AGM Report

AGM Special Report

MOVERS AND SHAKERS

Alex Law Carl Irving Rachael South Louise Boyland Maureen Whitemore Wendy Shorter Paul Marsh Frank Geoghegan

Michael Gilham Richard Ranklin Steve Chapman

The AMUSF has a new chair and president.

Long-time board director and head of training, Wendy Shorter, has taken over as chair of the association while Paul Marsh takes over as president from former association manager and holder of office for the past four years, Richard Ranklin.

Other changes to the board announced at the AGM – held during the 75th anniversary celebrations in central London – were: • Carl Irving, Rachael South and Alex Law join the board as new members • Frank Geoghegan becomes vice president • Long-time board members Michael

Gilham and Steve Chapman have stepped down from the board • Maureen Whitemore and Louise Boyland were re-elected.

In his capacity as vice-chair Michael Gilham opened the meeting which began with a minute’s silence out of respect for the Queen who had died the day before, on Thursday September 8.

The historic meeting – held three- quarters-of-a-century to the day since the association was formed on September 9, 1947 – heard messages of congratulations from both The Worshipful Company of Upholders and The Fellows.

Michael Gilham reported that many members were still struggling in the aftermath of COVID but others had full order books and were finding it difficult to recruit staff to tackle them.

It was also reported: • that the association continues to enjoy an expanding number of training centres • the sale of the former Cardiff office had

brought in some proceeds • the upgraded new website was now running smoothly and allowing for easier processing of fees. • changes to the FR regs and Chlld Safety regs were being carefully monitored to assess the effect on members

Finance director Peter Hubbard provided his annual summary of the association’s cash status, reporting that in the year ending March 2022, turnover was £148,113 – up £45K on the previous financial year. This figure chiefly consisted of member subs – £76K v last year’s £72K, representing an increase of £4K. Training income was £41K v last year £27K – up £14K. At the year-end there were 217 full members and 74 associate members. The association also received a significant donation from the Foulds family of £29.5K.

The gross margin was therefore showing a good improvement, year on year. At £100K this was almost £15K up on the previous year (excluding the donation from the trading numbers).

Overheads were up £4K over the year and while savings had been made with office expenses, this had been offset by higher employment costs.

All of this translated into a £5K profit for the year which, added to the donation, provided a full year profit of £36K.

Said Peter: “I believe this is a very good result given the circumstances of the previous year – and helped considerably by the generous donation from the Foulds family. The COVID lockdowns of 2021 seriously affected all our schools and members alike. We worked hard to bounce back so these results are great to see. AMU cash in hand at the end of the year was £105,255, up some £54K on the previous year.

“During the year our investment property in Cardiff was sold, realising cash of £27K and a small profit of £1K. We have put this £27K on deposit, along with the Foulds’ donation: this equates to £57K which remains separated from our working cash flow. The remaining working cash was £48K, down year-on-year by £3K. During the year we spent some £6K of capital expenditure on a revision to our website.” The AGM also heard that FUSS, the fabric buying arm of the AMUSF, had enjoyed a successful year. Turnover was £48K, up some £17K on 2021. Said Peter: “Fabric sales have really bounced back, post lockdown, and were up £13K to £36K for the year. This is the best year for fabric sales in the past 10 years.”

Overheads were very similar, year-on-year, at £1,600 resulting in a profit of £3,648 compared with a £2.7K loss the previous year, representing a swing of some £6K. FUSS cash in hand was £1,714 at the year end, down £2K on 2021.

He concluded with a look ahead to 2022/23: “The five-month figures to August 2022 show us combined sales for both businesses coming in at £50,224 versus £52,242 for the same period last year. We have seen improvement in the five-month year-on-year comparison with fabric sales up by £1K and member income also up by £1K. However, this has been offset by a like-for-like drop of £3K in training income.”

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