0lTh ￿ONdaY Thiqht qpoKJp Trustees Annual Report 2023- 2024 ## **Contents** Aim and Purpose……………………………….…..……………………………………….3 Structure, Governance and Management………………………….……..……………..3 Achievements and Performance………………………………………………………….5 Looking Forward……………………………………..……………………………………..6 Chairman’s Report…………………………….……………………………………………6 Reserves Policy……………………………….……………………………………………9 Financial Reports…………………….…………………….………………………………9 Serious Incident Report………………………………………………….……………….13 Declarations……………………………………………………………………………….14 ## **Aim and Purpose** The object of the Charity – The Monday Night Group – charity number 510879 - is to make grants to one or more charitable organisations. The Charity shall have the following powers: - To raise funds by the performance of concerts, operetta, musical comedy, stage plays, pantomimes, and other forms of dramatic art - To engage in other fundraising activities as appropriate in support of the primary objective detailed above - To provide refreshments if required and practicable at performances provided that no trading of a permanent nature be engaged in - To receive and accept loans, donations, contributions, and subscriptions - To collaborate as far as may be necessary or desirable with any person, body, institution, authority or otherwise - To do all such things as are incidental to the attainment of the objects of the Charity. The primary fund-raising activity of the Charity is its annual pantomime performed in 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: - a. A Chair b. A Secretary - c. A Treasurer > In the year 2023 – 2024, the Charity was governed by 7 Trustees of which 3 were elected as the Group’s Officers: - Mr Sam Maher (Chairman - Officer) – elected - Miss Helen Deeming (Treasurer - Officer) – elected - Miss Rachel Bloomer (Secretary – Officer) – elected - Mr Alex Carrier - Miss Sophie Turner - Mrs Beverly Stone - Mr Richard Walker 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**|**Trustees**|**Trustees**| |---|---|---| |**Name**
**Position**
**Term end date**
~~[Name~~
~~——ti—“(#’C”COC#C#C#C(‘#”~éPosition’=———(ss~Ss—~~CC~~||| |Helen Deeming
Trustee
8/25
~~[Name~~
~~——ti—“(#’C”COC#C#C#C(‘#” ~éPosition’=———(ss~Ss—~~CC~~||| |Helen Deeming
Sam Maher
Trustee
8/25||| |Rachel Bloomer
Trustee
8/24||| |Beverly Stone
Trustee
8/25||| |Beverly Stone
Sophie Turner
Trustee
8/24 (resigned 08/24)||| |Sophie Turner
Richard Walker
Trustee
8/24
~~|AlexCarrier=~~
~~S™—~—“*‘iTTrustee=——(~~||| |Alex Carrier
~~|AlexCarrier=~~
~~S™—~—“*‘iT~~|Trustee
~~S™—~—“*‘iTTrustee=——(~~
~~—“‘“‘C‘;CdVOAOOOUUUCCCdSS~~|8/24
~~—“‘“‘C‘;CdVOAOOOUUUCCCdSS~~| ## **Officers** Officers |**Name**
**Position**
**Term end date**
~~[Name~~
~~——“(WCC‘*s~é&PoSition’~~
~~~=—s————~—C;é‘“;C*'LzTermenddate~~
~~CC~~|**Name**
**Position**
**Term end date**
~~[Name~~
~~——“(WCC‘*s~é&PoSition’~~
~~~=—s————~—C;é‘“;C*'LzTermenddate~~
~~CC~~|**Name**
**Position**
**Term end date**
~~[Name~~
~~——“(WCC‘*s~é&PoSition’~~
~~~=—s————~—C;é‘“;C*'LzTermenddate~~
~~CC~~| |---|---|---| |Sam Maher
Chairman
8/25
~~[Name~~
~~——“(WCC‘*s~é&PoSition’~~
~~~=—s————~—C;é‘“;C*'L zTermenddate~~
~~CC~~||| |Rachel Bloomer
Secretary
8/24 (resigned 08/24)
~~|HelenDeeming —s——s—S—CidTreasurer——(CdHC~~
~~C“‘;‘C*CSCi*”r~~||| |Helen Deeming
~~|HelenDeeming —s——s—S—Cid~~|Secretary
Treasurer
~~—s——s—S—CidTreasurer——(Cd~~|8/25
~~(CdHC~~
~~C“‘;‘C*CSCi*”r~~| > 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: - To allocate only to local organisations or national organisations with a local base where the Charity can be assured that the grants will remain locally for the sole use of local persons - To allocate to schools for children with special needs and not for mainstream schools for general needs - To not make grants where the funds are required for building or repair work - To not make grants for a commercial venture - To not make grants to an animal charity - To not make grants to individual persons ## **Achievements and Performance** The Group once again performed a successful pantomime – Goldilocks and the Three Bears in January 2024 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 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 119 local groups in the Worcestershire and Wyre Forest area attended and we were able to award a total of £35,000, a new record amount! ## Planning is now underway for 2025. 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, we will ensure we can deliver a successful pantomime and raise large amounts of money for our local community. ## **– Chairman’s Report 2023 2024** 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’s to all the hard-working contributors and volunteers in the charity and this year will be no different. MNG, once again embarked on producing our annual and main fundraising production of a family friendly, affordable, and entertaining Pantomime with the aim to raise funds that can be awarded to worthy, local, community groups and organisations that provide support for the elderly, youth, disabled and community within the local area. We had appointed a Director, Musical Director, Producer, writer, and a small production team to steer the production of Goldilocks and the Three Bears in Jan 2024. A cast was chosen and an excellent crew comprising of Backstage, FOH and Technical crew all working, 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. Due the current economic climate, as with many other local groups, charities and general cost of things increasing including the venue hire increasing their hire charges by 30%, MNG were faced with the inevitable question of ticket prices. The trustees reached into the membership to seek views on our current pricing and as a result of the returns it was felt that despite the forecast increase in our expenditure it was vital that we were to maintain being