The Trust has been working for more than thirty years. Established in 1991 to manage a surge of donations following the appearance of Anita Goulden’s inspiring story in the UK media, its founding trustees can hardly have imagined that, so many years later, the Trust would not only still exist, but also be looking forward to supporting the Anita Goulden Home for years into the future. Some credit is no doubt due to the efforts of a succession of dedicated volunteer Trustees, but fundamentally the Trust is still here because of the donors who have continued to give their support, many of them since the Trust’s foundation. Huge thanks are due to all of them.
The Trust has no employees, so everything involved in its running is carried out by the volunteer Trustees and Administrator. Since the sad death of Annabel Buchan three years ago, we have been only four Trustees, whilst our constitution allows for up to nine.
2023 was a busy year for the Trust and there was a lot of involvement by the Trustees. There were few surprises, and its business ran smoothly under the control of our Administrator, Katharine. We have dealt with Trust business mostly through informal communication by email or online meetings. When a formal Trustees’ meeting has been called for, we have met face to face, but with one or two Trustees attending online.
We take care to exercise oversight, on behalf of our donors, of the use of their donations by the Home. Ideally, this would involve a visit to the Home, but none of the Trustees was able to visit in 2023. We have, however, kept in regular contact with the local Committee, as well as reviewing the detailed monthly financial reports they send us. The Chair of Trustees and the Treasurer have held Zoom meetings with the Committee every three or four months. These have been well attended by all the Committee members, who are very open in exchanging information with us.
The trust made an extra donation of $1000 to the Home in December to help them pay for Christmas celebrations and gifts for the residents and staff.
David Thomas – Chairman of Trustees – January 2024