## **THE QUEKETT MICROSCOPICAL CLUB UK Registered Charity No. 232476 Annual Report of the Committee for the year ending 31[st] December 2023** At the end of the year 2023 the total membership was 529 now made up of: - 444 UK or European based Ordinary Members, - 85 Rest of the world members. - These numbers include: - 494 Adult Members, - 2 Young Members, - 8 Complimentary Members, - 11 Honorary Members, - 3 Legal depositories (one of which is the Natural History Museum Library), - 5 Supporting Member organisations. - 6 Organisations subscribing to the Journal There were no nominations for Honorary Membership during this period 1 January 2023 – 31 December 2023. During the same period we were notified of the deaths of the following members Derek Brown, John Millham, Brian Mooney, Philip Muston, Don Rutherford and Mr Keith Stringfellow. ## **Finances** The Club’s income for the year amounted to £57,110[1] (2022: £58,946) and expenditure £63,272 (2022: £57,056). This leads to a deficit for the year (and decrease of cash funds) of £6,162 (2022: surplus of £1,890). The Club’s cash funds as of 31st December were £210,924 (2022: £217,086), and our investment assets £386,968.42 (2022: £357,215). The decrease in income (as compared to 2022) was principally due to the substantial income in 2022 from a members’ auction. The overall significant deficit was due to the Committee’s decision to use income (particularly donated income) accrued during COVID to increase our charitable spend, as explained later on in this report. ## **Committee** The Committee for 2023 was composed of President: Terence Hope Vice President: Steve Gill Hon. Secretary: Lisa Ashby Meetings Secretary: Paul Smith Hon. Treasurer: Stephen Parker Journal Editor: Phil Greaves / Alex Cunningham Bulletin Editor: Chris Thomas Collections and Archives Officer: Phil Greaves Webmaster: Peter Wyn–Jones Membership Secretary: Robert Ratford Committee Member: Grenham Ireland (also regional meetings) Graham Matthews Page 1 of 7 ## **THE QUEKETT MICROSCOPICAL CLUB UK Registered Charity No. 232476 Annual Report of the Committee for the year ending 31[st] December 2023** ## **Meetings** ## 17[th] January, Gossip meeting – My Latest Acquisition ## 7[th] February, Gossip meeting – Capturing and Editing Video Willem Cramer gave us an introduction to why one might want to use video. He described the hardware he used and emphasised the importance of a powerful computer to reduce the rendering time and avoid unexpected shutdowns. He talked about the software he used for capture (Motic Images Plus 3.0) and editing (DaVinci Studio) and about the use of accompanying sound. He demonstrated the results with his own short video clips. ## 25[th] February, Home Counties Meeting at Cobham This was the third of a series of full–day meetings in the Home Counties that we hope will encourage more members to attend face–to–face events because they will not have to travel into central London. We were pleased to see some new faces as well as the regulars. It was held in the main hall of Church Gate House Centre, where the South Thames Discussion Group met for several years, adjacent to St Andrews Church in Cobham, Surrey. The hall has a kitchen where tea, coffee and biscuits were available when we arrived and during the afternoon. 11[th] March, Reading Convention This year the Convention moved to Sonning Common Village Hall, a bit further from Reading. The Convention is now being run by the Quekett Microscopical Club, retaining the usual format of the morning devoted to exhibits and sales, followed by a break for lunch and then a talk in the afternoon. 25[th] March, Midlands Meeting Penkridge 1[st] April, Workshop – Epi–Illumination Epi–illumination involves light reflected from the specimen, and is the normal illumination in metallurgical microscopy and the most common illumination used with stereomicroscopes. Reflections of the light source can be a problem, but can often be reduced using two polarisers or diffused illumination. ## 15[th] April, Lockington Meeting 22[nd] April, Gossip – South Coast Spring Meeting We always had the door open so holidaymakers and villagers would often drop in for a look. To encourage this, posters were distributed around libraries and notices put in tourist offices and newsletters in Poole, Swanage and Langton inviting visitors to drop by. Posters were also passed to local schoolteachers to display. ## 29[th] April, East of England Meeting, Bradfield St. George 27[th] May, Joint Meeting with Bournemouth Natural Science Society & Museum (BNSSM) The 3rd Joint Meeting of the BNSS and the QMC included an exhibition of microscopy which was well attended by members and members of the public. The meeting was available to family groups visiting the museum and a number of visiting members were able to discuss the finer points of the microscope and camera set ups on show. It was followed by an afternoon talk ‘Spiders: a closer look at their special features – from eyes to spinnerets” from Dr. Jeremy Poole 10[th] June, Home Counties Meeting, Dagenham, Essex The meeting at the Eastbrookend Discovery Centre had good transport links and lakes, woodland and grassland for collecting specimens. Page 2 of 7 **THE QUEKETT MICROSCOPICAL CLUB UK Registered Charity No. 232476 Annual Report of the Committee for the year ending 31[st] December 2023** 24[th] June, Gossip meeting – Polarised Light Microscopy - 2[nd] July, Northampton Natural History Society – Annual Exhibition - 11[th] July, Lecture – LV Martin. “Desktop Scanning Electron Microscopy” by Dr. Alex Ball. 12[th] August, Microscopium, The Microscopists’ Fair Our first Microscopium at Letchworth Settlement in 2022 was a success, so we returned for the 2023 event. As always, Microscopium provided members and visitors with a good opportunity to dispose of surplus items and to acquire new kit, and also provided an excellent opportunity to meet old friends, make new friends, and gossip over tea and coffee and over lunch. An overtime ban on the trains and the ever–increasing cost of petrol may have kept some people away, but we still had a good crowd of buyers. As usual, there were bargains ranging from filters and bulbs for £1 to slide cabinets, a trinocular Zeiss PrimoStar and a huge Reichert Zetopan outfit. ## 23[rd] September, Midlands Meeting at Penkridge October, Annual Exhibition of Microscopy - Quekex The event was held for the third time at Elm Court Youth and Community Centre, Potters Bar, Hertfordshire. As usual, there were demonstrations and exhibits by members, displays of the photomicrographs, videos, slides and artwork submitted for awards, lectures, and plenty of gossip. In accordance with tradition, Club President Terry Hope opened the meeting by sounding the Quekett horn. The event and offered both online content and a physical event and saw good attendance at both. - 11[th] October – Zoom only lecture Topic: Forensic chemical microscopy and the fun of figuring things out by Skip Palenik of Microtrace. - 14[th] October 2022 – physical event with displays and awards. - 14[th] October 2022 – lectures Fluorescence microscopy and its use in the life science by Nicola Lawrence, Deputy Imaging Facility Manager– Cambridge University and Condenser–free Differential Quantitative Phase Contrast (dPC) microscopy – measuring refractive index using LEDs by Dr. Kevin Webb, Associate Professor in Applied Optics and Electrophysiology, Faculty of Engineering – Nottingham University. 