Educational Trustees Meeting Nov 2017

GFTU Educational Trust.

November 8 th meeting 2017.

Secretary’s Report.

Private and Confidential to Trustees only.

Introduction.

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Firstly a warm welcome to Maddy, Charlotte and Antoinette our new Trustees.

2 For the benefit of our new members and really all of us, could I just remind us all that the Charity Commission has excellent guidance on being a charity Trustee on its website. This should be considered required reading. 3 All Trustees should have copies of the Trust deed which guide our work and set our legal boundaries and purpose.

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Our main focus is the provision of adult and trade union education.

5 Our principles underpinning this work are contained in the booklet Education for Action which can be seen on the GFTU website.

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We have an emphasis at present on arts and culture and history.

7 In addition I thought it may be helpful at the start of this report to just outline some of the key issues and structures as we have some technical as well as developmental issues to deal with at this meeting. 8 Until 2012 the Trust was more or less exclusively funded by the GFTU. There were some additional occasional EU funded schemes, but in the main the GFTU provided the core funding. When it sold its property in 2007 the GFTU gave the Trust in addition £3m to hold in Trust to further its educational purpose. As GFTU funds came under pressure, a strategy was agreed whereby the Trust should create its own funding streams and diversify its funding to relieve the pressure on GFTU resources. 9 The main investment the Trust made to increase its independent funding was the hotel and nursery purchased in 2012. 10 In addition the Trust started to develop smaller additional funding streams which were congruent with its purpose and which could slowly build up new income streams. These were, the Ethical Shop, Workable Books, commission on a range of GFTU services, events, a double CD of songs, grant applications, partnerships with higher education, alternative sources of funding. 11 While it is fair to say that these are all embryonic developments, they are important ones and need to grow to create more income. Meetings will be held with the Operations Manager and others to promote these effectively. These activities also create a high and positive profile for the Trust.

12 In 2017/18 we have been able to make our most comprehensive education offer ever.

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