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Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the Rochester Mathematical School Association on the 7th December 2020 at 7:00pm (online)

Present:  Jane Marsh, Janine Johnson, Angela Hannaford, Eliot Hodges (Headteacher), Charlie Alderman (RMSA link), Michael Fanka (6th form rep), Miles Archer (6th form rep), Ruth Thomas, Gordon Millar, Lisa Lanckmans, Sarah Clarke, Natasha Draper West, Bosky Nair, W.Simpson

Apologies for Absence

Jo Harding, Dave Davis, Claire Doree, Nikki Rouse, Karen Phillips, Sarah Gilbert

  1. Minutes of the last AGM & Any Matters Arising

The minutes of the meeting held on the 17th September 2019 were approved.

  1. New Members

Jane welcomed new members to the Committee.

  1. Chairman’s report 2019 – 2020

As I write this, I am looking forward to seeing everyone in person again on 14th September and hope that the situation does not change between now and then. I hope that everyone has managed to stay safe, well and sane under the extraordinary circumstances we have experienced over the last few weeks and months.

The first half of our year was very successful with great amounts being raised at the Christmas Fayre in November and the Quiz Night in February and also at the various parents’ evenings, school productions and other events since September. However, Coronavirus swiftly and effectively put a stop to all of our usual fundraising activities and I also took the decision to cancel our Term 3 and Term 4 meetings. We could have held those meetings via a video platform such as Zoom but, under the circumstances, there didn’t seem to be much point and may well have been a logistical nightmare.

The closure of the school and the cancellation of all activities meant that our fundraising in the 2nd half of the year was severely impacted, as our flagship event, Founder’s Day, had to be cancelled. This was very sad for the school and for us (but in hindsight, I remember the weather was less than kind that weekend, so maybe there was one very small silver lining!)

The inability to do any face to face fundraising has been very frustrating and means that we had to try to find other remote ways of raising funds. Having had no experience of running such things as online quizzes, I was very conscious of not doing anything that was not going to run smoothly and I was very pleased to discover Virtual Quiz Events in my search for options. We ran two quizzes with them, one in May and one in July, which raised in the region of £250 between them. Despite the fact that the platform takes 20% of the entry fees, we felt that was acceptable because the platform does all of the work and all we have to do is set our price and encourage people to sign up and play. These quizzes are ideal because everyone plays on their device, there is no logging on to a video call, the answers are multiple choice and the quizzes themselves take less than half an hour and do not drag on indefinitely. There is also the added bonus that there are cash prizes!

We were then, via Parentkind, made aware of another online platform that runs virtual balloon races and we signed the RMSA up for the “School’s Out” race which took place over a week in July. This was great fun and we had well over 200 balloons entered, raising almost £680. The added advantage to this type of balloon race is that it’s entirely environmentally friendly but it’s as realistic as possible, with prevailing weather conditions and the shape, thickness and amount of helium in the balloon being taken into account. Very scientific! Sadly, one of my balloons “popped” in the first 24 hours and my other four all went off in completely the opposite direction to the pack of leading balloons and ended up going round in circles in the North Sea before starting to head back towards the start point!

With the balloon race and the two quizzes, we went a good way towards replacing some of the money that we would have raised at Founder’s Day and I think that these two platforms will be ones that we can continue to use occasionally so supplement our other fundraising.

Thank you to all of you who took part in the quizzes and the balloon race.

I would like to say a massive thank you to Sue Crittenden who has been responding to messages from parents, both old and new, with regard to 2nd hand uniform and she has continued to sell uniform over the course of the last few months (with appropriate social distancing). She is an absolute star and we are so very grateful to her for continuing to co-ordinate lost property/2nd hand uniform.

Sadly, Sam Pepper, who has been a great staff representative over the last couple of years, is stepping down from this role as he has been promoted within the school and will not be able to dedicate the time needed to the RMSA. I am very grateful to him for all the work he has put in to promote the RMSA with the staff and would like to say a big thank you to him.

Charlie Alderman will be taking Sam’s place and he is very warmly welcomed.

I would also like to thank the following people:

  • Janine and Jo for their unswerving support of me in my role as Chair and who, up until Coronavirus hit, spent as much time at school doing RMSA “stuff” as I did!
  • Angela for willingly and efficiently stepping into the Secretary role.
  • Sarah for continuing to draft the newsletters as and when needed.
  • Eliot and Crispin for their continued and much-valued support of the RMSA and its work.
  • Dean and his site team for their help in providing all that we need for the various events and for putting up with our often never-ending questions!
  • Mark Robinson and his team of prefects for their help and support at various events.
  • Each and every one of the RMSA members who have given their valuable time over the last year to help and support the various RMSA activities.

