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2023-06-30-accounts

rfK)Thday Thiqht qpoKJp Trustees Annual Report 2022- 2023

Contents

Aim and Purpose……………………………….…..……………………………………….3 Structure, Governance and Management………………………….……..……………..3 Achievements and Performance………………………………………………………….5 Looking Forward……………………………………..……………………………………..6 Chairman’s Report…………………………….……………………………………………6 Reserves Policy……………………………….…………………………………………..11 Financial Reports…………………….…………………….……………………………..11 Serious Incident Report………………………………………………….……………….15 Declarations……………………………………………………………………………….16

Aim and Purpose

The object of the Charity – The Monday Night Group – charity number 510879 - is make grants to one or more charitable organisations. The Charity shall have the following powers:

The primary fund-raising activity of the Charity is its annual pantomime performed January / February every year. There are 12 performances delivered to an audience total of around 4000.

The Charity has been registered with the Charities Commission since 1981. Its charity reference number is 510879.

Structure, Governance and Management

The Charity, its assets and property are managed and administered by a committee comprising the Officers and other members elected in accordance with the Constitution. The Officers and other members of the committee shall be the Trustees of the Charity.

The Charity has the following elected Officers:

In the year 2022 – 2023, the Charity was governed by 7 Trustees of which 3 were elected as the Group’s Officers:

Each Trustee serves a term of 2 years. Each Officer is also elected for a term of 2 years apart from the Chairman who serves a term of 3 years. Nominations for Trustees and Officers, where one of these roles is reaching end of term, are sought prior to each AGM and require support from a 2nd serving member of the group. Any member of Monday Night Group is eligible to stand for a role assuming they are nominated and seconded.

Trustees

Trustees
Name Position Term end date
Helen Deeming Trustee 8/25

Sam Maher		 Trustee 8/25
Rachel Bloomer Trustee 8/25
Beverly Stone Trustee 8/25
Sophie Turner Trustee 8/25

Richard Walker		 Trustee 8/25
Alex Carrier Trustee 8/24

Officers

Name Position Term end date
Sam Maher Chairman 8/25
Rachel Bloomer Secretary 8/25
Helen Deeming
Treasurer		 8/25

In accordance with Charity Commission guidance, charities that receive more than £25,000 a year are required by law to submit an annual report. The Monday Night Group follows best practice and has produced this Trustees’ Annual Report.

The Trustees continue to review all Charity Commission guidance pertaining to the management of The Monday Night Group.

Monday Night Group is governed by a constitution which was developed in 2007.

The charity, once again, met its objectives as outlined in our constitution. The charity operates with due regard to its public benefit obligations as outlined by the Charities Commission. It is confident and assured that it continues to meet these requirements, managed via our constitution, which ensures the money we raise at our pantomime and via other grants and donations is awarded in line with the expectations laid out with in it.

The charity is extremely reliant on its army of volunteers who support and ensure the success of our annual pantomime. We may only see these volunteers once a year but their input and support is vital to our success. We welcome anyone to support and assist at some or all of our performances.

Donations from our profits are awarded using the following criteria. The Trustees fully endorse these principles and determine our donations with a robust alignment to these statements:

Achievements and Performance

The Group once again performed a successful pantomime – Humpty Dumpty in January 2023 at the Civic Hall in Stourport.

Ticket sales continue to do well though this is a constant challenge for our charity in maintaining an affordable price against increased costs and a desire to maximise donations.

Membership of the group remains strong with many new and younger members recruited and now staying on. This will help the group continue to perform pantomime well into the future.

This year’s ticket sales were now made up entirely of online sales using Ticketsource. We also made changes to how tickets can be reserved in advance and whilst a risk, proved to be extremely beneficial to the management of our audiences.

We have remained with the online method for submitting donation requests, allowing the Trustees to assess the requests beforehand and then come together to endorse the final decisions.

Our annual presentation evening was a very successful evening and enjoyed by all. A total of 105 local groups in the Worcestershire and Wyre Forest area attended and we were able to award a total of £33,000, a record amount!

Planning is now underway for 2024.

Governance remains strong with monthly group meetings open to all running February to October including our AGM in August. The Trustees continue to ensure the group remains viable, lawful and financially sound.