14[th] November, Lecture – MC Cooke Lecture. “Sticklebacks under the Microscope” Professor MacColl Professor MacColl’s research interests include the population ecology of vertebrates, the ecology of freshwater fish (especially the stickleback) and fish parasitology. He teaches a second year residential ‘Biodiversity Field Course’ in Dovedale each year. The lecture was extremely interesting and covered various species from many parts of the world, and some horrible parasites that they are prone to contracting. 21[st] November, Gossip meeting – Dry Mounts in Slip Cases Former Club President Carel Sartory gave a talk on his method of making slip cases or Plummer Slides for larger specimens. That is for use in mounting whole insects and the like and not tiny forams where such slides are commonly used. 9[th] December, Lecture and Christmas Quiz The lecture was given by well-known Dutch microscopist Wim van Edmond on, photomicrography including time lapse video. The traditional quiz was prepared by Robert Ratford and provided an enjoyable end to the Club’s year. Page 3 of 7 ## **THE QUEKETT MICROSCOPICAL CLUB UK Registered Charity No. 232476 Annual Report of the Committee for the year ending 31[st] December 2023** ## **Publications** We have used our current printers for many years and used the same bulk mailing service throughout. Over the last couple of years we have had significant problems with delivery of overseas publications, this has resulted in a change of printer and mailing service for the last two publications of 2023. As a result overseas members are now receiving publications in a timely manner. ## **Journal:** Volume 44 parts 5 and 6, Summer and Winter 2023 respectfully were issued. Dr. Penny Thoyts unfortunately had to stand down as Editor early in 2023 due to pressures of work and Part 5 was edited by Phil Greaves. This issue was delayed in production while several contributors completed their articles and was finally issued in September. Several North American members experienced problems in receiving their copy, due to problems with the international shipment. Dr. Alex Cunningham, a retired oceanographic scientist and Club member based in Glasgow, came forward to volunteer his skills as Editor for the Journal and the Winter issue of the Journal was produced by him, supported by Phil Greaves. Overseas members were able to confirm that the alternative postal arrangements made for this edition were successful. **Bulletin:** The Bulletin provides a more magazine–like complement to the academic Journal. Numbers 84 in May and 85 in November 2023 were published with a good complement of our member’s wonderful and varied contributions, and it looks as if the positive trends of diversity, number and locations of contributors are continuing. Due to mailing issues with our last printer with Bulletin No 84, we changed to the same printer used by the PMS for Bulletin 85, and this seemed to have resolved the mailing issues, apart from any due to address changes by members. We did have one hiccup in that the first mailing of Bulletin 85 had been mis–bound, resulting in a rather unusual pagination. The printers promptly responded and addressed the issue, sending out the correctly bound version as soon as they could, with profuse apologies. Such errors are extremely rare and some members might want to retain the unusual copy as a novel item, in addition to the corrected one! ## **The Club on–line** (https://www.quekett.org) The website continues to attract about 200 hits per day from a range of countries, mostly from the UK and US. The Programme page is usually the most popular with some of the Resources pages also well visited, the pages on digital photomicrography being especially sought after. With the advances in photographic techniques, for example much increased resolution of cameras, it is probably time to review these pages and get them updated: it is therefore proposed that a low-key drive is started to encourage those members (and others?) either to revise their existing contributions or to write new ones, and thus enhance the club’s contribution to the field. Focusstacking, shadowless illumination and dark-ground illumination seem to be popular topics. The WordPress installation continues to work well and is now automatically updated, as are most of the plug-ins (which add functionality to the website) and the UpDraft Plus software, which backs up the entire site on a daily basis. The ‘MiniOrange’ plugin, which allows members to access all parts of the website via a single sign-on of their username and password, has been a useful part of the major revision of the membership system and, although expensive, provides a much simpler path for members to log in. It also has other, new (for 2024), benefits which will be explored to see how they serve our needs. Assistance in keeping the website up to date this year has been provided by Alan Wood and Chris Thomas Page 4 of 7 ## **THE QUEKETT MICROSCOPICAL CLUB UK Registered Charity No. 232476 Annual Report of the Committee for the year ending 31[st] December 2023** ## **Collections and archives** The bequeathed collection of mounted slides by the late Doug Richardson have now been fully photographed and records transferred into the Club’s slide database. Now this work is complete, loan sets of slides from this collection will be made up in 2024 for members to borrow for personal use, in accordance with the wishes of the donor. Rationalisation of historical books held in long-term storage at the Club’s store room in the Natural History Museum was completed and those books deemed unsuitable for long term conservation in the Club’s collections were offered for sale by postal auction at the end of 2023. This has raised funds to allow for professional conservation