LEThER BOX STUDY GROUP Letter Box Study Group Charitable Incorporated Organisation Charity Registration Number 1198577 Trustees, Report and Financial Statements For the year ended 30 April 2024
Letter Box Study Group Charity No: 1198577 REFERENCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE DAlLs Registered Charity Number: 1198577 Trustees The affairs ofthe CIO are managed by its Trustees. The Trustees who served during the year are- Andrew R Young (Chairman and Arting Treasurer) Paul Snelling (Vice Chairman) Valerie P Scott (Secretary) Wayne E Cox Robert R Hunt (resigned 4 Septernber2023J Isla M Kennedy [appointed 14 October2023J Simon Vaughan Winter Andrew W Young The Trustees met formally on two ocrdsions during the year using Zoom, with additional discussions taking place by email. Contact address 7 Bow Close, Newport. TFIO 7GR Independent Examiner Cyril R H Parsons. 83 Ingram Avenue, Aylesbury. HP219DH Bankers TSB Bank PLC. 30-31 Longcauseway, Peterborough. PEI IXP Objects The objects of the LBSG as laid out in its constitution are to advance the education of the public in the heritage and history. development and maintenance ol letter boxes in the United Kingdom. and British letter boxes worldwide where they are found. including by.. maintaining the only comprehensive data base of the 115.500 roadside letter boxes including location, style, type. monarchical cipher, and rarity 2. providing educational information via the CIO'S website and social media channels, newsletter, meetings. publications, email discussions and picture sharing working collaboratively particularly with Royal Mail and The Postal Museum, their heirs and successors, on heritage issues. including through heritage meetings chaired by the CIO, and to help support the policy agreement of Royal Mail and English Heritage on the conservation of roadside letter boxes 4. providing educational materials For the use of schools and informal education organisations on the history of the design of and social communications through roadside letter boxes
Letter Box Study Group Charity No: 1198577 REPORT OF THE TRusfEES for the year ended 30 April 2024 The Trustees are pleased to present their report together with the financial statements of the charity for the year ended 30 April 2024. The Group is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) incorporated on I l April 2022, having previously been an unincorporated association founded in 1976. Public Benefit The Trustees have regard to the Charity Commission's guidance on public benefit. Under their Guidance the Group fulfils its Public Benefit requirement particularly through points 2, 3, and 4 of its Objects as stated on the previous page. and through its General Enquiries facility available to the public on its website. Membershlp At the start of the year the Group had a membership of 514. and on 30 April 2024 membership stood at $16. Most interest groups are finding it dilTicult to recruit new members and are losing members each year through agin& so it is very pleasing to see our numbers remain steady. Our Secretary. Val Scott, manages our membership records and deals with new members who join during the year. She is particularly busy during membership renewal period in lune and july. Newsletter Four editions of the Group's high-quality and well-respected Newsletter were produced in the year, edited by Simon Vaughan Winter. All were in full colour and the content totalled 236 A4 pages. As always, a broad range of topics were covered. varying widely in approach and fully- reflecting the many letter box-related subjects that interest members. Meetings Three meetings were held in the year. The first was held at King's Lynn on 13 May 2023. The AGM took place at Bishop's Monkton, near Ripon, on 14 Ortober 2023 and this was followed by our annual virtual meeting via Zoom on 20th january 2024. Fifty members joined in from all corners of the U Publications A wide range of publications are available to membets with an order form appearing in each Newsletter. The Group's flagship fvll-colour Guide to British LetterBoxes grew to 28 Sections. with compilation ol the 29th due to start once updates have been completed to some of the older sections. Supporting the Guide is a comprehensive series of46 Smart Viewing NoteR The Directory is the LBSG database of box types and their locations and is available in full, normally supplied on USB memorystick Printed lists offeringa wide range oFDirectoryextracts are also available. The Re9lSter of Box Trpes reached version 21 during the year. Copies of Newsletters 1-191 are available on USB memory stick, supported by the free Index to Newslette, available in two sections, numbers 1-113 and 114-191. A significant addition to the materials new members receive in their welcome packs was rnade with the introduction of the "Beginner's Letter Boxes" Guide, a 24 page full colour A5 booklet. compiled by mevnber Steve johnson. Website The LBSG website continues to offer information to visitors and is an important recruitment tool. The news pages were updated throughout the year. and included items on the"Liverpool Special" and Eurovision, special postboxes to celebrate the Coronation. letter box toppers. the Group's contribution to an hour long discussion about postboxes on BBC Radio 5 Live. singing postboxes at Christmas. an article in The Times about the difference between a Pillar Box and a Letter Box, and the addition of-Beginner's Letter Boxes" to our new members. Welcome Pack. Work to develop the website further is ongoing.
