Gerrans Parish Memorial Hall
AGM April 2023 – Chair’s Report
For those who may be new to the Charity, our purpose is to provide and promote our assets for “ physical and mental training and recreation and social, moral and intellectual development’. Today, along with the Memorial Hall, we fulfil this purpose through a broader base of assets, including the Surgery, Heritage Centre, and a telephone box.
The model that has been created over the years, is a shining example of community selfhelp. The rental income that passes from the NHS to the Surgery and then to the Charity, is reinvested back into the maintenance and improvement of our assets that serve our community so well.
The work of our Charity through 2022 is reported through our existing Charity (Registration Number 300543). Through 2021 we started to shift our legal structure to this, new Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO). Originally we had anticipated that our first full annual report for the new CIO would be for the 2022 year. However, it has taken longer to complete the transfer of our bank accounts and physical assets than we had anticipated and so we agreed as Committee that the first full annual report will be for 2023 and signed off at our AGM in 2024.
CIOs are a relatively new, and very helpful legal structure for organisations like ours. CIOs are similar to companies, in that they have the same legal status as a person. This means we can enter into contracts under the name of Gerrans Parish Memorial Hall. Before we formed the CIO, any contract we signed, for say a utility bill or some maintenance work, had to be done in the name of an individual Trustee. That meant that individual also had all the liability should something go wrong. This new move means that our trustees and members generally have limited or no personal liability – which makes it a little easier for people to decide to volunteer to be a Trustee in the future.
However, because CIOs are not companies we don’t have to register with Companies House, rather we are registered and governed by the Charity Commission. This saves us lots of time, effort and costs in paperwork.
In moving to the new legal structure, we also took the opportunity to review and refresh all the polices that govern how we operate to bring us in line with the latest Charity Commission best practice. These documents cover a range of topics including: conflicts of interest; financial procedures; reserves; safeguarding; and data protection.
I look forward to reporting on the Charity on behalf of the Trustees and Members at our AGM in 2024.
Andy Mullins
Chair of Gerrans Parish Memorial Hall Committee (April 2023)
CHARIIY COMMISSION FOR EN6iAND AJ4D WALES 1191610 Recei and ents accounts CC16a To 31-[2 Section A Receipts and payments Total fuTrJs fvrNts funds fvnds LaFt yr A1 Roryi AR) 50200 A3 51 CCXX R1 ISS)
Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period 81 Cash End81 funds BS •Ilt Date of 1ar-23 1U•.23 CCKX R2 Issi 06rt1312023