I attach herewith the audited account of the Charity Trust Fund together with the examined accounts of the Club General Account and the Member’s Lunch Account for the Rotary Year Ending June 30th 2020. These have been audited/examined by Peter Morgan FCA of Kingscott Dix Accountants. We owe a great debt of thanks to Peter for his kind offices.
As many of you will know, although I am the Treasurer of the Rotary Club of Gloucester, and very honoured to be so, I am not an accountant. I have kept the accounts to the best of my ability but have had to rely on accountants to create the end of year accounts. I do not always understand the workings of the professional’s mind and would struggle to answer any technical questions.
I am currently in my fourth year as your Treasurer but have not always agreed with the way the accounts have been presented. In previous years, the General Account and the Lunch Account have been combined into one account at the year end. To my mind the funds and transactions of the General Account belong to the Club whilst the funds and transactions of the Lunch Account belong to the Members. This year I asked Peter Morgan to separate the two accounts for reporting purposes.
As regards the accounts themselves, the Lunch Account is what it is, recording income from Member’s Standing Orders and lunch costs as in the old days of meetings at Walls – remember those?
The General Account records income form Member’s Subscriptions together with the costs of running the Club – RIBI and District subs, Walls room hire, profits or losses on Dinner events etc. The Balance Sheet shows Bank balances, the Rodez fund brought forward (£2,984.75) and the raffle funds (£826.20) which are added to the Rodez Fund.
The Charity Trust Fund has taken a big hit with the pandemic affecting the latter five months of the year. You will see that Car Park income is down by 75% after losing the Imperial CP and postponed rugby matches. Compared to the previous year most of the events showed a reduced income or did not occur at all. Income was therefore down by more than 50%. Gift Aid for 2019-2020 was calculated and claimed after the year end but amounted to £2,585.74.
Expenditure was therefore naturally curtailed although not to the same extent and an overspend of £3,500 was recorded in the year after supporting charitable and community events to the tune of £24,791, but of course the Rotary Community Awards had to be cancelled due to Covid-19 restrictions.
I am now into my fourth year as the Club’s Treasurer and, whilst I am honoured and, in a strange way, enjoy keeping the books, it is high time the Club enrolled an accountant, not necessarily to be the Treasurer, but to audit the accounts. Peter Morgan and his resources at Kingscott Dix have for three years done the audit out of the kindness of their hearts. I think a fourth year would be taking improper advantage of them but, if it is to be, we should offer some recompense for their labours.
I am pleased to report that President Richard has asked me to remain as Treasurer during his second term of office.