TransLeeds AGM 2022 Minutes
TransLeeds Annual General Meeting - 05.12.22
6.15pm
Attendees
Trustees: Tom S (acting chair), Siobhan F, Christina G
Service users, volunteers, staff members
Total attendees: 11
Apologies: Maxwell H
Welcome
Tom opens the meeting
Apologies received from Max who has deputised Tom to chair in his absence
Max’s video is played
Max thanks his fellow trustees and the staff members and volunteers for their work in the last year
He announces he is standing down as the chairperson and as a trustee.
Discussion of Agenda Items
List of achievements in the last year:
48 support groups, 4 karaoke, one 90s night, 3 picnics, roughly 6 boardgaming events and 3 coffee mornings run in 2022
Swim ‘n’ Gym sessions have been running for 6 months
Various grants have been applied for. A £1000 grant from Leeds LGBT+ Hub was awarded to support the Swim ‘n’ Gym sessions, and an outstanding grant application to the Advonet Advocacy Development Fund for £10,000 is awaiting approval
A Discord server has been set up
A large binder donation from GC2B worth roughly £4000 was received, and the binder library is running well
Working with GIC, Conservatoire, Hate Crimes oversight committee, LLCC, asylum and refugee groups, food banks, sports groups
Prides visited, such as Wolds Pride and Hull Pride, as well as hundreds of people marching in the TransLeeds section of the Leeds Pride Parade
Advocacy activities have been well used this year and TransLeeds is looking to expand these in the coming year
Board gaming was set up and is running successfully
A LinkedIn profile has been set up
TransLeeds has a presence at the monthly Social & Wellbeing Cafe with Angels of Freedom.
TransLeeds is present on the West Yorkshire Police Independent Advisory Group.
A new website has been created
Office space at Skyline has been established
Trainings that staff have completed by staff this year: suicide prevention, mental health first aid
TransLeeds’ Trans Day of Remembrance vigil was attended by over 100 people
Trans Pride Leeds (affiliated with TransLeeds) ran successfully
Many new policies were developed and released earlier in the year. These give TransLeeds a framework
Delivered many Trans Inclusion training sessions for external organisations
Staff changes
James L stepped down as a trustee in January and the role of coordinator was passed to Tom. James is now the Trans Awareness Trainer
Oliver left in January and Tom took over as treasurer
Kei joined and now runs the binder library
Flo joined as the assistant coordinator
Alex joined as an engagement officer
Financial report
TransLeeds monies are held in two places- the NatWest Bank account and the PayPal account
total in PayPal £1501.65
total in bank £4122.75
total income this year for the bank account is £1060.87 and for PayPal is £1454.37
Main sources of income:
Grant of 1k from council LGBT+ Hub for Swim ‘n’ Gym
Donation of £500 from Hyde Park Football Club women’s and nonbinary team
Two regular donors, Rhianne and Michelle
One large donation from Stuart of £400
Other large one-off donations (£40-£150) from Michael, Henry, George, Abigail, Paula, Harry, Sara, Will
Advonet grant - yet to hear back as to whether this was successful
Explanation of new registered charity status
TransLeeds is currently a constitutional charity not a registered charity, but the paperwork to receive registered charity status was submitted 2 months ago and the outcome has not yet been received.
The changes that come with becoming a registered charity that will affect the service users are:
TransLeeds becomes a brand new charity but acts under the same name
The constitution is a template constitution, we do not get to self-create in the way we used to
The outgoing constitution is covered by policies, so not much will change practically in terms of the new constitution.
Electing the Board of Trustees
Tom, Shiv and Christina all stood to be re-elected as trustees.
Speeches given by those standing to be a trustee
Christina and Shiv spoke together as they feel that they have accomplished tasks together:
Revamped policies
Updated constitution
Partnered with Rainbow Junktion
Incorporated sports (football, badminton, swim and gym)
Partnered with WYPAIG
Became part of West Yorkshire Police scrutiny panel
Joined LGBT+ Hub (council group)
Worked with Angels of Freedom
Attended Wellbeing cafes
Performed GP advocacy
Performed housing advocacy for destitute asylum seekers
Performed GIC advocacy
In process of working with Leeds GIC to set up a better advocacy service
Worked with Bok Godall who designs underwear for trans people
Organised Trans Pride Leeds 2022
Partnered with Leeds LGBT Community Consortium
Partnered with and connected with other organisations to improve TransLeeds services, i.e. Fresh Grassroots, African rainbow family
Organised and ran coffee mornings
Met local MPs to discuss local issues
Made TransLeeds more accessible to a wider audience
Addressed racism from TransLeeds in the past and how this has been worked through: Mainly accessibility measures and reaching out to a wider range of groups.
Ran the LGBT history month stall
Connected with Leeds Conservatore, University of Leeds and Leeds Beckett University
Ran a stall at Leeds University Union
Worked with the museum of transology
Gender clinic workers coming to visit support groups
Organised for Sarsville to visit support groups
Hoping to get a grant from national lottery (which is already in the works) once the new charity status is attained
Tom S:
Tom feels his role in the past year has “Involved lots of behind the scenes work”
TransLeeds started as a group of trans friends who wanted to help other trans people and it grew to serve the community. This meant that policies were not really in place, which Tom has been instrumental in correcting by writing all of the new policies introduced this year.
He has set up a supervision process for staff members.
Vision for next year:
Tom wants a vision / statement and strategy to be created and for service users to be able to hold the organisation accountable to that
Tom wants to organise more external training sessions for staff eg. training around the inclusion of refugees and asylum seekers.
Voting
Votes were counted by James and Flo.
One attendee abstained from voting.
Shiv, Christina and Tom were all re-elected as trustees with a supermajority
Closing statements
Congratulations were given to the new trustees and thanks were given to attendees
Closing AGM, 6.54pm
Moving into a break and then into the main month meeting.