Chairman’s report 2025
The museum continues to go from strength to strength with a few hiccups along the way.
Our museum is Accredited which means we have to reach certain standards and we are checked every few years. Due to Covid our Accreditation renewal was delayed but we were finally called this year. Jean Edwards and I looked through the list and said “This wont be too much work” how wrong we were. We had a small working party who worked tirelessly. We went on training courses, met with our mentor and finally gathered the required documentation. Now we await the verdict. A huge thankyou to Jean, Nick, Paul and Mike for all your hard work and to Jean’s husband Dave who along with Jean formatted all the documents.
We traditionally start our year with the Miscellany and this year our talks ranged from Market Lavington businesses to a demonstration of the Phantasmagoria currently on long term loan to the museum. It’s a popular event and is a great advertisement for the museum and a fundraiser.
If anyone would like to suggest titles for any short talks for future events we would be delighted to hear them.
This year the museum is celebrating its Ruby anniversary and the garden party was based around an 8o’s theme with appropriate food and music. We didn’t have as many visitors as usual but
it was a relaxed fun celebration of our wonderful museum.
We have tried this year to engage more youngsters with child centred activities on Wednesday afternoons in August. This is something we will continue along with our closing family Halloween activities. It is difficult to engage the young but they represent the future.
Families are an important part of our museum’s story and we have visitors from far and wide looking up family connections. Our brilliant curator Sue Frost answers them in as much detail as possible.
Imber bus day was a hugely successful event both for the organisers and for us. We had many visitors to the museum and we made over £2000 in profit from selling bacon buns and cream teas. We are brilliantly supported in this by generous donations of all the consumables from trustees , stewards and the people in Market Lavington and Easterton. This generosity explains why we make so much money in one day.
We had a presence at two local fairs this year with our lovely gazebo. A special thanks to Nick Beard and Judy Boyt for the fantastic photos which we put up in the gazebo or at any other event.
The new board of trustees has really pulled together this year and I know the museum is in safe hands. Our events are better publicized, we have
new initiatives in the museum and our money is in safe hands with a qualified treasurer. One initiative is a film to make the museum more accessible to everyone. Paul Churchill has done an amazing job with this, the film is being processed as we speak and should be available for the 2026 season.
We say a fond farewell to Sue McDonald as a trustee this year but she remains a steward. Unfortunately she is unable to be here this evening. Sue pestered me for many years to join the board of trustees so I will certainly hold her to her promise of remaining a steward. She has been responsible for the stewards this year and set up the Whatsapp group which has proved so successful. We are looking for a trustee to replace Sue, someone who would like to take control of all things stewarding. If anyone is interested in joining the board of trustees please see me afterwards or contact any of the current trustees.
Stewards are the lifeblood of the museum. They turn up three times a week from May to October in all weathers and sometimes there are no visitors. They are a lovely group of people but we always need more. This year we have secured a grant to improve the training we give our volunteers so we intend to have a fun away day in the Community Hall with lunch provided. If you want to volunteer as a steward let us know. We will be delighted to welcome you to the team. You can volunteer as
often or as little as you like and there are always two of you in the museum.
So finally a huge thankyou to everyone who has helped the museum in anyway this year. It only survives because you help.
| lastyears accounts | lastyears accounts | 12186.25 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| payments in lastyear | £341.84 | Expenditure | Apr 24 to date | ||||||
| Bank account 31.3.24 | £11,844.41 | ||||||||
| Miscellany 2024 | Rent | 10.00 £ |
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| Profit | 1,484.97 £ |
Electricity £527.04 |
|||||||
| Maintenance | 33.98 £ |
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| Buildingimprovements | 68.25 £ |
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| WebhostingSept | £57.46 | ||||||||
| Domain renewal Jan | 15.59 £ |
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| SSL cert biennial May | 95.99 £ |
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| Gardenparty 2024 | Fireline Jan | £69.48 | |||||||
| Profit | 522.91 £ |
Modes April | 63.50 £ |
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| Insurance Oct 2nd | 354.08 £ |
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| Harwell Sept | 99.00 £ |
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| Hiring | £133 | ||||||||
| Stationery | 184.38 £ |
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| Imber Bus Day 2024 | sundries | 1,971.47 £ |
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| Profit | 1,990.86 £ |
3,683.22 £ |
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| Bank Interest | 112.78 £ |
Income- expenditure | £4,067.23 | profit in theyear | |||||
| Grants | £2,550 | ||||||||
| Museum donations | £908.93 | ||||||||
| Book sales | £180.00 | ||||||||
| 7,750.45 £ |
profit | 4067.23 | |||||||
| beginningbalance | 11844.41 | ||||||||
| Bank and cash | 15911.64 | ||||||||
| Bank account | 31/03/2025 | 14,500.73 £ |
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| £1,194.51 | |||||||||
| £15,695.24 | |||||||||
| cash in hand | £216.40 | ||||||||
| 15,911.64 £ |
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