MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF THE BURNHAM HISTORY SOCIETY FOR THE YEAR ENDING 31 DECEMBER 2023
HELD BY AT MUSEUM ON MONDAY 18 MARCH 2024 AT 7:00PM
Present: Margaret Smith (Chairman), Peter Burton (Treasurer), Hilary Skeens (Secretary), and Jeff Edwards (all Trustees) and members of the Society,
Apologies for Absence: Mike Gibson, John and Lyn McHugh
Minutes of the Previous Meeting: The Minutes for 2023 were approved and signed.
Matters Arising:
There were no matters arising
Chairman’s Address
2023 has been another successful year for the Burnham History Society. The main focus was to complete the accreditation of the Museum. This is done every 5 years and means a lot of paperwork and computer forms. We were granted accreditation in November and thanks to Peter for all the hard work and effort involved.
We received a legacy from a past member which meant we have been able to replace the guttering and the leaking brickwork over the stairs.
The kitchen has been renewed with new cupboards . We are also renewing the Oyster display.
We continue to receive items for the Museum and Archives We have received a lot of old artefacts and are now overwhelmed so we now sadly have to reject some if we already have several similar. We really can only accept items with a specific link to Burnham-on-Crouch and the Dengie Hundred.
Our Programme of Talks remains popular they included “Houses in Burnham”, “The 1953 Floods“, ”The Vanguard”, and “Warners Hall”. The outing was to Ingatestone hall where we had an interesting tour.
Michael Head arranged a successful fundraising event of his local picture postcards; one last October at Dengie Hall.
Zoe Bridges and Jenny Harris stood down as Trustees during the year, but many thanks go to them for their work on the Ephemera. Jill Taylor has taken over this task and is being assisted by David Lambert.
Sadly Peter Pearson died during the year. He did a lot of work for the Museum and his book “ A Century of Yachting and Boat Builders in Burnham-on-Crouch” is still selling well.
A big thank you to all the Stewards a who give so much time to the Museum without you we would not survive and to all who help in any way.
Honorary Treasurer’s Report
I’ll start with the good news, at the end of 2022 our bottom line income over expenditure was a positive balance of £11,452 compared with a loss of £1,683 for 2021.
Engagement with the Burnham U3A Archaeology group, of which we share some members here, means we now have a display of finds from the medieval Bishop’s palace dig at
Southminster Hall. This was enabled by a grant of £7,500 from the Turncole Wind Farm community fund, who also gave us funds towards our new windows.
Bequests came from our late member Rosemary Cowland £10,000 and Burnham Rotary £250. Membership income is up, Shop income has been maintained. Entrance fees were up, this year by 50% and the Cole Gallery income has more than doubled reflecting our recovery from Covid restrictions, as well as the beneficial effect of our Credit Card Reader.
Our expenses are, as always, unavoidable. Insurance is based on the cost of living index, so will always rise. Our gas bill was down (4 year fixed rate), water up, electricity up. We spent money from the Wind Farm grant on the Dig displays and new display cabinets, with the balance already earmarked. Routine inspection costs were up and maintenance has more than doubled, the extra includes storm damage repair to the Store Shed and replacement of the leaky front gutters. Improvements have been made to the Archive store including better lighting and storage boxes to accommodate recent donations.
We remain in a good financial position still benefitting from recent bequests and the government grant last year. Overall our bank account and COIF deposit account total £30,188.
We can continue with your help to improve our displays and welcome more visitors to our Museum.
Thanks as always to Jim Cousins our accounts examiner.
As there were no questions to the Treasurer, the Reports were approved. Proposer: Mel Lewis Seconder: Jim Cousins
AOB
There was no other business, but the following points were made:
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The Burnham Town Council awarded the Mayor’s Annual Trophy for Outstanding Service to the Town to the Burnham Museum and Margaret Smith and Peter Burton were invited to a ceremony to accept the trophy. Margaret observed that without the help of all our volunteers this award would not have been possible and she and Peter thanked all the volunteers and Stewards for all their work during the year.
