I welcome you to our A.G.M. tonight. For anyone who is here for the first time, I'm Mary Margaret Love, the current chairperson of FACTS. Our AGM is later this year due to the fact that this year has been our busiest year to date and in particular, April and May were extremely busy. My report will cover the period from 1st April 2022 to 315t March 2023. April 1st 2022- We launched ourwebsite and on the 5th April our committee attended social media training. I will attach a breakdown of everything to report. Monthly meetings have been fewer this year due to a lack of speakers, this is due to quite a number of professional people still working from home and reluctant to speak at meetings. However, we still held a few meetings as well as some with just the parents meeting together for a relaxed evening. Training has been a big part of our diary over the course of the year and we had one of the most successful training events in the history of the group. Thanks to the Big Lottery for funding the project. Training will be one of our priorities during the next year as the benefit to parents is immeasurable. Regarding fundraising, this year has been the most successful year so far and I'm delighted to say that next years diary has more fundraising events marked in than the year we are ending. Again I want to stress the importance of fundraising, especially now when funding is scarce. I will emphasise again and ask parents to show thanks to the people who so kindly do the fundraising for us. l find this to be something which is lacking terribly on social media. It's
very easy to say thanks. It's also worth remembering, this group never has to ask for a fundraiser, they are all offered to us, which to me speaks volumes. I would like to thank all who fundraised, donated, all the companies who sponsored events and everyone involved in all the hard work. l also thank all parents for your support throughout the year. We had our usual trips and birthday parties throughout the year which were all well attended. Once again the group has grown in membership, we had to put on a second seating at our Easter Cinema trip. Finally, I want to thank my committee for another years hard work. They have given up their time freely and work tirelessly to help the group grow and develop. I look forward to working with you all as we strive to progress our group to meet the needs of all families living with autism in Mid-ulster. ss OcLk