| | The Council of Management is the Trust's Board and is concerned more with strategy and fundraising with operational matters devolved to the trading subsidiary, the Swanage Railway Company. These notes provide an overview of some of the matters discussed this month. - A paper mail-shot has just been despatched to all Swanage Railway Trust members. This included a general update, an updated legacies request, and a heritage coach update\appeal.
- Draw tickets for the 2006 Grand Draw will hopefully be available to buy before the end of March and at least one book will be sent to Trust members with the next edition of Swanage Railway Magazine also due out later this month. Please sell these to your friends and family or feel free to buy them yourself if you fancy a flutter. Remember the first prize is £5,000. We have received a good response from local businesses to our appeal for sponsorship of prizes.
- Members Weekend will take place on 25th 26th March. An open forum with the Council of Management has been arranged at 2:00 pm on Saturday 25th in the Mowlem Committee Room.
A sale of surplus books is scheduled to take place at Corfe Castle station during Members Weekend. - Restoration of Bulleid brake coach no. 4365 continues off-site at Ramparts. We now anticipate that the coach will return to Swanage in an externally completed condition sometime in April.
We are continuing to look into the possibility of submitting a Heritage Lottery grant application for the restoration of our other heritage coaches an authentic Maunsell push-pull set being the most likely candidate. - The CoM have confirmed that operational assets (e.g. track and Mk. 1 coaches) should be transferred from the Trusts balance sheet to that of the Swanage Railway Company with effect from 31st March.
- We are in contact with HM Revenue and Customs (formerly the Inland Revenue) regarding the possibility of charging an admission fee for entry to the Railway, to include train rides. This would be instead of existing train fares and would potentially allow us to reclaim an additional 28% through Gift Aid greatly increasing the total revenue received by the Railway. There are a number of logistical and technical issues to overcome but we hope to run a pilot exercise at Norden sometime this Spring.
- The date of the 2006 Swanage Railway Trust Annual General Meeting has been confirmed as Saturday 23rd September 2006. The meeting will start at 2:00 pm in the Mowlem Theatre, Swanage. Nomination forms in respect of this years Council of Management election will be sent out with the next edition of Swanage Railway Magazine.
- The process for inducting new volunteers is being reviewed. This will include a detailed safety briefing and all departmental managers will be notified of the process as soon as possible.
One or more volunteer is being sought to look after the sale of advertising space at Swanage station and in Swanage Railway Magazine. Please contact the Chairman or Treasurer if you are interested or you know someone who might be.
The next CoM meeting will take place on Saturday 25th March 2006 at 2:00 pm in the Mowlem Committee Room, Swanage. |
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