Above: visitors to the LSi open day in September, part of Dorset Architectural Heritage Week 2024. BADT trustee Andrew Cook is pictured third left
Minutes of BADT Annual General Meeting 2023
Held at the Literary and Scientific Institute (LSi) at 6pm on Thursday, 16th November, 2023
Present
Directors (Trustees): Phyllida Culpin (Chair), John West, David Lee, Richard Paterson, Ian Bark, Michael Collard, Andrew Cook, Marek Wakar (Secretary).
Other Members: Sarah West, Vince O’Farrell.
1. Apologies for absence
Alan Scutt, Trevor Ware, Paul Everall, Richard Toft.
2. Minutes of the Annual General Meeting at Bridport Town Hall at 6pm on Friday, 7th October, 2022
The 2022 minutes were accepted as a correct record of the meeting.
There were no matters arising from the minutes. ‘Live’ items for discussion were all covered by the agenda.
3. Report on the Literary and Scientific Institute (LSi), West Bay Discovery Centre (WBDC), and summary of the year
(Slides available on the Trust’swebsite)
(a) LSi: Phyllida Culpin described the issues with a historic building: re-working of the West Wall (for which the Trust is very grateful to Mike Carter for his help); followed by more repair work after heavy rains had caused flooding in the building.
David Lee described the community engagement. This included the LSi open day, organised by the Trust as part of Dorset Architectural Heritage Week, where we had a very positive response from visitors. The Trust also organised a talk by Tim Connor (author of a book on the LSi) on “The Making of Bridport”.
Crowdfunder manage the bookings for the LSi and the slides showed the large number of regular and one-off community events, along with the volume of ‘hot desk’ and meeting room bookings. During the year we had also reported back to the National Lottery Heritage Fund regarding the community activity supported by their investment.
(b) WBDC: John West talked about the educational value and interactive fun that families obtained from the breadth of events at the WBDC. The Centre had produced exhibitions such as “Beneath the Waves” and an upcoming one on West Bay during the War. They organised workshops and grant-funded children’s activities and had designed a series of different topics targeted at different audiences. John described the numerous partnerships and awards.
This was all achieved at a running cost of £20k and the work of 45 volunteers. Despite a 10% drop in visitor numbers (the effect of the economy and higher car parking charges) income from merchandise sales remained buoyant.
John described the plans for transferring the WBDC to Bridport Town Council’s new Bridport Community Trust, which would provide cover for staff and management and access to the Council’s back office capabilities. A new Friends organisation would raise funds for exhibitions and provide a voice for the existing volunteers.
The meeting expressed a vote of thanks to John and Sarah West for all their work, especially dealing with the post-Covid management challenges.
4. Annual report and accounts
Richard Paterson presented the 2022/3 Report and Accounts, which had been circulated before the meeting.
The Trust generated a small surplus despite rising costs. Reserves are ok. The main risks are around maintenance of a historic building and we are planning to increase the proactive management of the maintenance schedule to reduce the associated risk.
Richard has decided to stand down as Treasurer and John West proposed a vote of thanks to him for his work as Treasurer and for producing the Accounts. This was agreed unanimously.
Members were asked to accept the 2022/23 Report and Accounts. Proposed by Michael Collard. Seconded by John West and Andrew Cook.
Resolution 1: The Report and Accounts were accepted by the meeting.
5. Election of trustees
Resolution 2: all parts were approved.
A. Phyllida Culpin was elected as Chair.
B. Ian Bark and Michael Collard, who joined the Board since the 2022 AGM, were confirmed as directors (trustees).
C. David Lee, who retired by rotation, was re-elected as a director (trustee).
6. Looking to the future
Phyllida Culpin described some of the opportunities that we had explored or which were still live in respect of opportunities with buildings which we could restore or organisations to which we had provided advice. The big challenges were filling roles (particularly the Treasurer role) and dealing with the LSi building. Resolving these would free trustee time for new developments. We also need to control costs and manage the impact on users of issues with the building.
7. and 8. There being no resolutions from members, or other business, the meeting closed.
Note that the presentations and financial reports papers referred to in the Minutes are all on the Trust’s website: https://www.bridportadt.org.uk/category/news-events/
