GLENROTHES MEN’S SHED Bothan nam fear Glean Rathais
Annual Report & Statement of Accounts Year Ending 31[st] December 2025
SCIO number SC047101
Trustees’ Annual Report for the Year Ended 31** December 2025
The Trustees of Glenrothes Men’s Shed have much pleasure presenting their Annual Report and Statement of Financial Activity for the Year ended 31s December 2025
Reference and Administration Information
A Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (S.C.I.O.)
Organisation title: Glenrothes Men’s Shed
also known as ‘Bothan nam fear Glean Rathais’ which is the Gaelic translation S.C.1.0. Number: $C047101
Trustees
Glenrothes Men’s Shed is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation and at 1* January 2025, the start of the financial year, its Trustees were —
Chairma badly died during the year. He had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and, typically for him, spent a great deal of his remaining time preparing for his passing, including helping to identify and support his successor as Chair. He was very open and positive about his condition and prognosis. ae. i be sadly missed, both as a great chairman, and asa friend. | RS appointed as Interim Chairman, which role was ratified at the subsequent AGM. Also, at that ACM (Secretary) a 00Utti(‘Cé‘éd” (Committee Member) stood down from their respective roles.
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These changes of personnel necessitated the election of new Trustee/Committee the successful nominees. Members and there were a number of nominations, withpo
It became clear however that we would be unable to appoint any of the existing or new Trustees to the role of secretary. The maximum number of Trustee/Committee members, as per our Constitution, eight, had been elected, with none of them prepared to become Secretary.a who had been an unsuccessful nominee, agreed that she woulc munittee as a non-executive, non- trustee Minute Secretary. This was agreed by the meeting and the question of any need to re-examine the number of Trustees would be discussed and placed on the Agenda for the next A.G.M. or E.G.M.
Our gratitude is extended to all the Trustee Committee members who demitted office, and to those still serving, for the service they have given to Glenrothes Men’s Shed. At 31st December 2025, the end of our financial year, the Trustees are —
The Year’s Achievements and Challenges
2025 was a difficult year. In addition to the death of our Chairman, we also lost a number of other members and friends to death or ill-health, and while this is an inevitability, given the age-dynamic of our membership, it is upsetting and frightening. Weare also confronting the challenges created by our increasing growth. The building and the facilities it houses are very finite, unlike the demand to use those facilities, and during the year we started to address both the accommodation challenge, and simultaneously the increasing costs of electricity.
After much, often polarising discussion and debate, the decision was reached that we should build an extension to our main building and that the building work would incorporate the installation of a P.V. Solar electrical generation system on the roof, along witha battery storage system.
Plans were drawn, Planning Permission applied for and granted, and a Building Warrant application is currently with the Local Authority.
We have also been pursuing Grant Funding applications and engaging in our own fundraising to finance the project. To date, we have been granted £3,500 by the Local authority, and a number of larger applications are in the pipeline. In-house fundraising has resulted in £4,952 being ring-fenced for the project. These figures can be seen in more detail in the Annual Financial Report.
Both overall membership numbers and attendance numbers continue to grow and we are training additional ‘Duty Members’ to allow additional sessions to be run. This has already been implemented for a group of female members who have started meeting on a Monday evening; previously an unused timeslot, to engage in the more traditional female hobby craft pursuits. This group has titled themselves as the ‘Crafty Chatters’ and are already negotiating to take over a second, unused, evening slot.
Work within the local and neighbouring communities continues apace and even as I write this, a few days before Christmas, we have had an enquiry from a Council supported children’s group to provide both outdoor and indoor play equipment, garden furniture, and wildlife habitat.
Again however, and as I highlighted at some length in last year’s report, we have to consider if we are potentially undercutting local businesses by agreeing to do this. It has always been a stated objective of the Men’s Shed that, while they happily carry out projects that will support and benefit the community, especially in Auchmuty and nearby, they will not ‘compete’ with the local trades that may rely on that work to earn their living.
Among the 2025 projects that did pass the ethical question were -
Display stands and shelving for Leslie Heritage Society;
Bird houses for Friends of Riverside Park and Glenrothes Rotary;
Picnic benches for Thornton primary school;
Refurbishment of bench seating for local Care Homes (ongoing);
Running ‘Life Skills’ tutorials as part of Fife Council’s ‘Life Skills’ programme.
Objectives and Activities
The objectives and activities of the Men's Shed remain - “to provide recreational facilities and advance the social needs, health and well-being of (primarily) men of all ages and backgrounds in the Auchmuty and surrounding areas by:
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a) Creating, developing and maintaining a facility, namely a Men’s Shed.
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b) Offering opportunities for (primarily) men in the Glenrothes area, to meet and enjoy creative, physical, purposeful and recreational activities of their choice.
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c) Reducing men’s isolation, contributing to their physical and mental well-being.
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d) Developing the capacity of (primarily) men, with an emphasis on targeting those from the Auchmuty area of Glenrothes, to share their skills and knowledge with others in the community.”
