## **Birmingham Festival Choral Society**
**Registered Charity number 510847**
# **Report and accounts for the year ended 31 May 2024**
## **Legal and administrative details**
**Governing instrument and Objects** Constitution, last amended July 2019. Objects are to promote, improve, develop and maintain public education in, and appreciation of, the art and science of music in all its aspects by the presentation of public concerts and recitals and by such other ways as the Society, through its Committee, shall determine.
The Lord Mayor of Birmingham
## **President**
Music Director
David Wynne
**The Society is an unincorporated** Thomas David Fletcher (Chair) **association whose day-to-day affairs** Michael Ford (Joint Concert Manager) **are managed by Trustees appointed** Barbara Howarth (Secretary) **by virtue of their being elected to** Roger Monk (Treasurer) **various honorary positions on the** Tracy Piotrowska (Vice-Chair) **Management Committee** Judy Prever (Membership) Nicola Walker (Joint Concert Manager) Christine Wright (Marketing)
During the year, the following changes to the Management Committee were made: Michael Cullen retired and was replaced by Nicola Walker and Michael Ford. Deirdre Finucane retired and was replaced by Barbara Howarth, leaving the Fundraising position unoccupied. Andrew Steel retired and was replaced by Tracy Piotrowska.
**Independent Examiner** Paul Bayliss
Bankers CAF Bank Ltd 25 Kings Hill Avenue Kings Hill West Malling Kent ME19 4JQ
**1**
## **Birmingham Festival Choral Society**
**Registered Charity number 510847**
## **Report and accounts for the year ended 31 May 2024**
**Statement of Trustees’**
**Responsibility**
The Charities Act 2011 requires Trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial period which give a true and fair view of the surplus or deficit of the charity for that period.
In preparing those financial statements, they are required to:
- select suitable accounting policies and apply them consistently
- make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent
- prepare financial statements on a going concern basis, unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charity will continue in operation
- have regard to the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit.
The Trustees are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud or other irregularities.
Statement on going concern basis
The Trustees have reviewed the Society’s financial position and confirm that the Society is a going concern in their opinion.
Statement on Reserves
The Accumulated Fund is the only present reserve that can be used for the day-to-day running of the Society and is designated as an unrestricted fund. For the ongoing security of this fund, a minimum amount in cash at bank or near-cash of at least £10,000 will be maintained. The amount in the Accumulated Fund at 31 May 2024 was £83,134. The Tour Fund is a designated income fund and the Commissioning Fund and the Training Fund are both restricted income funds.
Statement on investment policy
The investment of the Society is held in the Charity Commission’s COIF Deposit Fund, the interest on which is paid monthly, having been transferred from the COIF Income Fund during the year.
All surplus cash is held in an interest-bearing Charities Aid Foundation gold bank account,
**2**
## **Birmingham Festival Choral Society**
**Registered Charity number 510847**
## **Report and accounts for the year ended 31 May 2024**
the interest being credited to income and expenditure account.
Statement on accounting policies
## **Fixed assets**
This is expenditure that relates to more than one accounting period and is therefore depreciated in the annual accounts over the estimated lives of those assets in equal instalments. The only fixed assets presently held are fully depreciated.
## **Fixed asset investment**
This is included in the Balance Sheet at yearend value.
## **Debtors, prepayments, creditors and deferred income**
These are included on the Balance Sheet as receipts and payments that have either originally been included in a financial year but do not relate to that year or have been received or paid in a subsequent financial year, but relate back to the current financial year. Concert receipts and payments are excluded from this, as they often extend over two or more years.
**Statement on expenses**
Reimbursements of travel and office expenses incurred in the carrying out of their duties totalling £100 have been made during the year to two Trustees.
## **Statement on related parties**
There have been no related party transactions during the year.
## Plans for future periods
In July 2024, there will be an evening of Opera Choruses at the Ruddock Centre, Edgbaston, Birmingham. Also performed at the same
**3**
## **Birmingham Festival Choral Society**
## **Registered Charity number 510847**
## **Report and accounts for the year ended 31 May 2024**
venue in November 2024 will be a concert of Music from America.
This will be followed in April 2025, to commemorate the 180[th] anniversary of the Society’s foundation, by Edward Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius, to be performed jointly with Coventry Philharmonic Choir and Atherstone Choral Society at All Saints church, Leamington Spa. This work was given its first performance in 1900 by the Society.
.
