a, TREASURERS REPORT FOR ACCOUNTING PERIOD SEPTEMBER 2024 - SEPTEMBER 2025
This is a brief overview of the accounts of Lisburn Gateway club from September 2024 — September 2025.
The club started the year with a healthy current account balance of £22,964.98. Thankfully the club was able to enjoy a busy year with a packed club program which the club leader will go into more detail about in his report.
We have been very fortunate to have had a number of very kind donations this year, we received £100.00 from Mrs Martin, £150.00 from David Mahood, David is ‘the man with a van’ he does dump runs and moves items around the country for people, Joe Doyle very kindly donated the selection boxes for Christmas presents for everyone. June Stewart came to our show last year and was inspired to hold a coffee morning in aid of our club funds, so a big thank you for her kind £116.50 donation. This year again our very own Madeline Dixon collected her change throughout the year and gave me a donation of £160.00 towards club funds. Thank you so much Madeline for your generosity this year again. We would also like to thank Mr and Mrs Millar who very generously donated £500.00 toward club funds. Mr Todd approached the club leader to advise that AXA were giving grants to local charities who provide facilities for people with disabilities. After some form filing and chatting with our AXA representative Martin we managed to secure a grant of £2,000.00. We used this grant to put towards the cost of the annual day out in June. The members were able to enjoy an entirely free day out because of this grant money, we are very thankful to Mr Todd, Martin and AXA for this.
On behalf of the management committee, volunteers and members of the club we sincerely thank each and everyone one of the above mentioned, without your support we would not be able to do the things we do in the club
As the cost of living rises expediently for everyone again this year, the club expenditure is also affected by this e.g. rent charges rise year on year, club insurance cost £760.21 which again represents another rise from last year, bank fees rise again this year, we get charged for every single note lodged, every bank transfer into the account, every cheque written and every card transaction. We had 2 visits to the Lagan Valley Island Centre for pantomimes this year with tickets costing £1,745.66.
The management committee made a decision to keep the dues for the full year at only £60.00 which represents a cost to the members of approx. £1.53 per week! In holding the price of the dues, for another year, we realised that we were going to have to come up with some new fundraising ideas.
Christine came up with the idea of an abseil off the side of the Europa Hotel in Belfast!! | know Stephen will talk more about this in his report but | wanted to thank each and every one of the brave and crazy volunteers and Oliver who took part in the abseil and everyone who donated very generously to the fundraising campaign. The total raised from this event was an unbelievable £9,447.90. This money is very much needed and continues to give myself, as treasurer and the management committee re-assurance that we can go on planning and providing a packed club programme for our members to enjoy.
We had a targeted 1* aid training night for all our volunteers this year with everyone obtaining a certificate at the end of the night. Some of the volunteers completed a basic Makaton course to help with communicating with some of our members who have speech difficulties and use Makaton to communicate. The cost of these training sessions was £380.00.
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Due to the amazing fundraising and donations this year we decided to pay for the tenpin bowling nights for the members at a cost of £1,377.50! We had not anticipated a new manager taking over the bowling alley and doubling the cost! We have always enjoyed a good relationship with bowling alley, booking 10 lanes on a Wednesday night when they would normally be quiet. They did us a special package which worked out at a cost of £2.00 per person for a game of bowls, but unfortunately a new manager took over and would no longer honer this package and raised the price to £4.95 per person for a game of bowls!! The management committee decided that we could no longer sustain this cost so we are having our own bowling nights in the club now. We may still use the bowling alley for our day out in June, price permitting.
We ended the financial year on 31.08.25 with a healthy bank balance of £26,301.94.
TRANSPORT:
The Transport account had an opening balance of £17 ,034.69 at 1.09.24. The transport expenditure for the year was £1,615.00 for transport to and from Downpatrick Formal in the Slieve Donard Hotel Newcastle and for our day out to and from Newcastle. We are exceptionally lucky to have this money in our transport account so we don’t have to add transport costs to these two events which would have been between an additional cost of £10.00 - £20.00 per person!