bookbinding and acid-free archival storage of a small core collection of rare historical books (some dating back to the 18th Century) which the Club plans to share with members by display at the Annual Exhibition and other events. Possibly due to the increasing costs of postage, and the reduction in the number of meetings held in London, there have been no loans of slide sets or library books in 2023. The Club will continue to promote and develop the loan sets of slides, especially with new material from the Richardson collection, and will review longer-term options for the book lending library, which remains underutilised. ## **Charitable / Outreach Activities** As part of our outreach programme we had a stand at the following events: - Saturday family morning at Oakdale library, Poole - Geologists Association Festival of Geology - MMC2023 Royal Microscopical Society Microscience Exhibition - Wimbledon Common Nature Day. - Practical Astronomy Show - Amateur Entomologists’ Society (AES) Members’ Day - Chinbrook Meadows Nature Discovery Day - Warnham Local Nature Reserve excursion - Grove Park Carnival - Wimbledon Common Open Day - New Scientist Live - Super Science Saturday at Sidmouth Science Festival - Chinbrook Meadows Apple Day - National Honey Show - British Entomological and Natural History Society (BENHS) Annual Exhibition - World Microscope Day - a two day Zoom meeting featuring talks and demonstrations by amateur and professional microscopists. Everything was presented in ‘real time’. The QMC is currently providing the Stromness Museum in Orkney with a grant to catalogue and make accessible online, a valuable collection of more than 4,000 thin rock sections of rocks from the Orkneys, Scotland and rest of the world. This was in response to a visit to the museum by our Orkadian QMC member Alan Jones more than a year ago, written up in the Bulletin, and followed up by Chris Thomas. Promptly designated as the direct contact to the Stromness Museum for oversight of how our funding is being used, Chris visited Stromness and the Museum in September to provide valuable microscopy advice and to see the collection and work in progress. As it was the Orkney Science Festival during his visit, he and Stromness Museum contact Katy Firth also gave a public talk and visited two schools to engage in microscopy related activities with the enthusiastic students. Katy Firth will be reporting on the project later in 2024. Page 5 of 7 ## **THE QUEKETT MICROSCOPICAL CLUB UK Registered Charity No. 232476 Annual Report of the Committee for the year ending 31[st] December 2023** _The Milton Microscopy Group of the Quekett (MIMIQ)_ is a combination of regional meeting and outreach, i.e. open to anyone interested in microscopy. We had 3 key events in the latter half of 2023, which are attracting an increasing number of Cambridgeshire members and some now coming from further afield. Meetings are on a Sunday, roughly quarterly, from 2:30 pm to 5:30 pm. The September meeting topic was sands from around the world and included making your own slides either on cardboard or the usual microscopy slides from the wide variety of samples from the UK, the Mediterranean to Japan available. In November, we were able to visit the Imaging Centre of the Gurdon Institute in Cambridge, courtesy of Dr Nicola Lawrence. We were able to see cutting edge bespoke fluorescence, confocal and flat sheet microscopes and have a go ourselves. The imaging facility provides a service to other research groups that would otherwise not be able to afford these highly expensive microscopes. The events are funded by the Quekett through the payment of the hall fees. _The Anglian Microscopy Group_ The Anglian Microscopy Group, based in Crowfield, Suffolk, continues to enjoy considerable success with an average attendance at meetings of approximately 30 enthusiastic members. The group continues to be led by Robert Ratford, Gordon Brown and Stephen Durr with a number of regular attendees lending support. In 2023 the group held 12 meetings, including a field trip to Walton on the Naze to study and collect fossils, but the October meeting was regrettably cancelled due to severe flooding in the area. As in 2023 the group had a stand at the village fete, which was very well received by the local populace. As was expected when the group was formed the majority of those who attend are beginners and/or beekeepers, although as most have become regular attendees they are growing in experience. More and more of the regular attendees are choosing to become Quekett members and many join the Quekett Zoom meetings. Because the group has been widely publicised and has an active Facebook group, the membership covers a very wide geographic area. The furthest travelled member makes the journey from Pontefract almost every month and others travel from Hertfordshire, Bedford, Peterborough, London, and West Norfolk. The meetings have covered a very wide range of microscopy subjects and a programme has been developed by the leaders covering the next four years with no repetition. Each meeting comprises an introduction outlining theory and techniques, followed by a practical session where the aim is to ensure each member actually makes something they can take with them. The effect of this is most of the attendees continue this work at home between meetings and results are often to be seen on the Facebook group. With the aid of a grant from the Quekett the group now has a 75 inch UHD interactive board and camera, which was unveiled by Wim van Egmond at the September meeting. This equipment has greatly improved the quality of the presentations and demonstrations and has allowed us to arrange for Carel Sartory to lead the December meeting from his home in France using Zoom. There are no plans to broadcast the normal monthly meetings over Zoom as the logistics of doing so are extremely difficult. Overall the Anglian Microscopy Group has been a resounding success in 2023 and will no doubt continue to grow over time. Page 6 of 7 **THE QUEKETT MICROSCOPICAL CLUB UK Registered Charity No. 232476 Annual Report of the Committee for the year ending 31[st] December 2023** Outreach events – as can be seen from the list above, members have continued to provide displays with a variety of organisations and at a variety of venues. There are some new events this year and we hope to have more in 2024. These displays depend on members providing the microscopes and expertise and are much appreciated by the public, including many families with children, who attend. We are grateful to these active members and encourage others to join us. ## **Links