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2023-03-31-accounts

WRT Chair: Welcome and Agenda

Welcome and thank you for making the time to attend this year’s WRT & Winsham Community Club AGM.

The agenda is set out here:

Firstly, minutes of the 2022 AGM to be approved. Secondly, the Treasurer’s report for the accounts for 2022 – 2023. Thirdly, the Chair’s report.

Fourthly, a resolution amending the WRT Constitution Fifthly, a resolution on electing four WRT Trustees from Community Club members. And finally, AOB and an opportunity for questions. Please save all questions until the end.

Minutes of the 2022 AGM:

(Copies on your chairs and on the following three slides; Time given to read).

From those in attendance at the 2022 AGM, please can we have a proposer and a seconder. Show of hands.

Treasurer’s Report

Chair’s Report:

Purpose: I want to open by just reminding everyone of the purpose of the Winsham Recreational Trust (see Purpose slide) and to headline that the WRT operates the Upper Recreation Ground Playing Fields and Winsham Community Club on lease from Winsham Parish Council in pursuit of the WRT purpose.

Thanks: I now want to thank in general the many Winsham residents who make the delivery of that purpose possible. I am not going to name names because many people prefer that their good work goes under the radar. However, those people know who they are and therefore, in general I want to thank the following for their hard work, dedication and positive contribution to the success of the WRT and the Winsham Community Club:

Trustees Update: A number of Trustees have changed since the 2022 AGM. Lucy Millar, Chloe Adams and Emma Pike have all stepped down from their dual roles as Parish Councillors and WRT Trustees. We thank them for their service to the WRT, in particular Lucy for the work she did as WRT Secretary. Chloe and Emma continue to contribute to the Community Club as active volunteers and members. Gerry Earl and Fiona Vickers

have joined as Parish Councillors and hence new WRT Trustees. I have continued in the role of Chair and Henk continues to serve as our dedicated Treasurer. The role of Secretary has remained gapped since Lucy’s departure as none of our Trustees wished to fill this role; however, special thanks must go here to Jacqui Wellar who, though not a Trustee, has temporarily stepped into the gap to take the minutes at WRT meetings. Looking forward, assuming the resolution to adopt the proposed WRT & Community Club constitution is endorsed, we will look to change the Trustee structure to five nominated Councillors from Winsham Parish Council and four trustees elected by WRT & Community members from among the Community Club membership.

Membership Update: The last membership renewal/application window took place in September 2023. The total Winsham Community Club membership is currently 57 in total, a mix of single & family memberships, an increase on the numbers reported at the 2022 AGM. A healthy number and new applications are always welcome. Annual membership is £5 for a single membership and £10 for a family membership. Application forms are available here at the club and also from the Winsham Village Shop.

Non-members must be signed in by a club member to use the Community Club Bar. Nonmembers pay a £1 guest fee on each occasion; using the bar five times as a non-member will be equivalent to joining as a single member for the year and a number of people have joined as members as a result.

There are exceptions regarding use of the bar by non-members for any public events run by the Community Club for which the Club holds an events licence or by visiting teams provided they sign in (e.g. for skittles matches). Also anyone using the Club (but not the bar) solely as a 'warm hub' facility is exempt from membership requirements provided they comply with the reasonable behaviour expectations of the club.

Volunteer Group: This is the driving engine behind the wide range of well-organised and successful events that run at the Community Club, including the 2023 Winsham Fun Day, as well as contributing to club improvements and channeling member views back to the WRT Trustees . The Volunteer Group meets approx. monthly and any Community Club member is welcome to join.

In addition to the volunteer group there are a number of other volunteers who perform critical roles in helping the club to succeed and operate across a range of areas, including staffing the bar, helping with catering, doing the cleaning and hedge cutting.

Activity Report – events, bookings, hires: There has continued to be a significant and positive increase in activity over the course of the last 14 months:

Winsham Community Club is open regularly every weekend Friday and Saturday 7pm – 11pm and on Sunday from 2pm – 6 pm and is well attended by Community Club members and their guests. Killer Skittles takes place on Fridays and all club members and their guests are welcome to join in.

