OpenCharities

This text was generated using OCR and may contain errors. Check the original PDF to see the document submitted to the regulator.

2023-03-31-accounts

Bedfordshire Health Radio

Committee Meeting Minutes - Monday 26th September 2022

Invitees : Laura Taylor (LT) Chair, Geoff Clark (GC) Treasurer, Ronnie Stanley (RS) IT Engineer, Dan Kingston (DK) Programmes, Dave Hill (DH) Engineering, Andy Norbury (AH) Membership, Tom McGrath (TM)Training, Frank Palmer (FP), Tina Chenery (TC), Phil Edwards (PE), Colin Mason (CM) Trustee, Sue Conyers (SC) Secretary Apologies : Andy Norbury, Tina Chenery

Location – Bedford Hospital Committee Room – 19.00 - 21.00hrs.

1 . Committee chair appointed

2. Minutes from last meeting approved

3. Committee reports

BHR committee reports September 22

Chairperson

Following our period of national mourning we are back to our usual service. Thank you to all presenters who adapted their content and schedule, and special thanks to Barry for his OBIT material readily on hand for Tom when the time came, and Dan / Ronnie who managed the subsequent schedules. Respects were paid on behalf of the station.

I, like I'm sure many of you, are disappointed we have not yet fully opened our studio’s post flood. I am sure this will be covered within the engineering report and discussed in the meeting.

Another disappointment has been the awarding on SSDAB to a bid we were not connected to. Post the announcement I made contact with their operations. They have not yet decided on a rate card (which will be available once they are ready to go live) and there will not be the same level of support available to cover the cost of a channel and additional licencing fees as there was with the other 2 bids. This is likely to mean that DAB will be cost prohibitive without a guaranteed source of income; however, we will need to wait until in2beats are ready to share their rate card to fully review.

Our efforts this year are concentrated on getting back to basics, with membership empowerment to drive our operations. Committee meetings should be used as a point of escalation for issues that cannot be resolved.

This requires members to actively participate in the running of the station. We are still falling short of volunteers participating in the activity needed. Secretary

Nothing to report as such but lack of communication is very frustrating, just a simple acknowledgement of emails sent would be helpful please (I don’t send that many!!), I know

we all lead very busy lives, but if I’m not doing something right, please let me know, don’t all shout at once!! I know I’m as guilty as others sometimes. OK, rant over with.

Treasurer

Financial position as at 26/09/22

Current account - £22.20 Savings Account - £7068.67 Points to note/recent expenditure:

Cash flow:

You will see from the cash flow spreadsheet saved in teams that without further income we will be approx £1500 light against last year at the end of the financial year. I’ve made no account for costs associated with DAB at this stage. We are still holding the £1500 donation for Alexa’s which may have to be returned if this doesn’t go any further. Other issues:

I collected an amount of equipment from Ian Griffiths mainly to create an OB kit for the two OB’s I had agreed to organise in Sept. As can be seen from the capital expenditure we were reliant on Ian and Beat Route for many items to achieve a useable OB kit. I still had to utilise personal items such as microphones, so there is more work to do.

The asset register has been partially updated with information from Ian and the OB kit, there is some work to do on the balance of laptops we have. Home broadcasting equipment is to be recovered from Rory McGowan (Andy)

We still have outstanding Membership Subs from Ian McCartney, Simon Coombes, and Ben Sykes(Is he still a member?) Rory McGowan also did not pay. OB’s

We struggled to get support for the OB’s on 10[th] and 24[th] Sept, Just Barry and me for the MRALGA event on 10[th ] (plus CJ on Tech), personally I wouldn’t do this one again.

The Tibbs dementia event last Saturday was better supported with Steve Spring, Dan Kingston, Sue Conyers and me, plus Dave on Tech. This was despite quite a lot of communication from me as organiser pre the event. There was some issues with the way the live music was organised and positioned, they brought their own PA so I have suggested that if we do it again we need to be separated, their output was not broadcastable. They also had to use our generator as they hadn’t thought out where the power was going to come from, I did cheekily ask for a donation towards petrol. Programmes

• Was at TIBBS Memory Walk OB on Saturday (24/09) - assisted with (extra) broadcasting and packing up

o Thanks to everyone who participated! • Simon Allison not doing as many live shows as he was to begin with – getting messages from him hours before he’s due on air asking me to put a recorded show on.

Training

Engineering

Studio 1

I have been waiting patiently for the Trust to make a decision regarding the air conditioning units in the studios. We (HRB) suggested that the drain pumps be replaced by a better version incorporating a tank with a float switch, and offered to do the work ourselves. The trust did not agree to us doing the work as they are responsible for the maintenance of the system and did not want third parties modifying it.

After various reminder emails and visits by maintenance staff and contractors, I was informed that work was to be done on Friday 23[rd] September, so I was down the studio that day.

The new system has been installed. It’s not exactly what we asked for, in that the tank units are above the desk level (but off to the right-hand side). They are much easier to keep an eye on, not being in the ceiling void.

