SHOTLEY & ERWARTON GOOD NEIGHBOURS SCHEME ANNUAL REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 ST July 2014 The Shotley & Erwarton Good Neighbours Scheme is a not for profit organisation governed by a Constitution. The Scheme was established as part of a project set up by Suffolk ACRE, a Registered Charity Reg d No.1062038, (now part of Community Action Suffolk)
FORMALITIES The Scheme s Constitution requires that an Income & Expenditure Statement made up to 31 st July annually is laid before the Members of the Scheme in the following October. MEMBERS The Members of the Scheme are the registered volunteers. At the present time there are 25 registered volunteers HONORARY OFFICERS AND COMMITTEE MEMBERS The following are: Honorary Officers: Chairman Allana Baxter Hon. Secretary - Debbie Dodd Hon. Treasurer Richard Davis Committee Members: Jane Green Dawn Lambert Anna Long Rosa McCulloch Steve Molyneux Wendy Sadler Pat Scholfield (from 15 th April 2014) Christine Thomas Liz Wrinch The Honorary Officers and Committee Members are required by the Constitution to retire at the Annual General Meeting. All Committee Members have each indicated their willingness to stand for re-election. BANK The Scheme has a current and an interest bearing account with Santander (previously the Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank). This Bank does not make charges to charitable and non-profit making organisations for providing normal banking services.
CHAIRMAN S STATEMENT Shotley and Erwarton Good Neighbours scheme is now in its ninth year. This year we have averaged five jobs a week and are pleased that our service remains popular. Our volunteers are friendly and helpful and this is shown by the appreciative comments we receive. Our jobs continue to focus on trips to the surgery, hospital, dentist or optician but we have taken animals to the vet, shopped for someone temporarily housebound, drawn curtains in the evening for someone temporarily without help and hold ourselves in readiness for whatever may be asked of us! David Grimsdale, Lisa Gardiner, Peter Sago, Bridget Stanton, Christine Turver, Jim Kemp and Casper de Boer have come off our volunteer list for one reason and another. We wish them well and thank them for their contribution. We are, of course, always glad of new volunteers. My thanks to the other members of the Committee, Dawn Lambert, Christine Thomas, Rosa McCulloch, Richard Davis who is our excellent Treasurer and his hard work is much appreciated by us all, Jane Green, Wendy Sadler, Liz Wrinch, Steve Molyneux, Debbie Dodd, Anna Long and Pat Schofield who was co-opted onto the committee earlier in the year. Debbie has won the prize for Secretary who produces our Minutes in the fastest time so far recorded! We were represented at the Flower Festival in July with a beautiful floral display produced by Rosa with Dawn and Christine as her able helpers. The current Honorary Officers and other Committee Members, see previous page, are all willing to stand for re-election at the Annual General Meeting. Allana Baxter Chairman
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE The Committee are pleased to report that the Scheme has been busier than ever this year with an increase in both the number of local people assisted by the scheme and the number of tasks undertaken. The year end financial position of the Scheme is also satisfactory as can be seen from the attached Income & Expenditure Statement, with a small surplus available to carry forward into 2014/15. During the period 1 st August 2013 and 31 st July 2014 Income was 540.33 and Expenditure was 464.14 resulting in a net Income of 76.19 for the year. With a surplus brought forward at the start of the year of 735.09 the available funds as at 31 st July 2014 were 861.21. In relation to income received, the Scheme applied for a grant from the Shotley Parish Council to cover the cost of the annual Public Liability premium and, in part, the additional costs incurred during the year for the renewal of Disclosure and Barring Scheme checks (DBS), (formerly known as Criminal Record checks), for volunteers. We are very grateful to the Parish Council for their continued support in awarding us the full 300 applied for. We are also extremely grateful to the 14 people who made donations totalling 202 to the scheme during the year. Income from the Rose Fete was 38. In relation to the Expenditure, the Insurance premium was the largest outlay during the year at 194.11. There was a one off cost this year for undertaking DBS checks amounting to 172.50, due to the decision of the committee to re-check all volunteer drivers. Other Expenditure was much the same as the previous year With funds standing at 861.21 the Committee believe that the funding position is reasonable. In the year Committee meetings have been held at the home of the Chair, Allana Baxter, which has saved expense and the Committee thank the Chair for her hospitality. Local people who wish to use the Scheme s services should call the mobile phone held by a nominated Duty Officer, who is a member of the Committee. We are grateful for all those committee members who have acted as Duty Officer and also to all those volunteers who have undertaken tasks on behalf of the Scheme. Volunteers primarily undertake tasks on weekdays so we do appreciate that, for some of our volunteers who are only available at the weekend, or evenings, they may not be called on very often they are however essential to the scheme in enabling us to provide a 7 day week service as and when required. We therefore welcome all volunteers to the scheme no matter when they are available. Anyone wishing to become a volunteer should contact the Secretary on 01473 787323. During the year the Scheme volunteers undertook a recorded 253 tasks for a total of 49 local people, an average of over four a week. The actual number of tasks undertaken is likely to be higher as it is not unusual for more than one activity to be carried out at the same time, e.g. shopping may be linked with a hospital visit, but the Duty Officer log may have only recorded one activity undertaken. We are pleased to note an increase in both tasks and clients on last years figures of 215 and 46.
It should be noted that the Committee decided not to renew its membership of Community Action Suffolk (formerly known as SAVO) due to the increased membership fee required to do so. Debbie Dodd Hon Secretary
SHOTLEY & ERWARTON GOOD NEIGHBOURS SCHEME INCOME & EXPENDITURE STATEMENT For the year ended 31 st July 2014 year ended 31.07.2013 INCOME Grants 300.00 200.00 Donations 202.33 169.00 Net takings from events 38.00 50.70 Gross income for the period 540.33 419.70 EXPENDITURE Disclosure Barring Service (previous year Criminal Records Bureau) costs 172.50 7.50 Annual General Meeting costs 24.56 33.10 Insurance premiums 194.11 185.58 Telephone 40.00 60.00 Publicity 32.97 29.77 Membership of other organisation nil 15.00 Gross expenditure for the period 464.14 330.95 INCOME SURPLUS FOR THE YEAR 76.19 88.75 SURPLUS AS AT 1 ST AUGUST 2013 785.02 696.27 INCOME SURPLUS AS AT 31 ST JULY 2014 861.21 785.02 The Income surplus as at 31 st July 2014 was held: Santander Bank Current Account 757.48 Santander Bank Community Instant Reserve Account 1.10 Petty Cash 102.63 TOTAL FUNDS 861.21