Secretaries Report Rede Common AGM 2023
Administration of Friends of Rede Common is going well. We are familiar with the Trustees Annual report that is submitted to the Charities Commission and reporting on finances is well understood by trustees. Three policies have been updated this year. Another set of policies will be checked and updated in the coming year.
This year the Charities Commission changed their website, and I am down as the “Charity Contact”. From within the website, I sent out invitations to the other trustees so they could go in with their own passwords. Trustees will need to access the portal to Submit annual returns, change the charities name or contact details, edit the financial reporting periods, view details of this charity on the public register and download our registration certificate which we can use as proof of existence. There is a form to submit requests to the commission to change the governing document known as the Friends of Rede Common constitution. Only one person can be the charity contact. This person becomes the administrator of the website and manages other users on it.
With the help of the NCVO contacting us about funding we have been able to secure a grant from the Kent Community Foundation. We are now halfway through spending this on workdays, planning permission and general administrative costs. The funding end date is June 2025. Towards the end we will need to report back on the impact that these funds have had on our work.
PROMOTIONAL
We continue to inform the public of our activities on the nature reserve through website, social media, onsite noticeboards and at events. The sign for the common that had been in the container for several months is now in the ground at the top of the driveway onto the common. We had a flyer designed to promote our activities and this was posted through all doors in the
surrounding area. As planned at our last AGM we now have a template in use for noticeboard content which makes informing the public on our activities a lot easier.
The Google account remains a single private account despite eligibility for additional free accounts due to our status as a charity. This works best of us due to our small size. This account is multifactor authenticated to the Secretary and Treasurer. Finance, policies, member’s personal details, planning applications and other documents do not exceed our Google Drive storage so there is no cost to Friends of Rede Common from using Google’s services. The Chair keeps a copy of the passwords as an added protection against access issues and in case of any loss of data due to technical issues with Google, or data loss due to a user error. To comply with the data protection act a copy of all files is backed up occasionally to an encrypted memory stick.
Costs started to increase in the spring for our website and the ability for us to renew our security certificate at zero expense ceased. A hosting company called Brixly provided free website hosting and SSL encryption to charities and so I shifted our domain name and WordPress website over to them and renewed everything for another 12 months. They will now renew our security certificate for free. This renewal was not automatic and so it is important that Trustees watch out for notifications and ensure that domain name is renewed and does not expire.
Friends of Rede Common website continues to rank high on Google search results. It contains our latest news, articles about the common, details on the group, information on how to become a member and official documents such as our constitution and policies.
FoRC continues to have an account on X (formally Twitter) but the future of this platform remains uncertain. With low visits and few followers, the committee may wish to decide if there is significant merit in remaining on this platform.
VOLUNTEERS
Last year it was noted that there had been a reduction in new volunteers joining. A drive to increase awareness of our charity was also one of the main
aims of the business plan. This year a flyer has been circulated to local residents. Individuals saw our adverts far and wide leading up to the summer Open Day. Continued efforts have been on social media where I have placed posts on Facebook and X to encourage people to volunteer. I submitted a free advertisement to The NET. On the Medway Volunteer Centre website, I have submitted our details to V-base, the national volunteering database. I have also re-launched our advert with MVA. An editor from Rochester Community Ad magazine got in touch with me and I had an advert about us placed in their free magazine to drum up awareness and interest.
I looked at our members list before this meeting and am pleased to say that we have increased to 55 individuals on our mailing list. I am confident that this list is accurate as during coronavirus I contacted everyone and took off people that couldn’t be reached. We do need a better system of adding members though as sometimes badly filled out forms can’t be read so email addresses can’t be added and on other occasions, people have attended a workday and left without providing any contact information!
Our members list contains three groups of members. These are supporters who may attend events, workday volunteers and committee members. Committee members are encouraged to become trustees.
I try and contact our members on a semi-regular basis to update them on our activities and to invite them to our meetups on the common. Please tell your friends and family about our charity as there could be others who may wish to join us and help out. We are actively seeking more volunteers and committee members.
I thank all those who take their time to attend and help us with tasks onsite.
