## **Reports for Rottingdean Whiteway Centre AGM 23[rd] March 2023** ## **CHAIR’S REPORT** – LYNN HUTCHINSON Since the opening ceremony on 20th April 1974 Rottingdean Whiteway Centre has been serving the local community. As early as December 1969 volunteers organised fundraising and obtained grants to build the Centre on land donated by the Church. It is this charitable spirit that continues today and nearly 50 years from opening RWC is still run by a management committee of volunteers. As in the early days, a programme of adult educational and leisure courses is offered throughout the year, events are organised, halls and rooms hired for parties, receptions, meetings of local groups, clubs and societies and other social events. Tonight’s AGM is an opportunity to reflect on the year to 31[st] December 2022. During the year we finally emerged from the restrictions placed by the COVID pandemic. January started with the compulsory face coverings of Plan B, but by 27[th] January 2022 Plan A lifted that requirement, and on 24[th] February the Government lifted Plan A restrictions completely. In keeping with the tradition of ‘Hope for the best, prepare for the worst’ we still have a COVID 19 section on our website, and maintain sanitiser stations and signage throughout the building. Perhaps 2023 will see us dispense with these entirely. A less welcome change in 2022 was the loss of the Pre-School. Starting as an underfives play group, later renamed Whiteway Pre-School, the group had been renting the youth hall during weekdays since 1979. Tonight, we can also consider all of those involved with RWC. Special thanks go to our hardworking caretakers who keep the Centre running on a day-to-day basis. Also thank you to the tutors who teach, and participants who attend, whether on courses or one-off events. Local groups who meet at RWC deserve thanks; some clubs have been affiliated since the 1970s. A mention is needed of the volunteers on the management committee, as each have a role to play in running RWC. All are equally important, and without the dedication of every member of the management committee we would not be able to run. You will hear from some of the volunteers tonight, but thanks go to everyone involved for their time and commitment. As with any longstanding organisation members come and go. We are lucky to have our newest volunteers here tonight. We still have a few roles to be filled and if anyone is considering volunteering or knows of someone who may be interested, please get in touch with me. During 2022 a few of our volunteers decided to finish. Some, like Joy Rogers, had been involved for several years. Others such as Mike Pocock, and Andrew Carson, were not able to stay long, we do, however, thank them for volunteering. At the end of 2022 Stephanie Sheppard resigned as she was moving away from the village with her family. As secretary and deputy chair, she played an essential role in the smooth running of RWC. As she was involved in several key roles within Rottingdean her absence is felt throughout the village. Mike Gregory has kindly returned to the management committee and taken on the secretary role. I’d like to say a special thanks to Peter Hewetson-Brown who is finishing tonight. Peter has been involved at RWC since early 2015. First as Secretary, then Chair, and more recently organising Special Events. He has been more than those roles imply, he has been our legal eagle, and a source of information of lots of subjects. We will miss him on the committee, although he will still be around on various courses and intends to update the Matt cartoons found in the toilets. Peter will give his report on the events that he organised in 2022 later. Along with Peter, some other committee members will share their reports with you, and outline how aspects of their roles have helped make 2022 a successful year. First up is number 6 on our Agenda, to receive and adopt our annual accounts for the year ending 31[st] December 2022. I’ll ask our Treasurer, Claire, to present these to you, and at the same time she will share her report. ## **TREASURER’S FINANCIAL REPORT** - CLAIRE JOHNSON ## **Expenditure** Running costs for 2022 totalled £83,639.57. This figure was under budget by £18,040.43. In particular, the Repairs and Maintenance budget of £5,000 was under budget at £2,283.07, the Modernisation and Reserves spending budget of £14,000 was under budget at £7,638.66 and the Inspections, Health & Safety budget of £5,100 was under budget at £526.14. Not having a buildings manager last year meant that non-essential maintenance and improvements were put on hold. Trustees approved a couple of projects including upgrading the fire alarm system, reconfiguration of the heating in the youth hall and replacement of defective areas of the vinyl flooring in the GB Room and storage areas. ## **Income** Total income was optimistically budgeted to be back in line with 2019 and, although the income was better than the Covid months, we did not reach pre-pandemic levels. Education course income was £56,621 against a budget of £67,000 but nearly £11,000 above 2021 figures. User Group income was slightly below budget. This was due to the Whiteway PreSchool closing suddenly in March 2022. Single let room hire income was above budget at £6,724 and higher than in pre-Covid years. Special Education Events income was double the budget at £2,093. ## **Surplus** We were budgeted to have a deficit of £6,280 but ended 2022 with a surplus of £2,358.92. ## **Financial Stability and Reserves** RWC is financially stable with a healthy surplus in reserves. We have reserves of £108,016 and an agreed policy that we should keep reserves at a level of approximately 9 months expenditure of £65,000. ## **LETTINGS REPORT** – JO NEWMAN In September 2022 the New Nursery finally opened. The Centre continued to be used by our regular users: Wine Club, Saturday Quilters, 3 Bridge Groups, Camera Club, U3A, Art Club, Table Tennis, the Parish Council and the Round Room Ramblers. We have 3 regular commercial users running classes in Ballet, Fitness Training and Yoga. We sadly lost a cancer support group who lost their space and times when the new nursery opened for longer hours. Other spaces and times were offered but they have gone elsewhere but took time to let us know how much they had enjoyed using the Centre and to thank us. We now have a new Men’s Group meeting fortnightly. A sample of the single lets show us that we had a Holiday Art Club for children, a massive project from Art Pod which looked fabulous, Mindfulness, a Pre-Loved Clothing sale, a Vaccination Clinic, many Church meetings and AGMs, a Book Group, training for Saltdean Lido volunteers, someone using the Round Room for music practice because they couldn’t do it at home, rehearsals, and we were the Green Room for the filming of “Grace” in St Margaret’s Church. This is the first year that the report has been generated by the website. Some people have found room booking on the website much easier – it certainly works for single lets as people can now pay by card. For some of the regular User Groups it is less user friendly and many have found it very complicated. We are currently undertaking a review of the booking process on the website and hope to improve the user experience. For this reason, the report is very different and so difficult to compare to previous years. ## **Parties and non-profit** 46 Bookings – Approximately £3,410 ## **Commercial & for profit** 25 Bookings - £3,471 ## **User Group** 89 Bookings- £6,710 N.B. This includes multiple bookings so one booking for 6 sessions is recorded as one booking. **EDUCATION REPORT** – ANGELA HOOLE ## Course organisation and enrolments **----- Start of picture text -----**
COURSES AND ATTENDANCE 2021 VS 2022