to other organisations** Where possible we continue to maintain dialogue with as many other microscopy groups as possible. Attendance at outreach events during the year has led to invitations to set up new events in 2024. ## **Advice on Microscopes** Many members and non–members alike use our Facebook page to share images and to enquire about the buying and selling of microscopes, or to ask for historical or technical information. We continue to provide advice to members’ families when a member has died and they are not sure how to deal with a member’s collection. In some cases members have made a bequest to the Club of items and these may be retained by the Club for use in outreach events or will be sold either in the Members Auction or at one of our sales events. ## **Conclusion** 2023 has been an interesting but difficult year. Although we have had a full programme of events physical meetings have still not seen the return to pre Covid numbers, unfortunately this is something that other groups are also reporting. We have however continued to build and expand on our outreach events and end the year with members having been sent a new programme of events that includes longer in person events at the Natural History Museum which will include a practical element and we hope this will encourage greater attendance. Page 7 of 7 ## **Quekett Microscopical Club. Registered Charity No. 232 476.** ## **Accounts for the period 01 Jan to 31 Dec, for the years 2023 and 2022, respectively.** ## **(Receipts and Payments Basis)** ||**Receipts**
**other voluntary receipts**
Subscriptions:
Cheques
Stripe
Direct Debits
via PayPal (Gross)
Tax Reclaim: Gift Aid
Interest from G.Owen Trust Fund
Bequests
Monetary Donations
Sale of Bequeathed or Donated Items
**Section Total:**|**Receipts**
**other voluntary receipts**
Subscriptions:
Cheques
Stripe
Direct Debits
via PayPal (Gross)
Tax Reclaim: Gift Aid
Interest from G.Owen Trust Fund
Bequests
Monetary Donations
Sale of Bequeathed or Donated Items
**Section Total:**|**2023**|**19,446.52**
**32,197.75**
**51,644.27**|**2022**
290.10
8,960.10
6,876.94
115.00|**16,242.14**| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |**Gifts, Donations &**|||516.00
10,495.00
8,304.20
131.32|||| ||||0.00
31,626.05
0.00
0.00
571.70||1,446.30
24,571.87
0.00
0.00
589.00|**26,607.17**| |||||||**42,849.31**| ||||0.00
86.12
351.53
0.00
110.00
440.00|**987.65**|33.00
89.79
774.87
0.00
0.00
0.00|| |||||||**897.66**| ||||1,291.57
3,186.12|**4,477.69**|94.92
3,350.65|| |||||||**3,445.57**| ||||0.00
0.00|**0.00**|11,753.11
0.00|| |||||||| |||||||**11,753.11**| |||**Total Receipts**|**57,109.61**|**57,109.61**|**58,945.65**|| |||||||**58,945.65**| Page No. 1 of 4 ## **Payments** **All expenditure relates to events and tasks carried out on behalf of and for the benefit of the Club's objectives** |**Payments directly**|**for charitable purposes**
NHM Rent & Hire:
Store Room
Meeting Rooms
Exhibition
Digitisation of slides
Additional Exhibition Expenses
QMC Regional Meetings: Venue Hire
Microscopium: Venue Hire
External Storage of QMC Property
RCS Quekett Slide-Catalogue Project
Grants to Other Organisations
Donations to Other Organisations
Membership of The Society of Biology
Sponsorship of MiSAC Competition
MiSAC Subscription
Hire of Services and Equipment
Accommodation Expenses
Travelling Expenses
Museum Fees
Members' Accommodation Expenses
Purposes
Journal Printing
Journal P & P
Editors expenses
Purchase of Image Copyright
Bulletin Printing
Bulletin P & P
Bulletin editors expenses
Web Master's Expenses
Website Annual Right-to-Use License
Purchase of Capital Equipment (C.E.)
Expenses incurred in acquiring C.E.
Purchase of Books for QMC Library
Production of New Publications
Administration of Existing Publications
Tools and Material for Workshops
Consumable Items
Maintenance / Refurbishment
**Section Total:**
Donations of Microscopy Equipment,
Books and Materials, for Educational
Website Development|**2023**
1,194.00
0.00
122.38
0.00
215.44
2,040.17
295.00
3,269.40
0.00
5,318.20
16,003.83
0.00
0.00
750.00
**29,208.42**
5,948.91
0.00
183.58
**6,132.49**
0.00
0.00
0.00
7,859.00
1,038.59
0.00
0.00
3,543.81
2,186.60
377.21
86.73
861.96
2,887.20
801.66
2,159.40
0.00
0.00
40.00
40.08
6.00
0.00
**21,888.24**
**57,229.15**|**2022**| |---|---|---|---| ||||1,194.00
0.00
194.96
0.00
131.52
1,432.50
295.00
2,657.51
0.00
1,712.00
3,220.00
0.00
0.00
750.00
**11,587.49**| |
Elgar Birthplace
Museum Project
Staffing of QMC
Stands by QMC
Members at
Science
Exhibitions|||| ||||2,198.20
0.00
182.69
**2,380.89**| ||||0.00
0.00
0.00
11,591.00
2,711.51
0.00
0.00
4,960.55
0.00
0.00
280.07
54.12
2,601.87
985.98
0.00
0.00
757.03
0.00
54.65
0.00
0.00
**23,996.78**| ||||**37,965.16**| Page No. 2 of 4 ## **Payments for publicity, fund raising, management & administration** |**Bank & Professional Charges**
Independent Examination of Accounts
456.00
Stripe/Worldpay Charges
368.14
Go Cardless/Direct Debit Charges
107.48
Subscription Receipts: PayPal Charges
19.31
Members' Auction Sale: PayPal Charges
0.00
Sale of QMC Publications: PayPal Charges
0.00
**950.93**
Public Liability Insurance
259.95
Production of Promotional Material
0.00
Subscription Manager: Fees
2,131.20
Expenses
0.00
Other Work
0.00
Administration of Investments
0.00
President's Expenses
41.80
Secretarial Expenses
412.20
Treasurers Expenses
0.00
QMC Librarian's Expenses
0.00
Sales Officer's Expenses
916.45
Other Officers Expenses
256.75
0.00
121.55
0.00
Other Member's Expenses
259.10
Attendence of Officers on Training Courses
0.00
Expenses Incurred for Business Meetings
0.00
Additional Expenses for Meetings
127.62
Administration of Members' Auction Sale
530.00
Refunded Membership Subscriptions
35.00
**5,091.62**
**Section Total:**
**6,042.55**
Officers and Other Members Travel Expenses
Officers and Other Members Accommodation Expenses
Excluding
Postage, Travel
and
Accommodation
Expenses
Officers and Other Members Postage Expenses|432.00
538.13
0.00
53.20
0.00
0.00
**1,023.33**| |---|---| ||266.71
0.00
4,500.00
0.00
5,530.17
0.00
54.50
208.34
0.00
0.00
707.89
353.60
0.00
309.35
0.00
94.29
0.00
0.00
161.96
660.90
0.00
