## **St. Andrews Scout Group Annual General Meeting Friday, 25th June 2021 (via Zoom due to Coronavirus restrictions)** **Present:** Rebecca Byrne (Chair), Jan Yates (Secretary), Vicky King (Treasurer), Committee: Sarah Cooley, Katy Mickler, Adrian Read, Claire Rowswell, Pippa Wannell, John Myers (Administrator), Simon Merrett (GSL), Ken Yates (Mercury Scouts), Megan Buller (Pegasus Scouts), Tricia Darley (AGSL & Woden Cubs), Carole Williams (Woden Cubs), Mandy Merrett (Thor Cubs), Jenny Jones (Beavers), Yasmin King (Beavers), Olivia King (Beavers), Sharon Read **Apologies:** Sharyn Rosewell (Woden Cubs), Ian Harley (QM/Pegasus Scouts), Matt Hurley (Committee), Tony Langdon (Mercury Scouts), Steph Mellors (Thor Cubs) ## **Minutes of last AGM:** Proposed: Simon Merrett Seconded: Sarah Cooley ## **Chair’s Report:** This report will be short this year as I appreciate it was only back in November when we held our 2019/20 AGM late due to Covid and lockdown, but as a Group we have not let the pandemic affect the level of Scouting we offer. We have soldiered on regardless. You will hear from the Leaders shortly on what the different sections have been up to. As far as the Committee is concerned, we have continued with our bimonthly meetings via Zoom keeping the team up to date on what has been happening and the work that we have been able to do or planning to do. Thank you to the team for your continued support. I would also like to thank Louis Purchase, who is stepping down from the Committee due to work commitments. Thank you for your input and support, and we are glad that you will be staying with the Group, due to your sons being in the Cubs, and one not far off joining the Beavers. I would like to pay particular thanks to Jan, Ken and Vicky. To Jan and Ken who have been down to the hall, once or twice a week, to check on the premises, run the taps, flush the toilets, test the alarms, check the security of the building, and generally keep the place clean and tidy both inside and out during lockdown. Also meeting with various companies regarding different issues. And to Vicky, our Treasurer, who has kept the bills paid, and has done a sterling job liaising with the local government re grants to make sure we could cover our costs while we were unable to meet and unable to do any fundraising. And finally, I would like to congratulate Jan on recently receiving her 25year service award. Under normal circumstances, this would have been presented at the AGM, but had to be posted. Well done, Jan. ## **Treasurer’s Report:** You should have all received by email a set of the Group’s accounts for the year ending 31 March 2021. These accounts were prepared by myself and signed off by Lavinia Watson (our elected Independent Examiner) as a true reflection of the Group’s financial records. This is all in accordance with the Charities Act 2011, and they will be formally submitted alongside the Charities Return upon completion of this AGM. Although the last AGM only took place a little over 7 months ago, in November 2020, these accounts are for the whole year 1 April 2020 through to 31[st] March 2021. As such, these accounts represent a year where very little face to face Scouting took place, a year without camps or sleepovers, and a year with next to no fundraising. Due to this, it is very hard to draw any comparisons against previous years, so I will just comment on the overall position and a few of the headline figures. The balance on our current and deposit accounts shows that, as we head into the next academic year of Scouting, we are extremely fortunate that we are in a very good position financially. At the end of the accounting year, we held a healthy current account balance of £17,433 and reserves in the deposit account of just under £2,500 which is equivalent to almost a term’s full subs, this being the recommended amount set out by the Scout Association and Charities Commission. Our subs income was down this year, due to the fact that, as a committee, we made the decision to reduce subs to £54 for the year to cover just the children’s Scouting Association fees and nothing towards the running of the Group. This decision was made to not only relieve some financial burden, but also to acknowledge that we were not holding face to face meetings. The subs reduction was made possible by the fact that we were able to access 5 grants from SSDC for business continuity. We received our first payment in May being a one-off grant of £10,000. As we then went back into lockdown later in the year, we received 4 further grants, totalling around £9,000 during February and March. These were paid on a rolling basis, and represented each 2 further weeks of lockdown. As mentioned, fundraising was unable to take place in the main, and the only funds received were from two Bag2School collections and the online Easy Fundraising that the Group are signed up for. Turning now to expenditure. As you can see, since Scouting was not taking place face to