Brighton & Hove Social Welfare and Educational Trust
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Brighton & Hove Social Welfare and Educational Trust Ltd Minutes of Annual General Meeting held on Wednesday 24th October 2012 at St George’s Hall, Brighton There were 26 organisational members of the company present (represented by 55 people) Albion Hill Residents’ Association Hampshire and Malthouse Courts Residents’ Aqua Seniors Whitehawk Association Bates Estate Tenants and Residents’ Association Hangleton Residents’ Association Bevendean Bulletin Ingram Crescent Residents’ Association Bevendean Tenants’ and Residents’ Association Jubilee Court Residents’ Association Brighton and Hove Association of Gambian Knoll Community Association Citizens Laburnum Grove Tenants’ Association Broadfields Tenants’ Association North Portslade Residents’ Association Christian Arabic Club North Whitehawk Tenants’ and Residents’ Clarendon and Ellen Tenants’ Association Association Coldean Residents’ Association Philip Court Residents’ Association Coldean Tenants’ and Leaseholders’ Association South Hawk Tenants’ and Residents’ Association Craven Vale Community Association Sudanese Community in Sussex East Brighton Bygones Local History Society Woods House Residents’ Association East Central Moulsecoomb Tenants’ and Residents’ Association Individual members of the company present Trustees: Roy Crowhurst, Ted Harman, Heather Hayes, Beryl Tucknott, Ekhlas Exander Staff: Dani Ahrens, Kate Chapman, Judy Goss, Kate Page, Mireille Shimoda, Rose Rickford Brighton & Hove City Council’s representative to the management committee present Councillor Ian Davey 1. Chair’s introduction Kate Chapman chaired the meeting. She welcomed and thanked everyone for coming and supporting the Resource Centre. She also welcomed in particular the 17 new member groups who had joined the Resource Centre in the past year. She then introduced the members of staff and Roy Crowhurst, chair of the Management Committee. Kate explained that the first half of the agenda would be formal AGM business, followed by brief reports about the work of the centre and its committee in the past year. She requested that item 9 on the agenda (election of trustees/directors 2012-13) be brought forward before item 7 (the work of the Centre in the past year). This was approved by the meeting. 2. Apologies Apologies from 27 organisational members Amigos Pre-School Manor Farm South Tenants’ and Residents Ardingly Court Residents’ Association Association Moulsecoomb Bangladeshi Women’s Group Mayflower Square Tenants’ Association BeCCA Centre Mount Pleasant Residents’ Association Downland Court Tenants’ and Residents’ Muriel House Residents’ Association Association Orchards Social Club Evelyn Court Tenants’ and Residents’ Poplar Close Residents’ Association Association Robert Lodge Residents’ Association Four Blocks Residents’ Association Rosehill Court Tenants’ Association Goodtimers Sloane Court Tenants’ Association Guild of Friends of Polish Scouts in Brighton Stepping Stones Pre-School Hereford Court Community Association Sylvan Hall Residents’ Association Leach Court Social Club Tarner Yoga Group Leach Court Tenants’ Association Tuesday Lunch Club Apologies from individual members Trustees: Gordon White 3. Minutes of B&H SWET Ltd AGM 19 th October 2011, and matters arising The meeting approved the minutes of last year’s AGM and there were no matters arising. 4. Finance Report (Annual Report and Financial Statements year ended 31 st March 2012 and financial position) and Fundraising Report Judy Goss explained that she would not go through every detail of the finance report, but would try and answer the questions that people most frequently ask about the finances, which are: • Where do you get your money from? • What do you spend your money on? • How financially secure are you? In 2011-12 the centre had an income of just under £226,000 and expenditure of just over £213,000, which meant that the centre had more money coming in than it had spent, the net income being just over £13,000. Where do you get your money from? The income had come from: a total of £161,551 came from grants - £90,000 from Brighton & Hove City Council; £31,780 from Housing Services; £1,764 from Sheltered Housing Action Group minute-taking work; £7,200 from City Early Years Childcare (CEYC); and £30,807 from the Lottery for the Money in Mind project. The rest of the income was raised from services (printing and equipment hire), which came to a total of £64,270. B&H SWET Ltd AGM 2012, page 2 Overall, this means that 30% of the centre’s income is generated by the centre’s equipment hire, printing and information services provided to community groups in Brighton and Hove, and throughout Sussex, and 70% comes from grant funding to provide specific services to support groups in Brighton and Hove. What do you spend your money on? Over the year we spent 95% of our money on providing services and support to community groups: equipment services, information services, special support to groups, and managing