SHROPSHIRE CHARITY CONCERTS CIO
Charity Registration Number 1191258
ANNUAL REPORT AND UNAUDITED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE PERIOD ENDED 31 AUGUST 2023
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SHROPSHIRE CHARITY CONCERTS
LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION
Trustees Mrs G Atkinson Mrs A Barratt Mr P Bisson Mr J Davies Mrs M Edwards-Clark Mrs V Evans Mr H Pearce CVO Mrs M Ridland Charity Number 1191258
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SHROPSHIRE CHARITY CONCERTS
CONTENT
Trustees’ Report Pages 4-6 Notes for the Accounts Page 7 Accounts Page 8-9
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SHROPSHIRE CHARITY CONCERTS
TRUSTEES’ REPORT
FOR THE PERIOD ENDED 31 AUGUST 2023
The trustees present their report and financial statements for the period ended 31 August 2023.
The trustees report has been prepared in accordance with the charity’s governing document, the Charities Act 2011 and “Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102)” (as amended for accounting periods commencing from 1 January 2019). The financial statements have been prepared on a receipts and payments basis.
Objectives and activities
The objects of the CIO are the study and practice of choral music in order to foster public knowledge and appreciation of such music by means of public performance; the advancement of music and other performing arts through public performance in order to foster public knowledge and appreciation of such arts; to assist and support such other charitable enterprises as the charity trustees shall from time to time determine.
The trustees have paid due regard to guidance issued by the Charity Commission in deciding what activities the charity should undertake.
Performances are either free concerts, open to the public, or performances for which tickets are sold. Where we are able to generate significant surpluses of income over expenditure, we pursue a policy of making donations to local charities.
Achievements and performance
It is a pleasure to be able to report on a year free from lockdowns and other interruptions to our programme. The choir membership has held up well (we are probably the largest of the Shrewsbury choirs), and we have been pleased to welcome a number of new faces to our ranks. As ever tenors are in short supply, but I believe we continue to produce a good sound and our tenors work hard to ensure that the men’s voices are well balanced.
We have performed a wide range of works through the year, including John Rutter’s Requiem at the Shrewsbury School St Cecilia weekend in November 2022, our annual performance of Handel’s Messiah just before Christmas (to a virtually full audience in Shrewsbury Abbey), Haydn’s joyful Creation at St Chad’s church in March, and a wonderfully varied programme of works in the Abbey featuring brass and organ in June. We have been delighted to sing with a number of students from Shrewsbury School at some of these performances. I know that the students value the opportunity to sing larger works with the Community Choir, and we are certainly glad to add some younger voices to our number.
Once again I have to report a change of Music Director! Richard Stafford secured an appointment as Director of Music at Abingdon School not long after taking up his appointment as Assistant Director of Music at Shrewsbury, and so spent only a year with us. We very much enjoyed getting to know him and to rehearsing and performing under his baton, and are very sorry it was so brief. I know that he also enjoyed working with us and felt the year brought him valuable experience in the field of choral
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conducting. He left determined to introduce an annual Messiah performance in Abingdon! We wish him every success and happiness in his new appointment.
In Richard’s place we welcome Richard Robbins, who has taken up the role of Director of Choral Music at Shrewsbury School. Richard studied at Royal Holloway and the Royal Academy of Music, and has embarked on a successful career as a tenor soloist, working with a number of distinguished ensembles including the Academy of St Martins-in-the-Fields and the London Mozart Players. He has also directed Egham Choral, and the Bookham Choral Society. We count ourselves fortunate to work with such a fine musician, and have already been enjoying our weekly rehearsals as we prepared to perform Rebecca Dale’s Materna Requiem as part of the School’s annual St Cecilia weekend.
Our accompanist, Calum Alger, has also decided to move on, and in his place we welcome James Kellas, who teaches piano at Shrewsbury School. We greatly appreciated Calum’s skill at the piano and his fine performances on the organ, and wish him well for the future. We are already enjoying James’ contribution as both accompanist and choir trainer.
