2023-06-30-accounts - Bournemouth U3A

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Annual Report 2023

Good morning, thank you for attending our AGM, my first as your Vice-Chair.

After a difficult year juggling family matters, Maggie Brown who became your Chair last year decided to resign during this summer after fulfilling the role since last Autumn. I wish Maggie all the best in the future and thank-you for standing up to the Chair’s role last year when a lack of a successor candidate became a serious concern to the ongoing viability of our u3A.

I joined the U3A initially during lockdown as part of the Third Age Trust Interest Groups online beginners Italian and Spanish. I also set up an online group ‘Lady explorers and travel writers’ that I continue to run as Group Leader once a month on Zoom. Once local u3a’s starting meeting face to face after the Covid Pandemic, I signed up for and enjoyed both yoga and mindfulness classes with local u3a’s in Bournemouth and Poole. Last year, I also met up with Jennie and Robin from the Committee to discuss setting up fitness classes and after gaining a greater insight into the Bournemouth u3a, I decided to put myself forward as Vice-Chair and was then co-opted by the Committee.

The Trustees and I – your Committee – see continuing to make our U3A even more friendly, open and inclusive as our key aim. Dorothee Merton , our Secretary is always looking to see how we might remove any barriers to members’ participation that may appear. We have made good progress but are not complacent.

Our committee meetings have reverted to a more normal pattern and over the last year and we have met regularly every six weeks or so. Thankfully COVID’s frequency and severity have reduced during the last year. Unfortunately, there are no vaccinations available to protect the U3A from the impact of soaring energy costs and the cost-of-living crisis.

As Trustees we have a duty to keep our Charity solvent, and to have sufficient reserves to ride out unpredictable financial storms. We are ever mindful of the impact our decisions have on you the members but lacking a crystal ball I am sure you understand that we must always err on the side of caution.

We are very lucky to have had the reassuring presence of Rod Jackson as Treasurer at this A.G.M. and having served as Treasurer for the last 7 years, we are going to really miss him now that he has announced his intention to stand down from the Committee this month. Rod Jackson and his wife Mavis joined Bournemouth u3a in 2014. Rod will continue to run his Zoom group “Your All time Favourites” and will continue to support the Committee and the new Treasurer (position currently vacant) as an advisor.

Only five of the current eleven committee members and legal trustees to the Charity, have agreed to submit themselves for re-election this year, and six have given notice for various reasons that they wish to end their term of office. We are hopeful that equally committed and hardworking members will step forward at this A.G.M. and volunteer to ensure the ongoing operation of this u3A.

Pat Ley has stepped down as IT manager and webmaster having worked hard to keep us all in touch particularly as Chair during the pandemic. Our grateful thanks and best wishes go to Pat.

June Matthews gave us great service as Office Manager and who has been in this important role for 10 years and the first port of call for all membership enquiries, we will miss her on the Committee but are pleased that she will continue to volunteer in the office and also take on the

role of Group Leader of Beginners Spanish. After many years of dedication, she is now stepping down from the Office Manager role, and we thank her for all her hard work. Keith Pitman has stood down from his role as Newsletter Editor after 5 years or more in the post and will continue to be a member and enjoy his groups.

and thanks also to Robin Dalziel who stepped down from the Committee earlier this year as Programme and Venue Co-ordinator due to other personal commitments.

Dorothee Merton has performed the role of Secretary for the last year and also was co-opted to take on Robin’s Programme and Venue Co-ordinator role, in addition to becoming a Beacon guru, Beacon being our financial and membership IT management system . (I would suggest that each Group leader where needed , has a further person responsible for managing group records and communication on Beacon. It is pretty straightforward and saves hours of work). Dorothee is our point of contact with the Third Age Trust; the acronym TAT is unhelpful: our umbrella organisation provides support, advice and guidance, as well as the various licenses and permissions which help us run smoothly and legally, as well as saving local committees hours of work.

We would not survive and thrive without our dedicated and enthusiastic Group Leaders and those who volunteer in any capacity (the Office, the Coffee mornings, the Gala etc etc): they are all the backbone of our u3A. In thanking them publicly, those who have stood down and those who are continuing.

We have at least 15 or more new groups . Creative Crafts started this month, led by Carolyn and the Age of Enlightenment led by Esther and A History of China and India led by Neil and many others (apologies for those not mentioned). At the last count we had 102 groups with 26 groups currently with waiting lists and we are always looking to facilitate more.

