From the Treasurer Bill Cant When the Treasurer is invited to write an article for Scottish Country Dancer, you are entitled to guess that it will not be full of good news. The financial result to 31 March 2020 was anticipated and reasonably acceptable; it is all detailed in the Trustees’ report and financial statements which are on the Society’s website. https://www.rscds.org/sites/default/files/signed_2020_ accounts_01.07.20.pdf https://www.rscds.org/about/governance/legal-administrative However, these numbers are history, they were pre Covid-19. As we are all discovering, our dancing and Covid-19 are not compatible, and this will have a significant impact on the activities and finances of the Society. Summer School was cancelled. Summer School makes a considerable financial contribution to the running of the Society. Then we have the potential impact on membership. How many people will not renew their membership until they start dancing again? How many people will not want to return to dancing and be lost forever? In the meantime, there is still an office to run. We have had to put three members of staff on furlough, the UK government’s employment support scheme. That represents a 38% reduction in available staff. The remaining staff have been working from home, but there are still rates, insurance, website and IT systems, audit, etc to be paid for. Over the last few months the staff have been very busy supporting Ian Muir, Angela Young and the team to bring you Dance Scottish at Home.
So what have we been doing to address the problems? Firstly, we tore up the original pre-Covid Budget and produced a new one. Sadly, it reflects an anticipated modest decline in membership and a decline in the income from our investments. It reflects the loss of income from Summer School and the Autumn Gathering and the loss of income from Winter School. It also reflects a change which I know is not universally popular: we are budgeting to save £25,000 over the year by sending this magazine to you electronically rather than by post. We anticipate receiving £27,000 from the government’s furlough scheme. In addition, we anticipate saving around £40,000 from administration expenses, printing, stationery, postage and travel, with all meetings currently being conducted remotely, which brings its own issues. Despite all these efforts the current budget for the General Fund shows a deficit of £140,000. Quite simply, this is unsustainable. Our predecessors built up reserves and they will be used to provide some support this year, but I will not be recommending the sale of our investments in the Jean Milligan Memorial Fund or selling 12 Coates Crescent. However, more difficult decisions will have to be made as we move through the year. Branches will have to make every effort to retain members so that we have good numbers ready to dance again We are also launching an Appeal. We are very grateful to the members who have already made generous donations to the Society. I am asking you to think of all the money you have saved this year by not being allowed to dance. Think of the money that you would have spent travelling to St Andrews or Perth for the Autumn Gathering. Perhaps some of it could be usefully contributed to our appeal so that the Society is in the best possible position to restart training and organising events when we return to dancing? Together we can work through this pandemic and come out dancing at the other side.
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