We have no concerns at this stage about the viability of the charity.

Looking Forward

We are confident that the charity has a strong financial footing to enable it to meet the challenges going forward and what ever decisions are made, will ensure we can in the future, once again deliver a successful pantomime and raise large amounts of money for our local community.

– Chairman’s Report 2022 2023

Members and Friends of MNG,

As chairman it is my responsibility to provide a chairman’s report at the AGM each year. This comprises of many thank you to all the hard-working contributors and volunteers in the charity and this year will be no different.

We began this year last August we thought we would be full steam ahead post Covid and into another successful year of Pantomime. We had a new Director, Musical Director, a script, the charity had new trustees and officers and we were all ready to hit the ground running. What could possibly go wrong?

The Civic Hall- home to our group and main fundraising activity for over 50 years was in jeopardy and the current occupiers- The Civic Group had been given notice that their current lease of occupancy was ending and there was no certainty that they would be offered a new lease or in fact be the tenants of the building for our planned hire period and annual charity performance. MNG statement to members concerning the Civic Hall Lease.

Following the process Monday Night Group Trustees issued the following statement to its members:

As a venue, the Civic Hall over the last 50 years has become crucial to the operation of our charity and for Monday Night Group to meet our own charitable aims, mainly fundraising to financially support community groups and organisations within the local area.

In September 2022 it was announced by the landlords, Stourport Town Council, that the current lease was ending and they were seeking expressions of interests from Community Groups to explore a new lease. A process, however it resolved itself, we hoped would occur swiftly and within the best interests of the venue that is the Civic Hall to continue to be a community asset accessible by all.

Monday Night Group wrote to the The Civic Group, to seek information regarding the announcement and assurances towards our upcoming hire period in January 2022 in an attempt to gauge the risk and reassurance regarding the furtherance of the Monday Night Group fundraiser and upcoming productions and to express our deepest concern for the situation for all parties involved, in particular, the longstanding community hirers of the venue.

We asked that we were seeking a written assurance that should this process result in a new lease being awarded to the Civic Group that MNG’s hire agreement will remain under the terms and conditions set out currently and under such agreement that we paid our deposit. This will allow us to continue the sales of our fundraiser under normal circumstances with the security to our customers that this is the case. However, in the unfortunate event that the Civic Group are not awarded a new lease, we seek a written assurance from you that all monies paid by Monday Night Group to the Civic Group will be refunded at the earliest opportunity if this were the outcome.

We contacted Stourport Town Council separately due to the current situation in order to seek information to assess how much of an impact this process will have on our Charity, whatever the outcome.

The Civic Group replied and were unable to provide information or assurances that they would be in a position to confirm our hire period with them or that they could guarantee at being successful in securing a new lease with the landlords. They were concerned and publicly made the statement that they had been trying to secure a new lease since February and had been unsuccessful.

Publicly, there was limited information and there were comments being made that the venue could close completely or be taken over by a professional management company and there was no guarantee that the Civic Group would be successful.

After receiving this information and lacking in other information, Monday Night Group trustees decided to put forward an Expression of Interest to Stourport Town Council. With the single aim of ensuring the future of the venue had the best opportunity to remain in community hands and for the use and benefit of our local community. This decision was not made easily, however, as trustees we had taken steps to fact find and gather as much information we could about the process, the potential future of the Civic Group and The potential future of the Civic Hall and once we had all the information we could, we made the decision in good faith to best protect the Charity aims of which MNG are constituted and to best Protect the future of the Venue that it had the best chance at remaining available for future community usage whatever the outcome.

The decision was made to submit the expression of interest as a silent bid and that no public statements or attempt to rally support would be sought to ensure that the Civic Group and their bid would not be undermined or jeopardised as the current, sitting tenants of the venue. It was felt best to not divulge the information concerning the bid to MNG members until the process was completed to ensure that each individual member was not felt pressured or coerced into supporting the MNG bid or the Civic Groups bid or that they could not support the Civic Group if they so wished personally and risk a conflict of interest.

All decisions made by the trustees have been made in line with the charitable aims of Monday Night Group and with the furtherance of Monday Night Group at the heart of every discussion and decision and absolute sensitivity has been respected and observed throughout the process towards the Civic Group, their volunteers, trustees and employees.