**12,847.71**| ||| ||**13,871.04**| Page No. 3 of 4 Auc*Dn Sab. Pnceeds P*tyjrr￿d to ntsr8' E8taiè8 0.00 5.114.37 PurthaB• 0.00 0.00 RO￿ted Cheque81 t*oc* Debtt8 0.00 O.OD 105.00 5 21#.3Y $•c¥on Tottl.. 0.00 219.37 Yotsl Pa 63 271.70 ST 055.S7 S7 OSS.S7 AVAILABLE FUNDS 2023 2022 Totsl Fun¢Js 8t Beg*)nlng of Year N•t of PBrAsbtslPayTrnts to Dat• 217.086.3¢ 162.09 210.824.27 215,196.28 1 890.08 217.088.38 Cath Furids.. CU￿nI Account 7,192.38 1.117.02 1,672.36 100.942.51 100 000.00 210,924.27 8.313.e8 2,081.86 1.639.88 105.050.94 100 000.00 217,086.38 P8ypal account 1nSt.Attos¥A￿t 1 Year Bond Total Cash Funds L•as UrbL4saAd 0.00 0.00 Total Unthértd 0.00 0.00 Tolal Cash FurbJ* 210 924.27 217 086.36 V•lw of Furth •t Y•*r End V•lu• ol Y••r Ef Inv•6trn•ntA•a•$t• Lh?n Trust I￿$ Arr*rfasl 191.458.42 174.037.69 Abordeen ￿j*￿9n8g6r Fvnd8 IForCaptsl Gru*thl 195.510.00 183,177.01 I 8xaTrln6d the above ststèm8t)t of rn¢*¥i& & paY7r￿￿t￿ and rA)rw#rnd th•m Ihe vouthers n the poysossh?n of tho tr•osuTrr8nd fknd them lo be (￿)Irect. I have also verif*(I the knveslry￿￿ts and bA19nc8s hobj by Lbyds Bank p n&lure.' tr#Jnorary Aud P•p*kn.401 4 Charity number: 232476 QUEKETT MICROSCOPICAL CLUB REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2023 UEKETT MICROSCOPICAL CLUB CONTENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2023 Page Legal and administratlve information Annual Report of the Committee Independent examiner's report 12 Receipts and Payments 13 Statement of Assets and Liabilities 14 UEKETT MICROSCOPICAL CLUB LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2023 Status The governlng document of the charity is the Conslitution and Rules of the Quekett Microscopical Club (as amended 2007). Mr Stephen P8rker Mr Philip Greaves Dr Christopher Thomas Mr Paul Smith Mr Grenham Ireland Mr Robert Rattord Mrs Lisa Ashby Mr Steve Gill Mr Graham Matlhews Mr Peter Wyn-Jones Professor Terence Hope Mr Alex Cunningham Trustees Secretary Mrs Lisa Ashby Charity number 232476 Business address 31 West Park Motlingham London SE9 4RZ Independent examiner's Bradshaw Johnson Croft Chambers 11 Bancroft Hitchin Herts SG5 1JQ Page 1 UEKETT MICROSCOPICAL CLUB ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2023 The Commilteo are pleased to present their annual report for the year ended 31 December 2023. Membership Al the end of the year 2023 the total membership was 529 now made up of.. 444 UK or European based Ordinary Members, 85 Rest of the world members. These numbers include: 494 Adult Members, 2 Young Members. 8 Complimenlary Members, 11 Honorary M8mbers, 3 Legal depositories (one of which is the Natural History Museum Library), 5 Supporting Member organisalions. 6 Organisations subscribing to the Joumal There were no nominations for Honorary Membership during this period 1 January 2023 31 December 2023. During the same period we were notified of Ihe deaths of the following members Derek Brown, John Millham, Brian Mooney, Philip Muston, Don Rutherford and Mr Keith Stringfellow. Finances The Club's income for the year amounted lo £57,110 {2022.- £58.9461 and 8xpendilure £63,272 {2022'. £57,056}. This leads lo a deficit for the year {and decrease of cash funds) of £6,162 (2022.- surplus of £1.890). The Club's cash funds as of 31st December were £210,924 (2022.. £217,086), and our investment assets £386,968.42 {2022-. £357,215>. The decrease in income las compared to 20221 was principally due lo the subslanlial income in 2022 from a members, auction. The overall significant deficit was due lo the Committoo's decision to use income (particularly donated incom8) accrued during COVID lo increase our charitable spend, as explained later on in this report. Page 2 UEKETT MICROSCOPICAL CLUB ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2023 Committee The Committee for 2023 was composed of Presid8nt.' Terence Hope Vic8 Presidenl.. Steve Gill Hon. Secretary: Lisa Ashby Meetings Secretary.. Paul Smith Hon. Treasurer.. Stephen Parker Journal Editor.. Phil Greaves l Alex Cunningham Bulletin Editor.. Chris Thomas Collections and Archives Officer.. Phil Greaves Webmaster: Peter Wyn-Jones Membership Secretary.. Robert Ratford Committ8e Member.. Grenham Ireland (also regional meetings) Graham Matthews Meetings 17th January, Gossip me8ting - My Latest Acquisitlon 7th February, Gossip meeting- Capturing and Editing Video Willem Cramer gave us an introduclion to why one might want lo use video. He described the hardware he used and emphasised the importance of a powerful computer to reduce the iendering time and avoid unexpected shutdowns. He talked about the software he used for capture (Motic Images Plus 3.0) and editing (Davinci studio) and about the use of accompanying sound. He demonstrated the r8sults with his own shorl video clips. 25th February, Home Counties Meeting at Cobham This was the third of a series of full-day meetings in the Horne Counties Ihal we hope will er)Gourage more members to attend face-lo-face events because they will not have to travel into central London. We were pleased to see some new faces as well as the regulars. It was held in the main hall of Church Gale House Centre, whore the South Thames Discussion Group mel for several years. adjacent to St Andrews Church in Cobham, Surrey. The hall has a kitchen where tea, coffee and biscuits were available when we arrived and during the afl8rnoon. 11th March, Reading Convention This year the Convention moved to Sonning Common Village Hall, a bit further from Reading. The Convention is now being run by the Qu8ketl Microscopical Club, retaining th6 usual format of the morning devoted to exhibits and salés, followed by a break for lunch and then a talk in the afternoon. Page 3 QUEKETT MICROSCOPICAL CLUB ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2023 25111 March, Midlands Meeting Penkridge 151 April, Workshop- Epi-llluminalion Epi-illuminalion involves light reflected from the specimen and is the normal illumination in metallurgical microscopy and the most common illumination used with stereomicroscopes. Reflections of the light source can be a problem bul can often b& reduced using two polarisers or diffused illumination. 15th April, Lockinglon Meeting 22nd April, Gossip - South Coast Spring Meeting We always had the door open so holidaymakers and villagers would often drop in lor a look. To encourage this, posters were distributed around libraries and notices put in tourist offices and newslellers in Poole. Swanage and Langton inviting visitors to drop by. Posters were also passed lo local schoolteachers to display. 29thApril, East of England Meeting. Bradfield St. George 271h May, Joint Meeting with Bournemouth Natural Science Society & Museum IBNSSMI The 3rd Joint Meeting of the BNSS and the QMC included an exhibition of microscopy which was well allended by members and members of the public. The meeting was available to family groups visiting the museum and a number of visiting Members wero able to discuss the finer points of the microscope and camera set ups on show. 11 was followed by an afternoon talk 'Spiders: a closer look at their special features - from eyes to spinnerets" from Dr. Jeremy Poole 10th June, Homg Counties Meeting, Dagenham, Essex The meeting al the Eastbrookend Discovery Centre had good transport links and lakes, woodland and grassland for collecting specimens. 