## Signed by Chair
………………………………
## Date of Trustees’ approval
17 July 2024………………………………
## **Treasurer’s Report**
**4**
**Birmingham Festival Choral Society**
**Registered Charity number 510847**
## **Report and accounts for the year ended 31 May 2024**
## **Overall**
Judicious concert planning by the committee for the whole year ensured that we were able in March 2024 to perform J S Bach’s great Mass in B minor
in the splendid surroundings of Lichfield Cathedral, accompanied by a fine professional orchestra and soloists, without the Society’s finances going into freefall. The confidence of the choir received a boost and we attracted our largest audience since the pandemic.
The year also saw a very welcome increase, for the second year running, in
the number of new members. This helped to improve the choir’s profile and financial base, as it has become obvious that concerts continue to be very expensive, and the support provided by choir members’ subscriptions is very valuable.
Overall, a £4,153 deficit was made, compared with a deficit of £8,798 last year, a favourable movement of £4,645.
The main reasons for this are detailed under.
## Concerts and rehearsals
For the record, you will see from note 1 under **Other matters** the list of concert outcomes for the last six years.
There were three concerts in the year – Pershore Abbey in July 2023 produced a surplus of £486, the Jazz concert in the Autumn a deficit of £1,503 and the Mass in B minor in March 2024 a deficit of £9,614.This latter was mainly caused by venue, orchestral and soloists’ costs..
## INCOME
## Members’ subscriptions
At £18,288 received, these reflect the welcome increase in new members in the year. Of course, the magnificent music chosen to be sung in the year no doubt helped in this respect.
## Music hire or buy
The first two concerts of the year used quite large numbers of smaller works, which increased the cost of hiring music considerably.
## Interest received
£1,360 extra was received over last year despite spendable cash resources reducing in the year, caused mainly by the rising rates of bank interest being paid.
## EXPENDITURE
## Conductor and soloists
There was only one major work requiring orchestra and soloists this year, compared with two last year.
## Printing
**5**
## **Birmingham Festival Choral Society**
**Registered Charity number 510847**
## **Report and accounts for the year ended 31 May 2024**
There were only three concerts as against four last year.
## Venue hire
Lichfield Cathedral cost £3,618 to hire, less £1,200 deposit paid last year. This easily outstripped the amounts paid last year for four concerts.
## Other concert expenses
The shortfall in choir demand for the coach to Lichfield cost £590.
## Professional fees
Fee rates for the Musical Director and Accompanist were raised from September 2023, plus there were two extra weekend rehearsals held for the Bach concert.
## Publicity and archives
Last year, the committee set a maximum budget of £1,500 per annum to be spent on this area of our activities, the need for which has been shown by the better audiences that we have begun to enjoy again. Of this maximum, only £1,114 was spent in the year.
## Room hire
Selly Oak Methodist Church raised their hire charges again this year, as energy costs have still not fully stabilised.
## Music hire and buy
Last year’s costs included £563 to bind in book form all of the summer 2023 concert music, plus £282 for hiring the Christmas concert music. This year, there was no Christmas concert.
## Oratorio Prize competition
This year the only costs were the three prizes given to the winner and runners-up, plus the adjudicator’s fee, whereas last year we funded all the trophies for the three years that the competition is to run.
## Administrative expenses
The £100 was reimbursed to two trustees.
## Other support expenses
This includes £509 for the BFCS website for
**6**
## **Birmingham Festival Choral Society**
**Registered Charity number 510847**
## **Report and accounts for the year ended 31 May 2024**
two years.
## Other matters
## 1.
For comparison purposes, overall financial results for the past six years before exceptional expenses were as follows: 2018/19 £ 11,701 surplus 2019/20 £ 10,740 surplus 2020/21 £ 29,523 surplus 2021/22 £ 11,060 surplus 2022/23 £ 8,798 deficit 2023/24 £ 4,153 deficit These included concert results as follows: 2018/19 £ 2,362 surplus 2019/20 £ 4,489 deficit 2020/21 £ nil 2021/22 £ 5,122 deficit 2022/23 £ 12,109 deficit 2023/24 £ 9,211 deficit
## 2.
Our investment in the COIF Income Fund grew in value by £87 before it was transferred to the COIF Deposit Fund on 13 November 2023, as advised by the Charity Commission. The Deposit Fund has become our reserve bank. On 31 May 2024, £10,000 was transferred from this Fund to our bank current account to maintain our cash Reserves policy.
## 3.
Cash at bank rose **£12,545** to **£15,258 i** n the year including the £10,000 in Note 2 above. Of this £15,258, technically a **negative** amount of £1,458 is available to pay for everyday running costs.