The bid process consisted of an application followed by 2 presentations to allow the panel to explore the bid and ask questions. At no point during the bid or process did MNG undermine the work or achievements of the Civic Group or that of any individual who is employed or volunteers at the Civic hall nor was it ever the aim or plan that should a lease be awarded to MNG that The Civic Group would not be allowed access, hire or usage of the venue- quite the contrary- our bid was purely aimed at keeping the venue in community hands and not that of redevelopment or professionalised if it was the destiny of the process that the Civic Group were not successful.

Monday Night Group is delighted to support and we respect the decision of the tender process and are pleased to congratulate The Civic Group on being offered a new lease under which the terms are to be decided. MNG will continue to hire, use, and make attempts to work in any way with The Civic Group to make use of the venue to achieve the aims of Monday Night Group and support the community. Monday Night Group have publicly congratulated the Civic Group on their social media accounts and also on MNG’s Facebook account and express that we will continue to support both the Civic Group as tenants, Stourport Town Council as landlords and the Venue as a whole as we have always done so throughout the MNG history and occupancy at the Civic Hall.

MNG also contacted Stourport Town Council stating we would like to thank them all for the time and considerations the panel and the council have taken upon this matter and that we wish the Civic Group every success upon their new terms as they move forward and remain committed to hiring the venue each January in order to raise funds for the community as we have done so for 55 years.

MNG also maintain, that as long standing users of the Hall we wish to offer our support to both Stourport Town Council and The Civic Group in any way they may feel valuable in the creation of new terms for any future lease to achieve the best potential of the community asset so that it is represented by all who use it. We are of the view that it’s use, viability and accessibility should remain central to any future decisions regarding any future lease.

During this period of uncertainty MNG continued with planned for the upcoming fundraiser in January 2023. We had a Director, Musical Director, Producer a cast and an excellent backstage FOH and technical crew all working many, unpaid, voluntary hours to execute a production on par with previous productions but also pushing to raise more funds, endure less expenditure and sell more tickets.

This was the 3rd year that MNG decided to maintain the ticket prices of the fundraiser to assist with the cost of living, Covid recovery and maintain being an affordable and family friendly production to raise funds for our community.

Talking Props Theatre Arts had joined us the previous year and the relationship between him and the Civic group had deteriorated significantly during the months leading into the new lease tenure process. The Principle, school and staff were banned from building with the only caveat being that the children could access the building to perform under a third party hire period providing that the Principle was not present. This caused significant cause for concern as there appeared to be a standoff between the venue and the dance school which were imperative to our shows. Monday Night Group remained neutral during this process and hoped that this would rectify itself. Until the first day of hire there was no resolution apparent. The Venue issued MNG with additional Terms of hire which were unachievable and the landlords- Stourport Town Council intervened and a solution was agreed to enable a way forward to achieve our charitable aims.

The year to date was stressful, unnecessary, and created a huge amount of concern for the future of Monday Night Group.

At this point may I invite you to acknowledge the hard work, discussions and decision making of our trustees regarding the running of the Charity in the background, being a Trustee is about making sure the Charity is legal, compliant and at times making the right decision in the best interests of the MNG Charity. My personal thanks go to Bev, Helen, Alex, Rachel, Sophie T and Richard for their contributions to MNG as trustees during the last 12 months. These all play an incredible role behind the scenes and are all fully devoted to projecting the group forward and progressing and ensuring our charitable aims are being met, our charity is progressing and that we are building strong community relationships to secure the foundations of longevity.

The production group was working hard to develop the show to be ready and for this to be achievable my gratitude and thanks sit with the brilliantly, talented, members of the group, Marvell’s music- Sally and Simon, FOH, Backstage, Cast, Creatives and crew. Together, I have to say, created what I would consider to be MNG’s most outstanding production and musically talented score which did not go un-noticed when our audiences attended.

Going forward we are faced with extravagant increased in the hire charged imposed by the Civic Group which will eat into our final donation amounts. We are exploring opportunities to further seek out external grants to assist with this as well as exposing further fundraising opportunities throughout the year to plug the gap to ensure we can maintain the donations to support the local community groups who are in desperate need of our grants to survive.