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Peter Burton explained in a little more detail regarding the Museum’s accreditation.
The meeting closed at 7:20 pm and was followed by a talk on Birds and Wildlife of the Dengie by Martin Smith of Wick Farm.
| BURNHAM HISTORYSOCIETY | BURNHAM HISTORYSOCIETY | BURNHAM HISTORYSOCIETY | BURNHAM HISTORYSOCIETY | BURNHAM HISTORYSOCIETY | 13 February 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDING 31.12.2023 | ||||||
| INCOME AND EXPENDITURE STATEMENT | ||||||
| INCOME | 2023 | 2022 | ||||
| Members Subscriptions | 588.75 £ |
587.75 £ |
||||
| Meetings and Members'Donations | 570.40 £ |
403.90 £ |
||||
| Meetings guests'Donations | 62.00 £ |
- £ |
||||
| Public Donations | 203.88 £ |
277.72 £ |
||||
| Essex Community Fund Grant (U3A dig finds) | - £ |
7,500.00 £ |
||||
| Research/family history | 90.00 £ |
32.00 £ |
||||
| Cole (Lower) Gallery donations | 854.00 £ |
943.42 £ |
||||
| Fund-raising Events and Activities | 557.00 £ |
- £ |
||||
| Museum Entrance | 1,659.95 £ |
1,643.01 £ |
||||
| Museum sales, books etc | 1,152.95 £ |
782.60 £ |
||||
| Interest on COIF Deposit Account | 342.08 £ |
75.41 £ |
||||
| Bequests and Donations | 1,000.00 £ |
10,250.00 £ |
||||
| Easement | 25.00 £ |
50.00 £ |
||||
| Ingatestone Hall Outing | 216.00 £ |
540.00 £ |
||||
| Miscellaneous | - £ |
- £ |
||||
| u3a Booklet | 126.42 £ |
|||||
| 7,448.43 £ |
23,085.81 £ |
|||||
| EXPENDITURE | 7,106.35 £ |
|||||
| Speakers'Fees / Room Hire | - £ |
0.00 | ||||
| Subscriptions | 118.00 £ |
115.00 | ||||
| Publicity Advertising and Website | 159.00 £ |
159.00 | ||||
| Stationery Postage | - £ |
0.00 | ||||
| Water | 234.75 £ |
239.84 | ||||
| Gas | 401.04 £ |
466.55 | ||||
| Electricity | 850.78 £ |
738.63 | ||||
| Inspections and maintenance | 4,697.01 £ |
1,296.74 | ||||
| Materiels | 397.05 £ |
405.75 | ||||
| Stock purchases | 350.09 £ |
255.64 | ||||
| Capital expenditure | 220.00 £ |
408.39 | ||||
| Loan Repayments | 350.00 £ |
600.00 | ||||
| Ingatestone Hall Outing | 240.00 £ |
405.00 | ||||
| Insurance | 1,943.34 £ |
1,483.69 | ||||
| Printing Material | 55.44 £ |
101.02 | ||||
| Sundries/Housekeeping/Refreshments | 102.29 £ |
0.00 | ||||
| Essex Community Fund Grant spend | 1,713.36 £ |
4,957.94 | ||||
| 11,832.15 £ |
11,633.19 £ |
|||||
| Surplus Expenditure over Income | 4,383.72 -£ |
11,452.62 | ||||
| Brought forward 31.12.22 | ||||||
| Current Account | 22,382.41 £ |
|||||
| COIF Deposit Account | 7,805.85 £ |
|||||
| At 31.12.22 | Total | 30,188.26 £ |
||||
| Surplus Expenditure over Income | 4,383.72 -£ |
|||||
| Total | 25,804.54 £ |
|||||
| Current Account 31.12.23 | 17,656.61 £ |
|||||
| COIF Deposit Account | 8,147.93 £ |
|||||
| At 31.12.23 | 25,804.54 £ |