u3a Bury St Edmunds Trustees, Annual Report and Financlal Statements Year ended 31 July 2024 u3a Bury St Edmunds
Trustees, Annual Report for the year ended 31 July 2024 l. Admlnlstrative information Charity Name University of the Thlrd Age in Bury St Edmunds Charlty Number 803112 Charity Website https://www.u3aburystedmunds.co.uk Registered Address Risbygate Centre 90 Risbygate Street Bury St Edmunds IP33 3AA Banker Lloyds Bank 9 Buttermarket Bury St Edmunds IP33 IDB Independent Examiner Jacobs Allen 59 Abbey8ate Street Bury St Edmunds IP33 ILB 2. Governance and Management u3a Bury St Edmunds is an unlncorporated association and a re8iStered charlty. It Is governed by its constitution which was adopted on 20 June 2001 and is affiliated to the Thlrd Age Trust and the East of England u3a. Appolntment of Trustees: trustees are elected at the Annual General Meeting whlch is norrnally held in October. Under the constitution, there must be a minimum of eight and not more than twelve elected trustees. The trustees may co-opt a further two trustees if they consider it would be in the interests of u3a Bury St Edmunds to do so. Management: the trustees are responsible for strategic direction and governance as well as the day-to-day operation. Trustees who served in the year to 31 July 2024: Committee Role Rainaldo O'meara Elizabeth Barham Malcolm Seymour Chalr Secretary Treasurer
Jennifer Baker Peter Chapman David Dawson Susan Hawthorn Caroline Saul Mark Manning Richard Leonard Douglas Patterson Interest Groups Trips Liaison Development Social Membership Appointed 17 October 2023 Appolnted 7 May 2024 Appointed 7 May 20241 Resigned 31 July 2024 Appointed 4 June 2024 John Byrne Sheila Deare Stuart Lee Jonathan Hart Resigned 17 October 2023 Resigned 17 October 2023 Resigned 17 October 2023 Resigned 17 October 2023 3. Objectlves The charltable purpose of the u3a Bury St Edmunds is the advancement of educatlon, and In particular, the education of older people and those who are retired from full time work, by all means including associated activities conducive to learnlng and personal development, in Bury St Edmunds and Its surrounding localitv. As a member of the Third Age Trust, we adhere to the prlnclples of the u3a movement which is non-religious and non-polltlcal: membership of a u3a Is open to all In thelr thlrd age, which is defined not by a particular age but by a period in life in which full time employment has ceased. members promote the values of Ilfelong learnlng and the posltive attributes of belonging to a u3a, members should do all they can to ensure that people wantln8 to Joln a u3a can do so. 4. Chalrfs Annual Report for the Year Our end of year report for 2023124 carries a somewhat mixed message. On the one hand, once again we are happy to report yet another successful year of steady membership increases and a firm and healthy income base, managing to do this without raising our annual subscription, whilst at the same time expanding our social activities. On the other hand, this accomplishment has not come without a caveat. This growth in membership numbers has not brought with it a corresponding and necessary upturn in volunteer Trustees to help run our organisation. Consequently, we have had to amend our constitution. A few months ago we announced that our membership had reached 1,000, and since then our numbers have grown still further. The 31st of July 2024 year-end total of 1,075 paid subscriptions represents an increase of 108 members compared to the same point last year. Whilst the finer details of our accounts can be read in our Financial Statement, a headline feature worth highlighting is that although ourtotal cash funds at year-end were slightly down