projects. The other 5% is spent on meeting the centre’s legal and constitutional obligations such as preparing accounts, reporting to the charity commission and companies house, and on generating funds. How financially secure are you? At the end of March 2012, the centre had assets of over £52,000. Although this sounds like a lot, it is money that the centre needs to save in order to plan ahead, and ensure it has enough put aside to spend on larger bits of expenditure, such as improvements to the database, the computer network, the website, and updating print room equipment, as well as major repairs and maintenance required to the building. Also, the Lottery funding for the Money in Mind project is ending in 2014, and we have started putting aside money for this in order to be able to continue to provide all our services if we don’t find funding immediately to replace this grant. Questions from the floor: Bob Spacie from Laburnum Grove Tenants’ Association asked where the centre would get funding from in the future. Kate answered that this question would be answered in Dani Ahren’s report on fundraising, which would follow the finance report. Fundraising Report Dani Ahrens said that the centre had just applied for a further 3-year grant from the Brighton and Hove City Council of £90,000, which would take us through to March 2016. A decision is being made at the Policy and Resources Committee on 29 th November. The Money in Mind project: year 3 of 5 has ended. The project has recently been independently evaluated and the report has been very positive about the work of the Resource Centre and its partner organisation, Impact Initiatives in providing practical support to groups in managing their finances better. We’re hoping to find money to continue this project when the funding from the Lottery runs out in 2014, and this will be our next big fundraising task. The centre’s contracts with both Housing and CEYC had been renewed, which are annually reviewed and reported on. The centre was also nominated as one of the Charities of the Month at Waitrose earlier in the year, thanks to Ekhlas, who is an employee there. The money paid for a new PA system, which is being used tonight. There were no further questions from the floor. Kate Chapman then asked the meeting to formally approve the annual report and accounts. With a show of hands, the annual report and accounts were unanimously approved by the meeting. B&H SWET Ltd AGM 2012, page 3 Copies were signed by Roy Crowhurst and Heather Hayes on behalf of the Management Committee. 5. Motion to reappoint Marks & Co as accountants Kate said that Marks & Co have been the centre’s accountants for the past 25 years. With a show of hands, the meeting unanimously agreed to reappoint Marks & Co as accountants for 2012-13. 6. New Members Kate said that in the past year the management committee had approved 17 new membership applications. Since the last management committee meeting, a further 4 have applied for membership. The groups that have applied for membership are: • Friends of Hangleton Park • Manor of Whitehawk Way (newsletter group) • Morning Glory (African women’s group) • Whitehawk Football Club All applications were unanimously approved by the meeting with a show of hands. 7. Election of Trustees/Directors for 2012/13 Kate said that there would now be an election to appoint the committee for the coming year. She explained that there was one ballot paper per member group, and that there now were 7 nominees, rather than 8, as Bob Spacie had withdrawn his nomination. She said that each group could vote for up to seven people. Each nominee needs to get 66% of the votes to get elected. Kate then asked each nominee to introduce themselves to the meeting. The nominees were: Muriel Briault North Portslade Residents’ Association Roy Crowhurst Woods House Tenants’ Association Alison Gray Clarendon and Ellen Residents’ Association Ted Harman Coldean Tenants’ and Leaseholders’ Association Ann Packham Ingram Crescent Residents’ Association Walter Sargison Broadfields Residents’ Association Beryl Tucknott East Brighton Bygones Local History Society The ballot papers were then collected to be counted by Dani Ahrens and Rose Rickford, and Kate said that the results would be announced just before the close of the meeting. 8. The work of the Centre in the past year Kate Page gave a general report on the work of the centre in 2011-12. She started by saying that it was always a bit difficult to report about new work at the centre because the work of the Resource Centre does not change very much from year to year. She explained that this isn’t because we don’t have ideas or ambition but that it’s because we know B&H SWET Ltd AGM 2012, page 4 that the services we provide are really useful and that our success is based on this. We know that the services are useful based on various things: First, and foremost, our members: that so many have turned up today, and over many years to support us; and through regular contact with member groups and getting feedback about what’s useful and what’s not.