affordable to the demographic of our audiences. It was decided that MNG would absorb the increase to our expenses to ensure ticket prices were maintained once more. This would mean that our overall donation was at risk of being smaller however it was imperative that we maintained our audience numbers. This was the 4th year that MNG decided to maintain the ticket prices of the fundraiser to assist with the cost of living and to maintain being an affordable and family friendly production to raise funds for our community despite our increased running costs. It was agreed that other fundraising opportunities were to be explored to ease the pressure. I thank Richard and the production team of the Castmaster production. This was not only a huge amount of voluntary work by the team and cast it was also experimental. It’s safe to say from the response and ticket sale it was a huge success and has secured its place into our programme of fundraising events going forward. 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 goes 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. Helen, our treasurer, has 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 to ensure compliance as a charity. Your work, although silent is a crucial and a 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 £35,000 was agreed to be donated to 119 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 a change to the Officers or trustees. Sophie is stepping down as a Trustee. Thank you for your time and efforts. And Rachel steps aside as secretary but continues as a Trustee. Maria has been elected as our Secretary and assumes the role of Officer. I continue my term as Chairman. To you all, your support and hard work throughout your terms has hugely contributed towards the successes of MNG and I am confident that this board of Trustees represent, firstly the membership and, also, the community. 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. To all those 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. For those members, friends, businesses and organisations and councils who all support us to varying degrees to assist not only our production but also our charity, I thank you on behalf of Monday Night Group. To all our audience members, I also thank you for your continued support to help us achieve our charitable aims once again. 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 to, at least, the annual running costs of the Charity, on the assumption that the pantomime performances are not able to procees 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: £57,839 Expenditure: £58,284 including donations of £35,000 Detailed audited, financial reports follow: Monday Night Group Financial statements for the year ending 30th June 2024 Receipts and payments 202>2024 tothe nearest £ 2022-2023 ngarest £ Recelpts Fund Ra￿Ing Ac* MemL¢fs Subs 53.077 145 145 250 1.023 932 Grft 718 unpreseftWCa￿￿ HI￿ of EquiFWt EDF RehJnd 25 150 Sundry 194 Total r8c8lpts 57.839 £ 56.032 Payments Cost of Fund RaNng Event Rent of Siorèje Fac*ty 16.169 11,718 3.117 2.513 972 252 216 Printing StalKM 749 294 Subtotal 17 Donatlons Donations rnadÈ Assets purchased Sound DeparttnEllt L¥Jhting Deparkn)ent Sundry Sub total Total Pa￿ngnts 58384 £ 51.267 Monday Night Group Statement of assets and liabilities as at 30th June 2024 2023-2024 2022-2023 Bank Techni(21 EquiFMn* Flats & equty￿nt 32.647 1.887 18 4.711 18 1,613 Total assets £ 34 £ 39.435 beha￿{* 4-181 J(k Notes Inde endent examiner's re ort MoThJay NNJht Group On accounts for the year 3￿ jur￿ 2024 Charity no (bf anyl 510879 Respe¢live The chariws Irustees are reswnsible for the Kwaration oflhe accounts. vesponsibiliiies of The charty's trustees conshder that an audrt is not required for this year trustees and examiner under sect￿1 144 ofthe Chanties Act 2011 ItrE Chaftses Act) and that an irthpendent examination is needed. It 15 my reS￿nSIb"11fy to.. examire the a¢￿Unts under *￿10n 145 ofthe Charibes A to follow the procedures18id down in the general Directions given by the Charrty Cornmis5ion {ur*Jer seth.on 145151{b} of the Chanties Act, and to slate p￿￿￿lar mattefs have come to my attention. Basis of independent My examinalion was cartied 04rt in ac￿rdanCe wth g￿￿[al Di￿￿.0￿5 given examinarfs statement by the Charity Comm￿S1on. An examinalion indudes a re¥￿ of the ac¢ounkn"ThJ records kert by the charrty and a comparison ofthe accounts presented wth those records. h aL￿ indth consid8ralion of any Lsnusual items or disdosures in ts accounts. atxl seekn￿ explanations Iroffl the trus1￿ con￿MIng any such matter5. The proc&Jures undertaken do not provide all the evKlen￿ that would be wuired in an a￿Irt. and consequendy no is gNen as to vh*ther the ac£ounts wesent a Irue and fairf vivw arKI the reFYXt is limrt&J to tkne matter5 set out in the statement below. Independent In connection *rylh my examinalw)n, rK• matter has ￿me to my attentKJn examinerfs statement 1. whKh gNes me rea$￿th cause to LElieve that in. any material res[￿¢1, to keep accourrting records in aCC￿dan￿ wtth serlw)n 130 of the Chanties Ad," to wepare accounts whith &cord with the acctsJnlFng re￿rdS and compty ¥￿th the account"rwJ wuirements of the Charrties Acl have not been rne( or 2. to in my oFHnion. attenti(￿ shoukj be in or(lerto en8￿e a proper Underst￿1ng of the a￿￿nIS to be reathed. Signed: 2+ PAIL LAWLEY ## **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: - fraud, theft or the charity losing a significant amount of money another way - a large donation from an unknown source - links with terrorism - the charity having no policy to safeguard its vulnerable beneficiaries - suspicions, allegations and incidents of abuse or mistreatment of vulnerable The Monday Night Group has no serious incidents to report in its annual report of 2023 – 2024.