Association of Jersey Charities
Minutes of the 39th Annual General Meeting
held on 17th June 2010 at
St Paul's Centre, St Helier

Present:
Christopher Renouf (Chairman)
Liz Le Poidevin (Deputy Chair)
Phillip Callow (Honorary Treasurer)
Jenny Hollywood (Honorary Secretary)
In attendance:
Lyn Roach (Administrator)
Simon Larbalestier (Observing)
Tim Waldron (Visiting Speaker)
Apologies:
Helen Davies (Applications Review Officer)
David Newman (Training Officer)
Lynsey Beahan (Publicity Officer)

Welcome and Apologies:
The Chairman welcomes Members to the AGM which is the first one held under the terms of the new Constitution. Apologies were received from 16 Members (see attached list for details)

Minutes of the Previous Meeting:
The minutes of the 38th AGM held on 25th June 2009 were proposed and seconded and signed by the Chairman as a true record of the meeting.

To Receive the Annual Report from the Chairman:
The Chairman read his report to Members which covered the period from April 2009 to March 2010. The Committee, on behalf of the Association, had another very busy year considering membership and grant applications. The key issues are highlighted below and are fully discussed in the attached report.
• Membership - 21 new members were accepted bringing the total membership to 256.
• Grants requested - 51 Members applied for grants totalling £880,000 during this period with £478,985 being awarded to 31 successful applicants. The remaining 20 grant applications amounting to £400,000 were unsuccessful.
• This compares with £568,892 being awarded during the previous year.
• In view of the demand for grants, the Committee has set out clearer guidelines for Members when submitting grant applications including that the "need" for the grant is clearly demonstrated. The Committee also takes notice of the amount of reserves held by charities requesting grants.
• Rules for making grant applications were changed from a maximum of £20,000 every two years to £20,000 each year. This may have to be revisited in the future due to demand on funding.
• Constitutional changes -these are the foundation blocks for expanding services provided by the Association. It is hoped to make further progress during the coming year with developing information sharing, co-ordinating resources, providing training advice and support services etc. £250,000 has been ring fenced for the above purposes, as previously notified to members. The Committee is considering using some of this to employ an individual on a contract basis to review the needs of the Association and assist with putting new arrangements in place.
• The anonymous donation has another restricted fund of £320,000 for the specific benefit of 16 named Members who could receive an additional grant over and above that from general funds. £60,000 has already been paid to 3 eligible charities.
• No further progress has been made in relation to the Jersey Charities Law since the untimely death of Advocate Christopher Lakeman who was driving this forward with the Working Party.
• As no further developments have taken place with the National Lottery all of the proceeds of the Jersey Lottery and scratch cards remain with the Association and this may be preferable to sharing funds with other organisations should a National Lottery be introduced.
• The new Website went live in July 2009 and is proving more user-friendly and informative than the one before.
• Many training events have been held during the course of the year organised by David Newman and Lyn Roach which have been well attended and successful.
• Helen Davies has taken on the task of initial vetting of applications for membership and grant aid.
• Lynsey Beahan in conjunction with Lyn Roach organised a speed dating event to attract volunteers.
• Jenny Hollywood who was retiring from the role of Honorary Secretary after 5 years was thanked by the Chairman.
• The Chairman who is retiring from the role after 3 years thanked the Committee and Lyn Roach in particular for the work carried out during a particularly demanding and busy period.
One Member proposed a vote of thanks to the Committee for the excellent work which had been carried out during the course of the last year and members responded with applause.

To Receive the Annual Report and Accounts from the Treasurer for Year Ending 31.03.10:
The Treasurer was pleased to confirm that the Association's financial state is very positive. There is £2million in investments which is ring- fenced with only 5% of the capital made available for grants each year.
In addition, there is £1.2 million in the bank which, when outstanding commitments are accounted for, leaves a current balance of cash available of £418.000.
The Treasurer explained that the audit of the Accounts had not yet been completed however the accounts as presented to the meeting will stand.
A copy of the full report and accounts is attached.
The Treasurer asked for the accounts to be adopted and they were unanimously accepted by the meeting subject to the auditor's approval.

Election of Officers:
The following officers had agreed to remain on the Committee and as no other nominations had been received by the 7th June deadline, were elected unanimously by Members to fill the following roles:
Liz Le Poidevin - Chair
Christopher Renouf -Deputy Chair
Phillip Callow - Honorary Treasurer
Helen Davies - Applications Review Officer
David Newman - Training and Events Officer
Lynsey Beahan - Publicity Officer
Simon Larbalestier had applied for the role of Honorary Secretary and was duly elected
Honorary Auditors:
Baker Homyard was voted by Members to continue as the Association's auditors.

Any Other Business:
LLP took over the Chair for the final part of the meeting. She thanked JH for the work undertaken during the last 5 years and welcomed SL to the position of Honorary Secretary.
The Members thanked CR in particular and the Committee generally for their hard work during the course of the past year.

Guest Speaker Tim Waldron: Building Board Performance
Tim Waldron was invited to give a presentation to Members on enhancing the contribution from their board/committee members.
Tim is currently the Chairman of YMCA England and Director of Consultancy, Action Planning. His presentation was well received and there were many questions afterwards. His presentation is attached to these minutes and is available to members on the website.