Chairman's Annual Report 2002/03

This year has seen a great increase in our activity. This has meant that a greater number of people have become involved in events and that activity has generated increased interest in the group, with many individuals becoming active for the first time.

Our main focus for the year was the production in October2002 of two one act plays, “The Café “ and Echos Of Applause. These ran very successfully for 3 nights at the Cockpit Theatre.. In these two productions 10 individuals appeared on stage of which 7 were doing so for the first time, and 9 were disabled. Furthermore most of the backstage staff including lighting, stage management and makeup personnel were also disabled.

This was the first time that the organisation had had all of the lighting side of a production handled by visually impaired members. This is a further step towards making the group more self reliant. Attendance was also up this year with over 100 attending the 3 night production run.

The majority of the publicity, and the desk top publishing for it, was also handled via email for the first time. This made it more accessible to people with a variety of different sight problems.

In order to further encourage interest in the group and to attract new members a successful recruitment event was held on the 14th of September 2002 at our usual venue the “Goat In Boots” pub which around 40 people attended.

Our last event of the year was a highly successful quiz night which was held early in March at the same venue, with almost 60 people attending. After all costs including prizes and catering were deducted a net profit of £120,00 was made from this event. A real boost for our fundraising efforts.

At the beginning of the year it had been foreseen that the productions described above would effectively exhaust the organisations financial reserves, thus making fundraising a priority. Therefore at the 2002 Annual General Meeting a fundraising committee was set up. In order to put the organisations financial resources onto a sounder footing.

This committee met on a bi-monthly basis throughout the year and was responsible for putting in place a range of events, which in addition to those described above included a sponsored slim (generating over £500) and a sponsored give up smoking. Many more events are planned for the future.

Thanks are due to all those who have put in so much hard work this year, particularly those who have become active for the first time.

Wayne Chapman, Chairman
May 2003