RASPBERRY Northern Ireland Annual Report 2022 / 2023
Annual Report 2022/2023
Northern Ireland Raspberry Jam
Introduction
The Northern Ireland Raspberry Jam is an Unincorporated Association with members. The organisation became constituted on the 11th February 2017 and has 30 members. Trustees are elected by the members at the Annual General Meeting, originally held in February/March each year but was delayed to October of 2022 with the new General Meetings being held annually then until further notice. This report covers the period from 1st February 2022 to 31st January 2023. The organisation became a registered charity in Northern Ireland on the 14th of December 2020.
Purpose of the organisation
The purpose of the Northern Ireland Raspberry Jam is to further the advancement of education of both young people and adults across Northern Ireland in the field of Computer Science, Electronic Engineering and related subjects. This is achieved through family-friendly events for the public (Raspberry Jams), 1 to 1 mentoring for young people and programmes for educators including school teachers and parents.
Activities and Achievements
2022/2023 has been a year for reestablishing the Jam and its operations. Following on from the previous two years of the Raspberry Jam events being either cancelled or moved online due to covid-19 restrictions, in-person events were able to be restarted in April of 2022 at a reduced capacity.
Substantial changes to internal systems and infrastructure had taken place given the prior setup had become obsolete and new equipment was made available throughout the year.
From April of 2022 to January of 2023 the Northern Ireland Raspberry Jam has
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Organised and delivered 7 Raspberry Jam Events
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“Sold” 461 free tickets for Raspberry Jam Events (with a ~70% average attendance rate)
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Volunteering at 2 additional major events (EuroPython Dublin and NIDC)
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Celebrated the 10th birthday of Raspberry Jams running in Northern Ireland
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A total of 1000 combined hours volunteered the events throughout the year
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Throughout this period of time we have also raised £477 through donations, whilst £695 was spent. The organisation closed the year with £1,291 in the bank account.
Northern Ireland Raspberry Jam - NI107983 info@niraspberryjam.com
EuroPython Dublin
In July of 2022, a number of volunteers travelled from Northern Ireland to attend EuroPython in the Convention Centre Dublin (The CCD) in Dublin, Ireland. It is an annual conference that travels around Europe and is one of the most prominent events focused on the Python programming language. It brings a number of people from different backgrounds around the world that are either interested in or use Python for work, research or for hobby projects.
The event had a heavy focus on talks and included the Makerfest, a dedicated maker area for showcasing projects, workshops, hardware and maker-related organisations. We were invited by one of the organisers to run a workshop for the attendees.
The team assembled a project for a maze as a challenge for the attendees to complete using the Bit:Bots, but also hosted a number of Pis with Minecraft running the DOTs boards activity, as an alternative drop-in workshop.
It allowed for attendees to use the hardware and see what programmes the Northern Ireland Raspberry Jam runs to be able to have an awareness for their own knowledge in volunteering and for attracting new potential attendees to the Jam.
The maze challenge winner was also given a prize of a Raspberry Pi 400 starter kit, kindly donated by RS Components.
Northern Ireland Raspberry Jam - NI107983 info@niraspberryjam.com
Northern Ireland Developer Conference
The Northern Ireland Developer Conference is an annual conference for the tech community based from and held in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
The Jam has previously helped at NIDC during lockdown in October of 2020 with the kids live track where we held online workshops for attendees to follow along to at home.
In October of 2022, seven members of the Jam team made their way to the Waterfront Hall in Belfast and ran a number of workshops including Unicorn horns, Driving Bit:bots and Making Music with Sonic Pi.
It allowed volunteers to attend the conference and network with local companies, as well as allowing parents and potential attendees to see what the jam offers as a local event in Belfast. A small crèche was also set up at NIDC allowing parents to bring their kids to the event. This then led to them bringing their kids up to attend the Jam’s workshops too.
Northern Ireland Raspberry Jam - NI107983 info@niraspberryjam.com
Organisation Structure
The Northern Ireland Raspberry Jam is an Unincorporated Association with members and a constitution. As of January 2023, the organisation has 30 members and 7 trustees.