The drain pumps have been tested and all units are working OK. The temperature has been set to 23C and the remote controls removed – part of the problem is that setting them to “artic” (16C) causes the units to produce much more water and the pumps are overwhelmed.

Now that this has been done, I can start the process of installing and testing the new mixer for Studio 1 – I was not happy to start the installation until something was done about the air conditioning unit. Other

Provided tech support and the PA system for the Tibbs Dementia Walk on 24[th] September, consisting of a pair of speakers, stands, PA mixer and amplifier. I used my own equipment for this, note that HRB has speakers, stands and mixers but as far as I know does not have an amplifier for such events.

Various items of OB gear have been tested for electrical safety; Geoff C will deposit the rest of the items from Ian G in the studios.

IT

Obtained 2 ‘NUC’ computers for studios and a newer laptop for the ‘Emergency’ studio (donated – don't ask!). Working on configuring them to replace older units.

Membership

New Members:

We are currently in the early stages of processing the applications of 7 potential new members.

As such, on Wednesday 14[th] Sept I (Andy) had an informal meeting with 4 of these applicants at the hospital studios. The aim of this initial meeting was to brief them about HRB – what we do, how we do it and where we do it (including a tour of the studios) – and to discuss the application process in general.

I’ve adopted this informal meeting approach in the hope of putting prospective members at their ease whilst informing them of what they can expect of HRB and what the station will

expect of them, as well as getting a personal feel as to how serious they might be about joining us.

I think the meeting was successful in its aims and all those in attendance left asking me to email them an application pack. So far, however, I have only received one acknowledgement that an application form has been completed.

I will wait another week for any more responses before sending out low key enquiries as to the intentions of those who have not replied.

It is my intention to arrange another informal meeting in October for the 3 applicants who couldn’t make September’s meeting (and any others who may apply in the meantime). The prospective member meeting in September did, however, throw up one or two issues that I’ve already mentioned in a previous email to committee, namely:

• TRAINING – Are we in a position to offer regular sessions tailored to fit in with full-time, 9-5 workers? Will we be training prospective members in Studio 2 (and on the ‘old’ equipment) bearing in mind that there could be a refit in the offing in which the ‘old’ equipment may be replaced?

• THE STUDIOS – Do we have a date for the refitting of the studios? It was slightly awkward showing prospective members around a studio complex in which only one is running without being able to assure them of a date when both will be fully functioning. With regard to recruitment, I’m concerned that we may slip behind other local stations (especially those gearing up to broadcast on DAB) who may be in an equal or better position than us when it comes to broadcasting facilities.

Departing Members:

Sadly, due to work commitments, Rory McGowan has decided against renewing his HRB membership. I’ve wished him well for the future, assured him that the door is always open at the station (should he look to return) and I’ve collected his Home Broadcasting Kit (ready for storing at the studios).

Meeting with Deborah Allman

On Wednesday 3[rd] August Frank and I had a meeting with Deborah Allman of Voluntary Services at her hospital office in the hope of gaining an understanding of how (if at all) HRB currently fits in with any plans the hospital and/or the Trust may have and whether Voluntary Services can assist in any way.

I cannot speak for Frank - I’m sure he will offer his own opinion – but I didn’t leave the meeting with any great feeling of hope.

I felt I aired the frustrations (as diplomatically as possible) that many of us have at the station, especially regarding our lack of internal hospital promotion and the general lack of interaction with the Trust itself (NB: any mention of HRB is still absent from the hospital’s own website). I expressed how I felt we had so much to offer the patients and the staff as a medium (or should that be media?) for promoting health and wellbeing, for entertaining and informing, even for acting as a ‘mouthpiece’ for the hospital administration – broadcasting ward and surgery information, for example. I mentioned how I felt it doubly frustrating that, to the best of my knowledge, HRB were not thought of (or approached) when launching bedside initiatives such as ‘Boredom Busters’. I refrained from adding that it wouldn’t have surprised me if the organisers of the initiative had had the following thought, ‘Hmm, Boredom Busters - if only there was some way we could have specially tailored entertainment for patients that they could listen to in bed’.

Whilst Deborah seemed sympathetic to our cause, she didn’t really offer any real solutions to our problems or give any indication that the current situation would change in any way. It was a little disheartening that towards the end of our meeting Deborah asked how the relaunch had gone. And when I quizzed her on what she meant, she informed me that she was under the impression that we had relaunched as Bedfordshire Health Radio. It had me wondering how she had jumped to this conclusion. I reassured her that we had not relaunched at all, that we were still very much Hospital Radio Bedford, but felt it somewhat indicative of the confusion that has frequently surrounded our use of separate names for ‘trading’ and ‘administration’. How do we remedy this?

Recruitment

After tweaking the ‘Join Us’ page on the website (thanks to Geoff C for his help) an initial brief social media campaign (a Facebook advert) took place in June. Whether the recent spate of enquiries has resulted from this, I couldn’t say. Largely because I neglected to ask those involved (note to self).

I will look to follow this up in the next few weeks with a little more social media activity. Is this something I do myself directly or is it something I pass on to Phil, our social media officer?

