The audited Accounts for the year are attached

Gift Aid
Gift Aid is a scheme by which a charity can reclaim from the Inland Revenue the basic tax on money paid to it by way of subscriptions or gifts. In the 2008-09 year 172 members provided Gift Aid Declarations and the Inland Revenue credited a total of £585.26 to the Society's account in 2009-2010. At 77.8% of memberships this similar to last year's 78%. The scheme costs members nothing and all those who pay tax are invited to sign up. Declarations remain in force while membership of the Society is maintained or until the donor cancels the arrangement.

Grants Received
The Society is grateful to Down District Council for its continuing support of the Society's activities. In the financial year the Council provided two grants - £300 in support of the production of Lecale Review and £100 for the St. Patrick's Festival Lecture.

Membership
During the year 25 new members joined the Society. However, eight of the existing members did not renew their subscription. During the year, sadly, we lost two of our members, Arthur Moore and Patrick Corkey, who had served on the Executive Committee. By the end of the year the number of memberships stood at 230. This compares with 221 in the previous year and is the seventh year of continuous membership growth.

Downe Society
During the year the Downe Society merged with the Lecale Historical Society and its members and assets transferred to the newly named Lecale & Downe Historical Society. Taking account of dual memberships a total of thirteen members tranferred, with assets of £675.19.

Journal
The cost of 500 copies of the Lecale Review was £1,800 compared with £2,570 in 2008. This was due to a new tendering process that revealed more competitive quotes. Each of the 230 members was supplied with a copy of the journal as part of their membership fee. Journal sales income was £1801. This reflects the discount to resellers. The £158 for 'Other publications' is mainly from sales of the Lecale Miscellany CDs.

Speakers fees
The increase in Speaker costs is due to the lower proportion of speakers drawn from the membership itself, to whom no fees are paid. The usual fee if £50.

Postage
Postage costs show an increase on previous years. This reflects an increase in postal charges in 2009-10. As reported last year the Executive Committee decided to offer members the choice to renew their subscription annually by Standing Order, thus reducing the time and cost of the renewal process. The renewal forms with the SO option were distributed in March. Stamped addressed reply envelopes were included which was an additional expense on last year.

P. DEVLIN
Treasurer
1st May 2010