TAPLOW & HITCHAM WOMEN’S INSTITUTE
Institute Road, Taplow, SL6 0NS Registered Charity 228130
Annual Report 2020
This year has been a year like no other. It started off well in November with Liz in her second year as President with the support of six committee members. We sadly lost some members but gained some new ones and our membership stands at 62.
Brenda Burns, a long-time member, very generously left us £5,000 in her will to be spent on a Denman bursary. What can we say? Very sadly no more Denman but the money will be spent on two workshops a year to be offered to all members. We are hoping for some innovative ideas for these.
Mary Hill also left us a donation which we are now going to use for a post Covid party when we can all get together and her husband will be our guest of honour.
We made plans for some exciting outings – none of which we managed! We did fit in flower and block printing workshops before the lockdown. We closed the Hall a week before the official lockdown.
Liz has done a great job of keeping in touch with members with her weekly Lockdown Letters and long distance chats on doorsteps. WI newsletters have been emailed and delivered. In August we started holding picnics in the garden. The first had nine members attend, the second the maximum 30. It was a safe environment and it was great to see everyone looking so relaxed while respecting all the new regulations. Unfortunately, changing rules put a stop to that.
Zoom meetings have been encouraged by National and BFWI but this wasn’t of any interest to most of our members. We did have a couple of committee meetings using this but then met outside. Since the Rule of Six meetings have been held by email.
We made good use of the Hall being empty and had it decorated and it looks really good. We also had the driveway repaired and it is excellent. No more problems with low suspensions. We do need to have the WCs plastered as the walls are in a really bad condition and there is another leak in the roof that needs attention but hopefully it is only one tile. We will also have to replace the doors on the south porch as they are rotting. Our caretaker has made a repair to see us through the winter.
We applied for and received the £10,000 Retail, Hospitality and Leisure grant which paid for most of the driveway. We joined Community Impact Bucks which is an organization that provides help to community buildings and it has indeed been a great source of support and information – all for £60 a year.
Risk assessments and all suggested sanitation measures were put in place before we opened the Hall on 1[st] September. We spent just over £800. Most of our hirers are back in a changed format and have complied with all our safety requirements and so far, so good.
25[th] October 2020
TAPLOW & HITCHAM WOMEN’S INSTITUTE
Institute Road, Taplow, SL6 0NS Registered Charity 228130
Treasurer’s Report 2020
Financially and socially this has been a very disappointing year due to the Covid Pandemic.
The hall was closed for hire from the end of March 2020 and not reopened for business until 1[st] September 2020. During this time not only did we lose revenue but we were unable to undertake our usual monthly meetings. However, we were able to use the shutdown period to have the hall redecorated, the hall floor polished and make essential alterations to the car park. The cost of these undertakings were covered by withdrawing £9,000 from our Deposit account leaving us with a balance of almost £19.500.00.
Hopefully we will be able to continue to rent the hall and we are fortunate that all our regular hirers are now returning to carry on providing services, although current regulations are making their numbers limited to comply with safety precautions.
One exciting development was the receipt of a £10,000.00 grant from Bucks County Council which Linda applied for and was surprised to receive with very little undertaking. This “windfall” certainly helped to fill the empty space left when we were unable to open the hall for rental and was useful in assisting with payment of the ongoing monthly direct debits which running the hall requires.
The annual accounts will provide you with all the financial details of the past year and, taking all things into consideration, we can count ourselves lucky to be in a very stable financial situation going forward.
TAPLOW & HITCHAM WOMEN’S INSTITUTE
Institute Road, Taplow, SL6 0NS Registered Charity 228130
President report November 2020
I have just finished my second year as President, and it’s certainly been a very unusual year with Covid-19 hitting the country back in March and having to go into lockdown. Who would have thought this time last year that we would be where we are now. I will admit, having only had three meetings this year, I’ve been relieved at not having to lead everyone into the joyful singing of Jerusalem, the only part of the job that I hate! I have this fear that no one will join in and I’ll be left singing alone, completely out of key!