The Community Club also has its own Skittles team which plays on a Tuesday evening. Community Club staples have included Takeaway Nights, Bingo Nights, Easter Egg Hunt, Halloween Party, Christmas Children’s Party, Christmas Party, New Year’s Eve Party and various music events; for some of these events the Community Club has been full to the seams which is great news. A number of local organisations have held their AGM in the Club. Private party bookings have increased significantly as knowledge of the excellent

facilities and service provided continues to spread through both word of mouth and the excellent Community Club newsletter and Social Media accounts, plus an efficient booking process. However, there is always plenty of scope for additional use/activities.

Whilst the football pitches and changing rooms remain largely unused for their intended purpose, it has been fabulous to see children’s football coaching sessions take off through the initiative and dedicated commitment of Ed Gould. These sessions are proving popular amongst children in the parish and are a great example of the different ways in which the WRT & Community provides leisure and recreational facilities for the whole Winsham Community. Income from the football sessions is ringfenced in order to fund football playing equipment for the sessions.

The August Bank Holiday was a particularly successful weekend with first the use of the Playing Fields and the Clubhouse by the Winsham Horticultural Society on the Saturday for their Annual Show, followed by another very successful Winsham Fun Day for the whole community on the Sunday.

Improvements – completed and planned: Improvements have continued to be made to both the Clubhouse and the external area to improve the facilities available to Club Members and the wider community.

Since the last AGM improvements have included:

The following potential improvements are at various stages of planning and some, particularly extension plans, will be reliant on securing grants for the work:

WRT & Community Club Constitution

It has been known for a while that the current WRT Constitution and Management Structure of the WRT & Community Club is not compliant with Charity Commission requirements and good governance practice, nor with both the existing constitution itself or the Community Club rules. The key issue is that at present the WRT Trustees manage the Community Club when, in accordance with the current rules, the Community Club should be run by its own Management Board which reports in turn to the WRT; equally the WRT as a charity cannot, under Charity Commission rules, earn its main income from alcohol sales which is currently the case. Therefore, after significant research and discussion over the past year, including with the Charity Commission, the WRT Trustees have agreed a proposal to ensure compliance with Charity Commission requirements and put the WRT and Community Club on a more secure footing; that proposal will be voted on by Community Club members as part of this AGM.

Two options are available:

Option 1: Recommended . To adjust the WRT Constitution to match the Charity Commission Association model to ensure that Community Club members are properly recorded as the voting members of the WRT. Mapping the Constitution and the Community Club rules against each other so that the rules are compliant with the WRT Constitution. Adjusting the Trustees section of the Constitution so that Trustees include both Winsham Parish Council representation and Community Club member representation in a ratio of 5:4 to maintain 9 trustees on the WRT Management Committee, the same as now. This will make the WRT indivisible from the Community Club, as is current practice. However, the consequence of this – and the next step if members endorse the proposal – is that the WRT & Community Club will need to set up the Bar as a trading subsidiary run by volunteer directors in order to comply with Charity Commission rules.

Option 2: Not recommended. To keep the WRT and Community Club as separate entities with the Community Club reporting and passing profits to the WRT. This would mean no change to the WRT structure but a change to the WRT Constitution to a Foundation Model with no voting members and all Parish Councillors remaining as WRT Trustees. The Community Club would have to set up a Management Board from amongst its membership to run the Community Club as an unincorporated organisation. This Management Board would run the Community Club and the bar and would be responsible for paying an agreed share of profits to the WRT, with the remainder being reinvested into Community Club provision. The key disadvantages of this option, and the reason why the WRT Trustees are not recommending it, is that it would require a number of Community Club members (in most cases separate from the WRT Trustees) to volunteer to be elected to a Community Club Management Board to run the Community Club and, as an unincorporated organisation, members of the Management Board would hold personal liability for the Club’s activities and operation. The key advantage would be that no trading subsidiary to run the bar would be required.

Other Updates

In summary the WRT & Community Club have continued to grow positively in activity and impact over the past 14 months, supported by a healthy and improving financial position. Strong plans are in place to sustain that activity and financial position and enable future development for the benefit of Winsham Parish residents.

Many thanks for your patience and for listening. We shall now move onto the Resolutions.

WRT accounts Apr 5 2022-Apr 5 2023

EXPENDITURE £ 37,929

INCOME £ 47,013

Excess INCOME over EXPENDITURE £ 9,084

End the year with cash in bank accounts £ 16,437 Ringfenced nothing (Denise's funds date to 11 April 2023) Original grants now spent and accounted for to granters