London West End WI AGM 15th November 2011

London West End WI AGM  15th November 2011


Reports

* Report on 2011 meetings
* Treasurers report loss of £741, Reserves of £2,000

Generating Income

* Increase membership – recruiting more members
* Seeking grants
* Fundraising projects on regular basis
* Marketing
* Advertising in local businesses
* Invite a friend
* Managing expenditure
* Vote of Thanks
* Resigning Committee


Nominations for new committee Helena Roden
Kate Matheson
Jane White “Treasurer”
Claude Asgill
Pam Young “President”
Christine McMahon
Ruth Hodson “Secretary”
Rachel Bolland
Papiya Chatterjee

LWWI Secretaries Report December 2010 – November 2011
Ladies what a turbulent year we have had 2010-11 at LWWI.

November we elected a new committee. Jane became treasurer; Heather remained President, whilst Kate and Claude remained as Secretaries. Following our AGM Heather our president led a most fabulous Perry (pear cider) tasting session.


In December we had a very quiet meeting as many people were unable to attend due to the snow, including the planned speaker Jacqui who was due to demonstrate beauty products from Neal’s Yard. We had an impromptu Christmas party instead.

January started with a bang almost literally with Professor Butterworth from UCL coming in to talk to us about the Large Hadron Collider.


February saw a cancelled marmalade session as a special one off meeting but the food hygiene course ran attended by 14 participants. For our official LWWI meeting Mariette from Transition Towns came to talk to us about this project.

For March we learned everyone had passed their food hygiene course and had a trip to the British Museum to see Afghanistan and the regular meeting moved to the Cartoon Museum with a talk and private viewing.
April saw us outside starting the first phase of the gardening project in the courtyard under the expert guidance of Chris Raeburn the community gardener from Phoenix gardens. 2012 will see the start of phase 2, the creation of a rockery garden using the masonry from the old church spire[Soft Break]

Additionally in April the committee balloted members if we should change location or meeting date. Ultimately the response to this was that we stay as we are.

May saw LWWI hold a quilting/patchwork evening led most admirably by Helena and Vanessa. We held an additional meeting a few days later in May at 7 Dials club where we had Lynne Parker one of our members talk to us about Women in Comedy. May saw us out and about at the Brunswick Centre's Brunswick Fair and a second visit to the British Museum.


For June we were out and about on a day trip to Woburn Abbey, a most enjoyable affair and our main meeting was Tai Chi led by Viv one of our members.


July saw Saloni Kapur a pet reiki and energy healer come in to talk to us about aromatherapy and back flower remedies. Some footage and photos from this meeting are up on the blogspot.


August saw us once again at the BM this time to see Treasures of Heaven and our planned meeting was flower arranging but to due to a last minute cancellation it turned out to be quick desserts. Selina did 6 minute chocolate cake and Claude did a cream, nut and mandarin Swiss roll.

August saw us out with quite a large group in Brighton where we all enjoyed lunch on the beach, a turn of the Pavilion and the rain held off all day.



For September we held a lucky dip meeting our plan had been a talk by a local youth worker about the riots and what can be done to engage young people. Our speaker cancelled with less than 24 hours notice and so we ended up crafting and making flowers using paper. Thank you so much to Helena for once again stepping in to lead this meeting.
September also saw us out enjoying a day trip to Canterbury. We were also out more locally with our homemade cakes & jams at Phoenix Gardens Annual Fair and at Open House.


For October we were at the BM to see the Grayson Perry exhibition. It also saw David Gleeson give a much anticipated and enjoyable illustrated talk about Women and Iranian Art.
Which brings us back round once again to November, Our AGM, cocktail tasting and WI year end.

Conclusion:
Overall our BM trips have proved quite popular, as have our WI day trips run in conjunction with Friends of Russell Square. Certain fundraising venues have proved more lucrative than others.

Attendance levels throughout the year have been about 23-28 per meeting on average. We have had a number of cancellations in terms of our planned speakers but have done our best to fund an alternate speaker / activity on each occasion often at short notice.

Sewing circle and committee meeting attendance at 7 Dials have been a bit erratic in terms of numbers attending and how we go forward with this will probably need reviewing in the future.

Going forward the present committee have commented that it would be lovely if more members were able to help pack away and tidy up at the end of meetings. As well as helping at fundraising events.

We hope for 2011-2012 that we will see our membership numbers continue to grow, that the funding grant for ICT equipment will come through and that we will be able to arrange a series of interesting and reliable speakers for the coming year.
We plan to arrange once again and to let you all know in good time about trips, offers and exhibitions as the opportunities come up. And we hope to enjoy even more success at the various table cake sales where we raise much needed income for LWWI to ensure we can pay our rent and external speakers.
And that Ladies concludes our report for the year.

Treasurer's Report Year ended 30 September 2011

In the immortal words of Mr Micawber:

"Income £20, expenses £19/19/6, result: happiness.

Income £20, expenses £20/00/6, result: misery."

Sadly we're in the latter category.

Although we made decent profits on the 3 fetes, overall we made a loss of £741.

Even before we start, we have to have 74 members to pay the Federation subs &

the hire of the hall. We have 45 members, so the loss starts there.

Fete results: Brunswick profit £162.75, Phoenix Gardens £315.91 & Open House £52.57.

The Open House figure is inflated, becasue the Vicar told us to give the volunteers free

refreshments & they told me to deduct this amount from their share.

So our true profit was £40.57.

We also made a loss of £100 on the food hygiene course.

We should have excess funds from the garden project, but I can't quantify this until we've dealt with the rockery.

At the moment the excess stands at £1,099.

We are still in funds to the tune of £2,219, ignoring any garden excess, so we're ok.

If possible, we should think of ways to cut costs.

As stated, our main expense is the hall & we had 2 free months this year, so the situation would have been worse if we hadn't had this.

Our speaker expenses are low, because that's mostly a teapot & cosy, so not too expensive.

I know some WIs meet in wine bars, at least in rooms above or below the bar. This could be a way to save money.

If they gave us the room free, we could put £50 behind the bar & members could pay the excess.

However, would they be happy for us to bring food & would there be tea/coffee facilities, facilities for speakers or demonstrations?

This is something to consider.

Maybe we could apply for a grant to help.

Following the London meeting, I suggested we have a London day at Denman next year & Ruth Bond thought we might get a grant towards that.

Sorry not to paint a better picture, but we are still in funds, so no need to panic, but I do think we need to be careful with expenditure.