The Annual General Meeting of the Friends of the Rosie was held on Monday March 11th 2024 at 12.00pm in the Green Room in the Rosie Birth Centre, Cambridge.
Present:, Mary Sanders (chair), Chris Cooper (treasurer), Mary Cooper (secretary), Annie West (Senior Midwife) Avril Williams(Rosie in Stitches), Jo Hall, Erica Crouch, Charlotte Reed (Project Manager), Tora Clark-Ward (Rosie Matron) Liz Marlen (Matron) Meg Wilkinson (Director of Midwifery) Shahla Bakhtiari (Consultant Midwife) Caroline Zwierzchauska-Dod (Rosie Maternity and Neonatal Voices) Nicola Clifford (Midwife Bereavement Team)
Apologies: Claire Garratt (Head of Midwifery) Susan Howlett, Sally Munday, Sally Tucker, Emily Harrison, Ann Laskey, Chris Ramsey, Joanne Awbry-Maskel, Veronica Heywood, Amy Lay, Doruntina Krz.
MINUTES: The minutes of the 2023 AGM were agreed and signed.
MATTERS ARISING: None
CHAIR’S REPORT:
Mary thanked the staff and volunteers for coming to the Friends of the Rosie AGM.
She thanked the committee for staying the course and particularly Avril for all the work she has done through Rosie in Stitches.
‘The Friends’ has been going for over 50 years and Mary has been involved for about 49 years, the last 20 or so as chair so she has decided to retire. We have about £44,000 in our funds and our first plan was to spend the money and then close down the charity. However, Avril who runs ‘Rosie in Stitches’, the trading arm of ‘Friends of the Rosie’ would like to continue with some new trustees and it seems that this will be possible with new trustees being registered with the Charity Commission. Ann Laskey has also asked to stand down, after organising the Tea Bar rota for many years until the Tea Bar closed during the pandemic and has not reopened due to a lack of volunteers.
In the past, we have found it difficult to spend the money we have raised as we have only been asked to pay for small items. We would now like to buy one large item with most of our money so that we can be remembered for something worthwhile, and leave Avril with a working capital to carry on the charity in a slimmed-down form, raising money for the Rosie by selling goods online and on stalls when and where possible. We’d like the nursing staff to consult and to let us know what would improve the lives of midwives, mothers and babies.
The most interesting thing Mary has done this year was to speak at a dinner at King’s College, organised by a local group from an insurance firm. The retiring president remembered the birth of his child and wanted to raise money for the Rosie. £768 has been raised and will appear in the 2024 accounts.
Mary was thanked for all her work for the Rosie and presented with flowers.
TREASURER’S REPORT
Chris reported that 2023 had been a quiet year. £6903.41 had been spent on 4 recliner chairs and £251.75 on a training day for new international midwives. £3019 had been transferred into the main account from Rosie in Stitches which, combined with some smaller donations makes an income of £3805.39.
The total money available to be spent is £44,625.41
Detailed accounts attached. We may have to incorporate the Rosie in Stitches account into the main group of accounts to comply with Charity Commission rules.
In discussion: Could we combine our accounts with ACT? In the past we have not wanted to do this as we want to say that all our money will be spent on the Rosie not elsewhere in the hospital. However Caroline from RMNV said that NICU has a dedicated account within ACT so any donations can only be spent on NICU. CC will investigate. Donna Lee-Willis is the Rosie Link at ACT.
Our QR code which links to our Just Giving site has stopped working. We shall arrange to get it reactivated.
ROSIE IN STITCHES Report by Avril Williams
Thank you to our retiring chairman, Mary Sanders, for organising the hospital stalls and Ann Laskey for organising the Tea Bar rota and display in the past and to the new committee for continuing the fundraising work we are doing for The Rosie. Special thanks this year go to Paula, Avril, Afsenah, Pat and Val for helping to complete the various commissions. Thank you for all your help in 2023.
After expenses for postage, insurance, domain name and online sales fees we added £3,595.43 to the fundraising pot for The Rosie Hospital. The only two years with higher amounts were during lockdown in 2020 and in 2012 when we had a lot of sales from several stalls at Addenbrooke’s and the Tea Bar.
We were unable to have our two winter stalls in Addenbrooke’s, instead we joined the Rosie Crafters for their winter fair and the other Rosie Hospital birthday celebrations.
We’ve done very well selling online through eBay in our charity store rosieinstitches2010 and on Amazon selling books and our website selling new knitwear. We had 73 new customers and 9 returning customers. We are still using Easyfundraising where you can raise funds by using the retailer links provided on the www.easyfundraising.org.uk/forh site whenever you shop online. We are also registered on the Easysearch.org.uk search site. Our website has affiliate links. If you click on a shop’s link on our website we will receive a donation when you make a purchase.
A fundraising platform we are now using is Benevity. Businesses encourage their staff to make a donation to charity and this platform collects the various donations and sends them to monthly.
We still need more unmanned sales outlets for our Rosie in Stitches goods. Please ask at any shops, coffee bars, community centres, clubs, churches etc that you are regulars at where we could have a small basket display of 10 jumpers/cardigans, 10 toys and some bonnets, booties, mittens, hats. Prices vary between £1.00 and £10.00 per item. We also did well at the village events in 2023, so let me know if you would like a display at your village event in 2024.
In discussion: Mary Sanders suggested a stall at CVS. Annie West thought that commissions (nativity sets for Christmas etc) could be very popular and asked Avril to forward any photos of commissions made which could be advertised on social media. NCT hold nearly new fairs.
ELECTION OF COMMITTEE: The following past members of the committee were all happy to serve for another year and were duly re-elected: Avril Williams, Mary and Chris Cooper, Sally Munday, Jo Hall, Annie West. Emily Veal/Harrison would like to join the committee and was proposed by Caroline Zwierzchauska-Dod, seconded by Annie West and duly elected.
AOB:
Tora Clarke-Ward asked that we send her an email which she will forward to the Finance Dept. when we are paying invoices so that they have a record of purchases in case they are needed for later servicing.
Future Projects
Bereavement rooms – We have already agreed to buy 2 recliner chairs at a total cost of £2,568.00. Nicola Clifford said they would now like to buy a Memorial Tree for £500, battery operated candles and leaflet holders.
Delivery Rooms – the rooms are not nearly as nice as those in the Birth Centre and need updating for the well-being of the new mothers. New lighting would change the mood, plus decorations on the walls and ?new flooring. Clinical quality lighting will cost £500 per room x 12 rooms.
Delivery Suite – a new scanner which would stay on the delivery suite. Cost £20,000.
Well-being Hub – Annie West repeated last year’s plea for a Well-being Hub for staff who are very stressed. Many are off sick with stress, some long-term or are leaving the profession or going part-time and so we need to provide facilities for the staff so that we can keep them. Cost £60,000.
Staff would like 5,000 of our new leaflets to put in new mums’ packs, plus A5 posters of the same design to put on wards and delivery rooms.
DATE OF NEXT MEETING:
Monday March 10th 2025, 12.00 pm The meeting closed at 1.30pm