Jason Tillman Trustee Secretary
Treasurers Report 2022-2023
Financial performance in the last year
| 1st October 2022 to 31st September 2023 | 1st October 2022 to 31st September 2023 | 1st October 2022 to 31st September 2023 | 1st October 2022 to 31st September 2023 | 1st October 2022 to 31st September 2023 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Income | Outgoing | |||||||
| 2022 | ||||||||
| 1-Sep | Transfer Fee |
£10.00 | ||||||
| 2023 | ||||||||
| 25-Jan | PrinterConsumables |
£139.90 | ||||||
| 25-Jan | Easter Event |
£125.00 | ||||||
| 27-Jan | Insurance |
£90.00 | ||||||
| 14-Mar | Easter Event |
£2.00 | ||||||
| 28-Apr | P White stallpayment |
£5.00 | 3-Apr | Renewal |
£6.94 | |||
| 3-Apr | Renewal |
£11.44 | ||||||
| 4-Apr | Easter Event |
£3.78 | ||||||
| 4-Apr | Easter Event |
£10.50 | ||||||
| 6-Apr | New Equipment |
£73.78 | ||||||
| 11-Apr | Easter Event |
£1.40 | ||||||
| 11-Apr | Easter Event |
£8.40 | ||||||
| 19-Apr | New Equipment |
£147.00 | ||||||
| 19-May | Cash Deposit |
£99.00 | 31-May | Easter Event |
£20.00 | |||
| 13-Jun | Broomhillstallpayment |
£5.00 | 6-Jun | Renewal |
£18.00 | |||
| 12-Jun | Easter Event |
£40.00 | ||||||
| 13-Jun | Easter Event |
£1.40 | ||||||
| 4-Jul | Easter Event |
£10.00 | ||||||
| 18-Jul | Just giving- Hedgehog |
£28.80 | ||||||
| 25-Aug | Workday |
£6.00 | ||||||
| 29-Sep | CharityAidFoundation | £100.00 | 21-Sep | Thankyou Cards | £8.88 | |||
| 26-Sep | Robert Dyas |
£13.49 | ||||||
| 26-Sep | Snappy Snaps | £14.99 |
The previous year had little activity due to our focus on maintaining the completed paths and completing the transition to a new bank account.
We have now completed the transition to Metro Bank and have linked PayPal, allowing us to receive donations online also.
FRIENDS OF REDE COMMON
The majority of our costs in the year, low though they were, related to our two events.
----- Start of picture text -----
JustGiving - Charges Repairs and
Hedgehogs 1% renewals
4% 5%
Event costs New Equipment
28%
28%
Hall hire
0%
R Peters Thanks
3%
M Salter Thanks
2%
RHS Membership
Consumables Indemnity
0%
18% Insurance
11%
----- End of picture text -----
Each event has a base cost centred around refreshment and entertainment for attendees. If we wish a profit to be generated by events, it was recommended that we restrict ourselves to one annual event. Since the easter event generates the greatest contribution, we will focus there. This recommendation was accepted by the committee.
We have also terminated the RHS membership we were not using its benefits and insurance is provided separately, and bank charges should be nil in the future now we have moved to Metro bank.
Another note is that this year there was no monies provided by the council who, instead, provided portaloo hire for our Open Day. Cash was offered in April but was not requested in this period due to the large cash reserves we have.
Our reserves are still high, but care must be taken that we stay within our budget in the future.
FRIENDS OF REDE COMMON
One issue which has been highlighted this year is the large variances between what we actually spent and our set budget.
----- Start of picture text -----
Budget and Actual
£600.00
£500.00
£400.00
£300.00
£200.00
£100.00
£0.00
Budget Actual
----- End of picture text -----
It is my recommendation that we have a separate meeting to discuss what money we intend to spend as past performance is no guide to future expenditure.
Regarding our ring-fenced monies. The ward funds provided by J Iiles have now been exhausted as monies were used on our consumables.
FRIENDS OF REDE COMMON
KCF has 351.73 remaining, after accounting for the future expense of £300 which is the planning permission for the container remaining on-site. If this expense does not arise, we must ensure this money is spent responsibly.
Money has been spent, proportionally, on new equipment most of all, followed closely by the capital expenditure, which is the ring-fenced planning permission for the container remaining on site.
Operational activities are, for the most part, work-day expenses with a few replacement costs included. It is my recommendation that we try, where possible, to focus on replacing old equipment with remaining funds to maximise the impact of the grant.
We have 23 months remaining to exhaust this fund. So far, we are on track to exhaust this fund before the next AGM
KCF Grant
----- Start of picture text -----
8%
Operational activities
30%
Capital (planning permission)
26%
Stationery
Domain hosting
New Equipment
10% Remaining
26%
0%
----- End of picture text -----
Our cash position is now as follows:
-
Bank opening balance £3,123.93
-
Bank Closing balance £2,541.23
-
Cash opening balance £0
-
Cash closing balance £206.28
Cash will be held as a float for future events.
FRIENDS OF REDE COMMON