We remain confident these Objectives are being fulfilled, and, as reported under the previous heading, increases in both membership and the range of activities give clear evidence of this.
I stated last year that The most observant amongst the readers of this report will have noticed that we use ‘ primarily men’ when we refer to our target groups and membership. We do have lady members.
This also appears to have been noticed and apparently disapproved (?) by the “Scottish Men’s Shed Association” who without notice or consultation have begun to refer to our facility as Glenrothes Community Shed. Something that is causing some angst, indeed anger, among our membership.
Other than the minimum age restriction, there have been, and remain, no barriers to membership.
Nor shall we be altering our organisation’s official title as registered with OSCR (Offices of the Scottish Charities Register), Customs and Revenue, our Insurers, and on the website, and we are currently engaged in copyrighting our ‘Title’ and Logos.
Financial Reporting, Funds, & Support 'In Kind'
The Glenrothes Men’s Shed has a single ‘Society Treasurer’s Account’ with the TSB and the accounts are prepared on an Income and Expenditure basis. The Financial Balance Sheet for 2025, as well as explanatory notes to the accounts, follow on at the end of this report.
We still receive support from local commercial organisations and individuals, viz;
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two building companies supplying off-cut wood);
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a glazier not only supplying glass but referring customers for picture framing;
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offcuts of marble for cutting boards
We still, and probably shall continue to fall heir to a considerable amount of workshop equipment from the families of deceased hobbyists. We endeavour to ensure that as much as possible is used by ourselves or passed on to other Men's Sheds or similar charitable organisations that can make use of it.
The Financial Report, at the end of this document, makes it clear how much we fundraise to remain self-sufficient and keep the costs to our members as low as possible. We have managed not to raise our Membership Fees or Session Subs since we started in 2016. It is our endeavour to ensure we have a small operating surplus of income over expenditure each year and to maintain a Reserve of one year’s revenue costs.
Glenrothes Men’s Shed is registered with HMRC. to claim gift aid on our donations, however, we have not yet submitted any claim. I do not fully know what we can claim for and which of our members are eligible for Gift Aid recovery. There is (for me) considerable ambiguity what transactions can be claimed for and I am reluctant to spend a great deal of time claiming for ineligible items.
The 2025 Financial Statement shows that, once again, we have maintained our small operating surplus, and healthy bank reserve during the year.
I believe this demonstrates our ability to 'hope for the best and plan for the worst'; allowing me, as Treasurer, to once again propose to the membership that they maintain our Annual Membership unchanged at £25. The one change I am proposing is that the subsidised £10 fee for persons from the Auchmuty postcode area be ended. This subsidy has not encouraged anyone from the disadvantaged parts of Auchmuty to join
and has only benefitted persons living in the more wealthy fringes of the postcode. Admittedly, most of these persons did donate the £15 difference back to the Shed.
Threats and Challenges
As reported earlier, death and poor health are amongst the greatest challenges facing our membership.
The end of 2025 has yet another flu outbreak plaguing the country and we encourage members to stay at home when they are not feeling their best. However, we do continue contact with those quarantining themselves and give any necessary support they may require.
In common with most of Society, we face the threats and challenges caused by the increases in the costs of energy and living in general. Hopefully the Solar PV project will resolve one of these challenges, but the general Cost of Living is unlikely to significantly reduce and continued awareness and response needs to be maintained.
A secondary, and little appreciated benefit of the Men’s Shed is that we provide a warm space where members can safely attend, socialise, and enjoy a beverage. This has resulted in Saturday morning opening during the winter months.
As a charity, we currently enjoy a 100% exemption for both our Property Rates and Water Rates, but any change of Government policy could affect that. The financial implications of such a policy change would necessitate a major change in our fundraising requirements.
One of the items I have reported over the last three years; accommodating the continued growth of our Shed, will hopefully be mitigated by the building of our planned extension, but we remain restricted by the physical environment, and the only way to increase our capacity is to increase our opening times. We have plans therefore to run training in the New Year to allow us to recruit and support more ‘Duty Members’ to increase opening times. The challenges of success are those we relish and anticipate resolving.
We strive to identify and recruit the Trustees and Office Bearers of the future. The age demographic of our membership does not make this easy Welcome to 2026.