Apologies if I have forgotten anyone in my thanks. I am extremely grateful to everyone has had input into the RMSA in one way or another over the last year.

We now look forward to another year of successful fundraising and hope that the threat of Coronavirus will abate to an extent that we are able to carry on as near normal as we can.

Jane Marsh | Chair

August 2020

  1. Treasurer’s Report 2019 – 2020
Balance as of 1st September 2019 £10,676.85
Income £11,769.57
Outgoings £10,402.88
Float held by Treasurer £100.00
Balance as of 31st August 2020 £12,041.54

Summary 2019-2020

  • The accounts for 2018 -19 were submitted to the Charity Commission in November 2019. RMSA Charity Commission page can be found here
  • Accountant G. Pullies kindly donated his time to support the trustees in the preparation of the 2018-19 accounts.
  • Accounts for 2019-20 have exceeded £10,000.00, been prepared and are with G. Pullies for verification, who has again offered his time to support the RMSA.
  • A move to more cashless payments has been enabled by bookings for events paid by BACs and the use of a card reader which has worked well. This has accounted for just over £118 card payments and £1,280.00 in bookings for event.
  • The impact of COVID_19 meant that we did not have as many school events to support including the New Entrants & Founders Day which are traditionally opportunities to boost the RMSA funds plus the proposed RMSA Race Night did not happen. Takings for the school events we did attend raised just over £1,58.00.
  • The RMSA Christmas Fayre & Quiz night raised just over £2,500 between them.
  • The RMSA received £125.00 donation from Lloyds Bank. Thank you to Sue Dryden for organising this.
  • As of July 2020, Your School Lottery has been up & running for a year. During this time, we have received £3,321.70. 3 of the lottery winners have donated their weekly win straight back to the school and we would like to thank them. As of the 31st August we have 129 Supporters purchasing 195
  • The Giving Machine after a slow start has raised £137.48 this year. As of the 31st August there are 188 registered givers, 3 of whom are active givers.
  • The RMSA also registered with Amazon Smile during term 4 and we have received our first payments.
  • We have ventured into virtual events raising over £670 with a virtual balloon race and £250 with online quizzes. Thank you to Jane Marsh for organising these.
  • The RMSA received insurance payments from 15 parents who had not cancelled their payments as requested. 3 parents have contacted the RMSA to have their payments reimbursed.1 has been completed, 1 donated the payment to the RMSA & the other will show in next year’s 2020/21 accounts. Further request for parents to cancel their payments have been issued/published.
  • A consistent source of income is the second-hand uniform which has raised £113. With additional payments already showing in next year’s accounts. Thank you to Sue Crittenden who has continued to organise this service for the school.
  • There were 4 requests for equipment that were agreed that did not get purchased:

DofE                OS Active Maps            £144.00

DofE                Waterproof Bags           £200.00

English             Media packs                 £45.00

SEN                 Sensory Equipment       £207.94

  • All future request for donations must be submitted on funding application form.
  • Due to some agreed donations to the school taking too long to be ordered it was agreed that there is a 3-month time limit on agreed funding offer being held open.
  • The full Treasurer’s document was circulated prior to the AGM meeting and is attached as a separate document.

Jo Harding | Treasurer

September 2020

  1. Election of Officials 2020- 2021 :
    • Chair – Jane Marsh. Proposed by Janine Johnson, seconded by Eliot Hodges.
    • Vice Chair – Janine Johnson. Proposed by Jane Marsh, seconded by Eliot Hodges
    • Treasurer – Jo Harding. Proposed by Jane Marsh, seconded by Janine Johnson.
    • Secretary – Angela Hannaford. Proposed by Janine Johnson, seconded by Ruth Thomas

All those present and who sent apologies were elected in as Committee    members.  Eliot Hodges and Crispin Morris, as well as elected officials (as set down in the Management of Finances Policy – see section 8), agreed to continue as Trustees and were duly elected.

  1. Constitution

All members present approved the Constitution. Final copy has now been loaded to the RMSA page of the school website and Parentkind.

  1. Finance Policy

Amended Finances Policy will be circulated at a later date, once Jo can be consulted. (Since done and approved via email, please see final copy attached which has now been loaded to the school website and Parentkind).

  1. Social Media Policy

All members present approved the Social Media policy. Final copy has now been loaded to the RMSA page of the school website and Parentkind

  1. Any Other Business

None