Following a committee decision in June 2020, £2,500 was set aside each year out of the Accumulated Fund and transferred into the Commissioning Fund, but the commissioning of new music was subsequently put on hold by the committee. That is why the technicality above has not been acted on.
## 4.
Although the choir Tour to the Rhineland took place in May 2023, some expenditure, totalling £2,135 fell into the current year. The current balance on the Tour Fund is £169.
**7**
## **Birmingham Festival Choral Society**
## **Registered Charity number 510847**
## **Report and accounts for the year ended 31 May 2024**
## 5.
A weekend at the Hayes Conference Centre in Derbyshire was held in April 2024, the costs of which, as in the past, were absorbed by the Training Fund, which now stands at £8,972.
## 6.
I am pleased to again give warm thanks to all those on the committee and in the wider Society for the help and encouragement that they have given me over the past year.
## 7.
Lastly, I wish to thank Paul Bayliss for his advice and assistance as Independent Examiner, which is much appreciated.
Paul has indicated his willingness to serve in the coming year and therefore I am happy to commend him to choir members for reelection.
Roger Monk, Treasurer 17 July 2024
**8**
## **Birmingham Festival Choral Society**
## **Income and Expenditure account for the year ended 31 May 2024**
||**2024**
**£**
**£**
**_Notes_**|**2024**
**£**
**£**
**_Notes_**|
|---|---|---|
|**INCOME FROM:**
**Donations and legacies**
Charitable trusts
Private donors
**Charitable activities**
**Concerts**
Ticket sales
Programme sales
Provision of refreshments
**Support activities**
Members' subscriptions
Music hire or buy
**Total charitable activities**
**Other trading activities**
Members' fundraising
Rehearsal refreshments
**Investments**
Interest received
**TOTAL INCOME carried forward**|150
**_7_**
200
**_7_**
**350**
10,082
726
189
10,997
18,288
1,067
19,355
**30,352**
45
**_8_**
598
**_8_**
**643**
**4,022**
**35,367**||
||150
200
**350**
10,082
726
189
10,997
18,288
1,067
19,355
**30,352**
45
598
**643**
**4,022**
**35,367**||
||||
|||**4,022**|
||||
|||**35,367**|
**2**
## **Birmingham Festival Choral Society**
## **Income and Expenditure account for the year ended 31 May 2024**
## **2024**
||**£**|**£**
**_Notes_**|**£**
**_Notes_**|
|---|---|---|---|
|**TOTAL INCOME brought forward**
**Less:**
**EXPENDITURE ON:**
**Raising funds**
Rehearsal refreshments
**Charitable activities**
**Concerts**
Orchestra
Conductor and soloists
Printing
Venue hire
Other concert expenses
**Support activities**
Professional fees
Publicity and archives
Room hire
Music hire or buy
Oratorio Prize competition
Insurance
Administrative expenses
Other support expenses
**Total charitable activities**
**TOTAL EXPENDITURE**
**SURPLUS/DEFICIT OF INCOME OVER**
**EXPENDITURE**
**Exceptional expenses**
**SURPLUS/DEFICIT OF INCOME OVER**|**35,367**
**72**
8,338
3,698
785
5,684
1,703
20,208
11,219
1,114
4,048
897
500
675
100
687
19,240
**39,448**
**39,520**
**(4153)**
-
**(4153)**|**35,367**
**72**||
|||||
|||**39,448**||
|||||
|||**39,520**||
|||||
|||**(4153)**
-||
|||**(4153)**||
|**EXPENDITURE AFTER EXCEPTIONAL**
**EXPENSES**||||
**3**
## **Birmingham Festival Choral Society**
## **Balance Sheet as at 31 May 2024**
||**2024**|**2024**|**2024**|
|---|---|---|---|
||**£**
**£**||**_Notes_**|
|**Fixed assets**
Tangible assets
Investments
**Total fixed assets**
**Current assets**
Debtors and prepayments
Cash at bank
**Total current assets**
**Current liabilities**
Creditors falling due in one year
**Total current liabilities**
**Net current assets**
**TOTAL ASSETS LESS CURRENT**
**LIABILITIES**
Unrestricted income funds
Restricted income funds
**TOTAL CHARITY FUNDS**
**Represented by**
**:**|-
82,490
**82,490**
2,850
15,258
**18,108**
748
**748**
**17,360**
**99,850**
83,134
16,716
