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.
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