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A.G.M. 2019
Agenda
1. Apologies
2. Minutes of 2018 AGM
3. Financial Report & Proposed Budget (DW)
4. Election of Board Members
5. Revised Legal Status
6. Election of CIO Trustees
7. A.O.B.
Revised Legal Status
• Proposal:
• To change RNHWA’s legal status from Company to CIO
• To remove RNHWA from the Company Register
• To close the RNHWA company bank account and open a new CIO bank account
• To appoint Trustees to the new CIO
Notes of the Annual General Meeting of the Rutland Neighbourhood Watch Association. Held in the Rutland County Council, Council Chamber, Catmose Street, Oakham, LE15 6HW.
7pm-9.5pm, 13th June, 2018.
Present: Adrian Gombault (AG) Chair, Ruthven Horne (RH), Sian Dawson (SD) John Kennedy (JK) (Board members) plus: David Hodson, Michael Arnold, Richard Foster, Mrs Sturley, Mark Carnell, Sheila Halliday-Pegg, Roy Hosmer, David Webb, Rosemary Gooding, Bruce Gilliver, and Peter Martin.
Apologies received from: William Cross, Peter Ritchie, Adele Stainsby, Ian Dobson, and Andrew Wallace.
The AGM commenced at 7pm with an off-agenda item, a short presentation by David Harvey, a police volunteer, about the serious outbreak of theft of lead from church roofs in the county.
Advice was given on the scale of the problem, the threat and the options available on how best to protect local churches, followed by questions.
If thieves were encountered in the process of crime a call by 999 was urged and quoting the term ‘Operation Battlement’ which would trigger a coordinated Police response.
Mark Carnell informed the speaker he had been keeping a look out on the Empingham Church for just such a development. Thieves were seen, and he dialled 999. Police did not attend, and they made good their escape.
David said this was disappointing to say the least he would take the matter up.
(NB. Post meeting enquiries reveal, there was one Police response vehicle available, whilst responding to the Empingham call it was diverted to a ‘knife incident’ in Oakham, which, since it was potentially a life-threatening incident took precedence.)
Returning to the Agenda, there then followed a series of short presentations on:
1. Communications covering the smartphone app and the website.
After an outline of the latest developments, there was an appeal for volunteers to help the Administrator Jan Warren. Despite it being an excellent communications facility, without further support there is a real danger it will collapse. All present were asked to try to identify anyone who might be willing to help.
A discussion then took place around a promotional plan to extend the number of ‘users’. Coordinators were felt to be the best means of securing new subscribers and were offered the latest leaflets of the smartphone app to distribute at local fetes over the summer, since one-to-one demonstration was usually found to be highly effective. In addition, they were asked to publicise the app on village websites and through the newsletters and social media: templates containing suitable copy would be supplied in the near future.
2. Data Protection.
In view of the recent changes to the Data Protection legislation a short presentation was made, giving a summary of the law and the implications for Neighbourhood Watch. 2
The Regulations were largely targeted at sales and marketing organisations. Coordinators were reassured, if the purpose of the data held by them was purely to keep members updated on RNHWA matters, historical data was acceptable without amendment.
One area that did affect us was the accuracy of our database records. We suspect these are not up to date and attempts to clarify this by e-mail were not successful. It is quite likely we will have to allocate each board member with a number of ‘entries’ to ring all those we are unsure about during the coming year.
A form for the completion of ‘new members’ would be circulated to address those joining after the legislation to cover the necessary information and signed authority from the member.
3. Organisation and Structure.
A series of options were currently being considered for changes within the organisation. Two presentations were given on the changes that were being considered and piloted by the board to try to cope to with the change options for areas large and small.
The first was the Ketton Project which aimed at encompassing all 2000 population.
Whilst the second was looking at (a) ‘Clusters’, a support mechanism for Coordinators, and (b) ‘Cocoons’, a mini NHW where 4-5 neighbours cooperated in keeping a look out for each other.
4. Any Other Business.
a. There was a display of security items for sale by the Police. Should Co-ordinators wish to purchase or ‘borrow’ these items to be displayed at fetes etc they could be obtained from Will Ryan at the Customer Services counter in the County Hall.
b. Smartphone app leaflets were available for Coordinators to take away and distribute to members.
c. Coordinator Packs, which were issued to Coordinators two years ago at this meeting, were issued to three new coordinators. Any coordinator who does not have one should request one from the Board. It was agreed that new or replacement pages could be circulated in future by e-mail, for Coordinators to copy and insert into their packs.
The AGM commenced at 8.45pm.
Present: Adrian Gombault (AG) Chair, Ruthven Horne (RH), Sian Dawson (SD) John Kennedy (JK) (Board members) plus: 11 members.
Apologies received from: William Cross, Peter Ritchie, Adele Stainsby, Ian Dobson, and Andrew Wallace.
Minutes of the previous AGM on 14th June 2017,
After being read out, their accuracy was proposed by Dave Hodson and seconded by Roy Hosmer.
Directors Reports.
The Directors Yearly Report was circulated to all and RH highlighted one or two key points. A copy will be placed on the RNHWA website.