**99,850**||**_2_**
**_3_**
**_5_**
**_6_**
**_4_**
**_4_**|
|||||
|||**17,360**||
|||||
|||**99,850**||
|||83,134
16,716||
|||**99,850**||
|Signed by Chair||||
Date of Trustees' approval
Wednesday, July 17, 2024
**4**
**Birmingham Festival Choral Society**
## **Notes for the year ended 31 May 2024**
## **1. BASIS OF PREPARATION OF FINANCIAL STATEMENTS**
The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention and in accordance with the Charities Act 2011 and the Statement of Recommended Practice Accounting and Reporting by Charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK (FRS102) issued on 16 July 2014
## **2. FIXED ASSETS**
|**Summary of movements of Fixed Assets in the year**|||**Total**|
|---|---|---|---|
||**£**||**£**|
|**Equipment**||||
|**Cost**||||
|**Brought forward 1 June 2023**||||
|2 Display Boards + case||405||
|2 Banner Stands||180||
||||585|
|**Carried forward 31 May 2024**||||
|2 Display Boards + case||405||
|2 Banner Stands||180||
||||**585**|
|**Accumulated depreciation**||||
|**Brought forward 1 June 2023**||||
|2 Display Boards + case||405||
|2 Banner Stands||180||
||||585|
|**Carried forward 31 May 2024**||||
|2 Display Boards + case||405||
|2 Banner Stands||180||
||||**585**|
|**Net book value 31 May 2024**|||**-**|
|**3. INVESTMENTS**||||
|**Brought forward 1 June 2023**|||**102,403**|
|Net gain/(loss) on COIF Income Fund units in year|||87|
|COIF Income Fund units sold in year|||(10000)|
|**COIF Income Fund units transferred to COIF Deposit Fund**||||
|**in year**||||
|Transfer in year from COIF Deposit Fund|||(10000)|
|**Carried forward 31 May 2024**|||**82,490**|
**5**
## **Birmingham Festival Choral Society**
## **Notes for the year ended 31 May 2024**
## **£**
## **4. FUNDS**
|**Unrestricted income funds**
**Accumulated Fund**
As at 1 June 2023
87,200
Surplus (deficit) for the year after exceptional expenses
(4153)
Gain/(loss) on investments in the year
87
As at 31 May 2024
83,134
Made up of:
Cash
(1458)
Investment at valuation
82,490
Debtors less Creditors
2,102
Total
83,134
**Total Unrestricted income funds**
**83,134**
**Restricted income funds**
**Commissioning Fund**
As at 1 June 2023 and 31 May 2024
7,575
Made up of:
Cash
7,575
**Tour Fund**
As at 1 June 2023
2149
Receipts in the year
155
Payments in the year
(2135)
As at 31 May 2024
169
Made up of:
Cash
169
**New Swinnerton Heap Pascoe Training Fund**
As at 1 June 2023
10,868
Receipts in the year
15,112
Payments in the year
(17008)
As at 31 May 2024
8,972
Made up of:
Cash
8,972
**Total Restricted income funds**
**16,716**|**Unrestricted income funds**
**Accumulated Fund**
As at 1 June 2023
87,200
Surplus (deficit) for the year after exceptional expenses
(4153)
Gain/(loss) on investments in the year
87
As at 31 May 2024
83,134
Made up of:
Cash
(1458)
Investment at valuation
82,490
Debtors less Creditors
2,102
Total
83,134
**Total Unrestricted income funds**
**83,134**
**Restricted income funds**
**Commissioning Fund**
As at 1 June 2023 and 31 May 2024
7,575
Made up of:
Cash
7,575
**Tour Fund**
As at 1 June 2023
2149
Receipts in the year
155
Payments in the year
(2135)
As at 31 May 2024
169
Made up of:
Cash
169
**New Swinnerton Heap Pascoe Training Fund**
As at 1 June 2023
10,868
Receipts in the year
15,112
Payments in the year
(17008)
As at 31 May 2024
8,972
Made up of:
Cash
8,972
**Total Restricted income funds**
**16,716**|
|---|---|
||8,972|
||8,972|
||**16,716**|
|**Total Funds**|**99,850**|
**6**
## **Birmingham Festival Choral Society**
## **Notes for the year ended 31 May 2024**
|**5. DEBTORS AND PREPAYMENTS**
**Debtors**
Gift Aid income tax refunds
**6. CREDITORS**
Sundry expenses
Professional fees
**7. DONATIONS AND LEGACIES**
**Income from charitable trusts**
Brotherton Trust
**Total income from charitable trusts**
**Income from private donors**
Anonymous individuals
