As Mentioned in the Recent FED NEWS by the Hon Auditor Robin Mcdermott, It Has Been a Difficult
TREASURER’S REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 28th MARCH 2017
(Kindly refer to the detailed formal Company Accounts compiled by our Independent Examiner)
The accounts presented to you at the AGM are in the format as required by the Companies Act.
These accounts have now been approved by the Executive Board and signed by me as Treasurer and Trustee on behalf of the Board. They now require adoption by the AGM.The accounts are balanced and in my opinion well managed therefore I have no hesitation in submitting them to you for adoption.
This has again been a year of consolidation for the Fed accounts and has again followed the decision made in 2015-16 to follow a programme of tighter control over spending. In this aim the Board has been ably assisted by David Miller, who organises and delivers the Next Generation training programme,Alison Mitchelson who has taken on the running of the general Fed training programme, and Keith Crawshaw, who as well as undertaking the Fed Administration also tracks the overall financial position. David will be retiring this summer and has kindly offered to become Treasurer of the Federation. No one is better placed to help administer the training programmes – which represents the majority of the Federation turnover.
The Next Generation 16 training programme was again popular and concluded in June 2016 with a surplus. The current Next Generation 17 programme of 24 delegates has 3 modules remaining and barring major surprises I can confidently predict that it will be within budget. The NG16 figure includes the £1,000 subsidy which was kindly received from Museum Development Yorkshire, who have kindly provided £1,500 to help subsidise the NG17 programme. That £1,500 was received after March 28th, so does not appear in these accounts.
The Fed general training programme has once again also kindly received a subsidy of £2,000 from the Humber Museums Partnership MPM. Due to sickness only five training sessions have been organised in the 2016-17 financial year, but more are now being delivered and planned. Those five were delivered with an overall deficit of around £600–well within the £2,000 subsidy. The subsidy is restricted to supporting the Fed to delivering this training, so will be used to support future training. There have been 75 attendees to the five training sessions.
The Fed continues to work in a challenging financial situation and at present would struggle to operate without these subsidies.
In 2015-16 £2,400 was spent on a new Federation website with updated functionality. Recently the Board received information regarding new security certificates and safeguards which our IT firm – Castlegate IT brought to our attention. The Board has decided that these are necessary to protect the website from being labelled as insecure and also to protect it from hacking. This will add an additional £330 To the Fed’s annual running costs. The net result of this is that for the first time in over a decade membership costs may need to rise as the annual memberships will not cover the running costs and an additional sum that should be set aside for developments such as a new website.
Otherwise the Federation finances are currently in a stable condition. However it should be noted that this is partly due to the generosity of Keith Crawshaw, who receives a very modest honorarium for the excellent work that he undertakes for the Fed.
Finally, as Company Law Members, the Fed members at the AGM,have to appoint an Independent Examiner for the financial year 2017/18 and I would propose to the AGM that you re-appoint Craig Williamson, White Rose Accounting for Charities as our Independent Examiner for the financial year 2017/18
I am planning to be at the AGM, but I am also happy to answer any questions by phone at 01302 734285 or email at .
Carolyn Dalton
FED Treasurer
4th May 2017