St Barnabas Centre Annual Report 2015

St Barnabas
Centre
Annual

Report 2015

Annual General Meeting 7.30pm
Thursday 25th February 2016

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St. Barnabas Centre Management
Committee

Minutes for Annual General Meeting Thursday, 26 February
2015 7.00pm

15021 Welcome
Richard welcomed everyone with a passage from Mark’s Gospel and a prayer

15022 Attending
No info available

15023 Apologies for Absence
S. Holmes, A. Lewins, A. Large, C. Cooper, K. Hamblin

15024 Minutes of the last Meeting
Unfortunately there were none available Proposed by N/A Seconded by N/A

15025 Matters Arising
None Proposed by N/A Seconded by N/A

15026 Election of Officers
1) The committee comprises of 10 members: The Chair, 4 PCC members, 1 pre-

school rep, 1 Darby and Joan rep, 2 community reps and up to 2 co-opted
members.
2) Members nominated by the PCC P. Frymann, C. Cooper, K. Hamblin, A. Lewins
3) Community Members Nominated
a) L. Whitworth Proposed by L. Graney Seconded by P. Frymann.
b) Y. Heywood Proposed by L. Graney Seconded by P. Frymann.
4) Member nominated by Darby and Joan L. Graney
5) Member nominated by pre-school A. Stone
6) Co-Opted member nominated A. Power Proposed by M. Smart Seconded by L.
Graney
7) Vice Chair L. Graney Proposed by P. Frymann Seconded by Y. Heywood
8) Secretary To be co-opted at the next management meeting
9) Treasurer to be co-opted at the next management meeting
10) Minutes Secretary M. Smart proposed by P. Frymann seconded by L. Whitworth

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15027 Chairs Report
The Chairs report was presented to the meeting

15028 Treasurers Report
The Treasurers report was presented to the meeting

15029 Secretaries Report
The Secretaries report was presented to the meeting

150210 Managers Report
The Managers report was presented to the meeting

150211 Regular Users Reports
The pre-school report was presented to the meeting. Verbal reports were given by
Darby and Joan and Baby and toddler groups. All written reports are available upon
request.

150212 Date of Next Meeting Thursday, 05 March 2015

Meeting closed

Chair’s Report on the year 2015 / 16

Looking back on the year I am amazed that so much has happened in the Centre and
so many new things. I am extremely grateful to all who work so hard in the St Barnabas
Centre and to all the organizations and groups that use the Centre and make up such
a variety of what happens in the place.
As I look back over the year. From the Management Committee's perspective, it has
been a year of two halves as they say. In the first half of the year we were still
discovering what the realities were in the Centre. The main function of the Centre is
renting out our rooms to both regular (community users) and non-regular users for
conferences, parties etc. It came as quite a sobering moment to discover that our
rooms were grossly underutilised. In particular the smaller ones, the Jackson and
Parkhouse rooms were only being used for about 1% of the available time. Clearly the
overall usage of the Centre had to increase if it was to become self-sustaining. We had
already discovered that our charges were competitive compared with similar
organisations. Although I believe we offer very good value for money it was clear that
there was little scope to increase our rates. Somehow we had to increase the usage
of the building to cover its costs. Ever since the opening of the St Barnabas Centre it
has run at a year on year financial loss. This had been sustained by reserves that had
been put in place to support the Centre over its initial years to allow the Centre to be

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established. These reserves had now all gone. Half way through the year it was
becoming obvious that without change the Centre was heading for financial disaster
and permanently needing a cash injection if it was to continue. In response to this
situation a report “The Way Forward” was produced to be taken to the North Wingfield
PCC. In essence the remedy was a Marketing Strategy for the Centre and cash reserves
to sustain the Centre until the Strategy produced results. With this a request for a loan
of £7100 was made to the PCC. I am glad to say that the PCC fully supported the
proposals and agreed to the request for the loan.
The second half of the year was primarily about implementing the Marketing Strategy
recommended. As you will see from the other reports in this document that strategy
has been successful. For the first time since the St Barnabas Centre was built it has
made a small surplus and there has been a significant increase in the usage of the
building. We are only part way through implementing that strategy and we would
hope that it will continue to be effective.
So far we have only met the initial stage of making the Centre sustainable. Our next
challenge for this year is to produce sufficient funds to repay the loan to the PCC and
to continue to fund the Marketing Strategy once the funds from the loan have been
used. In subsequent years we will need provide sufficient cash reserves to sustain the
Centre and to develop a long term maintenance fund for the building and its
equipment. We are now eight or more years since the building was constructed and it
is evident that equipment is needing to be replaced and the building maintained.
These practical issues are only part of the story of the Centre over the last year. “The
Way Forward” called for prayer for the Centre as an essential part of the initiative. I
believe we have seen God answer that prayer and I hope that has encouraged us to
continue to pray for the Centre. It has also been a concern of the Committee to make
our Christian Faith a more central part of the St Barnabas Centre.
Over the year our Community Development Worker Aileen Power has been helping
existing Community initiatives in the Centre and establishing new ones. One of these
has been her work with volunteers who are essential to the running of the Centre.
With this she began a tea party in Volunteers Week so that we acknowledge the work
that our volunteers do for the Centre. I hope that we will continue with this and that
we will continue to be a place where our volunteers feel valued and encouraged to
develop their skills.
The holiday club was again run last year which overall was well received. This time we
introduced a short Service at the beginning of each day and the children and their
families were invited to take part in our Sunday Service which concluded the holiday
club. The theme of the club was based around animals and principally the story of
Noah's Ark with a Noah's Ark being built for the Sunday Service.

