The HUST Treasurer's Report was not included in the 62 page document posted before last night's AGM.
BN has since obtained a copy for wider readership.
For the past 2 financial years Hawkins Priday, based in Bridge Street, Hereford have produced for the Hereford United Supporters Society Ltd t/a HUST unaudited accounts to the 31st May 2014 and 31st May 2015. These were produced in a format to cover all aspects of the day to day operations of HUST and in a format which was acceptable to both the Financial Conduct Authority and HMRC, for tax purposes.
As part of a good housekeeping exercise within HUST I approached Hawkins Priday to see if we could get their fee reduced or whether less comprehensive accounts could be prepared to lower the cost. They replied that the Accounts they were producing were the minimum requirement to satisfy those authorities and that the cost of £795 plus vat was already subsidised by the firm to support the activities of HUST. This led to David Evans our acting independent secretary making enquiries.
Unfortunately those enquiries with Supporters Direct and the model rules adopted when HUST was formed, indicated that unless a resolution was passed at the AGM each year, audited accounts had to be produced. I was not aware of this and was not picked up by Hawkins Priday. They produce unaudited accounts and have since quoted me an extra £3,000 plus vat to fully audit the accounts. We have had a second quote of £2500 plus vat from another firm.
Audited accounts are rarely produced by businesses because of time and immense costs as indicated above. For a company registered as a society under the Co-Operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014 there is a legal obligation to have a full audit if the turnover figure exceeds £2.8m and the business assets figure exceed £5.6m. Given these limits, very few opt to have an audit unless legally required to do so.
From trying to substantially reduce the cost of producing Unaudited Accounts we now seem to have gone full circle and find ourselves in a position of having to get the Accounts to the 31st May 2016 figures audited, at a minimum cost of £3,000 as we cannot reclaim the vat, in addition to the £954 already paid to Hawkins Priday. For this reason I cannot present Unaudited Accounts to the AGM this evening. I can however mention some of the figures contained within the document which of course are subject to this audit requirement.
Turnover
Up from £37,704 to £77,994 but only because of the £46,572 of 50/50 draw ticket sales after HUST were given a permission/licence from Hereford F C to run the draw.
Prize Bull Lottery takings, before prizes, up from £5,847 to £13,285
Membership down from £16,862 to £11,222
Donations down from £12,618 to £6,915
Those are headline figures and somewhat historic, so what is happening in this current financial year?
* The 50/50 Draw continues to be well received although a lack of home games on Saturdays will affect the overall profit as will being eliminated from both the F A Cup and Trophy. The 50/50 draw raised an amazing profit of £24,969 after the payment of prizes for HUST last season and given the above we believe this season it will reduce to approx £20,000. I would like to thank my willing band of volunteers who help me each home game, Andy, Derek, Jean, Jeremy, Joanie, Karen and Nigel and my friend Ian who makes himself available for the big games.
* The Prize Bull Lottery is in decline and from a peak of 264 weekly entries in March 2015 we are down to just 160 weekly entries in August 2016. After prize money the income in this coming year will be less than £4,000 unless we do something to arrest the decline.
* My colleague Peter Davies works immensely hard to promote HUST membership and it is down to him in particular and also Russell Cheasley that we have just over 500 adult members and in excess of 100 junior members. With a handful of Corporate members renewing this year we still have a solid base and something to build on but in terms of income this will be less than £6,000 in the current year, before admin expenses.
Share Purchase
A further £30,000 of shares were purchased in Hereford FC in August 2016, making our shareholding a total of £80,000. To break down that £30,000, the bulk of the monies came from the 50/50 draw profit (£24,969) and donations.
It was agreed with Hereford FC when Rob Crawford was allowed to buy his £50,000 and be the 5th benefactor, that HUST would have an extended period from 3 years to 5 years to buy its increased allocation of £289,000 worth of shares. This equates to £57,800 per calendar year.
Given the reducing income into HUST as detailed above, I must warn the members of HUST that I do not believe the target is achievable in this extended time period unless HUST does more to increase its income streams through new avenues of fund raising activities.
It was my intention to continue as HUST Treasurer but having received late this afternoon an email from a colleague who questioned amongst other issues my suitability to be the Treasurer given the lack of audited accounts, I intend to stand down from the role but will continue on the HUST and HFC Boards.