U3a Dumfries Treasurer’s report as at 31st December 2025
Balance in Bank current account £5782.84 Balance in Social and events account £134.35
Due to the increase in annual subscriptions from £22 to £30 for 2025 we finished up the year with approx £1000 more in the bank than 2024. This figure however included a grant of £400 from the National Lottery for the PA System which was credited to the account in December and expenditure has been debited in January 2026. The bank account also included a figure of £2200 which is membership renewals for 2026. If we subtract that figure from £12330.82 - £400, our total income during 2025 and add on £1090 which was the amount of membership subscriptions paid at the end of 2024, our income for the year was £10820.82. Our expenses total for 2025 was £11302.12. We were therefore in deficit by £481.30. Hence the reason for the increase in our subscriptions to £40 for 2026. It would be good to have a reserve of at least £1000 in the accounts to meet any unexpected expenditure during the year. Previously we have always tried to have a Bank Balance of at least £5000 in the account at the end of the year however this was not an accurate representation of our true position as subscriptions were being paid from November to end January the following year.
Expenses 2025.
The biggest difference between 2024 and 2025 is the amount that is paid out for the Hire of rooms/halls. £6480.40 for 2024, £7153.25 for 2025. An increase of £672.85.
Gift Aid claim for 2025 was £350.52. 2024 was £741.87
The reason for this was that HMRC have been looking at what u3as have been claiming over the past few years therefore the Third Age Trust guidance is now to claim for the amount that each member pays towards the running costs of each individual u3a Group. In our
case we have calculated that to be £12 for each member during 2025. This will be reviewed each year bearing in mind any increased costs throughout the year.
The costs of running u3a Dumfries are as follows:-
Beacon Fees £269, CLA Licence £69.37, Direct Mail Scheme £580, Monthly meetings expenses 264.10, Room hire for Monthly Meetings £350, Stationery & Postage £143.85, Publicity £124.95, TAT Subscriptions, £1127.35,
Total £2928.62
Other expenses are the TAT funding of £500 which we used to take a stand at the Dumfries Show.
The costs were as follow:-
Thornhill Rotary for Gazebo £100
Dumfries & Lockerbie Show stand £70
Dumfries & Lockerbie Show tickets for volunteers £150
Tesco for water & nibbles £46.55
Solway Print leaflets £80 Solway Print Banner £98.40
The Direct Mail Scheme is for the Third Age Matters Magazine. An exercise has been undertaken to reduce this cost by providing a digital version of the Magazine to members during 2026. TAM is still available as a printed copy and those who prefer this will still get it sent out by post.
We have endeavoured to reduce costs during 2025 by reducing postage costs and tea expenses. We are now meeting in one of our Committee Members home for Committee meetings.
We will continue to promote u3a Dumfries to attract new members to our membership. However we cannot do this without the help of all you members spreading the word. If everyone was to hand out a leaflet to just one friend and encourage them to join, our membership would soon flourish.
42 members renewed their subscriptions at the end of 2025.
Increasing the membership to £30 for 2025 resulted in a number of members not renewing. We have however increased our membership from 267 at the end of 2024 to 290 at the end of 2025. 48 new members signed up during 2025.
We must however continue to publicise u3a Dumfries to the general public in order to increase our membership further. Increasing the numbers of members will increase our income and hopefully keep the subscription as low as possible.