had to be carefully monitored. With BFER’s support every event broke even, with a few bringing in a small profit which will be added to the equipment purchase pot. We have had fewer takers, however, for “virtual” runs.
Expenditure
Many costs continue to increase, including medals, so we cast our net wider to find suitable alternatives (e.g. acrylic medals for the 2K/5K events). The cost of chip timing soared, although the company that is working with us at present are continuing to do their best to keep the price affordable for a small community organisation like Run Breckland. We continue to hire a van for the bigger events, as the amount of equipment we now have (including all the new signage purchased in 2023) is too much for volunteers to load into cars. Our local van hire company continue to offer a discounted price for the van hire.
Because there is no infrastructure to the free social runs, we wanted to make sure that the Run Leaders were in a position to assist participants if required. BFER provided monies to pay for training for three UKA Coach Licences (for Graham Wade, Aga Niedzwiecka, and Rachel Marsh).
This Report was submitted to, and agreed at, the trust’s 2025 AGM.
Run Breckland, 1 Peter Drive, Thetford, IP24 2UG
| Events | TOTAL | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Balance carried over on 31/12/2023 | £4,794.30 | |||
| Income | General Office | Events | ||
| Sales/Entry Fees | £0.00 | £9,397.67 | £9,397.67 | |
| Bank Interest | £70.95 | £0.00 | £70.95 | |
| Donations | £0.00 | £134.52 | £134.52 | |
| Grants | £3,860.00 | £0.00 | £3,860.00 | |
| Total Receipts per Department | £3,930.95 | £9,532.19 | £13,463.14 | |
| Expenditure | ||||
| Medals and Running Numbers | £0.00 | £4,154.58 | £4,154.58 | |
| Chip Timing | £0.00 | £3,009.82 | £3,009.82 | |
| Direct Event Costs | £0.00 | £2,357.20 | £2,357.20 | |
| Equipment Purchase | £2,607.58 | £0.00 | £2,607.58 | |
| Insurance | £263.42 | £0.00 | £263.42 | |
| General Office Costs | £1,250.11 | £0.00 | £1,250.11 | |
| Total Payments per Department | £4,121.11 | £9,521.60 | £13,642.71 | |
| Total Profit/Loss | -£179.57 | |||
| Closing Balance on 31/12/2024 | £4,614.73 |