compared to July 2023, we still carried forward just a little over £23,000 into 2024125. Many grateful thanks go to our Treasurer, Malcolm Seymour, for again steering a steady ship this past year. Very sadly we have to say farewell to five of our Trustees who have decided to step down from the Committee this October. Malcolm Seymour our aforesaid Treasurer, who has executed this role with aplomb for the last 3 years; David Dawson, who has been our successful Talks and then Development Secretary since October 2021. Sue Hawthorn, who has been our enthusiastlc Social Secretary during a very productive year; Jennifer Baker who has been looking after Interest Group matters for the last year; and Liz Barham, a previous Chair and current Business Secretary, who has been a constant source of ideas and energy for almost five years;. Our most heartfelt thanks go to them. Those who undertake to stay on as Trustees also deserve thanks for the hard work they have put in during this flourishing year. Peter Chapman, who has continued in his role of Trips Ilalson,. and Caft)Ilne Saul, who has most effettively controlled the demandlng role of Membership Secretary. We were fortunate that wlthin the past six months, Mark Manning, Richard 'Jim' Leonard, Doug Patterson, and Mike Burt agreed to be co-opted as Trustees, although JIM has since had to withdraw from the Committee as a result of health concerns, and we also thank them for their valuable contributions. Mike will become our new Treasurer following this yearfs AGM, and Mark and Doug will be taking on specific roles In the Committee to be announced in due course. We are also most thankful that we have many volunteers in off-committee roles to whom we are particularly grateful: Gayle Wade edits the newsletter, runs our publicity, and also organises the Apex stewarding. Peter Lydamore supervises the Apex technical team; Pat Lees plans and organises the day trips; Martin Saul works on our website content; Jonathan Hart has assisted David Dawson on the Apex talks; Stuart Lee is in charge of posting out paper copies of the newsletter to those who do not have email; and then of course there are all those individual Group Leaders, those in the Technical Team, the Computer Clinic, the Apex Stewards - their enthusiasm and commitment is instrumental in maintaining the on-going success of Bury St Edmunds u3a. Whilst it is encouraging to report a healthy u3a in terms of membership and finance, it is also Important to ensure that the future remains viable. And in that respect the ratio of Trustees to the total number of members still remains far too low for the growing size of our u3a. So, although we have over 1,000 members, we unfortunately received only 6 nominations to stand for the next committee at the time of our deadline for submissions. As a consequence, having just 6 committee members would be in breach of our existing constitutlon. which required a minimum of 8. Faced with the possibly of having to dissolve our Bury St Edmunds branch, we decided that we preferred to soldier on, but with a revised constitution which would allow us to continue with fewer committee members. The revision of our constitution required ratlfication from the national u3a organisation before we could put it to a vote of our own membership at an AGM, which in turn required a three-week notice of the AGM
agenda and accounts. This, we felt, was too short a time to have everW(hing in place for the usual October AGM, and so it was agreed to postpone this year's AGM to todavs date. Hlghllghts of 2023-2024 Recrultment of New Members As mentioned earller, it has been another year of growth in our membershlp and in June we announced that we had passed the 1,000 mark. Since then we have been joined by several dozen more members. November last year saw the Introductlon of a New Members Help Desk in the Apex foyer prlor to our monthly talks. This has remalned in place during the course of this year and has served as a polnt of welcome and assistance for our members whether attending the talk or just passin8 by. Publlclty It is always pleaslng to have posltive publiclty, and, thanks to Gayle Wade's effort5, there was a feature in the Community section of the Bury Free Press in June commentin8 on our u3a. Sodal Actlvitle5 The existing programme of 'new members, coffee mornings was developed. Our Soclal Secretary, Sue Hawthorn, organlsed two more thls year, with approximately 20 to 25 new members attendlng each event, the latest of which was held at the Oddfellows location in the centre of town. In addltlon, Sue organised a very successful Spring Lunch at Edmunds Restaurant In April, which was a resounding success. Interest Groups This last year saw a number of new Interest