Dorset Family History Society TRUSTEES ANNUAL REPORT From 1[st] Oct 1922 to 31 Sept 2023
Charity Name: Dorset Family History Society.
Registered charity number: 801504
Principle/Registered office: Stanley House, 3 Fleets Lane, Poole, DORSET, BH5 3AJ
Names of Charity Trustees during the period:
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Name Office (if any) Dates appointed
Mervyn Roy Goddard Chair 17 Nov 2020
Sheila Long Committee 15 Nov 2022
Angela Mary Parker-Harris Committee 15 Nov 2022
Linda Adams Committee 15 Nov 2022
Shirley Anne Robinson Committee 15 Nov 2022
Sheila Tanner Committee 15 Nov 2022
Lorraine Squires Secretary 17 Nov 2020
Cherry Diane Fisher Committee 30 June 2019
Debbie Winter Committee 09 Nov 2015
Christine Margaret Chuck Treasurer 09 Nov 2015
June Margaret Taylor Committee 10 Nov 2014
Richard Roy Yates Committee 05 March 2012
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Bankers:
NatWest Bank, The Square, 5 Old Christchurch Rd, Bournemouth, BH1 1DU COIF Charities Deposit Fund, CCLA Investment Management, PO Box 12892, Dunmow, Essex, CM6 9DL
Type of governing document:
Constitution
How the charity is constituted:
Unincorporated Association
Trustee selection methods:
Election by membership at AGM
Additional governance issues:
Society managed by bi-monthly full committee meetings plus annual AGM
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Objects of the charity:
To promote and encourage the public study of family history, genealogy, heraldry and local history with particular reference to the County of Dorset, and to promote the preservation, security and accessibility of archival material.
Summary of the main achievements and benefits during the year:
Although we are now two years after lockdown and all the other constraints of the pandemic, the society has this year had to deal with both the residual fall out from these events coupled with the current financial crisis. With this as the background the DFHS, in common with many of our fellow Family History societies, in planning its activities for the year has kept in mind the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit whilst working out and delivering a programme of events and activities that a post pandemic and possible budget constrained membership might be looking for.
Current membership is around 510 with a growing percentage of this being located either overseas or at a substantial distance from the county and this is also a change we need to be sure to consider in all our future planning.
Knowing that socialising is an important part of events for our local members, we have restarted “live” monthly talks at St Georges Hall but have interspersed these with Zoom talks which enable us to both better reach our more geographically distant members and also to hear from speakers for whom the trip to Poole would be difficult or potentially costly.
For our monthly computer club, we have been solely using the online approach as, by definition, the content fits and attendees tend to be comfortable with this approach.
For both of these regular offerings however we have started to seek feedback on other approaches which we can incorporate into our plans for next year.
For our Family History Day in April 2023, we made a conscious decision to keep the event small and at the same venue, St Georges Hall. Once again it was a great success with positive feedback from exhibitors and visitors. Footfall was up 32% on the 2022 event. We welcomed some new and returning exhibitors who had not attend in 2022 and several have asked to receive invitations for the 2024 event. Planning for this has already started.
Pre pandemic the society would attend quite a number of such fairs run either by our sister societies or by the Family History Federation but, again due in large part to the current financial situation, a combination of a significant reduction in attendance levels and the rise in the cost of putting on such events, has led to a move away from live to online and the society has been learning how to adapt to this “new world”
This does not mean that we are not actively looking for live events that we can be part of but we have focused on smaller venues and local events such as libraries, craft shows and similar in the BPC area. As always, we are actively looking for more
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volunteers, particularly those of you with a good working knowledge of society records and systems, to help with these events.
We have also re-instated our “First Steps in Family History” courses at Treetops and restarted coach trips to the National Archives and similar establishments that we hope will be of interest to our membership.
Our volunteers have continued to work hard over the last 12 months, balancing their commitment to the Society with personal demands, to provide the membership with support and knowledge, helping family historians progress their research and facilitating the running the Society. Collectively the level of knowledge within the Society is incredible but like any organisation we need to look to the future and attract new volunteers. Attempts to attract new volunteers from the membership pool have however proven difficult. Though we do feel that there are many members with an excellent (and some specialist) knowledge who would make excellent volunteers at Treetops or to assist with research requests we need to find ways to harness this expertise and we continue to explore this area.
In doing this we have recognised that some of the skills we need to thrive are not just those of family history, but in the areas of social media, website design and document management, for example. This year, DFHS became members of Community Action Network (CAN), a local organisation who specialise in supporting and advising charities and voluntary organisations. Through their recruitment portal we have 'recruited' volunteers, who are working on short and longer term projects and tasks for the Society. CAN have also given us invaluable support and resources to assist with reviewing and updating our policies -which provide guidance to all volunteers so that we operate within required regulations and in a consistent manner.