Our annual donations to charity are an important aspect of our work as a choir, and we are pleased that in 2022/23 we donated £1,000 each to Shropshire Blood Bikes, Shropshire Music Trust, and the Friends of St Chad’s.
A great deal of work goes into running the choir, much of it done out of sight and in the background. Without the hard work and commitment of the trustees and committee members things would come to a grinding halt. We offer a particular welcome to Niki Holmes and Jill Hudson, who have joined the committee to boost our marketing strategy.
Financial Review
Though we did not quite get to a break-even position, we reduced the annual loss considerably – from £7500 in 21/22 to £2800 in 22/23.
While we spent more (£750) overall in the last financial year than in 21/22, we also earned substantially more - £7,500. This was largely due to an increase in the number of member subscriptions, more than £2,000 in extra Messiah ticket sales and also ticket sales from the Creation concert in March 2023.
Having said that, the Creation concert in March 2023 made an overall loss of around £3,500. However, we managed to save money on a number of items, notably audit fees and our insurance, which we managed to reduce by over £550. The fees for our conductor and accompanist at rehearsals rose by £700. The summer concert in 2023 cost £450 less than the previous year; we earned about the same for both concerts.
We are trying to budget more tightly and this is beginning to show some positive results. We hope to build on that this year.
The trustees seek to ensure there is prudent retention of funds within Bank Current Accounts to ensure long term plans for the future can be managed, and to that end they have adopted a policy of retaining a minimum bank balance of £6,000. This replaces the previous policy of keeping in the account a year’s running costs, which was judged by trustees as unnecessarily conservative, and makes it possible to donate a larger proportion of our surplus funds to charity.
The trustees have assessed the major risks to which the charity is exposed, and are satisfied that systems are in place to mitigate exposure to the major risks.
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The trustees have also considered whether the charity remains a going concern. They have concluded that, in the light of the level of reserves, the continued encouraging level of membership, and the income from membership fees, it continues to be so.
Structure, governance and management
The trustees who served during the period and up to the date of signature of the financial statements were:
Mrs G Atkinson Mrs A Barratt Mr P Bisson Mr J Davies Mrs M Edwards-Clark Mrs V Evans Mr H Pearce CVO (Chairman) Mrs M Ridland
Under the new constitution a third of the trustees retire each year and are either re-elected or their successors elected at the Annual General Meeting.
The trustees’ report was approved by the Board of Trustees and signed on their behalf by
Howard J S Pearce
Chairman
Dated 19 January 2024
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Shropshire Charity Concerts CIO Notes for the Accounts for the year Ended 31[st] August 2023
For the second year I was asked by the Trustees to assist with the financial reports for Shropshire Charity Concerts CIO.
The Charity Commission states that for any Charity with an income of less than £25,000 there is no requirement for an independent review of the accounts. For a second year the income of the choir continues to be under this limit but as it is deemed wise to have a review of the accounts, I completed a review similar to last year.
I was provided with the books and records which had been prepared without the Xero software used in previous years. The software license had not been renewed due to increased costs, but this created a few problems and meant there was an inability to access some accounting information from previous years. After highlighting the difficulties and loss of functionality to the Treasurer Paul Bisson and the chairman Howard Pearce we succeeded in reinstating the software license at a much-reduced cost. I was then able to verify the accounts from the records provided which represented a true and accurate picture of the financial status of the Charity as of 31[st] August 2023. The accounts were produced using the cash accounts basis and show all receipts and payments made within that period.
Gift Aid
I noted that there was still an outstanding gift aid application, but Paul is in the process of completing this and there should be an income in next year’s accounts.
Bank Fees
It would appear from the supporting documentation for this item that Unity Trust Bank may charge for cash deposits…. I’m afraid that either the choir must accept the charges going forwards for the cash deposits or …. And I dread to suggest this, open another account in which to deposit cash and then transfer to Unity Trust. Paul has contacted Unity Bank and hopefully he will have more news on this by the time of the AGM. It is not acceptable for any member of the committee to deposit choir cash into a personal account to then forward via cheque or bank transfer to the Unity Trust account.
