3 Oct 2007 - AGM Minutes
St.James Cottage
Minutes of the Annual General Meeting
Wednesday 3rd October 2007
At the Cottage Commenced 8.00pm
Present: Steve Wyatt - Chairperson
Emma Craigmile - Secretary 2
Kim Dix - Treasurer
Carol Cross - Afternoon Team Leader
Carol Potter - Team Leader
Sharren Jakobsen - Committee Member
Leanne Bradford - Committee Member
Pat Froud - Administrator
Chris Moss-Wilcox - Committee Member
Nikki Healey - Holiday Club Play Assistant
Lisa Andrews - Committee Member
In Attendance Jill Maidment - Reception Class Teacher
Apologies Received from Michelle Jolly, Sue Lambert & Jude Taylor
1 Confirm minutes of the Annual General meeting held on 18th October 2006
Minutes of the last Annual General meeting were agreed and confirmed.
2 Chairmans Report
Steve Wyatt read out and handed around copies of the Chairman’s Report (See attached).
3 Treasurers Report
Kim Dix also handed out copies of the Treasurer’s Report and provided a basic breakdown of the finances (See attached report)
4 Question & Answer Session
No questions were raised.
5 Election of Committee
Steve Wyatt thanked last year’s committee for their hard work and congratulated them on their fundraising. All of those present at the Annual General Meeting agreed to continue on the committee for the coming year. Michelle Jolly to be asked if she would like to remain on the committee.
Following the Annual General Meeting a Committee Meeting was held
6 Confirm Minutes of the Meeting 6th June 2007
The Minutes of the last meeting were agreed and confirmed.
7 Matters Arising
Banner – This was fastened to the railings at the front of the school 1 week before the summer holidays and whilst the Holiday Club was running.
Carpet cleaner – This was hired during the summer holiday at a cost of £25 and everybody agreed that the carpet now looks much cleaner.
Bark for Play Area – The Committee would like to thank Michelle Jolly and Paul Miller for supplying bark to enable them to maintain the play area. It is important that the level of bark in the play area is maintained at all times and this should be monitored.
Item 3 of Minutes 6th June 2007- This should be amended to read that the grant for the shelter has been withdrawn as planning permission was not achieved. Subsequently a grant of £1967.00 for Play Equipment was awarded without completion of another application form. To date, a covered sandpit, wooden toadstools for the book area and wooden stepping stones have been purchased leaving £1100 to spend.
Holiday Club- A small profit was achieved over the last year. The most popular sessions were during the Summer Holidays. October 2007 Half Term Holiday - Bookings are lower than previously, agreed to advertise again on Newsletter. There will be 2 activity sessions during the week – Football and Multi-cultural Music.
Lunch Club – Thank you to those parents who have helped with collecting Reception children from school to bring them to Lunch Club this term.
8 Officers of the Committee
Details of the role of the Officers of the Committee were distributed. After much discussion the following officers were elected:-
Chairman – Sharren Jakobsen
Proposed: Chris Moss-Wilcox Seconded: Lisa Andrews
Treasurer – Steve Wyatt
Proposed: Sharren Jakobsen Seconded: Lisa Andrews
Secretary - Emma Craigmile & Michelle Jolly (subject to Michelle’s agreement)
Proposed: Sharren Jakobsen Seconded: Kim Dix
9 Finance Committee
Steve explained the role of the Finance Committee.
The Committee members will be – Kim Dix, Lisa Andrews, Sharren Jakobsen, Steve Wyatt & Leanne Bradford.
Current A/C balance £2718 Deposit A/C £8524 Outside Play Area £17986
Internet Banking – Due to the turnover now exceeding £50,000 Lloyds Bank will make a charge for handling all cheques and cash. As a result of this it was suggested that it would be best to make as much use of internet banking as possible. However this means that any payments will be the responsibility of the Administrator alone. In order to maintain the security of the bank account it was agreed that the Treasurer should monitor this and a suitable scheme will be worked out and reported to the Committee at the next meeting. In principle the Committee agreed that internet banking should be used from now onwards.
Retainer Fee – The Staff have asked whether a retainer fee should be charged to those people, unknown to the setting, who wish to book a place for their child for the following term. As there were concerns that this may cause hardship to those families on a low income Lisa Andrews agreed to research other group’s policy on this.