groups formulating, Includlng Members On Their Own (MOTO}, Cryptic Crosswords, Dementla Carers, a second Crlbbage group, Scrabble, Plckleball, Walking Cricket, Walkin8 Football, lawn bowls and several more. Hopefully, glven time, all will grow and thrive, As I mentloned last year, no subject Is too niche and there is always a good chance that there wlll be others that share your interest. If you have a pastime that you thlnk others may share, su88est It to our Interest Group Co-ordinator in order to have It advertised to make up a group. Talks Our programme of monthly talks, organised by David Dawson and Jonathan Hart, has gone from strength to strength. Attendances in the last year have been the highest since the onset of the Covid restrictions. The talk before last December, a most successful and entertaining return by Charlie Haylock, provided us with our largest audience of 2023. This year we have been treated to talks ranging from a Suffolk teacherfs ascent of Everest to the role of the RAF Special Operations Executive in World War 11, and in between we have heard about Renaissance and Revival in Building Design, Sacred Places in the World, the history of our local Theatre Royal, and Medieval Lavenham. In late Aprll Davld Introduced the flrst of a new programme of occasional speciality talks designed for a smaller audience and introduced by one of our members. The idea of the Tea Time Talks was piloted successfully last year with the subject of bereavement, and thls year covered the topics of 'On-Line Scamming and Fraud,, led by Stephen Poulter, and 'Patients
Who Changed My Life, with Barbara Wilson. In late September Peter Chapman discusses 'Philosophy for Life,. Trips Once more we are indebted to one of our non-committee volunteers, Pat Lees, who working with Peter Chapman has planned and organised our day coach trip programme, which is open to all members. This year trlps were made to Finchingfield Guildhall and Braxted Park in Essex, Our Lady of Walsingham and Thursford Steam Museum in Norfolk, and Bourne Mlll and Green Island Gardens, also in Essex. In September, a visit to Houghton Hall House and Gardens near Klngs Lynn is on the agenda. To close, many thanks to all members for continuing to strengthen the Bury St Edmunds u3a, and especially to all members, past and present, who have served on the Committee for their commitment and support. Rainaldo O'meara Chair S. Treasurerfs Report When the Committee agreed the budget for this financial year back in early 2023, the expectation was that membership numbers would be around 950 and there would be planned net deficit. However, another 100 members joined In the year and this continulng growth in membership has contributed signiflcantly to the annual surplus of £1,894 on the General Fund. The balance on the General Fund is now £23,055. this is managed by the Committee and is separate from the 'rin8 fenced, Interest Group funds, which total £11,332. The main elements of the surplus are the increased subscrlption Income and additional Interest on the deposit account. The absolute level of expenses - £17,511- is lower than the previous year - £18,916. because the accounts are prepared on a cash basis this can mask the fact that certain costs include charges for more than one year. So, Room hire and accommodation costs are £850 compared with £62 last year; however, this reflects the fact that not all the costs for 2022123 were invoiced in the last financial year. Similarly, this year's cost of the Third Age Magazine is £2,618 compared with £4,278 last year; the 2022123 figure included two years, worth of charges. Neverthele55, the annual level of costs is broadly in line with the budget. It is pleasing to note that coach trips and events organised through the Committee have increased significantly this year, with total receipts of £11,477 compared with £7,001 last year. The process for booking coach trips has evolved during the year, and members are encouraged to pay via BACS rather than cheque; this is also the case with trips organised by individual Interest Groups. The account5 as presented reflect all the transactions recorded in the financial year, which total some 1,600 postings to the financial records.
