39^th Annual General Meeting - Minutes

Saturday 17 September 2022 at 10.30am

Held online with pre-registration and postal voting.

Present from the Board of Trustees: Jackie Craissati (Chair) and Tom Reddy (Vice-Chair)

In formal attendance: Sarah Sleet, Andrew Adie, Claire Walsh and Ruth Wakeman

Apologies received: Jo Fillingham, Amanda Quincey, Graham Bell, Ashish Patel, Lindsay Keir, Justine Woolf

Membership in addition to above: 76 attended.

1. Welcome and Introduction

Jackie Craissati, Chair, welcomed everyone to the meeting and introductions were made.

2. Chair’s Report on 2021 activities

Jackie Craissati provided a summary of the 2021 Annual Report, highlights included:

• The charity was focused on supporting members and its resources kept members up to date within a fast changing situation with easy to understand information
• The charity advocated for patients who needed faster access to surgeries and endoscopies in hospital. Campaigns to encourage more accessible toilets and better workplace understanding were undertaken.
• IBD UK (chaired by Crohn’s & Colitis UK) published a national report on IBD and the performance of services against IBD standards.
• The charity restarted its grant giving and funded a total of £318k of research grants.

Finally, members and supporters were also thanked for their ongoing support of the charity.

3. Vice-Chair’s Report on 2021 financial performance

Tom Reddy presented a high level summary of the annual audited accounts for the financial year 31 December 2021. This was a record breaking year. Income was up from 4.7m to 7.2m which gave a surplus of £2.4m and allowed the charity to spend more. There was a good diversification of income streams and spending had increased in all cost categories. Despite all challenges, the balance sheet looked healthy and from a financial perspective, the charity was safe and secure.

Questions from members on 2021 performance included:

• plans for extra spend on research
• fundraising events
• and networks.

Jackie and Sarah responded to the questions setting out the charity’s position including the review of extra spending in research in the next round of business planning, the ongoing diversification of fundraising, and the continuing support to networks but recognising the challenges on the sustainability of networks with few volunteers in the area.

4. Resolution voting

Ordinary resolution – to accept the 2021 Annual report and statutory accounts

The final vote, including postal, online at registration and at the meeting, was 461 for, 37 abstentions and 3 against. Therefore, this ordinary resolution was approved.

Ordinary resolution – to approve the re-appointment of the charity’s auditors Price Bailey

The final vote, including postal, online at registration and at the meeting, was 463 for, 42 abstentions and 2 against. Therefore, this ordinary resolution was approved.

5. Future plans

Sarah Sleet, the CEO of the charity, set out the charity’s key programme of work for the 2022 onwards focussed on earlier diagnosis.

Questions from members on the charity’s work included:

• accessibility to toilets in underground stations,
• and symptoms in the earlier diagnosis campaign should be inclusive.

Sarah highlighted that the charity were in discussions with the London Assembly who had been receptive to the fact that people need better access to toilets. In addition, Sarah clarified that the campaign messaging will be top level to remain impactful, with the aim of driving people to the website to find out more detail about symptoms.

6. Any other business

There being none, Jackie Craissati thanked everyone and closed the meeting.

NB

The meeting recording is available to view above.