Letter Box Study Group Charity No: 1198577 Social Media We recognise fully the importance of social media as a means of reaching and educating the public about letter boxes (thereby fulfilling one of our Public Benefit obligations) and enticing some of thetn to become members. Isla Kennedy manages our Facebook, Instagrom, and X (fvrmerly Twitter) accounts and continues to have a great deal of success with regular posts covering a wide range ofthemes. She is supported by members who make their photographs available, and then join in with the discussions that follow. Post Box Working Group The Group's Information Officer, Paul Snellin& chairs this Working Group attended by the LBSG. Royal Mail and The Postal Museum. It is a very useful lorum for the exchange of information relating to letter boxes and allows us to highlight important matters and keeps up to date on Royal Mail's management of their post box estate. The Group met twice during the year, with more informal contact by email in-between time. Email Discussion Group The LBSG Mailing List is a forum via email which allows members to discuss anything relevant to the LBSG and to share photographs. Its origins can be traced back to May 1999 and it remain5 as popular as ever. During the year 85 differeni metnbers made 7.869 postings to the Mailing List. The Directory Tlie Directory 15 the LBSG'S fully-cornputerised database of l)ox types and their locations. The Group's Information Officer. Paul Snellin& manages the updates received daily from members. These are entered remotely into the database by Paul and his RaK (Records and Knowledge) team. 9.534 entries were made in the year and the database contained a total of 766,395 individual record5 on 30 April 2024, relating to nearly 123.000 British and Irish letter boxes in use and preserved. in the UK, Ireland, and overseas. Paul also deals with any General Enquiries we receive from the public and keeps in regular contact with Royal Mail. IT The LBSG'S IT Officer. Andrew W Young is responsible for all the Group's technology infrastructure and operations including data security and risk mitigation. vendor and cost management as well as day-to-day technical support to our volunteer teams. Educational Materials Another of our Public Benefit obligations is ro provide educational rnaterials for the use of schools and informal education organisations on the history of the design of, and social communications through, roadside leiter boxes. An education pack is downloadable from ourwebsite and consists of worksheets and activities for EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage), and Key Stages l and 2. There are also notes for extension activitt"es. The LBSG Education Pack helps children- and adults look a little more closely at posi boxes, their place in our community landscape, and the importance of staying in touch with friends, family and neighbours all over the world. Finances The Group continues to be financially stable. The financial report and statement of accounts follow this report. Signed on behalf ofthe Trustees on 25 july 2024. D S_tL Andrew R. Young Chairman Valerie P. Scott Secretary
Letter Box Study Group Charity No: 1198577 FINANCIAL REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 APRIL 2024 The financial accounts for the year ended 30 April 2024 are for Letter Box Study Group Charitable Incorporated Organisation's second year. We became a charity on 11 April 2022 and our first year's accounts covered the 385 day period from then until 30 April 2023- thus the comparative figures shown represent a slightly longer period. Our subscription year runs from I lune to 31 May annually, and subscriptions for new members who join between l March and 31 May last up to fifteen months. In the year to 30 April 2024 both subscription income at £14,999 and net sales income at £1.478 showed small increases on the previous year. Donations of £797 include £256.17 paid to us by easyfundmising. Gift Aid receivable this year is £1,601, a new and valuable source ofincome since we became a registered charity. We are able to claim an extra 25p for every £1 we receive in subscriptions and donations from members who live in the UK. pay sufficienttax and have completed a Gift Aid Declaration