Treasurer’s Report Year Ending 2025
Introduction
Overall, the Group has made a net surplus of income over expenditure of just over £2010. After a successful first year, we started the year 2025 with approximately £1496. With the above mentioned surplus we finished the year up with approximately £3,506 . This is a remarkable achievement and it is a big ‘thank you’ to all patrons, donors, members and, of course, our paying audiences.
Income
Our income derives from Patrons, Donations , Membership and Production Surpluses .
We are very grateful to have P atrons and Donors and we thank them most sincerely for their contributions. Their generosity last year provided an excellent start for the Group and enabled us to book The Lighthouse as one of the performing venues for our main production.
Membership payments contribute a sizeable sum which allows us to more than cover the essential insurance premium for the Group. The provision of workshops and social meetings during the year, we believe, goes along way to providing good value for the subscription.
Production Surpluses, in 2025, have made the largest contribution to our income and this was driven by a very large increase in ticket sales.
Our productions last year were, Echoes of Love (the sequel to last year’s Unbroken Bonds ), “ The Lovers & The Thief” a ‘Street Theatre’ production and Story Telling Readings in St. James Church as part of the Poole Seafood & Sounds Festival.
“Echoes” was performed at The Lighthouse, Bournemouth Little Theatre and The Grasshopper. The tickets were sold using TicketSource, reducing the need to take cash on the door. The number sold showed a huge increase compared with last year; 237 vs 91 hence the big increase in our income, £2325 vs £909.00.
We also purchased a card machine, CARDNET so that we could take card payments for programs & raffle tickets as well as cash. Whilst this has cost £49.00, it produced additional sales amounting to £80 at a financial running cost of only £1.43.
The the Street Theatre production and Story Telling Readings were performed in Old Poole and were ‘free to the public’ (as part of the festival). Whilst no income was taken on the day, we received a generous donation of £400 from the Poole Rotary Club as a ‘Thank You’ for our contributions.
Expenditure.
Our overall expenditure increased from £1294.77 to £1501.32. In general, more was spent on Room Hire, Set & Props, Printing & Publicity, Admin and Miscellaneous. Less was spent on costumes given that last year we were able to buy the Soldiers’ Uniforms for £400 which obviously saved us money in 2025. Storage of our costumes has meant a further £88 spent on storage boxes which currently reside in Carole’s garage. This is something with which we will need to address in 2026 and beyond.
The cost of the insurance remained the same as the cost in 2024. We did not need to claim but I don’t think any form of ‘No Claim Bonus’ applies.
The Miscellaneous category includes the cost of the storage boxes mentioned above and the cost of an MYPOS card machine. This particular card machine proved to be very time consuming to set up so it was cancelled and returned with a full refund. We opted for the Lloyds Bank CARDNET machine as an alternative which has proved to be successful.
Again, it should be noted that many of the cast, crew, members and patrons did provide props, raffle prizes etc. at their own expense, for which we are very grateful indeed. A big “Thank you” to all who contributed.
The year ahead.
I’m pleased to report that our insurance policy has been renewed for this year, again, at NO extra cos. Our main production this year is already underway and is entitled “ Shadows Over Whitechapel: Inspector Abberline & Jack The Ripper ”. It is to be performed at Bournemouth Little Theatre with the first performance on Friday 1[st] May and 2 performances on Saturday, 2[nd] May.
Bob Rankin Treasurer
Scaplen’s Community Players Trustees Report Year ending 31st December, 2025 Charity Registration Number: 1207729 Address: C/O 27, Blake Hill crescent, Poole, Dorset, BH14 8QW Trustees: Mrs. Carole Allen, Mr. Robert Rankin, Mr. Glanville Noye, Miss Marie Bushell
Structure and management .
The Scaplen’s Community Players are a local group who’s aim is promote historical theatre in the local community, through storytelling, drama and music. Our main goal is bring together local people from diverse communities to better understand our history and shared culture. The group is made up entirely of volunteers and are organised by a committee and other co-opted individuals.
Activities and objectives in the year
Our objectives in 2025 were;
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to present a minimum of one production each year, such production to be factually based, include songs, monologues and a play based upon real and actual local events & people
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provide educational workshops, demonstrations, lectures and social activities for members
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participate in the community festival, Poole Sea food & Sounds Festival with readings and a street theatre production.
Achievements
Our main production; ‘Echoes of Love’ , was a World War 2 based production and a sequel last year’s production. It consisted of a series of monologues, songs of the time and a play set in and around Poole in the days up to and approaching V E Day. Our three performances were a great success as evidenced by the excellent review from Scene One Plus. Two of the three performances were ‘Sell Outs’. Our audience feedback surveys continue to show that many people appreciate our approach to the portrayal of local history and would like to see more of what we do. A small section of the play was also performed, outdoors, at the Wimborne V E Day celebrations.
We did perform a Street Theatre Play at the Poole Seafood & Sounds Festival, “ The Lovers & The Thief” and was well received. Readings were also performed in St. James’ Church, Poole also as part of the festival. All performances were well received and we have been invited back for next year’s festival.
We held a couple of workshops; one featuring improvisation skills and the other entitled, Finding Your Voice’ concerning breathing, projection and diction. Social evenings included play readings and Christmas Get together.
Financial Review.
It has been another successful year. Total income for the year amounted to £3511 whilst our expenditure was £1501 l eaving us with a surplus of £2010. We started the year with £1495 thus giving us a final balance for the year of £3506. Donations and membership fees amounted to £1295, with which we were extremely delighted. The committee has endeavoured to keep ALL costs, both production and non production, to a minimum and our positive financial balance is evidence that this has been achieved. We are in an excellent financial position for our 2026 productions; ‘Shadows Over Whitechapel’ concerning the Jack The Ripper cases and the Chief Investigator, Inspector Abbeline, who was born in Dorset, and, at the seafood & Sounds Festival, a performance of ‘Mayhem At The Inn’, a story relating to Poole’s smugglers.
Summary
Our second year has been very successful. We have achieved our main objectives and we believe that the group is on a very firm financial footing to move forward. Plans are in hand for 2027 and 2028 productions.