SPRING SUMMER AUTUMN
304
260 267
169
148
119
14 26 14 21 29 30
**----- End of picture text -----**
After the challenging conditions of 2021, 2022 was a much more stable year in terms of course provision and student attendance. In 2022 a total of 77 (57 in 2021) Courses were run with 733 attendees (534 in 2021), most were face to face, but some were via Zoom. **----- Start of picture text -----**
Attendance by
Languages, 30% Art, 29%
Other includes creative
writing, music,
Other, 9%
counselling and
current affairs
History/Geography, 22%
Fitness, 10%
**----- End of picture text -----**
In terms of student engagement, in 2022 we provided courses for nearly 400 individuals and approximately half attended two or more courses during the year. The standard fee for a 10-week course was increased to £87 and the bursary scheme, to help those who might have difficulty paying course fees, is still available. Courses were promoted via the Rottingdean Village News, The Deans Magazine, Peacehaven Directory and Seaford Scene. We launched a monthly newsletter, increased our social media postings and have increased the posters and signage at the Centre. ## **SPECIAL EVENTS REPORT** – PETER HEWETSON-BROWN The programme of Special Events has been successfully restored after the gap caused by COVID. It restarted in November 2021 and since the last AGM on 31 March 2022 there have been ten events, the most recent on 25[th] February, with over thirty attendees. Three others have unfortunately had to be cancelled because of the illness of the presenters. The subjects of the talks have covered a wide range consistent, I believe, with the charitable aims in our constitution which are for “meetings lectures and classes and for other forms of recreation and leisure-time occupation with the object of improving the conditions of life for the [village] inhabitants” and which follow on from the excellent series of talks established by Veronica Carter and Mike Gregory during their time on the committee. I have tried to include one talk each year on a medical theme with others covering science. archaeology, history and subjects of general interest so as to complement the more arts and languages leaning in the main ten week term course programme. Financially, every talk has brought some income to the Centre. I have enjoyed doing this Special Events role enormously but I am retiring from it now. I am handing it over to Dean Hescott-Burke who I know has many good ideas which will bring some valuable fresh thinking to the programme. Publicity for them has always been awkward because of the lead in period to the Rottingdean Village News which is published only on alternate months. Accordingly, I hope everyone will keep looking at the web site from time to time to see what new talks have been arranged. ## **BUILDING REPORT –** STEWART HUTCHINSON For most of 2022 we did not have a volunteer building manager. I agreed to look after any maintenance schedules/issues that arose. The fire alarm was assessed as not being fit for purpose and a new fire alarm system has been installed. It has been tested and serviced. In order to overcome problems with poor radiator performance, new pipework was fitted to the radiators in the main hall and youth hall. This has improved the efficiency of the radiators. Floor tiles containing asbestos, in the store room and youth hall kitchen cupboards, were covered with sheet vinyl floor covering. Asbestos warning signs were left in situ. The heating boiler has been tested and serviced. Portable appliances have been inspected and tested. The ridge along the full length of the roof from the Round Room to the youth hall was damaged during the storms. This has been repaired. ## **BURSAR REPORT** – STEWART HUTCHINSON The Centre continues to operate efficiently, with the three part-time caretakers doing daily cleaning and setting up. Any issues are dealt with promptly. We have employed a window cleaner who does the external cleaning twice a year. Leaves from the gutters are cleared regularly by the caretaker. As a result of Covid, hand sanitiser continues to be supplied throughout the building. The wearing of face masks is at the discretion of the individual. A profit of £552 was made from the supply of refreshments. ## **WEBSITE ADMINISTRATION REPORT** – Amy Barker The new website was launched in August 2021 and continues to be used successfully by users to book on to courses, special events and to hire rooms. As we continue to use the website, small issues with the day-to-day functionality and user-experience have become apparent. Ian, our website developer, has assisted with making some useful tweaks in order to get things running even more smoothly. There have been both front-end and back-end changes, so that the website is easier to use for students, users and the management committee. For example, making price information more readily accessible on the Special Events page, or giving us more functionality when seeing data relating to the site’s user base. We have also had some bugs rear their heads but with Ian’s help we’ve been able to squash them. We’re keeping a keen eye out for future problems, but we’ve been through 5 terms worth of bookings, more than a full annual cycle, so hopefully we’ve encountered the worst of it! The website has also proved its worth when it comes to marketing online by giving potential students an easy, clickable link to our booking system. This has sped up the process for all users as well as allowing us to market to a wider audience. We are currently undertaking a full website review and we are confident this will further improve the experience for all concerned. We are grateful to users of the Centre for adapting to this new way of booking and, of course, welcome any suggestions for ways to improve the site. Thank you to the rest of the management committee for their website feedback. Special thanks also to Lynn, Angela and our erstwhile secretary Stephanie for their support, patience and guidance with website administration over the past year. 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