My report this year will be pretty short as not very much has happened, but all our committee members have decided to stand again for the coming year and I would like to thank them all for their continuous work in making sure the meetings went smoothly, when we had them! Also for their support as we have had to make a lot of decisions this year regarding not only the WI but everything to do with the hall.
I would like to especially thank our secretary Linda, who has worked so hard sourcing and purchasing all the PPE equipment for the caretaker, the hand sanitisers, all the cleaning materials and most importantly, doing the risk assessments. Without her knowledge of health and safety issues, I think it would have been a much harder job getting everything in place for re-opening the hall again.
I would also like to thank Jackie for keeping the accounts up to date and sorting out all the refunds for the trips and workshops.
It’s been a very challenging year for everyone and hopefully it won’t go on for too much longer. I hope you are all happy for me to stand again for the next year ahead as you are not getting to vote this year. We will do our best to get everyone back together again as soon as it is possible.
25[th] October 2020
Chwity number (d Rgis Fedttallon 228130 theWI Forth8 wiod 1.102019 30.9.2020 Sectlon A Receipts and Payments Payments A1 Receipts 617ts1 942.fxj 1.011.04 1339 1x327 GiftAKI 41m 43X 421.40 3.422 5.44427 4273 7.841.36 1.187m 24. 2520 152A) 139.16 102.15 18.(fj529 145rJ34 279K>.8 10.112 Total Receipts 30321) Tolat Payments 34,Y79.75 21?8.32 A3 totalrecelpts 5.250. 4757.85 A5 Totsl cash fty)ds fwom 185tyear kW•tBI} A6 Total cash fthmls caryled fornard atltas end 38,129.70 33.371.85
Buckinghamshire Federation of Women's Institutes Independcnt Examiner's Report on the Receipts and Payments Accounts %J14LTU+lA To the Trustees of...............................................................WI Charity No..................... I report on the Receipts and Pajinents Aecoutkts set out on the attaehed Financial Statetnent pages 1-3 for the above-named for the year ended.....4..11..j.....-................... . . Respective responsibilities of trustees and &Yaminer The trustees are responsible for the preparation of the aecounts. The trustees collsider that an audit is not required for this year under section 144(2) ol the Charities Act 2011 (the 2011 Aet) and that an independent examillation is needed. HawLg satlsfied tnyself that the charity is elI[e for Indendellt examination, it is my r&sponsibility to: Examine the aceounts llnder section 145 of the 2011 .4ct Follow the pr(edllres laid down in the General Directions giN-en by the Charity Commission under section 14J(j)O)) of the 2011 .4ct' and State wthether particular matters have come to attention. Basis of Independent Examiner's Report Iy examination was carried out in accordance with the general Directions given by the Charity Commission. An examination includes a Miew of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the aecounts presented i*ith those records. It also includes considerntion of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts and seeking explanations from jou as trustees concerning such matters. The procedures undertaken do not prowde all the eNidence that would be required in an audit, and consequently no opinion is Tren as to whether the accounts present a 'true and fair view and the retK)rt is lilted to those Matte set out in the next statemeut. Independent Examinerfs Statement In connection with my examination no matter has come to my attention, couthd below"): Which gives me reasonable Cause to believe thaL in any material respect, the requirements: To keep accounting records in accordan with sertioD of the Charities Aet 2011; and To prepare accounts which aecord with the accounting records and eomply with the aeeounting requiremellts of the Charities Act have not been met. or 2. To ¥hICh. in tny opinion, attention should I drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. . Please delete the wor(ts in brackets (they do not apply. Comments Signed.... . Name...... c ir£.....fv.e&6L To be prepared by the IFE. a copy to be retained by the Independent Examiner and one sent to the Federdtion Admlnistrator for the scheme at Stuart IA)dse. The Report retained by the WI Treasurer (to be shown to her Trustees) is now part of the Financial Statement. IS FL.. Ckn Ref: BFWI IFE July 2020 ¢knL_