Northern Friends Peace BoardAnnual Report - Our work in 2006Clerks' Foreword2006 seemed a particularly busy year for us all and as you read the report you will see that we had a mix of positive and negative challenges.The renewed energy in the Board was good; in our regular meetings and in the work of the Speaking our Peace and the Faith, Peace and Race project groups. There was the important continued financial support from Monthly Meetings and from individuals, for which we are very grateful. The receipt of the legacy from Muriel Shearer has been very important to us and continues to engage us in a process of discernment as to the most appropriate way to use the additional funds made available as a result of this gift. Especially significant of the “not so good situations” were the unexpected consequences of the change in pensions law insofar as it affected us as a small charity with only one full time employee. We had to devote much time to gaining an understanding of the implications for us. In particular, we have had to consider the necessary level of reserves in order to protect trustees from sizeable personal liabilities . We appreciate the help given to us by The Pensions Trust (of which we are members), the Office of the Scottish Charities Regulator, and our accountants Slade and Cooper. It has also provided our Trustees with the unexpected opportunity to develop skills and insights into this area of trusteeship. We are all indebted to the committed and diligent work of Philip Austin as Co-ordinator, whose experience and creativity are invaluable in networking across a range of organisations in the peace community. We are grateful for the support given by Steven Waling, our part-time Administrative Assistant, and more recently Barry Mills, who has given voluntary help in the office. We are pleased that we have been in a position to update some of the office equipment. 2006 was a year in which we were shown ever-more clearly the importance of the work of NFPB. It was year that saw the world seemingly in constant distress and turmoil, but amidst this darkness we know light shines and we believe that the work of the Board, in partnership with Friends and friends in this country and beyond, makes a creative and important contribution to creating a more peaceful world. We commend this Annual report to, would welcome your comments and look forward to further opportunities to meet and work with you in the coming months and years. Frances Morgan – Clerk to the Executive Mary Alice Mansell – Clerk to the Board OverviewWe welcomed a significant number of new members during the year. Whilst this meant that we had lost a number of our more experienced members, it also meant that we valued the opportunity of getting to know newer arrivals. This has brought fresh energy and ideas to our work and meetings.The Executive faced some very demanding issues in the second part of the year, outlined at the end of this report. Dealing with these and the necessary process of induction for new members has meant that we have not been as productive in 2006 as we would have wished. We finished the year, however, with a strong sense of purpose in these challenging times, keen to work with Friends and others in doing what we can to promote peace in its height and breadth. During the year we learned with sadness of the deaths of Board members and of those friends and families of members. We remember in particular, the long service of John Hamilton of Hardshaw West Monthly Meeting, who died at the end of the year. And we have held in our prayers Anni Rainbow, whose son Matthew Cornish, was killed as a result of a mortar attack in Iraq where he was serving in the army. Board meetingsThe Board met four times in the year. We continued to encourage participation by Friends and Attenders from the areas in which we gathered and were delighted to have met, worshipped and worked with a number of new Friends as a result of this approach.At our first meeting, in York in February, we heard from Carol Naughton of the WMD Awareness Project. Her contribution on the issues of Trident replacement was a valuable start to a year which saw many Friends taking a range of actions on this issue. In June we met in Keswick, many Friends participating in a weekend of activities with Keswick Friends. Plans were set in motion for Friends’ participation in the Faslane 365 action later in the year and project work proposals on racism were considered and approved. The Speaking our Peace project group used the additional time we had available in the evening to try out some workshop ideas, in which NFPB members and local Friends all participated. In September, our keynote speaker was Alistair McIntosh, writer, activist and local Friend. He challenged us to reflect on how we engage in dialogue with those with whom we might think of as adversaries. He also challenged us to think about the quality of the ways in which we work – is well-intentioned amateurism a good enough goal for the peace movement? This meeting also considered two significant new items that the Executive committee had been addressing: the receipt of a sizeable legacy and the potential consequences of new pensions legislation on the finances of the Board. In November Friends gathered in Southport. We heard from Daphne Sanders about the recent developments of the Westmorland GM ‘Preparing for Peace’ project, from Maureen Miller about Women to Women for Peace and from a significant number of individual Friends who had been involved in witness and active nonviolence at the Faslane nuclear base. We closed our meeting with an open period of discussion and reflection on current priorities, in the light of the significant increase to our funds as a result of the legacy income. Project workThe work on racism got under way in the autumn, under the heading of ‘Peace, Faith and Race’. The project group of five Friends and the Co-ordinator met three times over the period to develop detailed plans for a spring conference in 2007 on Tackling Racism: Building Peace.The Speaking our Peace group also met several times in the year. It developed a workshop format for the general area of work and begun work on additional ideas for work with Friends and others on thematic issues. Information about these has since been circulated to Friends and Meetings. Additionally, the NFPB web log (peacePeaces.blogspot.com) was launched in the spring, with regular additions to its pages throughout the rest of the year. We were pleased to welcome one of our Young Friends General Meeting representatives