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TRUSTEES’ REPORT
Metheringham Airfeld Visitor Centre AGM 2022 including merger of Friends of Metheringham Airfeld
Charity number 1194347
Covering period 2021 to 31 March 2022
Chair’s introduction
The new charity’s objects continue to be to advance the education of the public and provide for the general benefit of the public the preservation and conservation of the buildings, other constructions and related historic artefacts forming part the former Metheringham Airfield as defined in the lease and in connection with 106 Squadron of the Royal Air Force, No. 5 Group Bomber Command, the Royal Air Force and RAF Metheringham and by the exhibition and public display of historic and informative collections relating thereto.
Since opening the new charity the trustees have taken over the running of the visitor centre, we have developed 20 new policies which means we have standards which guide and help us to manage the work of the charity and the visitor centre. This report shares all that we have done over this first reporting period for the new charity and outlines our plans for the next 2 years.
The Trustees’ Report
- Our ambition over the next 2 years is to establish the One MAVC concept. This is to work smarter, have joined up communications, a strong operational group-trustee axis, training for all volunteers and for the organisation to be better connected at all levels. In 2021 and 2022 we started this by holding all volunteer training days at the beginning of both the 2021 and the 2022 seasons and a celebration and feedback day at the end of the 2021 season.
Our aspiration is that our focus as Trustees will move over time to being more strategic, taking an overview of the progress of the charity and achievement of its aims. With this in mind, in 2022 we will put in place an Operational Group made up of Visitor Centre volunteers. The Group will take responsibility for all aspects of the operation of the centre, including resourcing, maintenance and events and will report its work to the Trustees on a monthly basis. We will ensure that the effectiveness of the Group is continually reviewed with its members and changes to its remit and ways of working made as needed.
Trustees are continuing to work with the landlords and MAVC Solicitors regarding the new site lease.
In the course of the year Trustees have worked together to improve the charity’s meetings by introducing new, structured, agendas, an action log and a forward
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planner to support timely discussions on the most important issues. We have developed a comprehensive suite of policies - including a code of conduct - which have been communicated to everyone actively involved in the running of the charity and covered in more detail at a training day for our volunteers.
It's been a good year for our first year as a new charity, the CIO. We were pleased with the finance, Commercial & Fundraising elements following a period of closure due to the pandemic. In the Shop and coffee shop new electronic tills have been introduced in the shop and the coffee shop which help with stock checking. Another recent feature is the purchase of a bar code reader along with barcodes for over 95% of shop items. This helps volunteers to find and scan goods and hopefully makes their job a little easier. The total amount put through the tills during the period is £20693 however that is not all profit but it gives a good indication of how the charity is doing.
Visitor numbers – the site has been open for 10 months in this reporting period. Visitor numbers are as follows
Adults paying gift aid = 1322 Adults = 219 Children under 16 = 218 Members = 49
Coffee Stall, our on site coffee shop was introduced for the start of the delayed 2021 season. We were able to open this after grant funding enabled us to completely refit the kitchen to catering standards, this addition to our visitor offering has proved to be very popular.
Volunteer management during this period has been shared between volunteers working on recruitment, and managing the onsite shifts. From the start of the 2022 season we introduced a new self service scheduling app , this has worked well replacing a paper version of the rota. In June 2021, we introduced new badges and lanyards for our volunteers so that they would be more visible to visitors. We also gave the volunteers an option of purchasing some MAVC branded clothing which proved to be a welcome addition.
We have received great visitor feedback on Google, through our social media platforms and in our on site comments book.
After the upheaval of the covid pandemic and subsequent lockdowns many of our curatorial volunteers returned back to site to finish the work which was started during the closed season of 2019/2020 and abruptly stopped in March 2020. They worked extremely hard behind the scenes on a complete redisplay of the Carey Powell room, a new ‘Food for Thought’ display in the Peter Scoley Hall (PSH) whilst ensuring all of the other objects were placed back on display ready for the reopening of the centre in late June 2021. We also took the opportunity to give all of the museum rooms a much needed refresh with some deep cleaning and a fresh lick of paint. During the closed season of 2021/2022 our volunteers battled the cold to complete an inventory of one of our collection stores and we also managed to get all the clothing items we have on display frozen and cleaned ready for the new season.