face, there were no payments made for offsite activities, and only a very small amount was spent on week night activities. These were the ones that took place in that short period of the Autumn Term. The Summer Camp payments are the refunds that were made to parents in respect of the cancellation of the 2020 camp. Although Scouting was not taking place face to face, our hall still had to be maintained and HQ subs paid. Such examples of hall maintenance are water boiler service, fire extinguisher service, gas safety check, fire alarm service and PAT Testing. We also had to have a section of the fence down the side of the building repaired after one of the concrete posts was hit, damaging it and the tarmac surround. The hall project work of just over £1,000 was payment for the new emergency lighting we had fitted in July, replacing the very old and outdated system. Should anyone have any questions, I will do my best to answer them now or investigate and come back to you. Accounts Proposed: John Myers Seconded: Claire Rowswell ## **GSL’s Report:** Thank you to all the Leaders for keeping it going through Zoom and face to face Scouting during the pandemic; next step will be to organise some camps! There have been plenty of enquiries for youngsters to join the Group in all sections, so the concerns of last year that the numbers of children would drop has not happened. Lastly, welcome to Danielle Shead, who has now joined the Group as a Section Assistant with Thor Cubs. All training is up to date. ## **Section Reports:** Scouts (Mercury & Pegasus) given by Ken Yates SL Cubs (Woden & Thor) given by Mandy Merrett CSL Beavers given by Jenny Jones BSL – Jenny mentioned that she had received her 20 years’ service award in the post, and was congratulated by Rebecca on behalf of the Group. Copies of these 3 reports are attached to the file copy of these minutes, held by the Group Secretary. ## **District Address:** Apologies from Paul Bentley & Heather Pitts who were not available to attend the AGM, but have asked John Myers to deputise on their behalf. District thanks the leader team at St Andrew’s for their hard work and continuous efforts to support Scouting at such a difficult time. St. Andrew’s should be very proud of their leaders with the efforts on Zoom meetings, and the number of children that have stayed involved. During the pandemic lockdowns across the county there are some Groups that have folded, but St. Andrew’s have kept going. Rebecca had resigned from the District Executive, and to mark her time and commitment as a member of that team, John had a specially engraved pen and case, which he would ensure was delivered to her. John thanked her on behalf of the District. ## **Election of Ofcers:** **Chair:** Rebecca Byrne **Treasurer** : Vicky King Proposed: Megan Buller Seconded: Jenny Jones **Independent Examiner:** Lavinia Watson Proposed: Jan Yates Seconded: Megan Buller **Secretary** : Jan Yates Proposed: Pippa Wannell Seconded: Adrian Read **Committee:** Sarah Cooley, Matt Hurley, Katy Mickler, Adrian Read, Claire Rowswell, Pippa Wannell, John Myers Proposed: Rebecca Byrne Seconded: Mandy Merrett ## **AOB** Mandy Merrett: Has received an email from Buddens, with information relating to the idea of an activity day, which the committee had agreed to subsidise, with parents paying a booking fee. Rebecca would, on receipt of this email, send it out to the committee. DocuSign Envelope ID: A4A0680F-98BC-4DC0-B936-CA22161CCBD8 DocuSign Envelope ID: A4A0680F-98BC-4DC0-B936-CA22161CCBD8 22 June 2021 | 14:07 BST DocuSign Envelope ID: A4A0680F-98BC-4DC0-B936-CA22161CCBD8 DocuSign Envelope ID: A4A0680F-98BC-4DC0-B936-CA22161CCBD8 LT700006 - Independent Examiner's Report to the Trustees (July 2019) ## England & Wales Template 1: Unqualified report for a non-company charity preparing receipts and payments accounts with a gross income of £250,000 or less in the relevant financial year ## Independent examiner’s report to the trustees of St Andrews (Yeovil) Scout Council I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the St Andrews (Yeovil) Scout Group for the year ended 31 March 2021. ## Responsibilities and basis of report As the charity trustees of the St Andrews (Yeovil) Scout Group you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (‘the Act’). I report in respect of my examination of the St Andrews (Yeovil) Scout Group accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act. ## Independent examiner’s statement I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect: 1. accounting records were not kept in respect of the St Andrews (Yeovil) Scout Group as required by section 130 of the Act; or 2. the accounts do not accord with those records. I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. Signed: Name: Lavinia Watson Relevant professional qualification or membership of professional bodies (if any): Address: 11a St Thomas Street, Wells, Somerset, BA5 2UU 22 June 2021 | 14:07 BST Date: #SkillsForLife 4