The Cas AGM was held recently at the Nerja Club Hotel in Nerja.Wendy Thorne was elected as President, Richard Thorne as Treasuer and Vera Newing as Vice President.All other committee members were re-elected to serve for another year.
Set out below are the comments made bt the President and the Treasurer'
Good afternoon
Thank you for coming today. Before we start I will ask Diana to give you the Membership details.
I don’t think I need tell you that this has been a difficult year both financially and administratively wise. I am sure you all heard that the difficulties within the committee arose from whether it was viable to transfer our Society into another. The committee voted against and there was of course a fall out.
Since then we have consolidated ourselves and increased our homing rate to around 40/60 dogs a month going to Holland, Germany and here in Spain.
To ease the financial position we are trying to move most of our dogs from kennels to foster accommodation. We are totally dependent on our fosterers and are extremely grateful to them. We have around 60 foster families not all operational at once. Some come for the summer some for the winter, so it is always fluid.
The cats are still needing attention. Mike feeds in places everyday. Sometimes running gauntlet of the gardeners. Heike and Hilde are also long term feeders on Burriana ,Supersol area and around the Nerja club Hotel. We have had support from Sue Baldwin our official Cat Woman and Maureen of Xana.Both have been very generous with financial help for the cat spaying programme. Sue’s rehoming record is excellent even though she is inundated with tiny kittens.
The website is vital to our homing success and it currently being revamped, so please be patient.
We are exceedingly lucky to have Mike O’Brien fundraising for us. He must be the best finder of sponsors in the area. Thank you Mike.
Richard works tirelessly on the accounts. Hopefully the recession will ease and our donations will come back again.
One of the main areas for concern is the lack of committed helpers. We need younger folk for the airport runs to get the dogs abroad and of course people to run the small village markets and anyone with ideas for fundraising.
We the Committee would like to thank you all for your support in these difficult times and if you have any questions please come forward during any other business
WENDY THORNE
Good afternoon
You will all have received a copy of the Audited accounts for the year ending 31st
December 2010. I think I should explain in case it is not clear why our accounts
showed an operating Balance of over 42000 Euros. This was due to the fact that the
sale of our office was Completed on the 31st December and the way in which the
transaction was undertaken with the Notary ie part cash and part offset against our
debt
These funds were therefore paid back in early January to clear our Debt with our Vet.
If you strip out the income received from the sale of the office you will note that in
2010 despite all the efforts made we only raised 65000 Euros against 96000 in 2009.
In the first 3 months this year we raised 14600 Euros.
We are therefore still in a very precarious financial position and the outlook is very
concerning. Suffice it to say the effects of the current economic climate continue to
effect us with very limited donations being received and a downturn in support for our
fundraising activities.
I don’t propose to go over all the discussions we had at the EGM in October but
suffice it to say that since then we have made every effort to reduce costs. We have
stopped placing any more animals in kennels, other than overnight emergencies and
rely heavily on our fosterers. The number of animals in kennels have been reduced
but not to the level that is manageable financially and we have to continue our efforts
to move animals out of kennels, if we are to survive. This has proved to be much
more difficult than expected particularly with the larger and older dogs who no one
seems to want. As Wendy has explained we are still homing 40/50 dogs per month but
we have close to 200 animals on the website at any one time and as the website these
days is the main contact with the public ,those wanting an animal have a very wide
choice.
We are currently up to date with our vet bills and these have been reduced to around
800 Euros per month but need to be reduced further. This is proving difficult with the
demands placed on us by the general public who more often than not if you don’t
agree to help just dump the animal, which then ends up back with us.
We are also up to date with the rent payments on the office.
We are however not up to date with our kennels bills and this debt will increase until
more are rehomed. In my opinion if we can continue to reduce the number of animals
in kennels to an acceptable level then we will be able to repay this debt during the
course of this year and the whole situation becomes manageable.
Mike our main fundraiser is doing everything he can to raise money but the truth is
that apart from our four main annual functions, Scruffs and the big dinner dances
which are well attended and still produce substantial funds it is proving very difficult
to run monthly fundraisers due to the financial climate. As with Donations
sponsorship if available is half what is was 2 years ago.
Our main regular income is currently being obtained from the four car boot sales we
now run in Nerja, Trapiche, Almuncar and Torrox. These are doing very well and you
will have noted that we raised 17000 Euros last year. Ideally we should operate more
car boots in different locations but it is a question of finding people to run them.
We have revamped the shop and sales are improving but need to increase further.
To summarize and without being negative Cas is in a very difficult financial position
and it is difficult to see how currently matters can be improved within the current
framework. If we can get the majority of animals out of kennels then I believe the
finances are manageable and this is the key. Beyond that we need more people to
fundraise for us. Too often people come forward but when they find out what is
involved they don’t appear to be prepared to make the commitment.
If anyone has any question on the 2010 accounts then I will try and answer them for you now
Richard Thorne
Income and Expenditure Account
Year Ended 31st December 2010
Income € €
Membership Subscriptions 3,214
Collection boxes 5,618
Donations, adoptions and sponsors 6,880
Advertising (newsletter, trailer, Web) 300
Miscellaneous 1,533
Float Returns 425
17,970
Fund Raising
Events (Fairs, Dinners, Quizzes etc) 24,345
24,345
Sales
Car Boot 17,007
Calendars, Books & Cards 2,981
Clothes 2,774
Bank Interest 0
22,762
Sale of Premises 79,999
79,999
Total Income 145,076
Direct Costs € €
Kennel Fees 45,780
Veterinary Fees 42,910
Cost of Trips (coach hire/catering/entertainment) 3,445
Pet Food/Care 2,891
Telephone (mobiles & landline) 2,889
Bank Charges 86
Car Boot Site 376
Car Fuel 817
Floats 439
99,634
Administration & General Overheads
Printing, Stationary, Postage 1,865
Insurance 156
Advertising
Electricity, Water, Community Fees 121
Office Sundries, Repairs and General 353
2,495
Total Costs 102,129
Net Operating Balance for Year € 42,947
NB. The operating balance shown included funds of 42000 Euros received from the sale of the office completed on the 31st December.This was used to clear our debt and paid out in early January 2011.
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