## Chairman’s report for 2024 AGM
This has been another great year for the museum, building on our strengths and identifying where we need to focus going forward. We had nearly 1000 visitors this year, most on Imber Bus day, the Vintage Meet and Easterton Fete.
We have had some wonderful fundraising events this year.
The Miscellany was enjoyed by many people and we had an actual live singer telling us about Imber. The original idea for the Miscellany came from Peggy Gye who could talk for ever on all things Market Lavington. We have adopted a more varied approach which is why we jumped at the idea of a singer. Apparently he thought he was singing to a few people in a small hall so the full Community Hall was a little daunting. We are hoping to get a recording of the song for our archives although I will have to try to sneak it past the curator as Imber is not in our parish. There were other varied talks and the next Miscellany is in the planning.
We had another enjoyable garden party and the rain stayed off. It is always lovely to see the people who did so much work when the museum was set up still supporting us now. The garden party is a small thankyou for all their hardwork and a chance for all our wonderful stewards to socialize.
I don’t usually bake scones but I do for Imber bus day and it would seem that there are a lot of very generous bakers in Market Lavington and Easterton. It was a hectic day, I think we had sold out of Cream teas by 3.30pm and everything by 4pm. But it was our most profitable year yet. Lots of the visitors also went up to the museum and while their experience might have been a little crowded they were generous with their donations. We even had a mention on Radio Caroline. A highlight of the day was Tom MacMeekin resplendent in his museum
polo shirt and hat. We wanted to mark Tom’s stirling efforts over the years in kidnapping visitors as they step off the bus and directing them our way so we thought an official shirt and cap was the answer. Thankyou Tom.
Our final event was the family day on 30[th] October. Amid much hilarity we had children teenagers and adults trying their mouths at apple bobbing. The future of this museum depends on the next generation so we are really trying to engage with young people.
I have deliberately not mentioned names in this report because there are too many to mention but I would like you all to give a round of applause to the trustees who give tirelessly of their time, energy and money and all our volunteers in all their roles.
One of the more difficult things we achieved this year was to convert the museum from a charitable limited company to a CIO (Charitable Incorporated Organisation) I wont bore you with the details of why this was essential , mainly because I was blown away by the
documentation we had to fill in to achieve this status but also because the bulk of the hard graft was done by someone else. The museum owes a huge debt of gratitude to Gerald Millward-Oliver who stepped forward and guided us through the process. By guided I really mean he did the work and I sent the documents off. There were so many times when after a session at my kitchen table Nick and I looked at each other and said Thank God for Gerald. Thank you Gerald.
Moving onto the financial statement.
This covers the year from 1[st] April 2023 to 31[st] March 2024.
On 31[st] March we had a healthy bank balance of just over £12000 and over the year we had more income than expenditure. Fortunately for us electricity prices are lower now so going forward our electricity
costs have come down. We were fortunate to receive £1500 from the Imber Bus Day charity.
Any questions?
As a result of becoming a CIO we now have a new constitution. The constitution will be available on the website shortly but if anyone wants a copy please let me know. The new trustees are :
Jackie Clark
Nick Beard
Mike Allen
Gill Morris
Ann Chumbley
Sue Frost
Tom MacMeekin
Carol Treloar
Jean Edwards
Paul Churchill
June Wright
Katie Behan
## **Accounts from 1st April 2023 to 31st March 2024**
|**Income**||||**Expenditure**|**Apr 23 to date**|**Apr 23 to date**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|**Miscellany and Coronation**||||Rent|£|10.00
|
|Cash to bank after expenses||£|685.00
|Electricity|£|1,550.45
|
|Sumup bar at Miscellany||£|226.64
|Maintenance|£|211.00
|
|sum up tickets||£|45.25
|Building improvements|£|427.00
|
|sumup bar at coronation||£|81.10
|Webhosting Sept|£|57.46
|
|||**£**|**1,037.99**
|Domain renewal Jan|£|9.54
|
|||||SSL cert biennial May|£|79.99
|
|**Garden party 9th July 2023**||||Fireline Jan|£|64.50
|
|Cheques||£|235.00
|Modes April|£|58.00
|
|Cash||£|409.00
|Insurance Oct 2nd|£|326.58
|
|Sumup||£|88.47
|Harwell Sept|£|95.34
|
|Donations on line||£|50.00
|Companies House|£|375.00
|
|||**£**|**782.47**
|Stationary|£|19.49
|
|**Imber Bus Day 19th August 2023**||||sundrys|£|30.00
|
|cash to museum||£|137.37
||**£**|**3,314.35**
|
|Sum up||£|21.64
||||
|Contactless payments||£|287.53
||||
|Cash payments after costs||£|781.66
|Income over expenditure||£1,934.25|
|||**£**|**1,228.20**
||||
|Bratton History Soc|||£40||||
|Total fundraising||**£**|**3,088.66**
||||
|Grants
PC||£|500.00
||||
|Museum donations|||£160||||
|Gift aid|||||||
|Imber grant||£|1,500.00
||||
|||**£**|**2,160.00**
||||
|**Total Income**|||**£5,248.60**|**Total expenditure**|**£3,314.35**||
|Total funds 31-Mar 2023||£|10,252.00
||||
|Total funds 31-Mar 2024|Deposit Ac|£|7,603.84
||||
||Current Ac|£|4,383.11
||||
|cash in hand|||£199.30|Income over expenditure||£1,934.25|
|||||Brought forward||£10,252.00|
|Total funds 31-Mar 2024|||**£12,186.25**|||**£12,186.25**|