ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2025

CHAIRPERSON'S REPORT

DATE: 6th August 2025

VENUE: The Spotted Dog, Flamstead

Welcome everyone. On behalf of my fellow Trustees and committee members, I would like to welcome you to the 18th Annual General Meeting and thank you for taking the time out to attend.

Most of my address will be dedicated to thanking those who have worked for, or supported the Charity, as the Charity could not function without both of these groups, albeit they are unrelated.

At last year's AGM, Tracy Wells announced she would be stepping down as Chair having served the Charity and the village as Chair since 2014. I would like to use the AGM to thank her, on behalf of everyone involved with the Charity, and the whole of the village, for the unstinting work and dedication she put into the role. Her time in the role and her knowledge meant she was uniquely placed to be Chair and whilst the team continues with the good work, her guiding hand is missed and will be hard to replace. On a personal note, I would like to thank her for the time and commitment she put into a smooth hand over, it certainly made my life a lot easier.

I would also like to thank the remaining team that I joined back in January; Ali Moss, Rosie Hickey-Colman, Alex Morris and Gill Biggs, all of whom made me so welcome and have helped me unreservedly in getting to grips with the role and responsibilities that I have taken on. I certainly know that I could not have done it without your help, so thank you so much, it is not just me, but the whole village that is grateful to the time and dedication you commit to the Charity.

Since then, I have had to accept the resignation of Alex Morris who unfortunately felt that the pressures in the rest of her life meant she could not commit as much time to the Charity as she wanted. This is not a feeling shared by anyone else, but we have had to respect her decision and sadly Alex stepped down a month ago. Thank you, Alex, for your hard work and commitment to the Charity over the last three years, we certainly hope we can call upon you from time to time to help us at our future events.

Before Alex’s resignation, we were fortunate to welcome a new member to the team as we welcomed Caroline Freer as a Trustee. Caroline is well known to many within the village as she served as Parish Clerk for many years, so she brings with her a wealth of knowledge of the village and its residents. We were delighted, as with Caroline joining this increased the Trustees to five, but with Alex sadly stepping down, we are back to four. We are always looking to increase this number so if you know anyone who would like to join a dedicated team with a mission to help people in the village, then please get in touch.

This is particularly pertinent if you know of anyone who has IT skills for Rosie Hickey-Colman has given notice that at some stage she will be moving from the village and will relinquish her role, and as Rosie currently looks after everything IT-wise, someone with the skillset to replace her would be invaluable.

With regard to those who have helped us, we rely heavily on personal contributions, and these have continued this year from collections in the shop, the Three Blackbirds under Rebecca, and general donations from people within the village, some from those we have helped and others purely because they want to support the work that we do.

The Spotted Dog held a race night in February earlier this year and very kindly donated the profits from the event to The Wish Tree. We cannot thank them enough for the very generous gesture as it contributed £770 to our funds whilst providing those who attended an extremely fun packed evening, so thank you Spotted Dog for being so supportive, it is very much appreciated.

We continued to do the afternoon teas at the Village Show in September for which we are generously allowed to keep the proceeds, and we must also thank FOSL who, having put a huge amount of effort into arranging the Scarecrow Festival and make a very sizeable and welcome donation to the Charity.

Without fail, our biggest contribution has been the money raised by Henry Biggs with the Festive Fun Run and London Marathon that he did on our behalf. With Henry’s enthusiasm and commitment, we held the first Wish Tree Festive Fun run on the last Sunday before Christmas. We had approximately 90 runners, dressed in a range of seasonal costumes, taking the 5km course, 4 laps of the “Flamstead triangle”. Great fun was had by all, not in the least by the amazing catering that Gill Biggs and her team provided for everyone after the run. A true family contribution all round for which we are extremely grateful.

Henry used this as a springboard for sponsorship for the London Marathon and through sponsorship and a company quiz night, Henry raised £5650 whilst completing the Marathon in 4hrs 20mins. Very impressive all round and we can not thank the Biggs family enough for so whole heartedly supporting the events and the Charity.

Included within the money raised was a sponsorship contribution from Harpenden Medical who we would like to thank for their support of not just this event but also allowing Henry use of their facilities to aid his training. Local companies supporting us can make such a difference so if you are in a position to consider helping with sponsorship, or know someone who might, please get in touch.

After the success of the inaugural Festive Fun run last year, we plan to hold it again this year with Sunday 14thDecember already booked as the date. Please look out for further details of how to enter, how to volunteer or how to support the event financially, details will be advertised shortly.

In essence, the dedicated team that volunteer for the Charity, and the funds we raise through the generosity of others is here for one reason: to support Flamstead residents facing serious illness, injury, major surgery or bereavement. The Charity supports both individuals and families to try and gain a sense of normality during difficult circumstances. This takes on a wide range of support tasks including domestic help, dog walking, gardening and transport to medical appointments.

We are not able to offer medical support or advice, but we do use our expertise and knowledge to make recommendations to people on how they might seek such support when needed. This year we have supported 12 residents with approximately “X” hours of support to local residents. The services are provided by local vetted personnel who are on our paid service provider list. We try and ease the burden or worry of everyday tasks for residents facing much bigger issues and we ask that anyone in the village who has concerns about a neighbour or village resident, to get in touch. Contact details are all available on our website at www.thewishtreecharity.co.uk.

Steve Evans

Chairman

TREASURER'S REPORT FOR THE PERIOD 1 MAY 2024 to 30 April 2025

OVERVIEW

2024/25 has been a busy year for the Wish Tree Charity, helping Flamstead residents with lots of requests for assistance with transport, cleaning, dog walking and gardening. The charity is very lucky to have the support of the village. We feel fortunate to be well funded and can afford to react positively and confidentially to most requests for help.

In addition to the funds we currently have available, we are often the recipients of donations from villagers and their families, for which we are very grateful. We were delighted to be voted for to receive a share of the proceeds of the Scarecrow Festival and that money has helped to support the residents of Flamstead..

We would also like to mention Henry Biggs’ fantastic London Marathon run and his very successful initiative – The Wish Tree Festive Fun Run. Together they both raised a substantial sum to boost our finances. Thank you Henry.

In this financial year the charity’s running costs were £10,354.28. The biggest part of our expenses was resident support at £9,037.24, with other expenses, such as Trustee insurance making up the balance.

Aims for 2025-2026

To continue to monitor the Charity’s finances and ensure compliance with the Charity Commission rules and our own Mission Statement.
To provide timely help to Flamstead residents when it is needed in confidence and without means testing.
To ensure the Charity continues to be viable for many years to come.
Fundraising plans:
September - Village Show Tearoom
November - Wreath Making workshop
December - Festive Fun Run

A copy of the Charity’s accounts for the year ended 30 April 2025, can be seen on request. Email alisonjmoss@aol.com if you would like to receive a copy.

Alison Moss

Wish Tree Treasurer