FINANCE REPORT 2025

1 INTRODUCTION

Following on from the Annual Prisoner Convention – Portmeiricon 2024, we have conducted a finance review for the society financial year ending 30 June 2025.

In line with our primary objectives to ensure effective and efficient running of the membership and to organise an annual Convention in Portmeirion, the following material demonstrates how the society is currently providing, and will continue to offer great quality and value for money.

Before reading and digesting the details presented - if you haven’t already done so -please familiarise yourself with the Society Details and Basis for Operation, specifically the section that details the guiding financial principles under which we operate, as they underpin the specific breakdown for the last membership period.

As always, we encourage and appreciate your questions and feedback which can be raised through the normal website contacts.

Based on a detailed analysis of all incoming and outgoing monies, we conclude the following for the next period:

1. Membership rates remain unchanged.
2. Convention registration fees will rise by 7%* Using a range of Convention pricing data back to 2010, this represents an increase of slightly under the rate of average inflation.

* Source: Bank of England Inflation Calculator

2 SCOPE OF INFORMATION

The information contained in this statement covers Six of One’s financial dealings for the past financial year, specifically:

1. Membership period 01 July 2024 to 30 June 2025.
2. Breakdown of expenditure categories as a proportion of overall spend and assessment of reserve funds.
3. While the society handle arrangements and payments for village accommodation, these are effectively pass through costs for individual members directly with Portmeirion and as such are neutral and therefore, excluded from the scope.

3 FINANCIAL ANALYSIS   3.1 Summary   A breakdown of expenditure as percentages of the total spending are shown in the chart opposite.   Our analysis following the previous financial year review demonstrated a healthy reserve. This was over and above our target and so we actually spent more than was received and hence the chart does not show a reserve component, which in practice would be a negative amount. See the individual sections below for details on what has been spent and the status of the reserve.   3.2 Magazine production and distribution   Magazine production and associated distribution costs accounted for a combined total of 30% of the overall spend.   As noted in the previous reports, replacing the former society magazine, “Orange Alert” with the latest, “Degree Absolute” introduced a level of uncertainty in detailed financial planning. The production of Degree Absolute is now well established and

while we were able to actually reduce magazine production costs by negotiating a new deal with the existing printer, these were effectively balanced out by rising postage costs. Overall costs for this year include the three main issues of the magazine plus the production of the Convention programmes and the subsequent Convention report.

Consideration of received membership fees against these costs have allowed us to keep membership rates at the same levels for the forthcoming year.

We once again thank the members for continuing to make their payments electronically wherever possible. We are a small team of volunteers and electronic payments make administration less time consuming, more efficient and are automatically integrated into our financial accounting processes.

3.3 Website operation

Since introducing the revamped website at the 2023 Convention, we continue to develop the features and content of the website. For example, we have implemented an online only application process for Convention accommodation.

The hosting provider, Freeola have not increased their annual charges by any substantial amount in the last year, and so the total cost of operating the website continued to be approximately 1% of the overall spend.

As a basic indication of the traffic received on the new website, since its launch, there have been in excess of 90,000 views of the homepage.

3.4 Convention guest expenses

Whilst guests receive no explicit payment for their attendance, they are paid accommodation, travel and meal expenses as a standard principle of not being out of pocket.

For this year’s event, we were delighted to secure two main actors in Annette André and Derren Nesbitt.

Accommodation costs are naturally rising year on year and some challenges with transport costs resulted in an overall expenses bill of 35% of the total spend.

3.5 Equipment refresh

For the last Convention we invested in some new indoor sound and video equipment, but having managed several previous events on ageing kit, we acknowledged that more needed to be done with the indoor setup and that the outdoor equipment had served its purpose, and was due a complete refresh.

As acknowledged in the previous report, we had considered the purchase of a short-throw projector for the indoor stage, but had tested the potential improvement using a member’s own projector. On the results achieved, we decided to invest in a new unit.

New equipment procured for this year is as follows:

Hercules Hall:

• Two new front-of-house speakers to replace the older four-unit setup and greatly reduce cabling and setup requirements.
• Multi-function LED lighting system and desk controller.
• One budget laptop computer.
• One “Big Foot” studio microphone for audio recordings.
• High Definition short-throw projector for the main stage.

Outdoors:

• Fully integrated “Radio-Village” control and amplification system.
• Eight high-performance PA horns.
• Associated racking, enclosures and cabling.
• One budget laptop computer.

At 23% of the overall spend this was a relatively large proportion on one year, but we decided that making all necessary changes in this year would create efficiencies in the longer term as things had deteriorated and were causing us operational issues with function and quality.

3.6 Badges, raffle and T-shirts

Production of numbered convention badges for all attendees accounted for 1% of the overall spend, while the procurement of raffle prizes and the production of T-shirts accounted for another 1.5%.

Note also that the incoming revenue from the raffle and T shirt sales was 20% more than the costs.

3.7 Portmeirion Staff

We continue to enjoy a very good relationship with Portmeirion and we are grateful to be able to hold our annual Convention in The Village.

Although we do not pay Portmeirion explicitly to hold our event, there are a number of catering, organisational and ground staff who help with setting up and packing away the event. For the staff who go beyond their normal duties in assisting us, we provide a modest amount of money to acknowledge this, which accounted for 0.6% of the overall spend.

3.8 Team expenses

As noted in our guiding principles, the organising team pay the same rates for Convention registration as all other members and are paid no monies during the event.

Outside of the Convention, travel and subsistence expenses are provided to those members who need to go to Portmeirion on society business. For example, transporting some of the new equipment to site and testing it required three members of the organising team and one society member to travel to Portmeirion in the month before the event.

Some of the organising team and other members arrive well before the start of the Convention to set up the event and are paid reasonable subsistence expenses. Note that travel expenses are not provided in this case as they would be travelling to attend the Convention anyway.

In line with society expenses policy, relevant members were provided with Convention and travel expenses which accounted for 9% of the overall spend.

3.9 Managing the reserve

Societies such as Six of One, which may be essentially considered a “fan-club” have no formal regulations in the way they operate, but there are guidelines on best-practice.

One such guideline for operations like ours is to maintain a reserve to deal with unexpected costs and events. The general recommendation is for a society like Six of One with an annual subscription is to hold between one and two-year’s worth of funds. On this premise, our target is to hold the lower level of one year of membership funds plus convention costs.

At the end of the previous financial year, our reserve was approximately 16% above the one-year target. Given this healthy financial position, we had the opportunity for the forthcoming year to:

• Ensure we attract and secure the best possible guests and entertainers.
• Make some further improvements to the indoor equipment, potentially a dedicated society projector and new front of house speakers.
• Refresh the outdoor audio equipment to deal with ageing / failing kit and also to provide a level of “waterproofing” as we had issues with rain getting in to the equipment at the recent Convention.
• Effect the necessary maintenance and repairs on the Convention props.
• Continuous improvement of member experience and to ensure compliance with Portmeirion’s Health and Safety requirements including any necessary improvements.

The combined effect of securing top rated guests as well as a major refurbishment has resulted in our reserve being reduced to 84% of the target. We expect this to recover through much reduced equipment refresh costs in the coming years as well as implementing a modest increase in Convention pricing.

For the next financial year, we have agreed a budget forecast and will be continually looking at ways to provide the best possible experience and value for money. Finances updates are provided at each of our monthly team meetings and all decisions are jointly agreed.

This report has been produced and agreed by the Six of One organising team.