The closing balance for the transport account on 31.08.25 was £15,419.69.
| would like to thank Kitty my assistant treasurer for all her help throughout the year.
It is my aim as treasurer of this club, in accordance with the management committee, to maintain as healthy a bank balance as possible so that we can ensure the longevity of the club.
Thank you
Denise Wilson Hon Treasurer
Club Leaders Report for September 24 — June 25
{ would like to thank everyone for attending tonight and showing your support to our Club.
| would also like to thank Stephen Grey (principal of the school) for letting us use the school without these premisses not sure were we would be operating from (if anywhere).
Such a busy year we
had last year and here is a small overview of activities that we did as a club
throughout the year.
September, we started off with a welcome back disco with Andy doing the music, we also had Bingo, Karaoke and pool competitions in September.
October, we had some representatives from EasyJet come in to the club and talk about a day in the life of an air-hostess, a pilot (thanks Christine for organising this), went Ten Pin Bowling, Jumped off the Europa Hotel (I will talk a little more about that later) Abba night and Halloween party
November, we had a
quiz night, our Dinner Dance, Smores night, and our AGM
December was all Christmas themed month, we went to the Christmas Pantomime in the Island Centre, Christmas Karaoke, and finished the year off with our Christmas Party again with DJ Andy doing the music and Santa paid a visit.
January, we started off back in the Island Centre at another pantomime, we also did Bingo, Burns Night (thanks Mike for organising this and also playing the bagpipes) and Ten Pin Bowling.
February, we had a games night, Valentines disco, Ten Pin Bowling and the PSNI (again thanks Christine for organising this) came in and had a chat with us about home safety and cyber safety. March was pancakes night, Elvis night, Ten Pin Bowling and Animals night (no snakes or spiders this year). April, we played your cards right, had an Easter Party and a County and Western Night.
May we started off with ‘I’M A Celebrity get me out of here’ and a special mention to Ann for organising that, first time we did it and | think everyone had a great nights craic, also in May we had Karaoke, Ten Pin Bowling and a Nite at the Races.
On to June which is always our busiest month, firstly we had a visit from the local Fire Brigade (again thanks Mike for arranging this visit), we then had a volunteers and staff Karaoke night, Formal in Slieve Donard, Day out and our end of year shorts and shades disco.
As Denise said in her report if you work out the £60 dues that you pay every year which = about £1.53 pence per night where would you get any of the above for that amount of money.
All of the above events and activities don’t happen without all the Volunteers buying into the club programme and if we count how many hours of their free time they give up which is over 120 per person per year we are so fortunate to have a great bunch of Volunteers.
Again going back to Denise’s report regarding our Day out and it being sponsored by AXA insurance to the tune of £2000.00 which covered the Ten Pin Bowling in the morning and our tea in Frenche’s Clough
on our way home from Newcastle, again can | thank Curtis dad Raymond for putting me in touch with Martin from AXA and his team for helping me through the process so we could get the £2000.00 grant.
Again going back to Denise report we had a crazy bunch of Volunteers and a parent who decided they wanted to do some fundraising for our club and instead of doing something very simple like | don’t know maybe the Lisburn Fun Run or Half Marathon no......... they decided that they wanted to jump off the side of the Europe Hotel!! So on Sunday 13!" October 2024 they all arrived at the Europa some in Tuxedos and did the Abseil. Cheryl made sure Mike's Life insurance was up to date before he did his jump. Between them, their friends and Family and some of our own members they raised just over £9,500.00 and had a glass of champagne when they finished. Can you all please give a big round of applause to the following Christine, Mike, Skye, Archie, Katie, Jackie, Bobby, Gaby and a special thanks to our parent who did it in his Tuxedo Oliver.
Report completed by
Stephen Lenaghan Club Leader 26% November 2025