onto this group, though suffered through having lost a number of the original members of the group in the course of the year. We continued to keep a watching brief on issues of Missile Defence and of Violence in Entertainment, although did not carry out specific project work on these due to insufficient Friends being available to engage in planning and management. Our Co-ordinator kept in touch with other agencies through the Missile Defence Working Group, sharing knowledge and information on developments in this area. Communications and networkingA communications review group met in the spring, which gave some thought to future developments regarding our website, newsletter and other communications activities. Early in the year we had a further printing of the envelope re-use labels, although sales of these were not great in the course of the year. The website continued to be developed and maintained as a significant peace resource, with a consistently high number of visits throughout the year. For the third year running we also produced and maintained web resources for the Week of Prayer for World Peace.We maintained our links with a number of key networks and peace organisations, with Philip Austin serving as Assistant Clerk for QPSW’s Peace Campaigning and Networking Group and Clerk of the European Quaker Peace and Service Consultation. The former met several times during the year, and the latter in late autumn. We also participated in meetings and activities of the Network for Peace, the Network of Christian Peace Organisations and Scotland’s for Peace, amongst several others, nationally and internationally. Staffing, finance and office arrangementsPhilip Austin as full-time Co-ordinator was joined in the office throughout the year by Steven Waling, one day per week, as admin and finance assistant. We benefited in the autumn from additional help from Barry Mills, a Bolton Friend, as a volunteer in the office.Levels of giving from Meetings declined slightly compared with the previous year, whilst expenditure increased beyond inflation, partly due to increases in office rental (arising from electricity and gas costs) and updating photocopying equipment. In the summer we received a legacy of £147,500 from Muriel Shearer a Liverpool Friend (and former NFPB member). Soon after, we learned of potential liabilities that our trustees face because of pensions legislation coming into force. As a result, it became clear that a significant portion of this additional funding would need to be kept in reserve, whilst Trustees will do all they can to ensure that the liability does not crystallise and the financial resources of the Board can be used most effectively in developing our peace work. We sought and received helpful guidance from a number of Meetings in our consideration of the best use of our additional funds. Thank you to all those Friends and Attenders (and non-Quaker friends) who continued to support us in many ways. Northern Friends Peace Board Income and Expenditure 2006
Key points from Trustees’ reports for 2006During the period covered, Mary Alice Mansell served as Clerk to the Board, Frances Morgan as Clerk to the Executive, and Tim Carlisle as Treasurer.Other Executive members during the period were: Raymond Chadwick, Joy Croft, Wilma Firth, Jenny Foot and Peter Cheer. Friends are appointed to the Executive both from the membership of the Board and from amongst Northern Friends as co-opted members. We devoted resources and time to continuing induction and training of staff and committee members. The Executive committee met four times during the period covered. Philip Austin and Steven Waling, Co-ordinator and Administrative Assistant respectively undertook the finance-related administrative work from the Board’s office and Philip Austin continued his co-ordinating role in relation to all other areas of the work of the Board and Executive. Financial Review and ResultsOur income for this period was significantly higher than expected, due to the receipt of a sizeable legacy from one of our previous members. Income from Quaker Meetings was received chiefly in the latter part of the year and was roughly in line with what we had budgeted for. Other funding came from charitable trusts for our general work, from interest on invested funds and from sales. The new projects set up are ongoing and the existing funds will be sufficient to meet the needs of these projects. We upgraded our office equipment during the period, with a new lease agreement on a photocopier, moving over to broadband internet connect and upgrades of the main computer.Risk assessmentIn order to avoid running at a deficit we continued to exercise caution in our spending during the early part of period. The receipt of a substantial legacy during the period covered was unexpected but trustees also had to take into account new information about the contingent liability arising from our membership of The Pensions Trust and the changes in legislation in September 2005. This has meant that our reserves remain at a good level, giving security and confidence for the future. We have undertaken an assessment of other risks and implemented procedures to manage and minimise these.Reserves PolicyIn March 2001 Trustees agreed that we should endeavour to hold in our reserves the equivalent of four month's running costs, based on the period of notice required for the termination of our Co-ordinator's employment and any winding up costs associated with that. Our current reserves exceed this margin, largely as a result of the unexpected receipt since of legacies. We expect to draw on this additional source of finance to develop project work when necessary.Future Plans1. Continued training and development of Executive committee and appointment of new members in the course of 2007.2. Development of Speaking our Peace project work. 3. Implement the work of the Peace, Faith and Race project group 4. Strengthening links with Young Friends and with those Monthly meetings that are currently less involved in our work. 5. Exploring the scope for work with young people, building on discussions at the second half of 2006. 6. Consideration and implementation of sound investment policies for our additional funds. 7. Consideration of possibilities for expanding our work in the light of additional funds. 8. Building on Trustee expertise in financial management functions, including development of practices for a more thorough risk assessment and for raising additional funding from Trusts.
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