24th June, Gossip meeting - Polarised Light Microscopy 2nd July, Northampton Natural History Society- AnnLJal Exhibition 11 Ih July. Lecture Ball. LV Martin. 'Desklop Scanning Electron microscop￿ by Dr. Alex Page 4 UEKETT MICROSCOPICAL CLUB ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2023 12th Auoust, Microscopium, The Microscopists, Fair Our first Microscopium at Letchworth Selllement in 2022 was a success, so we returned for the 2023 event. As always, Microscopium provided members and visitors with a good opportunity to dispose of surplus items and lo acquire new kil, and also provided an excellent opportunity lo meet old friends, make new friends, and gossip over lea and coffee and over lunch. An overtime ban on the Irains and the ever-increasing cost of petrol may have kept some people away, bul we still had a good crowd of buyers. As usual, there were bargains ranging from fillers and bulbs for £1 to slide cabinels, a trinocular Zeiss Primoslar and a huge Reichert Zetopan outfit. 23rd September, Midlands Meeting at Penkridge October. Annual ExhibElion of Microscopy - Quekex The event was held for thè third time at Elm Court Youth and Community Centre, Potters Bar, Herttordshire. As usual, there were demonstrations and exhibits by members, displays of the photomicrographs, videos, slides and artwork submitted for awards, lectures, and plenty of gossip. In accordance with tradition, Club President Terry Hope op8ned the meeling by sounding the Quekett horn. The event and offered both online content and a physical evenl and saw good attendance at both. 11th October- Zoom only lecture Topic.. Forensic chemical microscopy and the fun of figuring Ihings out by Skip Palenik of Microtra￿. 14th October 2022- physical event with displays and awards. 141h October 2022 - lecturos Fluorescence microscopy and its use in the life science by Nicola Lawrence, Deputy Imaging Facility Manager- Cambridge University and Condenser-free Differential Quanlitalive Phase Contrast {dPC) microscopy measurfng refractive index using LEDS by Dr. Kevin Webb, Associate Professor in Applied Optics and Electrophysiology. Faculty of Engineering - Nottingham University. 14th November, Lecture Professor Maccoll Professor Maccoll's research interests include the population ecology of vertebrates, the ecology of freshwater fish (especially the stickleback) and fish parasitology. He teaches a second year residential 'Biodiversity Field Course, in Dovedale each year. Th8 lecture was extremely interesting and covered various species from many parts of th8 world, and some horrible parasites that they are prone to wnlracling. MC Cooke Lecture. "Sticklebacks urKler the Microscope" Page 5 UEKETT MICROSCOPICAL CLUB ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2023 21st November. Gossip meeting- Dry Mounts in Slip Caseg Former Club President Carel Sartory gave a talk on his method of making slip cas&s or Plummer Slides for larger specimens. That is for use in mounting whole insecls and the like and not tiny forams where such slides are commonly used. 91h December, Leclure and Christmas Quiz The lecture was given by well-known Dutch microscopist Wim van Edmond on. photomicrography including time lapse video. The traditional quiz was propared by Robert Ralford and provided an enjoyable end lo the Club's year. Publicatlons We have used our current printers for many years and used the same bulk mailing service throughout. Over the last coupl8 of years we have had significant problems with delivery of overseas publications, this has resulted in a change of printer and mailing service for the last two publicalions of 2023. As a result overseas members are now receiving publications in a timely manner. Journal". Volume 44 parts 5 and 6, Summer and Winter 2023 respectfully were issued. Dr. Penny Thoyls unfortunately had to sland down as Editor early in 2023 due to pressures of work and Part 5 was edited by Phil Greaves. This issue was delayed in production while several contributors completed their articles and was finally issued in September. Several North Amorican members experienced problerns in rèceiving their copy, due lo problerns with the inlemalional shipment. Dr. Alex Cunningham, a retired oc&anographic scientist and Club member based in Glasgow, came fonmard lo volunteer his skills as Editor for the Journal and the Winler issue of the Journal was produced by him, supported by Phil Greaves. Overseas members were able lo confirm that the alternative postal arrangements made for this edition were successful. Bulletln: The Bulletin provides a more magazine-like complement to Ihe acaderni¢ Journal. Numbers 84 in May and 85 in November 2023 were published with a good complement of our ￿ember'S wonderful and varied contributions. and it looks as if the positive trends of div8rsily, number and locallons of conlrtbutors 8r8 continuing. Due to mailing issuos with our last printer with Bulletin No 84, we changed lo the same printer used by the PMS for Bulletin 85, and this seemed lo have resolved the mailing issues. apart from any due to address changes by members. We did have one hiccup in that the first mailing of Bulletin 85 had been mis-bound, resulting in a rather unusual pagination. The printers promptly responded and addressed the issue, sending out the correctly bound version as soon as they coukl. with profuse apologies. Such errors are extremely rare and som8 members might want to retain the unusual Copy as a novel ilern, in addition to the corrected one! Page 6 UEKETT MICROSCOPICAL CLUB ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2023 The Club on-llne {hlt s-llwww. ekett.or The website continues lo allracl about 200 hits per day from a range of countries, mostly from the UK and US. The Programme page is usually the rnost popular with ome of the Resources pages also well visited, the pages on digital pholomicrography being especially sought after. With the advances in photographic techniques, for example much increased resolution of cameras, it is probably time to review these pages and gel them updated-. it is Iherefore proposed that a low-key drive is started to encourage those members (and others?) either lo revise their existing contributions or to write new ones, and thus enhance the club's contribution to the field. Focus-slacking, shadowless illumination and dark-ground illumination seem lo be popular topics. The WordPress installation