Form. If you qualify but have not yet done this, please consider doing so. Forms are available from the Group's Secretary. Val Scott. As always, the most significant item of expenditure is our Newsletter. This year members received three standard issues of 56 pages. and a bumper Winter issue of 68 pages. Although Newsletter postage costs increased we were able to limit this once more by buying a stock of NVI stamps ahead of Royal Mail's price increase. Our Editor, Simon Vaughan Winter, treats us to a superb full-colour Newsletter every quarter, and ensures we get excellent production costs and service from our printers. The increase of £398 in print. post. and stationery is due to increases in the cost of ink cartridges and postage. Website and internet costs increased too, due to the rising costs of ourtechnologyand communication systems. This is our biggest and most importantarea of expenditure after the Newsletter. Our IT OfficerAndrewW Young monitors these costs very closely, always ensuring that our systems are secure and fully recoverable. Although we ended the year with a small deficit of£29 1 am pleased to say that the Group continues to enjoy a sound financial position. The reserves figure on the balance sheet has reduced by this amount and stands at £21,088. The value of the stamps we held in stock at 30 April 2024 for future Newsletter mailings was £4.574. an increase of£854 on the figure a year earlier. Cyril Parsons has undertaken an independent examination of these accounts once again. Cyril took on this role in 2013 and will be retiring at our AGM this year. The help and advice he has given me during this eleven year period has been invaluable. He was also closely involved in our application to become a CIO and has helped ensure that we meet the accounting requirements and tighter timetable that gaining charitable status now dictates. On behalf of all of the Trustees I'd like to thank him for all that he has done for the Group. As a result of Cyril's retirement we urgently need to find a replacement independent examiner. IFyou have the necessary expertise and are willing to help in this way please contact me without delay. Andrew R Young Acting Treasurer
Letter Box Study Group Charity No: 1198577 INDEPENDENT EXAMINER'S REPORT ON THEACCOUNTS TO THE TRusfEES OF THE LETTER BOX STUDY GROUP FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 APRIL 2024 I report to the Trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity for the year ended 30 April 2024. Responsibilities and basis of report As the charity's Trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements ofthe Charities Act 2011 ("the Act"). I report in respect of my examination of the Trust's accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in my examination. I have followed all the Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5){b) of the ACL Independent Examiner's Statement I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in any material respert: the accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act,. or the accounts did not accord with the accounting records: or the accounts did not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and contents of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a'true and fair. view which is not a matter considered as part ofan independent examination. I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding ofthe accounts to be reached. 26 july 2024 Cyril R H Parsons 83 Ingram Avenue AYLESBURY, HP219DH
Letter Box Study Group Charity No: 1198577 LETTER BOI STII)Y GROI? LNCOIIE .lI) E_VENDlTi"RE .4C"COIThT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 10.4PRIL 2024 •0?4 [500 d(nsJ •0•3 [48) dtn'sj 14.999 I4.9 •950 11.47! 1.783 Pwcbase5 1.478 1_103 945 ftALd ?61 19.136 l36 18.343 E40"14T* 7.659 3.585 3.861 11.671 4_ 173 505 4.?73 3.4 587 59 5.-1! Total
Letter Box Study Group Charity No: 1198577 LETfER BO_I STITIY GROI"P BALNC"E SHEET AT 30 APRIL 2024 •fj4 •0? J [485 da)s] i.ILY 158n 814 739 15.419 14.586 Ca lJ93 1.510 ?30 3.-.7Q !1.019 641 1641) T•tsJ.4sfets CTrTelltlaAkn Rpr•guied Tnsf[ed frLYn 19.908 SurphLS (Ikfiutl of hKcqDr o&rr Signed on behalfofthe Trustees on 25 july 2024. Andrew R. Young Chairman Valerie P. Scott Secretary