10 Questionnaire
A Questionnaire has been sent to all parents using the Cottage, requesting their views of the service provided. A reminder should be put on the newsletter asking that the questionnaire be returned by 12th October. The results will then be reviewed by Emma, Lisa, Chris, Sharren & Leanne and they will report to the Committee at the next meeting.
11 Any other business
Tea towel Sales – Nikki Healey offered to organise sales of tea towels as a fundraising activity again this year. She also offered to research and liaise with staff regarding the possibility of selling shoe bags and or book bags.
Carol Cross asked if details of the programme for any events could be supplied to parents. There were some concerns that parents were not clear about their responsibilities when taking part in outings.
Provisional dates for Christmas Events were made
14th December Nativity
21st December Christmas Party
12 The Next Meeting is to be held on Tuesday 30th October 2007 at 8.00 p.m.
Chairperson's Report
Sept 2006 to Aug 2007
It is always a tremendous source of pride to see children who have come through the pre-school going on to start their first day at primary school and once again another year has passed too quickly. We have made the new building our own once more and been fortunate to access a number of funds this year to develop our ideas for the garden. I am sure that few people realise that without a voluntary committee working in the background, these funding sources would be closed to us.
Quality Care for Children
Our new Holiday Club opened for 6 weeks in 2007 and this is set to continue in 2008 thanks to dedicated staff drawn from our term time team. In addition we have set up a policy for special needs support for children aged less than 2 years 9 months that would not otherwise receive assistance in their first few months with us.
Our expanded child-care offering means that over the last 4 years the staffing burden has increased, resulting in subtle changes to the way that we manage the setting. In the future, the recruitment and retention of staff will pay a key role in our delivery of quality child care and this area will need close attention.
The setting was last inspected by OFSTED in March 2004 so we are on tenterhooks for 2008!
Staff
A plethora of training has been undertaken this year including the all important `Early Years Foundation Stage Briefing’ which all staff have attended. The briefing forms the basis of changes in the way that child care in Early Years setting will evolve over the next 18 months. Staff attendance at a Health & Safety training session remains a priority.
Finances
We currently have 17 children on the pre-school register, 13 children on the caterpillars register with a further 37 children making use of the After School Club (ASC). ASC numbers have dropped slightly since last year possibly due to an increased numbers of activities at the school. This appears to be a trend across other ASC in the area. Pre-school and caterpillar numbers remain varied but buoyant so we have adjusted our staffing accordingly.
We have increased our reserves as planned last year and applied for grants from 3 different sources. The OSC grant (£5k) was spent on the wages of the administrator as well as equipment. The remaining two grants (£10k) are awaiting the outcome of our planning application. It is intended to create play zones in the garden and an all weather play surface. We also recently received a grant of £2k for play equipment for this project. Our thanks go to Holt Football Club for their generous donation of £500 last year.
We have managed to keep session fee increases to a minimum but have extended the annual £5 family registration fee to include all sessions. Our fund-raising effort this year has been excellent with the summer quiz night a particular highlight.
Exceptional items in the accounts do not reflect the true end of year picture but all money due on the extension has now been paid and we have funds (£15k) set aside for the garden project as well as our reserves.
Administration
There has been a particular focus on reducing the administrative burden on both the Team Leaders and the voluntary treasurer. To this end we have successfully recruited an administrator for 6 hours per week who has fitted seamlessly into the organisation. Policies have once again been refreshed and contracts of employment amended to reflect enhanced pay and terms and conditions of employment. During the course of the year we have signed the `transfer of control agreement ‘ with St James First School, entered into a maintenance contract for the garden and sought relief from business rates which has reduced our liability from £1600 to zero.
Maintenance and Equipment
Two minor items of remedial work were undertaken within the 12-month snagging period for the extension. We used an industrial cleaner on the carpet in the summer with good results.
Social
Once again we organised a successful summer outing to Moors Valley, a sports day and our traditional nativity, Xmas party and Easter bonnet parade. These events were well supported and remain popular as a means of meeting other parents and seeing the children with their friends in the setting. We tried a new venue for the Xmas & Easter events and the consensus was that it worked well. The bike ride was a quick affair this year due to the weather!
