THE FRIENDS OF ST ALPHEGE MUSIC
TREASURER’S REPORT FOR AGM DECEMBER 2025
Receipts and Payments
The bottom-line profit of just over £4000 does not tell the whole story this year. Part of the donations income includes a very generous £5000 which has been given for the writing and performance of the St Alphege Cantata, written by Stephen Linstead. This amount is ringfenced for that purpose, but clearly without it we would have made a loss for the year.
However, it has also been an unusual year in that you will see a large amount, over £6000 under Sundry expenses. Over £5000 of this was for the purchase, removal and setting up of our new grand piano. This was a one-off expenditure for this year and something which will be of great benefit both now and in the future. Clearly without this expenditure, we would be back in the same position of a profit of just over £4000.
As well as the donation already mentioned, I am very grateful for donations which have come in from Chris Thomas, and from Stephanie Lane, in memory of our late chorister Lawrence Lane. Our recital series on Wednesday lunchtimes continues to be a great success and our audiences average around 45 to 60 in number. As a result, we made a profit of just over £4500 on these. I should like to express appreciation and thanks to the regular attendees at our recitals, and to the volunteers who enable our recitals to take place by helping at the door, by making cakes and by serving refreshments. You can see what a difference these recitals make to our income.
The Beer Festival made a profit of £2300. We really appreciate the support given by our sponsors, and the hard work of James and all our helpers, and of course, all our drinkers!
I hadn’t claimed Gift Aid for a few years, so that refund was worthwhile – from both our members and people attending recitals.
It was also nice to see that our bank interest continued to creep up again. However, we are now being charged a monthly service charge on our accounts which will reduce this in years to come.
On the expenditure side, you will see that we increased the payment to our Organ Scholar; this is so that we can continue to attract scholars of the calibre of Harry Brown, and this year’s scholar, George Moloney.
Our choir maintenance costs went up this year. This is money spent on things like drinks and snacks, lunches when necessary, chorister social events, stationery, and Voice for Life books and medals. This year we also bought some music and spent money on the materials for the new storage cupboards in the vestry. We are very grateful to John Emmett for his very skilful work on these; they would have cost much more if we had had to pay for his labour costs.
We enjoyed a lovely cathedral tour to Malta in July. We had allowed for a subsidy of £6000 for this, but you will see that it came in at a much lower subsidy of £2600.
Balance Sheet
On the Balance Sheet, you will see that last year’s balance of £19877.13 plus this year’s profit of £4001.04 gives us total funds of £23878.17, split between the current and deposit accounts as you can see towards the top.
We still do not have an Independent Examiner, but if anyone would like to check any of my books and papers, I would be pleased to let them do so. The Accounts were submitted to the Charity Commissioners by the June deadline and no query has been made.
As you can see, it took an income of over £28500 to run our choirs, this on top of the budget we get from church funds. Please continue to support us and our events – we couldn’t do it without you.
This time last year, we agreed to disband the 100 Club from September 2025. We last put up our subscriptions 10 years ago and clearly costs have increased considerably since then. If we are to keep supporting our choristers and an organ scholar we need to keep up with these costs. Many of the men are wearing cassocks that have been around for years and they need replacing gradually (the cassocks, not the men!). Unfortunately, out church finances are not in a position to support this, so we need to pay for them ourselves. So, I would like to propose that, from next year, October 2026, subscriptions be raised to £30 per family or couple, and £25 for an individual membership. All those in favour?
Questions?
THE FRIENDS OF ST ALPHEGE MUSIC RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS - YEAR ENDING 31 AUGUST 2025 INCOME 2024126 2023124 Subscriptions Donations Income from Functions Income from Recrtals Sundries Income from 100 Club Major Trips Bank Deposit Interest Gift Aid 1,186.00 6,967.00 9.505. 8,959.89 230.87 216.00 0.00 234.45 1.244.83 1,291.00 2,415.40 10,4C6.82 9,438.27 359.68 314.00 255.00 210.97 Total Incomo 28,543.90 24,691.14 EXPENDITURE Functions Recltals Sundries Marketing & Promotions Choir MaintenarKe 6.435.05 4.424.26 6.386.00 0.00 1.722.86 9,418.99 4,178.14 1.2T7.23 0.00 1.381.54 ki I Choir l Organ Scholars Bursaries Pholocopwng Stationery & Postage 100 Club prizes Major trips Course8 2,700.00 0.00 93.60 56.43 90.00 2.634.66 0.00 2,004.00 0.00 79.20 72.05 126.00 888.71 425.00 Totsl Expenditure 24,542.86 19.850.86 Surplus IILossl for thg ygar 4.1.04 4.840.28
BALANCE SHEET-YEAR ENDED 31 AUGUST 2025 CURRE ASSETS 31 AU31 2tr25 31 August 2024 Bank Aco)unts CUnt Aco)unt D8POgrt AOunt 283. rJ,594.27 4,293.31 15.709.82 Cash In Hand 23.878.17 20.C#J3.13 CURRENT LIABILMES 126.C(I 19,87T.13 Yd.878_17 Paymenls in thn 23.878.17 19.877.f3 Rewesented by:" Balan Broh1 Forward trn 31K)8124 19,877.13 31/023 15,036.85 SwpluslL05s tryear 4.CK11.04 4.840.28 Balance carried forward rJ.878_17 19.8n.13 Sign•J 20.09.2025 (Treasurerl NT BY INDEPENDE1 EXAMI The atK)ve Balance sheet and ts altacd PaYrnts aTrJ Receyts Aoount ha¥* b8•n prepared in acL4rdan¢2 the Books Information aThJ WanatIor FVthd by tha Frtends of StAlphege M514 aThJ I wbfy that •r¢ in accththrKe Sig