In line with many other Family History Societies across the UK, DFHS is increasing its presence using social media with one of our appointments managing X {Twitter) on our behalf, and we are increasing the amount of content published on Facebook. We want to grasp the opportunities social media will give us, but we fully intend to continue with all current communication channels.
One of our future plans is to review our website, and we hope one of our new volunteers will be able to help us with that.
In terms of finances. the Society received a bequest during the year from a former member of £35714 which has resulted in a surplus of receipts for the year of £27224. The Society has been recording a small deficit of approximately £2000 per annum for the last few years - without the bequest, the deficit for 2022 -23 would have been £8500 which is obviously unsustainable in the longer term.
As the Society holds funds totalling £95000 it is obviously not an immediate issue, but major differences from the previous year are firstly that payments in 2022-23 were some £4000 more than the previous year. The main reasons for this were that the costs of running Treetops have increased by approx. £1000 (and it should be noted that the new lease will add nearly a further £1000 in 2023-24 and that the cost of producing and distributing the Journal has nearly doubled. The latter however is less alarming than it sounds, as due to payment dates at the year end, 2022-23 includes
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the costs of 5 Journals while the previous year only included 3. The actual cost per issue only increased by £130.
Receipts in 2022-23 (excluding the bequest) reduced by nearly £2500 principally in subscription income. Only time will tell if this is a sign of a significant drop in membership, or that additional reminders to renew are required.
Policy on reserves
Although no monies are kept specifically as a reserve a percentage of our funds are kept with COIF, the Charities Deposit Fund in order to give a better return than that offered by our day to day operational account.
Declaration:
The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees report above on 21st November 2023.
Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees:
Signatures: R.R Yates
Full names: Richard Roy Yates
Position: Trustee
Date: 23[rd] November 2023
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DORSET FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY
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DORSET FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS ACCOUNT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30TH SEPTEMBER 2023
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||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|2022 - 2023|2021 - 2022|
|RECEIPTS|£|£|£|£|
|Subscriptions|
|2022 - 2023|4975|2021 - 2022|5552|
|2023 - 2024|1375|2022 - 2023|2921|
|6350|8473|
|Open Day|727|874|
|Meetings|797|892|
|Coach Trips|382|494|
|Sales|1414|1654|
|Advertising|0|0|
|Research|6140|5570|
|Donations / Fundraising|36014|412|
|Gift Aid|1132|1142|
|Education|144|75|
|Sundries|17|161|
|Interest|250|256|
|53366|20003|
|PAYMENTS|
|Treetops|
|Administration|6379|Administration|4034|
|Rents|11194|Rents|12499|
|17573|16533|
|Meetings|996|663|
|Coach Trips|753|585|
|Sales/Fairs|1091|810|
|Journal|4820|2512|
|Open Day|389|454|
|Travel expenses|77|263|
|Education|185|0|
|Sundries|Misc|102|Misc|10|
|Equipment|5|Equipment|0|
|Bank Charges|151|Bank Charges|183|
|257|193|
|26142|22013|
|Surplus/Deficit for the year|27224|-2010|
|Bank balances brought forward|67885|69895|
|Bank balances|
|Current account|35357|Current accoun|9231|
|PayPal|2740|PayPal|1893|
|COIF Deposit account|57011|COIF Deposit a|56761|
|Carried forward|95109|67885|
|ASSETS - As valued by the Committee|
|Stock of Publications at cost|3998|4029|
|Computers, fiche readers, etc|8|23|
|Furniture, Banners, etc|1015|1443|
|Library|1079|1439|
|Stationery|191|255|
|6290|7188|
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No Restricted funds, being funds which may only be spent on the specific purpose for which they were received, have been received or spent during the year.
The Society holds a lease on the property at Suite 5, (known as Treetops Research Centre) Stanley House, 3 Fleets Lane, Poole, BH15 3AJ at an annual cost of £11478 exclusive of VAT on the Service Charge for a three year period starting on 12th August 2023. Service charges do not increase throughout the term.
We have prepared the financial statement for the year ended 30th September 2023
Joy Dixon Treasure
APPROVED BY THE Annual General Meeting held on 21st November 2023 and signed on its behalf by
I have examined the books and records of the Society and confirm that the above Account has been prepared in accordance therewith
David Gynes Presiden Chairman of the meeting Peter Stickland
Date: 21st November 2023
Dorset Family History Society
Report of Independent Examiner