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Minutes of Our Annual General Meeting

MINUTES of the Darnall Forum Annual General Meeting

Held at Darnall Forum, 5pm Wednesday 3 October

Attendance 11 people attended.

Apologies were received from 3 people.

The minutes of the last annual general meeting were agreed to be a true record.

There were no Matters Arising.

The chairperson presented the annual report and accounts and made some remarks about it, thanking funders, volunteers, trustees and staff for their support and explaining what the figures really mean for the sustainability of the Forum’s work.

The annual report and accounts were adopted and the independent examiners, Nicholson & Co, were reappointed.

One vacancy for a trustee was filled by Mr Mehran Rehman. The current trustees were reappointed.

Community Issues

There was a discussion about the plans to open a new community gym in Tinsley and the need to have more affordable gym facilities in the area.

Neil Bishop gave a report on the campaign to try to get local people recruited onto the workforce at IKEA and Meadowhall. He reported that British Land are being much more supportive than IKEA. The Council's Economic Environmental Well Being Scrutiny & Policy Committee has promised to look again at the Council's involvement in big recruitment drives like this.

Some students from Sheffield University explained a project they are working on to try to create an additional community space at PMC. As the University are considering how they might be able to make use of it, Neil Bishop suggested that they look at the feasibility of delivering conversion courses there for new residents coming to work in the UK from overseas. An example would be people currently working as care workers while they raise the funds for and undertake the conversion course to register as nurses in the UK.

AOB – None.

Our Chairperson's Annual Remarks

We need to have an Annual General Meeting every year to comply with charity law. Neil has printed a copy of our annual report and accounts which you can look at during the meeting if you wish or you can call into the office to see them. They are also on the Charity Commission website.

I should just like to make a few comments about them:

• Please remember that they don’t describe how things are today, but how they were on 31 December last year.
• The accounts show that our income actually increased last year. This is only because of the huge efforts made by Neil, Zahira and Nazia to save money. This included working fewer hours while still trying to do as much work for the Forum as the could.
• You will see that our total funds on 31 December were £40,184. Some of this was money which we needed to keep to spend in 2018. That left us with £29,380.
• But this is not what we had in the bank. Because we are only paid gradually by the Council, we usually have about half that amount in the bank at any one time. We need this much money for cash flow reasons. That is why the staff had to make savings.
• Darnall Forum Trading, which ran the post office for us, also owed us some of that money - £2,569.

Despite making more cuts to what we do, we still managed to help a lot of people with ESOL and IT classes, employment advice, keepfit, sewing classes, cake decorating  and confidence building. We organised fun events for the community to mark International Women’s Day, at Hallowe’en and Christmas, as well as an Autumn fair and a coach trip to London to visit the museums there.

We have also campaigned on behalf of local people to try to get more local jobs at IKEA and Meadowhall. That campaign was still going on at the end of last year.

Finally, I should like to thank all of our funders, without whom none of this work would have been possible, and the trustees, staff and volunteers for their dedication and support.

Come and celebrate another year of Darnall Forum's work

Come and celebrate another year of Darnall Forum's work at our Annual General meeting in our offices on Wednesday 3 October at 5pm. 

It's twenty years this October since the Forum first began work in Darnall, so we shall be announcing an exciting opportunity to celebrate all the good community work that has been done by local residents and community workers during that time.

The meeting is also an opportunity to hear more about our work and the campaigns we have been involved in, look at our annual accounts and elect our trustees.

It is open to anyone who lives or works in Darnall.

Photos from our Fun & Information Day on 6 August

Zahira with some of the people who came along

London Museum Trip

Ladies, Let's Talk Politics

On Saturday 21 July we held a special four-hour event called "Ladies, Lets Talk Politics". It was funded by the Women's Vote Centenary Fund, which was set up by the government's Equalities Office to celebrate 100 years since some women were first given the vote in Britain.

We wanted to encourage Black and Minority Ethnic Women to get more involved in politics and make their voices better heard. 60 women came together at the Church of Christ in Darnall. 

They heard how they could overcome barriers to getting their voices heard in party politics (from women speakers belonging to The Greens, Labour and the Socialist Workers). Speakers also explained how to make a difference on single issues. They spoke about combatting race hate, helping faith communities make a positive difference in their neighbourhoods and campaigning against war crimes in Syria. 

Most of the women felt inspired to get more engaged in politics or community activism and they agreed to meet again in the autumn to support one another. If you would like to join them please contact zahira@darnall.org.uk.