Wick Academy Development Fund

[Granny]

Better reading than a novel hope the money can be accounted for as I and many family members have donated to this so called fund....

[DeHaviLand]

I have no doubt the money can be accounted for Granny. The question is whether the charity is being run as it should be, while aiming to fulfil the very worthwhile reasons it was set up for.

[Alice in Blunderland]

That's the biggest problem. The charity isn't being run ........its just limping along stagnant. Nothings happening no activities, no forward planning or if there is no-one but the committee are aware of it and certainly nowhere nearer to this amazing sports complex, the reasons the charity was set up for. Time for change however the committee are in no mood for change, help or anything else. They have a strangle hold on this fund and are in no mood to let anyone else help out. WHY ?

This sheer stubbornness is doing no good for this charity, indeed the stranglehold they have on it is choking it and like all things which have the life sucked out of it, it will die. Who's the winners then ?

[Tubthumper]

That's the biggest problem. The charity isn't being run ........its just limping along stagnant. Nothings happening no activities, no forward planning or if there is no-one but the committee are aware of it and certainly nowhere nearer to this amazing sports complex, the reasons the charity was set up for.

They really are poor aren't they. I had a letter from someone VERY influential today, just letting me know that they're still interested and are eagerly awaiting the OSCR's findings.

[gollach]

Good to hear that people are still paying attention to this. I reckon the whole county must be waiting for the OSCR's findings!

[Tubthumper]

You're right Gollach. And the OSCR are aware of that too.

I'm also wondering whether the report of their previous investigation would make good reading. The WADF claimed to have been found squeaky clean with only a few minor recommendations they subsequently complied with. Of course, they knew that we mere members of the community would have to take their word for it, as the OSCR report was not made public. But bearing in mind the WADF's attitude to the real world, I'm just wondering just how true that actually is.

Freedom Of Information Act anybody?

[Alice in Blunderland]

Freedom Of Information Act anybody?

That would give you some more answers. And within a timely manner.

[Metalattakk]

Reading today's JoG Journal back page quotes from Wick Academy manager 'Titch' Hughes, concerning the lack of suitable indoor training facilities available during mid-winter weather shut-downs, brought my thoughts straight to this thread.

Just think what a kick-start £130,000 would make towards funding such a project. It's downright criminal that this money is wasting away doing nobody any good whatsoever.

Crack on, OSCR. And don't spare the horses.

[sam09]

Is this charity registered with the Scottish Charities Commision? If so they must publish accounts yearly.Does any-one know their Charity Number?

[Metalattakk]

http://www.oscr.org.uk/CharityIndexD...px?id=SC032787

[pat]

or that is what it says on my correspondence with OSCR
Come on now do not put OSCR site down with all of you logging in to search the files.

Pat


Just been on and it only gives what the income was not "the books" and the history of spending.

[Tubthumper]

Is this charity registered with the Scottish Charities Commision? If so they must publish accounts yearly.Does any-one know their Charity Number?

They're obliged to send out a copy of their constitution and financial statement to any member of the public that wishes them. As a deterrent to 'mischief-makers' WADF charge £10 for these, surprising when the OSCR say the charge should not exceed the cost of production (excluding professional review). I wouldn't have thought that 10 sheets of A4 and photocopier toner/ printer ink would come to £10 but there you go. Oh and they must supply it in whatever format is requested (within reason) so you could request it in .pdf format onto a disk or flash drive, or by e-mail. I'd like to see how much they charge for that.

But to save them any hassle, I can email you a copy of their accounts. PM me.

[Tubthumper]

Reading today's JoG Journal back page quotes from Wick Academy manager 'Titch' Hughes, concerning the lack of suitable indoor training facilities available during mid-winter weather shut-downs, brought my thoughts straight to this thread. Just think what a kick-start £130,000 would make towards funding such a project. It's downright criminal that this money is wasting away doing nobody any good whatsoever.

We know that a facility is needed and that the community is behind the idea.
We have a Fund with some money, but it isn't growing, isn't being used. The people running it are failing in every respect. So why don't they allow others to join and help the Fund forward?

