27th September 2022
AGM
Our Annual general meeting will be held on Monday 10th October at 7.30pm at preschool. We invite all parents and carers to attend and extended family members also very welcome. We have previously had grandparents attend our AGMs which are always lovely to see. Lots of information will be shared at the AGM about our setting, to include an update from our manager Julie, our finance manager Andrea and myself as Vice Chair.
I have been vice chair at Preschool since October 2014 as my daughter had begun at preschool in the September, my daughter moved to High Storrs this September and due to us having a building project on-going at the moment it felt time to step down as vice chair. I can honestly say being part of preschool has been fantastic and I have very mixed emotions about stepping down; I’ve had some great fun to include the preparation for fairs and being involved in sports days and I have made friends for life and it really has made me feel part of our wonderful community.
We have been working hard over the past 12 months and we have moved our charity over to a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO), there’s just one final bit to do. This has many benefits but one of our main reasons for moving over was to limit the trustees and member’s liability as we don’t want to put people off becoming trustees if they felt they were personally liable. We have separated committee members into trustees and fundraising team now and this works much better. We are in need of more people to be part of the fundraising team and due to the increasing cost of living we are going to have to think more carefully about how our fundraising continues to work for us and our families, maybe more toy sales would benefit our families. In the past we have organised two fairs – one at Christmas and one in the spring, which are always brilliant, along with an annual raffle and termly cake stalls. We have also done personalised leavers t-shirts and canvas bags but new ideas are always welcome.
We have had a vacant chairperson since Gemma had to step down last year due to her family and work commitments and although I am stepping down as Vice chair, we have a wonderful group of trustees who are dedicated to the setting and will continue as trustees; we have Jacs, Joe, Zoe, Claire, Gavin and Julie Brown. Julie Brown has a wealth of experience as she has been on the committee for several years and is one of the local childminders; we also have teachers on the trustees and others with complementary skills to include IT/ business/ management. As we continue to define our model, the trustees are now focusing on beginning specific roles to reduce the workload of chairperson/ vice chairperson as we know how busy everyone is. Each trustee will have a lead to include Safeguarding, IT support, fundraising link, health and safety, staffing and staff development, Ofsted prep etc. We usually meet once every half term for around 90 minutes; we’ll sometimes go for a drink at the Greystones as well so there is a social side to this role as well!
We are looking for more people to join the trustees and we are looking for a Chairperson, Vice Chairperson, treasurer and additional trustees. As we have Andrea as our finance manager, the treasurer role at preschool is much reduced but we need someone in this role to provide some oversight and cover when needed – such as giving the financial update at a trustees meeting if Andrea is away/ helping with the finances before and after a large fundraising event. If you would like further information please contact me on 07958 295675 so that I can provide further information and answer any questions.
As a small, charity, we need continued support from parents and carers and we hope to see you at our AGM.
Many thanks
Ruth
(Vice chairperson)