continues to work well and is now automat￿callY updated, as are most of the plug-ins (which add functionality to the website) and the UpDraft Plus software, which backs up the entire sile on a daily basis. The 'MiniOrange' plugin. which allows members to access 811 parts of the websito via a single sign-on of their username and password, has been a useful part of the major revision of the membership system and, although expensive, provides a much simpler path for members to log in. It also has other, nèw {for 20241, benefit5 which will be explored to see how they serve our needs. Assistance in keeping the website up to date this year has been provided by Alan Wood and Chris Thoma8 Collectlons and archives The bequealhéd collection of mounted slides by th& late Doug Richardson have now been fully photographed and records Iransferr8d into the Club's 51id6 database. Now this work is complete, loan sets of slides frorn this collection will be made up in 2024 for members to borrow for personal use, in accordance with the wishes of ihe donor. Ralionalisation of historical books held in long-term storage al th8 Club's store room in the Natural History Museum was completed and those books deemed unsuitable for long term conservation in the Club's collections were offered for sale by poslal auction al the end of 2023. This has raised funds to allow for professional conservation bookbinding and acid-free archival storage of a small core collection of rare historical books (some d8ting b8ck to the 18th Cenlury} which the Club plans to share with members by display at the Annual Exhibition and other events. Possibly due to Ihe increasing costs of postage, and the roduction in the number of meetings held in London. theré hav8 been no loans of slide sets or library books in 2023. The Club will continue to promote and develop the loan sets of slides, especially with new material from the Richardson collection, and will review longer-term options for the book lending library, which remains under-utilised. Page 7 UEKETT MICROSCOPICAL CLUB ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2023 Charitable l Outreach Activlties As parl ofour outreach programme we had a sland at the following events.. Salurday family morning al Oakdale library, Poole Geologists Association FestFval of Geology MMC2023 Royal Microscopical Society Microscience Exhibition Wimbledon Common Nature Day. Practical Astronomy Show Amateur Entomologists, Society {AESI Mèmbers, Day Chinbrook Meadows Nature Discovery Day Warnham Local Nature Reserve excursion Grove Park Carnival Wimbledon Comrnon Open Day N8w Scientist Live Super scien￿ Saturday at Sidmoulh Science Festival Chinbrook MeadowsApple Day National Honey Show British Entomological and Natural Hislory Society (BENHS) Annual Exhibitlon World Microscope Day two day Zoom meeting featuring talks and demonslralions by amateur and professional microscopists. Everything was presented in 'real time.. Page 8 UEKETT MICROSCOPICAL CLUB ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2023 The QMC is currently providing thB Stromness Museum Sn Orkney w¢th a grant to catalogue and make accessible online, a valuable collection of more than 4,000 thin rock sections of rocks IrDm the Orkn8ys, S¢olland and rest of the world. This wa5 in response lo a visit to the museum by our Orkadian QMC member Alan Jones more than a year ago, written up in the Bulletin, and followed up by Chris Thomas. Promptly designated as the direct contact to the Slromness Museum lor oversight of how our funding is being used, Chris visited Stromness and the Museum in September to provide valuable microscopy advice and lo see the collection and work in progress. As il was the Orkn8y Science Festival during his visit, he and Stromness Museum contact Katy Firth also gave a public talk and visited iwo schools to engage in microscopy related activities with Ihe enlhusiaslic students. Katy Firth will be reporting on the project later in 2024. The Millon MiGmSCOPy Group of the Quekell (MIMIQ) is a combination of regional meeting and autreach, i.e. open lo anyone interested in microscopy. We had 3 key events in the latter half of 2023, which are attracting an increasing number of Cambridgeshire rnembers and some now coming from further afield. Meetings are on a Sunday, roughly quarterly, from 2:30 pm to 5..30 pm. The September meeting topic was sands from around the world and included making your own slid8s either on cardboard or the usual microscopy slides from the wide variety of samples from the UK, the Mediterranean to Japan available. In November. we were able to visit the Imaging Centre of the Gurdon Institute in Cambridge, courtesy of Dr Nicola Lawrence. We were able to see cutting edge bespoke fluorescence, confocal and flat sheet microscopes and have a go ourselves. The imaging facility provides a service to other research groups that would othemise not be able to afford thes8 highly expensive microscopes. The events are funded by the Quekett through the payment of the hall fees. The Anglian Iblicroscopy Group The Anglian Microscopy Group, based in Crowfield, Suffolk, continues to enjoy considerable Suc￿sS with an average attendance at meelings of approximately 30 enthusiastic members. The group continues lo b8 led by Robert Ratford, Gordon Brown and Stephen Durr with a number of regular attendees lending support. In 2023 the group held 12 meetings, including a field trip to Walton on the Naze to study and collect fossils, bul the October meeting was regrettably canc811ed due to severe flooding in the area. As in 2023 the group had a stand at the villag8 fele, which was very well receivad by the local populace. As was expected when the group was formed the majority of those who attend are beginners andlor beekeepers, although as most have become regular attendees they are growing in experience. More and more of the regular attendees are choosing to become Quekelt members and many join the Quekett Zoom meelings. Page 9 QUEKETT MICROSCOPICAL CLUB ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2023 Because the group has been widely publicised and has an active Facebook group, the membership covers a very wide geographic area. The furthest travelled member makes the journey from Ponlefract almost every month and others travel from Herlfordshire, Bedford, Peterborough. London, and Wesl Norfolk. The meetings have covered a very wide range of microscopy subjects and a programme has been developed by the leaders covering the next four years with no repelilion. Each meeting comprises an introduclion outlining theory and iechniques, followed by 8 practical session