Glenrothes Men’s Shed is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation SCIO number SC0174101
Signed …............................................................Chairman Date.......................... Signed …............................................................Secretary Date.......................…
Glenrothes Men’s Shed (Bothan nam fear Glean Rathais)
2025 Balance Sheet
| Income for 2025 Notes Membership Fees Note 1 Session Fees (Inc. Tea Money) Grants Donations from external sources Note 2 In-house Sales & Donations Note 2 Merchandise & Sundry Sales Note 2 Refunds and Corrections Note 3 Fundraising Note 4 Training Course Fees Total Income for 2025 Expenditure for 2025 Building Costs Coffee, Teas & Catering Costs Fixtures & Fittings Machinery & Tools Insurance, Admin, Affiliation, Post & Stationery Power Electricity Note 5 Gas Health n' Safety & Servicing Training Cleaning Merchandise & Fundraising Costs Project Materials, Gardening & sundries Total Expenditure for 2025 2025 Operating Surplus / Deficit Add Brought Forward from 2024 Bank Reconciliation Correction Note 6 Carried Forward to 2026 Represented by :- Cash in bank Unattached Note 7 Cash in bank Attached Note 7 Total Cash in Bank Cash in hand Petty Cash |
2025 £2,299.00 £7,511.00 £3,560.00 £1,770.05 £4,361.45 £1,537.17 £373.08 £7,258.64 £0.00 £28,670.39 £4,265.48 £893.90 £351.24 £6,761.58 £4,080.26 £3,572.57 £775.49 £843.37 £594.00 £266.83 £320.90 £1,306.21 £24,031.83 £4,638.56 £27,264.48 £0.96 £31,904.00 £27,229.77 £4,651.98 £31,881.75 £22.25 £31,904.00 |
2024 £2,999.39 £7,346.45 £-00 £1,231.00 £3,379.13 £1,118.00 £450.65 £5,642.83 £191.00 £22,358.45 £1,143.17 £370.97 £399.00 £5,788.72 £2,103.17 £3,949.59 £1,143.96 £769.95 £1,073.32 £182.23 £208.05 £1,937.62 £19,069.75 £3,288.70 £23,913.09 £62.69 £27,264.48 |
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Note 1 – Membership Fees
Membership Fees, unaltered since the inception of the Men’s Shed, remain at £10 for Auchmuty residents (condition of grant) and £25 for all others.
Note 2 - Donations from external sources
Glenrothes Men’s Shed is now registered as Charity with HM Revenue & Customs, and therefore eligible to reclaim Gift Aid on certain donations. The Treasurer is currently taking advice on which donations can be ‘Gift Aided’ and which cannot. As Gift Aid is claimed retrospectively we shall not lose any benefit during the consultation period.
Note 3 - Refunds & Corrections
There were three refunds during the year which are shown as Income items and each is cross-referenced to an equivalent Expenditure. The latest of these items was in respect to us seeking to change our Electricity Supplier, which is also referenced in Note 5. There is also a bank reconciliation correction. See also Note 6
Note 4 - Fundraising
In addition to our main, Xmas Fayre fundraising event, members attended Fayres and Table Sales organised by other organisations. Only the Net income from these events is shown; not including fees payable to the organisers etc. The Net Income for all Fundraising during the year has been designated as Attached Funds. See also Note 6
Note 5 - Power
Our fixed term contract with Smartest Energy ended in September and we endeavoured to change our supplier to ‘Octopus Energy’ and a deposit was paid. We learned however that we had committed to a Brokerage service for them to ‘auto-enrol’ the Men’s Shed to EDF Energy (their lowest tariff supplier) for a three year period. EDF’s tariff was very similar to that we would have received from Octopus. The autoenrol service has been ended.
Note 6 – Bank Reconciliation Correction
This item has been moved to the Income Column – See Note 3
Note 7 – The reference to ‘Attached’ under Cash in Bank are sums raised during Fund Raising and donations, contained within our single Bank Account, and which have been ‘Ring Fenced’ for our Solar PV and Extension project.
Signed …............................................................Chairman Date.......................... Signed …............................................................Treasurer Date.......................…
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APPENDIX 3
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Scottish Charity Regulator
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Independent examiner’s report on the accounts »~«
Report to the (Charity name
trustees/nembers of Glenrothes Men’s Shedi -
Registered charity SC047101
On the accounts of the Period start date Period end date
charity for the period Day _ Month Year Day Month Year
01 01 2025 to 31 12 2025
a remember to include the page
Set out on pages | That follow \numbers of additional sheets)
Respective he charity's trustees are responsible for the preparation ofthe accounts in accordance
responsibilities of — with the terms of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) 2005 Act and the
trustees and examiner Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended). The charity trustees
consider that the audit requirement of Regulation 10(1) (d) of the Accounts Regulations
does not apply. It is my responsibility to examine the accounts as required under section
44(1) (c) of the Act and to state whether particular matters have come to my attention.
Basis of independent My examination is carried out in accordance with Regulation 11 of the 2006 Accounts
examiner's statement | Regulations. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the
charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes
consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts and seeks
explanations from the trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken
do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit and, consequently, | do
not express an audit opinion on the view given by the accounts.
Independent examiner’s | In the course of my examination, no matter has come to my attention [otherthan-that
statement disclosed-on-the-attached-page-]
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which gives me reasonable cause to believe that in any material respect the requirements:
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to keep accounting records in accordance with section 44(1) (a) of the 2005 Act and Regulation 4 of the 2006 Accounts Regulations, and
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to prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records and comply with Regulation 9 of the 2006 Accounts Regulations
have not been met, or
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Sig
N
Relevant professi
qualification(s) or
(if
Add
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drawn in order to enable a proper
d.
te: IV: 02-26
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*Please delete the words in the brackets if they do not apply. If the words do apply, set out those matters which have come to your attention on the following page.