You know, £130 000 is a fair dunt of cash but when you consider how much can be raised in ten years by a proper charity with a worthy cause, you have to ask why there's not a lot more...

[Tubthumper]

OK, I'm looking to make contact with people who sold the A-T tickets on behalf of WADF in the past. What I'd like to know is:

• Who supplied you with the tickets
• How many were you typically given each week
• Who collected the cash, what receipt were you given

No reflection on those who sold the tickets, you all did a great job.

[Edit - I've cleared out my inbox yet again tonight, sorry to those who couldn't PM me, please try again!]

[Alice in Blunderland]

[Edit - I've cleared out my inbox yet again tonight, sorry to those who couldn't PM me, please try again!][/I]

tried again and still cant get a message to your inbox..................... sheeesh your a popular guy cant think why .

[Tubthumper]

Sorry Alice, I've emptied it again, please try now.

The WADF state that they received £8423 from ticket sales in the year to 31st May 2009. At £1 a ticket I work that out as only 162 tickets sold per week in 2008/9.

2007/8 was slightly better, showing £10276 from weekly ticket sales, that's around 198 tickets a week sold. But less than 200 tickets a week isn't a lot, and must have given pretty good odds for winning one of the prizes. And an awful lot of running around for whoever personally collected the cash from the sellers. And I'm a bit confused as to why there has never been any attempt to organise other fundraising events or draws for a new sports complex.

I've run raffles at £1 a ticket where we've sold 400 or more in a single night. Maybe I should be the fundraising director of the reconstituted WADF?

[Tubthumper]

I've done a rough extrapolation of how many £1 tickets I would have had to sell each week since 2000 to raise money for a sports complex for the county. It's quite surprising, did you know that by selling 288 tickets per week in 2000, rising to 404 between 2001 and 2004, then peaking at 443 per week in 2005 before dropping off to 162 per week in 2009 I would have raised (using the UK headline interest rates) a rough figure of £132 000.

Amazing how few tickets you have to sell to make it mount up, eh? If I'd kept 20 people each selling 20 tickets per week I could have made £400 per week, £20 800 gross per year. Then I'd have to take into account my prizes, expenses etc. But even working on a rough outlay/ income ratio of 0.5, surely that would soon equate to an indoor training facility?

Of course, I'm no mathematician or statistician, I've only used rough ratios based on information supplied by an equivalent local charity, available in the public domain. So my figures can't be relied on in any way. But it was an interesting exercise right enough.

I must go and manipulate those figures some more. Any maths or financial geniuses out there, give us a PM will you (I've emptied the box - again!)

[DeHaviLand]

Tubs, you've got me thinking now, and thats never a good idea! Has anyone on here ever won one of the main prizes, and if you did, how much did you win? Maybe WADF can provide a breakdown of prizes won? Breath holding commencing now....................................

[Tubthumper]

DH, I'm sure they can. Someone earlier in this thread (Wario?) said they'd reported strange dealings in WADF prizes to OSCR, but their investigation apparently showed nothing untoward.

Prizes have indeed been won. For example, in 2008-9, the year the WADF stopped selling their tickets to a dwindling circle of faithful supporters, £610 was paid out in weekly prizes, and jackpot payouts amounted to £11 600, far more than the previous year where only £4400 was paid out. And perhaps those larger jackpot payouts, which resulted in a net loss of £1598 for the year, were key in sounding the death knell on the WADF's fundraising efforts, of which the A-T Ticket was the only example.

By the way, £211 was spent on Ticket printing in that final year. 8423 tickets for £211. That's a unit cost of 2.5p per ticket. And it was 3.1p per ticket the year before. Wonder why the unit price went down for fewer tickets, usually it's the other way round?

[Tubthumper]

I'm still keen on raising funds for a sports complex in the County. The message I'm receiving is that more than 20 offshore guys used to sell about 20 tickets each per week for WADF, back in the good old days.

I wonder if they'd do it for me now. Any offers guys?