Future Plans
We have applied for planning permission for an all weather surface in the garden and met with the landowner, Sir Richard Glyn, to gain his agreement for our proposal. This would develop the garden so that it can be used in a wider variety of weathers. Alongside this we intend to develop play zones to assist in the delivery of the Early Years Foundation Stage for pre-school children.
Summary
This has been a quieter year than last, perhaps caused by a need to consolidate our position and take stock of where we go next as a setting. Our finances are sound and I am pleased with the progress we have made towards our next project which is fully financed and just needs planning permission to proceed. We have delivered quality care for children but as ever, we must not be complacent and the results of the recent questionnaire and the impending OFSTED inspection should guide our thinking regarding future initiatives. Whilst the paperwork never seems to get any less, the role of the voluntary committee, operating often unseen is essential to ensuring that the staff can focus on the children and that prices are kept reasonable and affordable for local people.
Steve Wyatt
Treasurer’s Report for St James’ Cottage, 2006 – 2007
This has been another busy year with many changes in how the finances are run and I am pleased to say that the plan set out at the beginning of the year has been completed.
In November we employed Pat Froud as our new administrator for 6 hours a week and this has made a huge difference to the amount of day to day work that the treasurer and the Team Leaders have to do. As well as her other jobs she has taken on creating the invoices half termly, managing money in and out and from April 2007 running the payroll monthly. In January we invested in new accounting software called Quickbooks, paid for by the Surestart Grant. This allows us much more detailed reports and less time consuming day to day accounting. This software will be a huge asset in years to come.
For the first time we made a cash flow forecast for the financial year 2006 – 2007. In a childcare setting where our income depends on the number of children attending and this can vary week to week, predicting our income is not easy. Based on that, the expenditure prediction was within £300 but the income was £5,700 different (but the right way). This demonstrates the fluctuations in child numbers and had been deliberately predicted on the lower side. It does however give us valuable information for future years.
Income increases
The areas where our income has increased this year compared to last are caterpillars/lunch club, fundraising and bank interest. Nursery and ASC income were down on last year but this was expected due to child numbers. Our total income is also £3,283 higher because the nursery voucher money for September 2007 was paid in at the end of August and therefore this shows on 2006 -2007 accounts. This needs to be taken into account at the end of the present financial year 2007 – 2008.
Expenditure increases
Our wage bill, like for like, actually decreased from last year and this shows our staff’s flexibility to adjust levels of staffing in relation to child numbers and we are very grateful to them for this. The overall wage bill is larger but this includes holiday club wages and SEN wages which we did not have last year.
We spent more on toys and equipment this year which we necessary after a year of only buying essentials in preparation for the extension, plus more equipment needed for the opening of the holiday club. As the chair has stated, we also signed the transfer of control agreement which led to payment to the school plus our insurance bill has nearly doubled due to the realization that up to last September we didn’t have Buildings Insurance and therefore this has increased our premium this year.
The Holiday Club has achieved its aim in providing a valuable new service to the community and has shown it’s worth by making a small profit in it’s first year and we hope this will go from strength to strength.
Summary
This year has been better financially than predicted and this has enabled us to replenish our reserves which we had utilised for the extension project. We have progressed the continuity of running the finances by employing an administrator and purchasing Quickbooks. This has also enabled us to bring payroll inhouse which saves money and time. We have also set out a Financial Policy to aid in the smooth running of the finances at St James’ Cottage and initiated cashflow forecasts which will aid future years with predicting their income/expenditure.
Final Bank Balances
|
Current
|
£4,027
|
|
Deposit
|
£8,505
|
|
Outside Play
|
£15,984
|
PLANS
1. To increase the use of internet banking due to the fact that we now have to pay bank charges.
2. To increase our reserves to an appropriate level.
3. To maintain the cashflow forecast and to monitor income/expenditure
Financial Summary 2006 – 2007
|
Income
|
£59,629
|
|
Nursery fees for 07 – 08
(received early)
|
£3,283
|
|
Grants for ’06 – ‘07
|
£11,019
|
|
Total Income
|
£73,931
|
|
Expenditure
|
£53,730
|
|
Skip to the Loo
|
£21,476
|
|
Surestart grant (including administrator salary)
|
£3,802
|
|
Total Expenditure
|
£79,008
|
|
Surplus from income/expenditure
|
£5,899
|
Note: The surplus has been worked out using ‘Income’ and ‘Expenditure’ and not including the other figures.