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There are times of the year, principally during the school holidays, when the St
Barnabas Centre is little used. So the Committee have been looking at ways of
encouraging use of the building during these periods. The Fun Factory is one of the
things that has come out of these discussions. There are others which have been
programmed into the events throughout this year, look out for them and come and
join in.
At the beginning of this year a programme of events for the year was developed with
St Barnabas Church. The programme is included with this report. Please make a note
of what is on and invite family and friends to join in with them.
Over the year the Centre and St Barnabas Church have been looking at developing a
Mission Action Plan. I am afraid that this has taken a long time since we first met about
it. However, I hope that it can now be finalised fairly rapidly. I expect that this will
enable us to be much more focussed in our initiatives within the Centre and thus find
them more rewarding. Importantly I believe that it will enable us to bring our Christian
Faith into the heart of the Centre enabling us to build on what has been done over the
last few years within the Centre.

Centre Managers Report

2015 was an interesting, sometimes testing and often rewarding, year in the life of
the Centre. We continued to be home to a number of Community groups that used
us on a regular basis. We were hired frequently by non-regular users for
conferencing, meetings and events. We continued to be used by our local community
as a venue for private parties and functions. We continued to hold events on a
regular basis. We continued to provide activities for local children including the
annual holiday club and the new Fun Factory. Maintenance works were carried out
throughout the year. Much need marketing and advertising was undertaken. Staff
members came and went. All in all a very busy year. This report will explain in more
detail the above statements and conclude on the health of the Centre.

Regular Users

During 2015 17 groups hired rooms from the Centre on a regular basis.

Alpha/Alpha Follow On Course Red Dragons
Baby and Toddler Rob Beeson Kickboxing
Breathe Easy Support Group Slimming World
Clare Sales School of Dance St Barnabas Church

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Clay Cross Children’s Centre St Barnabas Nursery
Clay Cross Fishing Club SV2
Darby and Joan Youth Group
Little Kicks Zumba
North East Derbyshire Dad’s Group

Unfortunately over the course of the year both Clare Sales School of Dance and Baby
and Toddler groups ceased to use us.
We continue to communicate with all our regular users and encourage them to work
collaboratively together.
A number of new regular users are due to join us in 2016

Non Regular Users

During 2015 the Centre was hired for conferences, meetings and events by non-
regular users 74 times. The bulk of these bookings were from the following
organisations:

Diocese of Derby NEDDC
Sharley Park School NHS

These accounted for approx. 65% of the non-regular use of the Centre.

Private Functions

During 2015 the Centre was hired for private parties and functions 91 times. These

included children’s parties, birthday celebrations, wakes, christening parties,

Christmas parties and wedding receptions.

Events

During 2015 the Centre held 16 events including 2 quiz nights, 3 brass

band concerts, a pie and pea supper, a volunteer afternoon tea, 2 pop-

up book stores, a film screening, a classical music concert, a screening

of the Rugby World Cup final, a BBQ and the Christmas Lunch.

Figure 1 Volunteers Youth Work
Tea Party
During 2015 the Holiday Club ran throughout the Summer School

Holidays. On average 35 local children met on 5 consecutive Mondays.

Looked after by an army of volunteers the children played and enjoyed spending time

together, engaged in sporting and arts and crafts activities and went on trips to both

the local community farm and to Sherwood Forest. Richard began each day by telling

the children a bible story and teaching them a song.