where the aim is lo ensure each member actually makes something th6y can lake with them. The effect of this is most of the atlondees continue this work at home bebNeen meetings and results are often to be seen on the Facebook group. With the aid of a grant from the Quekett the group now has a 75 inch UHD Interactive board and camera, which was unveiled by Wim van Egmond at the Sep18mber meeting. This equipment has greatly improved the quality of the presentations and demonstrations and has allowed us to arrange for Carel Sartory to lead Ihe December meeting from his home in France using Zoom. There are no plans to broadcast the normal monthly meotings over Zoom as the logistics of doing so are extremely difficult. Overall the Anglian Microscopy Group has been a resounding success in 2023 and will no doubt continue to grow overlime. Outreach events as can be seen from the list above. members have continued to provide displays wilh a variety of organisations and al a variety of venues. There are some new events this year and we hope to have rnore in 2024. These displays depend on members providing the mlcr05copes and expertise 8nd are much appr8clated by the public, including many families with children, who attend. We are graleful to these active embers and encourage others to join us. Llnks lo other organisations Where possible we continue lo maintain dialogue with as many olhor microscopy groups as possible. Attendance at outreach events during the year has led lo invitations to set up new events in 2024. Page 10 UEKETT MICROSCOPICAL CLUB ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2023 Advice on Microscopes Many members and non-members alike use our Facebook pag6 to share images and lo enquire about the buying and selling of microscopes. or to ask for historical or technical informalion. We continue lo provide advice lo members, families when a member has died and they are not sure how to deal with a member's collection. In some cases members have made a bequest to the Club of items and these may be retained by the Club for use in outreach evenls or will be sold either in the Members Auction or al one of our sales events. Conclusion 2023 has been an interestlng but difficult year. Although we have had a full programme of events physical meetings have still not seen the return lo pre Covid numbers, unfortunately Ihis is something that other groups are also reporting. We have howev6r continued lo build and 6xpand on our outreach events and end tho year with members having been sent a new programme of events that includes longer in person events al the Natural History Museum which will include a practical element and we hope this will encourage greater attendanc8. Page11 UEKETT MICROSCOPICAL CLUB INDEPENDENT EXAMINERS, REPORT TO THE TRUSTEES ON THE UNAUDITED ACCOUNTS OF QUEKETh MICROSCOPICAL CLUB I report on the accounts of the Charity for the year ended 31 December 2023 sel out on pages 13 to 14. Respective responslbilities of trustees and examiner The charity's trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts. The charity's Iruslees consider that an audit is not required for this year under section 144{2} of the Charities Act 2011 (the 2011 Acll and that an independent examinalion is needed. It is my responsibility io.. examine the accounts under section 145 of the 2011 Act.. to follow the procedures laid down in the general Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5llb} of Ihe 2011 Act., and to slate whether particular matters have come to my altenlion. Basls of independent examiners, report My examination was carried out in accordance with the General Directions given by the Charity Commission. An examinalion includes a review of the accounting records kept by Ihe charity. and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts, and the seeking of explanations from you as Iruslees Concerning such mallers. The procadures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would b& required in an audit and consequently no opinion is given as to whether the accounts present a 'true and fair view, and the report is limited to those matters set out in the statement below. Independent examlners, statement In connection with my examination, no malter has come to my allention.. which gives me reasonabl8 cause to believe that. in any material resp6ct, the requirements.. lo keep accounting records in accordance with Section 130 of the 2011 Act., and to prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records and comply with the accounting requirements of the 2011 Act have not b8en met- or to which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. Neil Harding FCA Bradshaw Johnson Chartered Accountants Croft Chambers, 11 Bancroft Hilchin Herts SG5 1JQ Dal&.' 18 March 2024 Page 12 QUEKETT MICROSCOPICAL CLUB RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2023 Unrestricted Funds 2023 Unrestricted Funds 2022 Receipts Functlonal Analysls Gifts, donations & other Voluntary receipts 51,644 42,849 Receipts From Trading Activities 988 898 Receipts from Assets 4,478 3,446 Sub-total 57,110 47.193 Other receipts (not counting as "Gross Income"} 11,753 Total receipts 58.946 Pa ments Functlonal Analysis Payments directly for Charitable Purposes 57.229 37,965 Payments for publicity, fundraising, Management & administration 6.043 13,871 Sub-total 63,272 51,836 Olher payments {not counting as'expenditure") 5,219 Total Paymonts 63.272 57,056 Net of Receiplsl{Paymentsl Cash funds brOUghtfo￿ard (6,1621 217,086 1,890 215,196 Cash funds carrled forward 210,924 217,086 Page 13 QUEKETT MICROSCOPICAL CLUB STATEMENT OF ASSETS AND LIABILITIES AT 31 DECEMBER 2023 Unrestricted Funds 2023 Restricted Funds 2022 Cash Funds Current Account Stripe Deposit Account One Ygar Bond Paypal Account 7,192 1.117 100,943 100,000 1,672 8,314 2,082 105,051 100,000 1,640 210,924 215,196 Less Uncleared Total Cash Funds 210 924 215,196 Unrestricted Funds Year End Value Unrestricted Funds Year End Value Investment assets Lion Trust (was Archilas} {For Income) 191,458 174,038 Aberdeen Mullimanager Funds (For Capital Growth) 195,510 183,177 Assets Retained for the Charit 's Own Use Computer & Peripherals to assist in Club Management Library of Books for loan to & reference by members Library of Microscope Slides for loan to & reference by members Video Library for loan to & reference by members Microscopes & accessories for use by members Digital camera & printer for recording the slide collection Data Projector for use with Power Point Appli¢ations Signed on behalf of the Trustees on 30 January 2024 by.. stephen Parker- Honorary Treasurer Page 14