Treasurer's report for 2008/9

Clifford Jaques

A decrease in our assets

By Clifford Jaques, NLCA Treasurer

As I forecasted in my report for last year's AGM, 2008 has saw a decrease in our total assets. I expected our gross expenditure to exceed our income in 2008 because at the end of 2007 we had just received a lottery grant for the development of our new website, which was still largely unspent. Throughout 2008 we spent the lottery money on new hardware, software, training and maintenance for the new website. I am pleased to report that we managed to keep close to our budget. We spent more than we had budgeted for on training, but we cut back on costs for the grand launch. Overall we were only £4 over.

Some restricted funds

This year, as in many previous years, we are grateful to Mazars for checking our accounts free of charge. In our accounts the outstanding lottery money is marked as 'Restricted Funds' because we were restricted on what we could do with it. The spending on the website has likewise been separated from our general expenditure. To assess the true state of our books, therefore, it is this figure that has to be compared with our income. On the face of it, this does not look too bad until one notices that £1,000 of our gross income was, in fact, a legacy from Joan and Ted Warburton, which I noted in my previous report at the last AGM. Although there are no strings formally attached to this money, the Warburton family supported the proposal to apply this money to the redevelopment of Pelham Square that the Friends of Pelham Square are still designing, because Ted and Joan were very fond of the Square. When one takes this £1,000 out of our income, the position looks decidedly less healthy.

A small amount of fund-raising

There are a number of contributory factors for this unhealthy condition. Firstly, we were unable to hold our usual table sale at St Peter's Church last year, so the only fundraising was at the Christmas social. As usual we are indebted to the numerous traders in the area who donated so many prizes and to Jackie Fuller who spent the evening selling the tickets. My thanks also to everybody who made an additional voluntary contribution. This fundraising just about covered the cost of the food and wine.

Drop in advertising revenue

However, the biggest concern is the drop in advertising revenue generated by the North Laine Runner. Although there has always been some turnover in advertisers in the Runner, this year there have been more traders choosing to discontinue their adverts in our newsletter than new ones starting to advertise.  We are hoping that we can reverse this, but it needs your support. As this recession bites, it is imperative that we all support our local traders whenever possible if the North Laine is to retain its quirky character that we want to preserve. It will also ensure that traders will see the value of advertising in our newsletter.

Sponsorship

In the current year, the Runner has received a boost from Southern Water, who have kindly agreed to sponsor the March/April 2009 edition. We are grateful to Kevin Daly, who negotiated this donation towards our printing costs. I would also like to mention that Peter Crowhurst has applied to Brighton Council for a grant to cover the cost of our meetings. All this will help and is very welcome and provides grounds for optimism, but there is no room for complacency.

[Previously published in the North Laine Runner, No 197, March/April 2009]