New groups, new opportunities, yet membership continues to be of concern. Pre-pandemic we were looking forward to welcoming our 1,150[th] member. Unfortunately, numbers fell dramatically during the 2020-2021 academic year and have only just started to creep back up again, but we are still woefully short of that magic 1,150 figure.

We currently stand at nearly 800 members, 46 short of last year’s total figure. We are, however, still attracting new members and to date we have had 103 new members this year. This is a wonderful organisation for our generation to be involved in so, please, “get out there and spread the word”.

Julie Williams , continues to do a fantastic job as Head of Publicity John Oram, continues to be our Social Secretary and a volunteer in the office.

On social media, our Facebook members group has grown to 265 members, and thanks to Mavis Jackson continues to be administrator for this group.

Dorothee is selling tickets for the Christmas lunch and will do so up to Friday 25[th] of November; if you prefer, cheques can be sent, and tickets picked up at the lunch.

With 102 groups and a finite number of venues we can use, Jennie Pudney’s role as Programme & Venue Co-ordinator and SJI Representative is critical. She is currently monitoring at first-hand how the various venues are responding to higher energy costs. In particular, Friend’s Meeting House where we expect to find out whether this venue can continue to be hired from Autumn 2024

onwards by our u3A. Our Committee is currently looking at alternative venues this term, as a back-

up plan should Friend’s Meeting House close it’s doors.

We still have a few legacy members who have not embarked onto email – or found a younger member of the family to do so for them - so it remains important for someone to bring a hard copy of the current newsletter to share with members at any u3a events or groups.

I want to stress again the founding principles of the U3A, those of mutual aid and self-help. Like me, I know that most of you joined to explore new interests, re-visit and share previous interests, learn new skills and meet new people. After a while, the bigger picture becomes apparent: membership of a movement of volunteers, all of us with something to contribute. Please make your contribution count during the next year:

Encourage people you know to join
Offer support to your group leader to provide back-up and assistance
Share what you know, can do and enjoy with others
Look for opportunities to establish new groups
And when the time comes , consider how you might join the Committee and volunteer in any capacity, large or small roles accepted!

Thank you for all you do and continue to do.

Stephanie Gardiner

Vice-Chair

BOURNEMOUTH U3A

RECEIPTS & EXPENDITURE FOR THE YEAR TO 30th JUNE 2023

	2021/22 37,919.40 14,118.00 839.01 6,870.18 - - 14,000.00 2,302.00 159.05 4,796.40 £81,004.04	RECEIPTS Membership Fees 2019/20 Deferred Income Short Tennis/Badminton/Computer Gift Aid Repayment Miscellaneous Income Events Grants Donations Bank Interest Social Events		2022/23 46,210.00 - 1,056.00 8,372.58 183.45 815.00 - 3,080.31 201.65 6,043.45 £65,962.44		2021/22 40,256.53 831.78 4,740.10 3,817.98 1,624.68 85.59 397.30 3,112.00 50.26 211.76 4,256.85 21,619.21 £81,004.04 1,844.25 865.68 186.35 525.70 396.00 3,817.98	EXPENDITURE Accommodation Publicity Newsletter/Brochures-Printing/Post Office Costs IT Costs Other Events Annual Fees U3A Head Office Membership Equipment Capital Equipment Social Events Surplus (Receipts less Expenditure) Analysis - Office costs Office Rent 2,127.50 Telephone 809.92 Photocopier 204.88 Office Sundries 162.47 Postage 311.98 Total Office Costs 3,616.75	EXPENDITURE Accommodation Publicity Newsletter/Brochures-Printing/Post Office Costs IT Costs Other Events Annual Fees U3A Head Office Membership Equipment Capital Equipment Social Events Surplus (Receipts less Expenditure) Analysis - Office costs Office Rent 2,127.50 Telephone 809.92 Photocopier 204.88 Office Sundries 162.47 Postage 311.98 Total Office Costs 3,616.75		2022/23 42,931.10 1,390.10 4,082.18 3,616.75 2,185.58 284.70 433.07 3,192.00 54.90 1,687.70 5,150.49 953.87
										£65,962.44