Our archive volunteers and research team have been working hard throughout the period to create and organise an archive which holds information on
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individual members of crew which the link to full crew lists with further information if we have it. This work has been enhanced through the collection of information from relatives of 106 Squadron and those that worked at RAF Metheringham. The team are diligently continuing to research and file information and they have some exciting ideas about how the information we have can be shared with our visitors.
By the start of the 2022 season our Dakota was fully enclosed in its purpose built hangar. This provided not only shelter from the elements but also a space for our Dakota engineers to work. In January and working with other organisations including East Kirkby Heritage Centre , we obtained two additional propellers.
Trustees and volunteers worked extremely hard in the course of the 2021 opening season to publicise the visitor centre and its attractions and activities - which included a Family Fun Day in September. We secured positive coverage in local media, including the Lincolnshire Echo, the Bailgate Independent and Your Local Lincs magazine which contributed to visitor numbers and awareness of the charity’s work. The visitor centre was also a stop for BBC Radio Lincolnshire’s Pirate Gold treasure hunt during the season.
Due to Covid restrictions, our trademark lecture series took place in a shortened form in 2021. We were delighted to welcome back both lecturers and audiences in the course of the summer.
MAVC continued to have a lively and engaging social media presence, with regular posts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, along with the redesigned website; this all raised the centre’s profile with national and international audiences.
The 106 Squadron Families reunion took place as usual in July 2021 having missed 2020 altogether. Sadly no veterans were able to attend this time, and numbers were a little lower as understandably people were still nervous of gathering together, especially the older generation. Having said that, we had almost 50 for lunch and 37 attending the Reunion dinner, at which we were joined by RAF Coningsby’s Station Commander’s representative and several high ranking personnel from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.
Looking ahead we continue to recruit new volunteers and have set up an Operational Group to look after the day to day activities. The ‘One MAVC’ concept is to establish much better communication links between the different groups under the MAVC umbrella leading to better connections across the organisation. We wish to enhance our contact with local communities and build closer links with similar organisations within the area, such as the IBCC and the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre. We want to build visitor numbers through continuing to change and improve displays and adding new attractions especially within the hangar space. Our buildings need constant maintenance and our wish is to add to our building stock to further improve our archive and storage space as well as being able to offer facilities to other organisations.
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Audited accounts Dec 2021/end March 2022
Note use of brackets ( ) denotes income /credit
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Current
Metheringham Airfield Visitor Centre Balance
Day to day running
(32,494.74
Transfers of £ assets from FOMA )
Admininstration, Legal costs 137.88
Electricity 0.00
Insurance 354.68
Postage 75.39
Printing 260.18
Stationary general 8.20
Subscriptions 165.00
Telephone 0.00
Water 0.00
Bank interests and charges 19.79
Cash differences though tills 0.00
IT 194.69
Maintanance Dakota 305.76
Maintanance of site 270.00
Maintenance buildings 891.29
Maintainance of memorial garden 0.00
Museum collection care
Museum interpretation and displays 0.00
Shop restocking (79.69)
Miscellaneous 0.00
Volunteer Management 0.00
Planned events
106 Reunion at PHS 6 July 2022 0.00
Annual dinner at Dower House 5 July
2022 0.00
Childrens trail 0.00
Volunteers events 395.42
Remembrance Sunday 0.00
Queens Platinum Jubillee celebrations 0.00
Art display (51.00)
Income Generation
Catering and coffee shop 216.54
Donations (Gift Aid and SDS) (318.47)
Entrance fees (631.00)
Gift aid reclaim (524.37)
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| Membership Subscriptions (Gift Aid) | (3,258.98) |
|---|---|
| North Kesteven Lottery | (34.00) |
| Dakota Draw | (208.40) |
| Shop profts | (226.38) |
| Lectures | (159.00) |
| Planned Projects | |
| Furniture store inside PSH | 0.00 |
| Romney shed site | |
| ISO container for Dakota | |
| Crane | |
| Nissan hut build | |
| Total | (34,691.2 1) |
| Resticted funds (Grants) | |
| Cutorial and collection | 296.69 |
| FOMA MDEM Small grant | 0.00 |
| Education | 0.00 |
| Designated funds | |
| Emergency reserves | |
| Total balance(inc reserves) | (34,394.5 2) |
| Balance sheet 2021/2022 | |
| Balance Carried Forward | 0.00 |
| Current balance | (34,394.52 ) |
| CarryForward | (34,394.52 ) |
| Co-op current account | (34,077.07 ) |
| Cash | (317.45) |
| Total in bank and cash | (34,394.52 ) |
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