The Trustees continue to review the level of the General (Unrestricted) Fund and are seeking ways to utilise the resource in line with our charitable purpose. With increasing membership and the level of funds, there is no current pressure to review the annual subscription. Malcolm Seymour Treasurer Approved by the Trustees on l October 2024 and signed on their behalf by: Rainaldo O'meara (Chair) Malcolm Seymour (Treasurer)
University of the Third Age in Bury St Edmunds Charity Registration Number 803112 Receipts and Payments Account for the year ended 31 July 2024 Unrestricted Funds Restrlrted Funds Total 2023124 Total 2022123 Geneml Fund Interest Groups In¢ome Membershlp subscrlptlons Bank Interest 16,125 810 16.125 810 14.514 403 Donatlons 191 u3a Suffolk Dlstrlct Network Glft Ald claIM 126 126 2,126 2,126 19,187 11,477 1,215 24,663 17,127 73,669 1,938 19,187 11,477 17,046 Coach trlp attd evefjt rètèlpts Travel Group recelpts Theatre Group recelpts Other Study Group recelpts 7,001 1,215 24,663 17,127 650 28,563 14,895 68,155 30,664 43,005 Expenses Thlrd Age Trust membershlp Thlrd Age Matters Magazlne Equlpment purchase Webslte 3.932 3,932 2.618 3,692 4.278 2.618 590 590 1,009 5,581 685 1,237 5,437 1,725 62 Monthly talk costs Coffee/Soclal events Room hlre and accommodatlon costs Accountlng software Postage and statlonery Commlttee expenses Independent Examlner fee E-banklng commlsslon Mlscellaneous expenses Publlclty Membership cards 5,581 685 850 850 578 578 470 439 439 569 37 414 414 390 357 357 340 420 420 16 30 30 240 423 17,511 11,259 17,511 11,259 18.916 6,021 1,024 29,889 12,294 68,144 Coach trlp and event expendlture Travel Group expenditu Theatre Group expenditure Other Study Group expendlture 890 890 22.537 15,904 39.331 22,537 15,904 28,770 68,101 Sun)lusllDeficlt) Cash Funds at 31 July 2023 blf Cash Funds at 31 July 2024 c/f 1,894 21.161 3,674 5,568 28,819 34.387 li 7,658 28,808 23,05S
Universlty of the Third Age In Bury St Edmunds Charity Registration Number 803112 Statement of Assets and Liabilities for the year ended 31 July 2024 Lloyds Travel Equals Cards Uoyds Maln Alc caA Uoyds Deposlt Theatre Alc Total Unrestrlcted Funds 20 6.651 16.384 23,055 Restrfrted Funds Theatre Group Travel Group Other Groups 155 5,134 5,289 74 700 774 461 5,269 34,387 710 11,459 5.134 700 Assets retalned for the charltvs own use The following assets are held for members use and relate to the General Fund: Vlz-Pro Dlsplay Board 2 x Wonderwall Tabletop Foldlng Exhlbltlon Dlsplay Boards 3 Hewlett Packard Pavilllon notebooks Toshlba Satellite laptop Epson projector Ative AT-16X shredder 3 x Izettle card readers Asset costs are expensed In the year of purchase. Notes to the Accounts for the year ended 31 July 2024 l. The flnanclal statements have been prepared on the Receipts and Payments basls. 2. Restricted Funds were held during the year on behalf of the following Interest Groups: Art Appreciation, Art History, Badmlnton, Calligraphy. Choir, Churches and Villages, Craft, Current Affairs, Garden, Government and Politics, History, Music Matters, Painting and Drawing, Philosophyi Photography, Science and Society, Theatre, Travel, Wine Appreciation, Wines Around the World
- Coach trips and events receipts include £1,505 received from members relating to a future visit in September.
- Travel Group receipts include £675 received from members relating to a future visit in August.
- Theatre Group receipts include £12,075 received from members relating to future events,. costs of £7,991 have been paid in advance.
- Churches and Villages Group receipts include £1,506 received from members relating to a future visit in August.
- Garden Group funds include £750 for coach hire costs incurred in July but not yet Invoiced. Approved by the Trustees on l October 2024 and slgned on thelr behalf by: Rainaldo O'meara (Chair) Malcolm Seymour (Treasurer)
Inde endent Examinerfs Re The Universi of the Third Chari Number 803112 ort to the Trustees of einBu St Edmunds I report to the trustees of my examination of the accounts of the University of the Third Age in Bury St Edmunds (the Trust) for the year ended 31" July 2024 which are set out on pages I to 3. Res onsibilities and basls of re ort As the charity trustees of the Trust you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 ('the Act,). I report in respect of my examination of the Trust'5 accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 135151{bl of the Act. Inde endent examinerfs statement I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention In connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect: l. Accounting records were not kept in respect of the Trust as required by section 130 of the Act; or 2. The accounts do not accord with those records. I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. Signed Christopher P Kelly FCA Jacobs Allen Limited 59 Abbeygate Street Bury St Edmunds Suffolk IP33 ILB