There are no liabilities as all known costs were paid before 31[st] August 2023. The assets of the choir are represented by the cash in bank figure of £14,548 plus £100.00 held by the treasurer for petty cash expenses.
The accounts show that the reserves built up prior to 2020 enabled the choir to continue donating to charities and £3,000 was donated this year. The increasing costs for concert venues and associated concert costs were identified by the treasurer as requiring closer monitoring. To help the Trustees with forward planning additional analysis accounts were added to the statement of accounts this year to identify specific concert costs.
Paul Bisson has continued to maintain the books and records in a well organised and accurate manner, thus providing the Trustees with adequate information to steer the choir successfully into the future.
Jacqueline Llewellyn
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Cash Accounts
Shropshire Charity Concerts CIO
For the year ended 31 August 2023
| Shropshire Charity Concerts CIO For the year ended 31 August 2023 |
Shropshire Charity Concerts CIO For the year ended 31 August 2023 |
|---|---|
| 2023 2022 VARIANCE |
|
| Income | |
| L |
Choir Annual Subscriptions 10,669 8,123 31% |
| Concert programme sales 465 - - |
|
| Concert refreshment sales 469 - - |
|
| Donations for Refreshments and social events - 100 -100% |
|
| Interest Income 80 - - |
|
| Messiah subscriptions and donations 281 158 78% |
|
| Sales and hire of scores to members 281 171 65% |
|
| Scarves and folders sold 78 28 179% |
|
| Social events' ticket sales - 1,560 -100% |
|
| Ticket Sales - Creation 2,218 - - |
|
| Ticket Sales - Messiah 5,317 3,125 70% |
|
| Ticket Sales - Summer concert 1,920 2,000 -4% |
|
| Total Income 21,778 15,265 43% ess Expenses |
|
Advertising & Marketing 672 48 1,299% |
|
| Audit & Accountancy fees 200 1,800 -89% |
|
| Bank Fees 22 - - |
|
| Card Processing Costs ticketsource sumup 597 - - |
|
| Charity Donations 3,000 4,000 -25% |
|
| Concert expenses - 942 -100% |
|
| Concert Programme Costs 318 200 59% |
|
| Concert refreshment costs 392 - - |
|
| Creation Soloists 1,432 - - |
|
| Creation Concert Venue hire and Staging 709 - - |
|
| Creation Orchestra and Music Director 3,506 - - |
|
| Creation performance Costs 49 - - |
|
| Folders and Scarves cost to choir 554 - - |
|
| General Expenses - 105 -100% |
|
| Gifts purchased for members (retirement etc) - 189 -100% |
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Cash Accounts
| 2023 2022 VARIANCE |
|
|---|---|
| Insurance 99 664 -85% |
|
| IT Software and Consumables 80 230 -65% |
|
| Messiah Orchestra and MD 2,648 2,920 -9% |
|
| Messiah Performance costs 174 761 -77% |
|
| Messiah Soloists 1,500 1,600 -6% |
|
| Messiah Venue Hire and Staging costs 952 989 -4% |
|
| Music purchase and hire Cost to choir 570 361 58% |
|
| Postage, Freight & Courier 11 15 -28% |
|
| Rehearsal Conductor & Accompanist Costs 4,420 3,720 19% |
|
| Rehearsal Refreshment Costs 653 569 15% |
|
| Social functions and Refreshments - 1,461 -100% |
|
| Subscriptions 200 - - |
|
| Summer Concert Expenses 116 151 -23% |
|
| Summer Concert Soloists and Orchestra 1,060 1,200 -12% |
|
| Summer Concert Venue and Staging Costs 630 905 -30% |
|
| TotalExpenses 24,562 22,829 8% |
|
| Surplus(Deficit) (2,784) (7,564) 63% |
|
| Net Cash Movement Summary (2,784) (7,564) 63% |
|
| OpeningBalance 17,432 24,995 -30% |
|
| Plus Net Cash Movement (2,784) (7,564) 63% |
|
| Cash Balance 14,648 17,432 -16% |
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