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The holiday club concluded on the last Sunday in August with a
family service, during which the children performed their
interpretation of the story of Noah’s Ark (assisted by their
colourful and daring representation of the ark!) This was followed
by a family BBQ which was well attended.
Unfortunately the funding received for the holiday club was much
lower than previous years and consequently the holiday club ran Figure 2 Holiday Club 2016
at a loss.
In October, during the half term break, we piloted a Fun Factory.
Parents and children were invited to come along and play with our vast array of soft
play equipment, bouncy castle and arts and crafts supplies. Admission was free and
refreshments where mad available at a reasonable price. Approx. 65 people attended
this event and we have plans to hold the Fun Factory more frequently during 2016.

Maintenance

During 2015 a number of significant purchases were made to replace equipment
including a new desktop computer and a new printer/photocopier. Repairs were
made when required and included a number of the windows whose mechanics had
failed in the Oldham Hall. The heating system failed in November due to an electrical
fault and it was unable to be fully repaired within the year.

Marketing

During 2015 a brand new marketing plan was developed and implemented. This
included the design and production of a number of brochures to advertise the Centre
for functions and conferencing, the design and production of Christmas Cards to our
current and prior users and the placing of a monthly advert in the Clay Cross
Shoppers Guide. We will continue to produce new marketing materials during 2016
which will include brochures to advertise Weddings, Baptisms and Funerals, further
adverts in the Clay Cross Shoppers Guide and Easter and Christmas Cards.

Staff

During 2015 we officially employed Marlene Vickers as the Centre Cleaner. We also
employed 3 members of part time staff in order to staff the numerous events,
functions and meetings as detailed above. We said goodbye to the Community
Development Worker, Aileen Power, at the end of 2016. Currently there is no
information as to whether or not she will be replaced.

In conclusion 2015 was a year of continuity and change. We continued to achieve the

goals of being an important community hub, a home to users both regular and non-

regular and provided a much needed service to our local and wider community. We

also made many changes to the way we operate and to our policies and procedures

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some small but many drastic such as the marketing plan and new effective working
practices. It is certainly true to state that we ended the year in a much healthier
position than when we started it and this is down to the hard work of all involved in
the life of the Centre.

Steven Smart
Centre Manager

Secretaries Report

Please note that there was no Secretary during 2015.

Meetings

During 2015 the St. Barnabas Centre Management Committee met 8 times. Varying
numbers of members attended each meeting. 1 meeting in November was cancelled
due to the lack of members being able to attend

Discussions

During 2015 the St. Barnabas Centre Management Committee discussed:
 Finance and all the implications of financial matters
 Banking Arrangements and Bank Accounts
 Utilising the Centre during quiet periods
 ‘The Way Forward’ document, looking at the history of the Centre and
proposing improvements to the way we operate

Steven Smart
Centre Manager

Financial Report

1st January to 31st December 2015

This report covers ONLY the financial aspects of the Centre.

Cash balances have gone from £887 at the end of December 2014 to £2,032 on 31st

December 2015:

01.01.15 31.12.15

Cash Book £ 887 £ 2,032

From the following figures we can see that in 2015 we have a loss of £18,863 after

depreciation costs of £20,730, the North Wingfield Team PCC have still to come up

with a policy concerning depreciation. For the purpose of this report we have

assumed that it is not required to raise sufficient income to cover these costs:

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December 2014 December 2015

Costs of keeping Centre open £66,668 £71,302
From Community Groups and Users £23,362 £29,320
Shortfall £43,306 £41,982
Income from Functions and Commercial use £33,730 £37,736
Costs of Functions and Commercial use £13,525 £13,579
Net benefit £20,205 £24,157
Overall Result (£23,101) (£17,826)
Depreciation £20,730 £20,730
Result ignoring Depreciation (£ 2,371) £ 2,904

This is a significant improvement on the previous year.

Please note that we still need to take off £3000 from the overall result figure to show

the remaining amount from the North Wingfield Team loan (Explained Below).

We currently have a liability of (£7,100) due to the loan from the North Wingfield

Team PCC, This is to be repaid over 5 years and 11 months starting January 2016.

Please also note that because of the way expenditure has been recorded in the past

there is £1184 worth of expenditure showing in the 2015 figures which pertains to

2014 (the way we record expenditure has now been changed in order to show in the

correct year). This means that if we take the remaining loan figure away from the

income side and the 2014 expenditure away from the expenditure side the overall

result is (£19,642) and the result ignoring depreciation is £1,088..This is a positive

improvement. I believe this proves that the new business plan is beginning to achieve

results which is even more impressive when you consider that the plan was not

implemented until June 2015.