Helen, our treasurer, you have held the purse strings once again and in addition to paying our bills, insurances, banking monies, counting monies, gift aid, annual accounts the list goes on you also have taken on a large workload which James handed over to ensure compliance as a charity. Your work, although silent is a crucial and responsible one entrusted to you by the group and Trustees and we thank you for your continued diligence to the role.

Post Panto, a group met to read the donation requests and £33,000.00 was agreed to be donated to 105 Groups. A memorable night and one that is rewarding enough being there than any things from myself can trump. To the readers on giveaway night and to the members who donned the costumes to meet and greet, sell raffle ticket and to provide some intermittent entertainment- again no thanks from me will ever trump the thanks and intrinsic reward gained from this evening. This is why MNG exists. MNG is why these group exist. Please do not forget this if you ever ask yourself “Why am I doing this?” They are the reason.

This year sees no change to the Officers or trustees, I have been elected for a further 3 year term as Chairman, Rachel takes up the secretary role and Beverly has stepped aside from this role to focus on being a trustee, To you all, your support and hard work throughout your terms has hugely contributed the successes of MNG and on behalf I am confident that this board of Trustees represent, firstly the membership and also the community and MNG is in safe hands moving forwards. I thank you for your time served in those roles.

Of course, it is my prerogative as the chairman to forget someone either by name or department or role- without intention of course. Between working, family life, writing, producing and just about anything else I have my finger in along with 7 months of time passing I am only able to recall a summary of the year to date.

To all this who have supported and enabled me to hold the office of Chairman for MNG during my last term I thank you all for your support and guidance.

I submit this as my Chairman’s report

Sam Maher

MNG Chairman

Reserves Policy

The Group maintains a modest, but not excessive reserves balance which equates atleast to the annual running costs of the Charity on the assumption that the pantomime performances are not able to proceed for any reason. This allows all costs to be met such as leases, electricity, venue hire and any costs incurred to perform pantomime.

In the event of not being able to deliver a pantomime for a considerable period or if the group could not continue, reserves would cover remaining lease costs of our storage unit.

We review our reserves annually and this allows us to adjust accordingly based on forecast or actual changes in pantomime expenses.

Financial Report

Our financial report is included below. In summary and as submitted to the Charities Commission, our summary figures are:

Income: £56,032

Expenditure: £51,267 including donations of £33,000

The following grants were received during the financial year:

Stourport Town Council £350.00

Worcestershire County Council £500.00

Detailed audited, financial reports follow:

Paonday Night Group Financial statements for the year ending 30th June 2023 Receipts and payments 2022.2023 2021-2022 n8ar85t £ n8aro8t£ 53.077 170 3.71 7S7 GrftAl 932 Hire c￿E￿lF￿￿￿t Bulk￿ s￿ Intw EDF Refvnd 2.524 Total fBceipts S6.032 £ 58262 Icl Fund Ewnt 11.718 13.513 3.329 1210 R4nt¢rfStotagg F Insuw¢$ 8 Webgts Exws8S 972 216 294 432 17.1S9 ghtiw tpartrnent sL￿1Y &Jb £ 50,0 1.241

Monday Night Group Statement of assets 2nd liabilities as at 30th June 2023 2022-2Q23 )21.￿22 Bank 28.327 4.711 8M37 18 FlJts&ewiyr*rt 1.613 Totsl assets 4171

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Serious Incident Report

If a charity has an income of £25,000 or more, it must also sign a declaration as part of its annual return, confirming whether any serious incidents took place in the last year that should have been reported but did not.

Serious incidents include:

The Monday Night Group has no serious incidents to report in its annual report of 2022 – 2023.

Declarations

The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.

Name Position Date
Sam Maher Trustee – Chairman 11/03/2024
Rachel Bloomer Trustee – Secretary 09/04/2024
Helen Deeming Trustee – Treasurer 11/03/2024
Sophie Turner Trustee 11/03/2024
Beverley Stone Trustee 11/03/2024
Alex Carrier Trustee 11/03/2024
Richard Walker Trustee 11/03/2024

Confirmation of approval from each individual is retained offline within the groups electronic document store

< End of report>