**Total income from private donors**
**Total income from donations and legacies**
**8. INCOME FROM MEMBERS' FUNDRAISING**
Sale of preserves
Rehearsal refreshments
**9. CHARITY COLLECTIONS DURING YEAR**
**Income collected for charity**
**and paid over**|**2,024**
**£**
2,850|
|---|---|
||**2,850**|
||104
644|
||**748**|
||150|
||**150**|
||200|
||**200**|
|||
||**350**|
||45
598|
||**644**|
||**405**|
**7**
**2,023**
|**£**|**£**|
|---|---|
||150
200|
||**350**|
||8,635
553
257|
||9,445
17,640
727|
||18,367|
||**27,812**|
||61
579|
||**640**|
||**2,662**|
|||
||**31,464**|
## **2,023**
**£**
**£ 31,464**
**60**
8,296 6,361 1,074 4,776 1,046 21,553 10,359 946 3,728 1,734 759 634 189 300 18,649 **40,202 40,262 (8798)** - **(8798)**
**2,023**
|**£**|**£**|
|---|---|
|-
102,403
**102,403**
2,676
2,713
**5,389**
-
**-**
**5,389**
**107,792**
87,200
20,592
**107,792**|-
102,403|
|-||
|||
||**5,389**|
|||
||**107,792**|
||87,200
20,592|
||**107,792**|
**2,023 £**
2,676 **2,676** - - -
150 **150** 200 **200 350**
61 579 **640**
**1,027**
## **Birmingham Festival Choral Society**
## **Statement of Financial Activities for the year ended 31 May 2024**
|**Income from:**
Donations and legacies
Charitable activities
Other trading activities
Investments
Other activities
**Total**
**Expenditure on:**
Raising funds
Charitable activities
Other activities
**Total**
**Net ordinary income/(expenditure)**
**Exceptional expenses**
**Net income/(expenditure) after**
**exceptional expenses**
**Transfers between funds**
**Net gains/(losses) on**
**investments**
**Net movement in funds**
**Total funds brought forward**
**Total funds carried forward**|**Unrestricted funds**
**Restricted funds**
**Total funds**
**£**
**£**
**£**
350 -
350
30,352 -
30,352
643 -
643
4,022 -
4,022
-
15,267
15,267|
|---|---|
||35,367
15,267
50,634
72 -
72
20,208 -
20,208
19,240
19,143
38,383|
||39,520
19,143
58,663|
||(4153) (3876) (8029)
- - -|
||(4153) (3876) (8029)
- - -
87 - 87
(4066) (3876) (7942)
87,200
20,592
107,792|
||**83,134**
**16,716**
**99,850**|
**1**
|**Prior period total**||
|---|---|
|**funds**|**_Pages_**|
|**£**||
|350|**_2_**|
|27,813|**_2_**|
|640|**_2_**|
|2,662|**_2_**|
|37,768|**_2_**|
|69,233|**_2_**|
|60|**_3_**|
|21,554|**_3_**|
|54,466|**_3_**|
|76,080|**_3_**|
(6847) - (6847) -
(1387)
_**6**_
(8235)
116,027
**107,792**
Independent Examlnerfs report to the Trustees of Blnningham
F•stival Choral Society on the accounts for the year ended 31
May 2024 set out on pages 1 to 7 attached
I report to the trustees on rny examinatvJn of the accounts of the atK)ve charity for the year ended
31 May 2024.
Responsibllities and basls of
report
As the trustees of the SocEty. you are
responsible for the preparation of the accounts
in accordance with the requirements of the
Chanties Act 2011 ('the Act,). The trustees
consider that an audit is not required for this
year under section 144(2) of the Charities Act
2011 (the 2011 Act) and that an independent
examination is required.
I report in respect of my examination of the
SocAety's 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 AGL
Independ•nt •xamln•rls I have o)mpleted my examination. I confimi
that no material matters have come to my
statement attentK•n in connects'on wrth the examination
giving me cause to believe that in any material
respect..
accounb'ng records were not kept in
respect of the Society as required by
section 130 of the Act; or
2. the accounts do not accord with those
records.. or
3. the accounts do not compty with the
applicable requirements concerning the
fom and content of accounts set'out in
the Charities (Accounts and Reports)
RegulatnS 2008 other than any
requirement that the accounts give a
'true and fair view. which is not a matter
consKlered as part of an independent
examination.
I have no concems 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.
Paul Bayli
ACA
Birmingham 5 Juty 2024