The Loan from North Wingfield Team

The North Wingfield Team of churches has loaned us the sum of £7,100 to enable us

to ‘kick-start’ The Way Forward business plan developed by the Centre Management

Committee. A total of £4100 of this loan was spent within 2015 on Advertising,

replacing equipment (i.e. new photocopier) and greetings cards. This leaves £3000 as

a cash reserve of £2000 and £1000 still to be spent on Marketing.

A Reminder

When the Centre becomes established as a separate charity the Charity Commission

will expect us to have a policy concerning cash reserves. The suggestion has already

been made that we should aim for about 25-30% of a year’s expenditure. With

expenditure at £85,918 for 2015, that would suggest a cash balance of £21,479 –

£25,775 at all times. We need a good period of cash surpluses to achieve that target.

Bar Sales

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We have noted, due to changes in record keeping that bar sales are currently running
at a loss, this is due to a number of factors which we are currently in the process of
resolving. Including changes to record keeping, stock taking and problems with
equipment.
Steve Smart
St Barnabas Centre Manager

Pre School report

There have been a lot of changes at the preschool over the last year, we sadly lost
Sheila Holmes and I was promoted to Manager. There has been a lot of staff changes
as well, so we are just forming our new team.
We have worked alongside the centre on fundraising events during the year, holding
coffee mornings combining the preschool parents/carers and the local community. I
feel this is a chance for everyone to get to know each other in a relaxed setting, a
good opportunity for outreach and getting to those who are in need.
We have celebrated Harvest, Christmas, Chinese New Year and Easter. At Christmas
we took the preschool children into the community cafe after everyone had eaten
their Christmas dinner and the children sang a few Christmas songs finishing off with
Away in a Manger. We also held a Christingle service in which Rev. Law led and this
was very well attended. We are delighted that this year Rev Law is going to join us in
preschool to tell the children the Easter story (using palm crosses as visual aids).
We look forward to another year, working alongside the Centre Manager and the
committee, getting together to meet the needs of the community and the families of
Danesmoor.

Angela Stone
Manager

Breathe Easy Report

Since my group, the Breathe Easy group, have been using the facilities at St Barnabas
Centre, Danesmoor. I could not put into words, how helpful Steve and his staff who
run the Centre have been to our group. We have recently just renewed the next 12
months contract with the St Barnabas Centre and all of our members (20-30 people
who attend the sessions) think the place is 100% suitable for people with breathing
difficulties, as it is all on one level. The cleanliness of the room that we are using is
100%, the toilets are immaculate and all the staff are very friendly and flexible. We
have a good relationship with Steve and his staff. Comments from senior NHS staff

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when they are coming to do lectures for us is overwhelming as they say it is a
beautiful place to give talks in. At our Christmas party we invited the South
Normanton group to join us, I was really proud of what they had to say about the
facilities at St Barnabas and they wished they had got a similar room at South
Normanton. They even commented on the cleanliness of the room and the warmth
and friendliness they received from Steve and his team. The food that was provided
by the team was superb. I don’t think Steve could do anything more than he is doing
as everything is 100%. At the AGM I think the Committee should propose that Steve
should get a huge thank you from everyone concerned. Thank you Steve.
Thomas Thorpe
Clay Cross Breathe Easy Group

Danesmoor Youth Group Report

During this year we have thrived with the children attending our group. Word of
mouth within local schools means we still have new children attending when they
reach our minimum age of 7. A few older children still attend and we’ve found that
they adopt a mentoring role for our younger children.
Local community Police Officers call in on a regular basis to keep tabs on the children
and to offer help as and when they can. (IE. Putting them in the stocks!)
Our 8 week rota of changing activities works well with our children as they know it’s
not the same activity every week.
Funds are low at the moment but we’re hoping to put in letters to local councillors
etc. to assist with this. BUT it’s not stopped us yet!
One incident during the last year did make us feel ‘abandoned’ by the management
committee. We didn’t feel supported by them and even though the issue resolved
itself it does make us wonder if we have the support of the committee now and in
the future.
Centre Manager has been very good in assisting us with future influx of funds,
hopefully.
Finally our aims for the Youth Group have not changed and we do feel that we will
run for as long as we can to provide ‘essential’ fun and a safe environment for local
children.

Amanda, Ryan, Kristy, Marie (committee members), Matthew, Aaron, Marcus,
George (junior volunteers)
Danesmoor Youth Group

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