As of January 2023, the current trustees and their positions can be found below.
| Name | Position | Appointed |
|---|---|---|
| Samuel Stuart | Chairperson | October 2022 |
| Steven Patterson | Secretary | February 2020 |
| Claire Mulholland | Treasurer | October 2022 |
| James Matchett | Trustee | October 2022 |
| James Dougan | Trustee | October 2022 |
| Hannah McMullan | Trustee | October 2022 |
| Jack Delaney | Trustee | October 2022 |
The trustee team would like to thank Andrew Mulholland, Andrew McMullan, Lucy Bell, John Murphy and Caolan McKendry who all stood down from their roles in October 2022, for their service as trustees over their terms.
All trustees will be standing down at the Annual General Meeting with the opportunity to be reappointed by the members with a majority vote.
Charity Registration
On the 14th December 2020, the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland confirmed that the Northern Ireland Raspberry Jam had officially become a registered charity in Northern Ireland. The charity number for the organisation is NI107983.
Northern Ireland Raspberry Jam - NI107983 info@niraspberryjam.com
Financial Review
The Northern Ireland Raspberry Jam’s financial year ran from 1st February 2022 to 31st January 2023.Throughout the year, the Jam received an income from donations or workplace donations of £477 total, along with outgoings of a total of £695 . The organisation started the year with £1,509 and closed with £1,291 in the bank.
Although the organisation ended the year on a lower bank balance than it started, this is to be expected given the lower number of events and attendee numbers. The introduction of the tuck shop and access to card payments via Zettle has allowed for the Jam to generate additional income from attendees and allow for card donations to be made.
As of January 2022, the organisation has a single recurring outgoing of £5 each month to maintain the bank account. As well as monetary support, the organisation has also received significant in kind support from the School of Mathematics and Physics at Queen’s University (estimated over £7500 ) and Nitec Solutions (estimated over £3000 ).
| Income Category SUM of Paid in Carried forward £1,509.26 Workplace Donation £338.62 Donation £108.38 Outgoings Category SUM of Paid out Jam volunteer refreshments £248.80 Mobile data £142.00 Travel expenses £73.18 |
Income Category SUM of Paid in Carried forward £1,509.26 Workplace Donation £338.62 Donation £108.38 Outgoings Category SUM of Paid out Jam volunteer refreshments £248.80 Mobile data £142.00 Travel expenses £73.18 |
Income Category SUM of Paid in Carried forward £1,509.26 Workplace Donation £338.62 Donation £108.38 Outgoings Category SUM of Paid out Jam volunteer refreshments £248.80 Mobile data £142.00 Travel expenses £73.18 |
Income Category SUM of Paid in Carried forward £1,509.26 Workplace Donation £338.62 Donation £108.38 Outgoings Category SUM of Paid out Jam volunteer refreshments £248.80 Mobile data £142.00 Travel expenses £73.18 |
Income Category SUM of Paid in Carried forward £1,509.26 Workplace Donation £338.62 Donation £108.38 Outgoings Category SUM of Paid out Jam volunteer refreshments £248.80 Mobile data £142.00 Travel expenses £73.18 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carried forward | £1,509.26 | Jam volunteer refreshments | £248.80 | |
| Workplace Donation | £338.62 | Mobile data | £142.00 | |
| Donation | £108.38 | Travel expenses | £73.18 | |
| Cash donations | £29.50 | Bank fees | £61.65 | |
| Grand Total £1,985.76 Raspberry Jam Programme Equipment £51.99 Consumables £39.38 Tuck shop consumables £29.55 IT Expenses £24.58 Equipment repair/replacement £23.99 Grand Total £695.12 |
Raspberry Jam Programme Equipment |
£51.99 | ||
| Consumables | £39.38 | |||
| Tuck shop consumables | £29.55 | |||
| IT Expenses | £24.58 | |||
| Equipment repair/replacement | £23.99 |
Northern Ireland Raspberry Jam - NI107983 info@niraspberryjam.com