								3,616.75

BOURNEMOUTH U3A

BALANCE SHEET at 30th JUNE 2023

	29,660.76 35,270.01 - 4,706.02 80.05		2022/23 69,716.84 555.00 70,271.84 15,785.00 54,486.84 662.14 £55,148.98 uals/ Deferrals sfers Surplus/ (Deficit) 4,569.40 14,594.53 125.06 (13,466.44) 73.50 892.96 (54.99)	2022/23 69,716.84 555.00 70,271.84 15,785.00 54,486.84 662.14 £55,148.98 uals/ Deferrals sfers Surplus/ (Deficit) 4,569.40 14,594.53 125.06 (13,466.44) 73.50 892.96 (54.99)		13,466.44 13,466.44 -		2022/23 700.89 - 54,448.09
	surer Funds at 1/7/2022 10,496.83 35,144.95 13,466.44 3,739.56 135.04					40,027.78 14,420.31


						848@68p 90@95p for promotion eve
								£55,148.98
N		Accr Tran	uals/ Deferrals sfers 4,569.40 73.50		Au Fu			14,477.00 1,308.00
								15,785.00
								576.64 85.50
	62,982.82 594.00 (10,082.60)		4,642.90 1,088.00 (5,848.29)	2,091.12 (1,019.86) 0.00
								662.14
	53,494.22		(117.39)	953.87				100.00 17.39 496.00 87.50
	£10,462 grant inco		555.00	subsidise acc	om
		me h	as been utilsed to
								700.89
							nts.

15,930.89 Accommodation Phone Social -Durmast Garden Social - Quiz 30/6/23

Bournemouth U3A

AGM Treasurer's Report

For the Year Ending 30th June 2023

The Full Year results show a small surplus of £954 which was £20,665 worse than previous year. However the 2021/22 Accounts included £14,118 of deferred income from 2019/20 and £14,000 from grants. Therefore, the £954 surplus is a substantial improvement of £7,452 over the 2021/22 deficit of £6,498, if this one off income is excluded.
Despite a budgeted shortfall of £2,650 on Membership Income, due to careful financial management we were able to turn the £12,769 budgeted deficit in to the surplus of £954, a £13,723 improvement. This is due to members' generous donations of £3,080, tight control over Accommodation costs saving £3,507, Newsletter economies £1,833, IT contingency savings £2,814, and Other Events cutbacks and Office costs savings of £1,375 and £974 respectively.

- Our reserve position has improved to £54,448 at 30th June 2023.

Bank and Cash Balances plus stamps at 30th June 2023 totalled £70,376. This includes 2023/24 online membership subscriptions of £14,477 and donations of £1,308 which had been paid into the bank before 1st July.

2023/24 and Future Prospects

- Our current full year forecast for 2023/24 shows a deficit of £5,028, as budgeted.

Membership whilst still significantly below the 1100+ pre-covid levels has stabilised at around the 850 level .
At 30th September our membership totalled 776, on par with the same period in 2022/23. To achieve our full year target we need 74 more
' members in the remainder of the financial year.

- Reserves at the 30th June 2024 at the end of 2023/24 are forecast at £49,369 which would cover 70% of our annual expenditure of £70,520. The Committee consider this level of reserve to be necessary as, due to the uncertain future of Friends Meeting House, our venue costs could increase significantly in the years to come.

CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examinerfs report on the accounts Section A Independent Examiner's Report Roport to the trustees On accounts for the year ended 30 2aL3 Charity no (if any) g00397 Set out on pages I report to ts trustees on my examinats.on of the accounts of the above charity {Ihe Trusf) for the year ended "30 0 6" IC)13 As the charity's trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 {"the Act"). Responsibilities and basis of report I report in respect of my examination of the Trust's accounts cartied out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Chartty Commission under section 145{5){b) of the Act. Independent examiner's statement -appl. Delete I l rfnot applicable. I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination (other than that disclosed below") which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respecl.. the accounting records were not kept in accordan wrth section 130 of the Charities Act", or the accounts did not accord wrth the accounting records., or the accounts did not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the fomi and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a 'true and fairf view which is not a matter nsidered as part of an independent examination. I have no cOnmS and have come across no other matters in connection with the examinab.on to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. . Please delete the words in the brackets rfthey do not apply. Signed: Date: 013 Name: MK kc)&E&f ffi MEk)QEk Ikj £fifKAfE OF MANIIGENEHf (¥c GlAT f Eg UUQ LEIE Relevant professional qualificationls) OT body (if any): IER Oct 2018

Address: BQftCKEN CouEr Pll kk E<JAf) I IH Section B Disclosure Only complete rf the examiner needs to highlight material matters of concem (see CC32. Independent examinatson of chanty accounts.. directions and guidance for examiners). Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wlshes to disclose. i0E IER Oct 2018