Brookeville Enterprises AGM
Friday 26[th] January 2024 in the Services Club, Ballymena
Good Morning everyone and can I offer you a very warm welcome back to the SCB today for our AGM.
Originally, we had planned to host this event at the SOT, but the inclement weather of the past two weeks forced Tom, Stephen and myself to decide that discretion is the better part of valour and the heat afforded in the SCB may be much more hospitable than a cold morning at Tullygarley.
AGM’s like this I always find a little bit strange for as we are considering a set of accounts that finished at the end of April 2023, we are also considering where Brookeville Enterprises is as an entity at the start of January 2024.
And of course on occasions like this we also have to remember that this is about Brookeville Enterprises as a whole, not just the particular project that you as a member or supporter of Brookeville may have a particular focus to.
But before we go any further can I take a few moments to thank you all for your continued support, be it at a strategic level where Tom, Stephen and myself act as your Trustees, be it at a project level where Joan, Chrissie, and Harry continue the expansion of the Scullery O’Tullagh Project, be it from the projects we actively support like the SCB Ladies Committee Afternoon Tea, be it from our collaborative partners like VolunteerNow, MEABC or GroundworkNI and finally last but not least from our funding partners like Elevate.
Believe it or not we now are in our 4[th] year of Elevate funding, which has seen in excess of £20K of financial support being granted, Stephanie, you have been a very good friend to Brookeville and once again, you are most welcome here today.
Could I also say a special word of welcome to Vanessa from MEABC, Wenda from VolunteerNow, Kira from GWNI, whom you’ll hear a little more from later, as you will from Jenny, who acts as our Elevate Mentor from MEAAP.
A few moments ago, I reminded you all that today was about our accounts, so I will now take a few moments to update you all on some pertinent points pertaining to our accounts.
Total incomes in 2022/23 fell from £22,900 to £12,708, which was more or less the amount of monies (£10K) that we received from the National Lottery for our environmental project.
Our expenditure rose in 2022/23 from £15,697 to £16,734, mainly due to the fact that we carried monies over the Year End to spend in 2022/23.
This is further indicated by the fact that our funds carried over into 2022/23 to 2023/24 were £4,630 compared to a carry over of £8,656 at the same point a year early.
All these figures mean that as of the 30[th] April 2023 we had assets of £4,630, which was made up of cash £2,024, Debts owed to us of £3,391 and Credits due to be paid by us of £785.
Our thanks also are due once again to Heather of D.T. Carson & Co. for her help in the preparation of these accounts.
So, setting our finances apart where does Brookeville Enterprises find itself in January 2024.
Our flagship project the Scullery O’Tullagh continues to grow from strength to strength, Fred & Joan through VolunteerNow have been a magnificent help to our project, (wenda, I think we need to organise another Open day), as has Thea & Kira from the New to Nature Project at GroundworkNI.
And as their time at GWNI comes to an end I am delighted to see that they are taking on their own plot of ground at Tullygarley.
The SOT project in itself is also expanding, in the next couple of months we hope to finish our Renewable Energy Project, which will see a Solar Panel Matrix installed, with the help of over £11K of funding secured through the Aviva supported, Save Our Wild Isles Funding Programme.
Once that particular project has been completed out attention will turn to developing a new plot of ground adjacent to the area known as ‘Tom’s Plot’ at our site.
We are also continuing to expand our Social Enterprise activities in order to continue to make our project more and more financially self-sufficient over the years to come.
I also think it would be appropriate if we can segregate and report on the SOT finances separately from the overall Brookeville finances in the years ahead as well.
I mentioned the support that we receive from GWNI earlier, but I also believe that the voluntary support that our team give back to the GWNI Northern Allotments Projects, like the Community Garden in Bushmills or the Causeway Coast Down Syndrome Group Garden of Eatin in Dervock should also be noted.
So, there are indeed exciting times ahead at the SOT.
But it is not only at the SOT where our volunteer have been busy lately, I am delighted to say that we have given, and continue to give administration & fundraising support to the Services Club Ladies Monthly Afternoon Tea, the Veterans Support Group Ballymena, the Ballymena Neighbourhood Renewal Partnership, the Ballymena South Community Cluster and the MEABC PeacePlus Partnership.
I covered a lot over the last few minutes, and I’d be quite happy to now try and answer any questions that you may have across all our activities.
Chairman W Millar