General:

I’d be grateful for an update on our SSDAB situation – whether we intend pursuing a broadcasting licence or not and, if we do, when.*

I think the fillip of broadcasting on SSDAB could see an increase in membership (or, at least, an increase in interest) especially from those wanting to present and broadcast themselves. I worry that remaining an online only radio station locally, at a time when a whole swathe of new, local DAB stations might crop up, will mean that we will end up fighting for an even smaller portion of the listenership pie (whether inside or outside the hospital) and that we might, at best, be perceived as having very little to offer fledgling broadcasters (or volunteers) or, at worse, being irrelevant (locally).

*I read Laura’s meeting report after writing this and was disappointed to discover that we will, in all probability, not be looking to broadcast on SSDAB. I can only reiterate the above in response.

4. Matters carried over

4.1 Team Building – TC. LT to speak to Tina regarding this matter

4.2 Website/Social Media, PE not contacted anyone with progress of this.

4.3 Operation Blossom – covered in meeting reports

5. New matters

5.1 To discuss DAB requirements and project plans

Interbeats, LT waiting to hear from them re their rate card. No help from them with our increased costs, Need to know what they will charge us. GC – Until we know costs involved, we cannot commit ourselves.

5.2 LT/GC - Lacking of help from members, some roles still not filled. If we wish to grow as a radio station, members need to make commitment to help out further. LT – Hospitals needs more patient support.

5.3 Another AGM/EGM/Members Gathering to be held to get members opinion on where/how they want BHR/HRB to continue.

OR

Trustees could close the BHR/HRB.

OR

Tell members that BHR/HRB will close at the end of the year. If BHR/HRB were to close all assets would go to another Hospital Radio or another charitable organisation as stated in the Constitution.

LT - To draft Agenda for Members Meeting

6. AOB

6.1 Membership, If subs not paid by end of month, programmes will be taken off air. 6.2 SC to check with AN/CJ on progress of new membership cards.

Date and venue of next meeting: Date of Members Gathering booked for Monday 24th October, Bedford Hospital Committee 19.00-21.00hrs.

No Committee date to be arranged until after Members Gathering.

Bedfordshire Health Radio

INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT APRIL 2022 – MARCH 2023

2021-2022
INCOME
£
£1,301.00
SUBSCRIPTIONS
£2,320.81
DONATIONS
£0.00
FUND RAISING
11,019.80
GRANTS/GIFT AID
£0.85
BANK INTEREST
14,642.46
TOTAL INCOME
£12,129.71
LESS EXPENDITURE
£2,512.75
EXCESS OF EXPENDITURE OVER INCOME
SUMMARY OF EQUIPMENT
£2,849.73
BALANCE B/F
£9,802.63
CAPITAL PURCHASES
12,652.36
£2,530.47
LESS 20% DEPRECIATION
£10,121.89
TOTAL VALUE EQUIPMENT AT 31/03/2023
Page 1		 2022-2023
£
£1,392.00
£424.41
£0.00
-
£43.09
1,859.50
£3,219.76
-£1,360.26
£10,121.89
£153.44
10,275.33
£2,055.07
£8,220.26

Page 1

Bedfordshire Health Radio

Expenditure and Bank Reconciliation 2022 - 2023

2021-2022
EXPENDITURE
£
£9,802.63
CAPITAL PURCHASES
£138.62
PRINTING / STATIONARY
£20.00
MISC. EXPENSES
£525.00
REPAIRS / RENEWALS
£1,547.46
LICENCES / INSURANCES
£96.00
BANK CHARGES
£12,129.71
TOTAL EXPENDITURE
BANK RECONCILIATION 2022/3
£
£
BANK RECEIPTS
£1,859.50
BANK PAYMENTS
OPENING C/A ACCOUNT
£21.58
CLOSING CURRENT
OPENING D/A ACCOUNT
£6,697.34
CLOSING DEPOSIT
£8,578.42		 2022-2023
£
£153.44
£0.00
£17.95
£139.57
£2,836.80
£72.00
£3,219.76
£
£3,219.76
£15.65
£5,343.01
£8,578.42

Page 2

Page 2

Bedfordshire Health Radio

BALANCE SHEET AT 31 MARCH 2023

2021-2022
£
GENERAL FUND
£7,055.90
BROUGHT FORWARD
£9,802.63
CAPITAL PURCHASES
£2,512.75
EXCESS OF INCOME OVER EXPENDITURE
£19,371.28
-£2,530.47
DEPRECIATION
£16,840.81
TOTAL GENERAL FUND AS AT 31ST MARCH 2023
REPRESENTED BY
BANK ACCOUNTS
£21.58
Current Account
£6,697.34
Deposit Account
£0.00
CASH IN HAND
£10,121.89
EQUIPMENT AT BOOK VALUE
£16,840.81
Page 3		 2022-2023
£
£16,840.81
£153.44
-£1,360.26
£15,633.99
-£2,055.07
£13,578.92
£15.65
£5,343.01
£0.00
£8,220.26
£13,578.92

Page 3