The Financial Report was summarised by SD with a copy available on the website. Current assets are approximately £1000.
Re-election of the Board.
AG explained that the four directors present, AG, RH, SD (Treasurer), and JK were prepared to stand again; Alastair McCrindle was standing down. We do not have a Chairman, and it was hoped the jobs of that position would be shared out amongst the Board. Whilst jobs were shared out, e.g. he chaired many meetings, RH the last Chairman still received many of the day to day jobs etc. However, he would be retiring from the board at the end of this next year, so new nominations were requested.
No new nominations for the board were received, and it was asked all four directors be returned unopposed, and this was unanimously agreed. Coordinators were asked, as an alternative to consider whether any of their members might be willing and suitable for cooption to the Board: in which case their names should be forwarded to the Board at the earliest opportunity.
Funding: appeal for local support.
The yearly expense of the smartphone app was highlighted, plus the difficulty of meeting routine organisational costs. AG said that his Parish made a small cash donation to the local NHW groups, and others claimed to receive similar funding. He asked the meeting if they felt it appropriate to write to each Town and Parish Council asking if they might make a small pro rata donation to NHW. It was proposed by Richard Foster (Stretton Parish and Rutland County Council cabinet member) and seconded by David Hodson (Greetham Parish Councillor).
Revised Mission Statement.
AG very briefly explained the impact lower Board numbers had upon the Mission Statement. It was clear many items could no longer be delivered and so it was felt necessary to amend it to be more realistic. This was still being worked upon and would be circulated for comment before changes were confirmed.
Revised Articles and Memorandum of Association.
We are a limited company and a registered charity. We are now a part of the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Neighbourhood Grouping which also is a charity and has its own Constitution. It was felt necessary to ensure there was no conflict between the documents.
After comparing the two, there is no conflict at all, with both documents clearly drawn from the same source.
Any Other Business.
AG wished to place on record the appreciation of all for the work of Alastair McCrindle, the retiring director. He had been a founding director of the RNHWA and been involved with Neighbourhood Watch locally, regionally and at National level for over 20 years; his contribution would be missed.
There being no further business the meeting was closed at 9.10pm.
Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO)
CIO: Legal entity
Available from 2013
Designed for non-profit organisations in the UK
Benefits of CIO: Able to Conduct Business
Limited liability
Trustees/members do not contribute to a financial loss
Only needs to be registered with the Charity Commission
RNHWA was set up before CIOs came in to being
Therefore RNHWA set up as a Registered Charity and a Limited Company
(indemnity insurance was probably too costly)
By converting to a CIO, RWHNA, inter alia, will:
·Save bank charges (currently £75 per annum)
·Not need to prepare an annual report to Companies House and save the accompanying fee
·Impose less obligations on the trustees
Action required to convert the RNHWA into a CIO:
·Complete the transfer procedure under Charity Commission rules
·Close down the Limited Company by having it removed from the Companies Register
·Close the existing bank account and transfer the assets to a new charity bank account
RUTLAND NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH ASSOCIATION
Balance Sheet at 31 March 2019
Financial Assets
2017/18 2018/19
1,045 HSBC Bank Account 428
0 Creditors 0
0 Debtors 0
1,045 Total Financial Assets 428
Decrease from 2018/19 617
Income and Expenditure for the Year ended 31 March 2019
2017/18 2018/19
Income
500 Charitable Donations – RCC 400
500 Total Income 400
Expenditure
43 AGM Meeting Expenses 43
0 Administrative Expenses 0
0 Travelling Expenses 224
65 Bank Charges 68
350 Rutland Mobile App 214
0 Rutland Mobile App SO 468
458 Total Expenditure 1,017
42 Surplus for 2018
Deficit for 2019 617
Budget for 2019/20 – Four Scenarios
1) As per 2018/19
Opening balance 428
Income RCC donation 400
Expenditure Rutland mobile app 490
Bank charges 75
Expenses 15
Closing balance 248
2) As per 2018/19 but with Conversion to CIO
Opening balance 428
Income RCC donation 400
Expenditure Rutland mobile app 490
Bank charges 30
Expenses 0
Closing balance 308
3) As per 2018/19 but with Conversion to CIO and No RCC Grant
Opening balance 428
Income RCC donation 0
Expenditure Rutland mobile app 490
Bank charges 30
Expenses 0
Closing balance -92
4)As per 2018/19 but with Conversion to CIO And Additional Income to Cover Existing App Costs and Further RNHWA Development
Opening balance 428
Income RCC donation 400
Small sums from Parish Councils, say 250
Additional funding, say 750
Expenditure Rutland mobile app 490
Bank charges 30
Expenses 5
App development 500
Website development/maintenance 250
Technical support 100
Promotional material 75
Closing balance 333
Points to Note
·Currently only one source of income – RCC grant
·Current level of RCC grant does not cover annual running costs
·Without RCC grant RNHWA will run out of money in 2019/20
·Expenses claim for £252 outstanding – not included in Budgets 1) to 4)
·Additional income is urgently required to cover both current running costs and for the development of RNHWA
