The Messenger secures new Board of Trustees at March AGM
On March 1st the Burngreave Messenger held our first Annual General Meeting since before the pandemic. We updated attendees on what’s been happening at the Messenger and what our plans for the immediate future are. We elected a talented and diverse board of Trustees who will govern the charity for the next two years.
Currently managing the project is a team of three: Colette Wymer and Polly Perkins are job-sharing the project management and editing roles with Polly focusing more on the editing, for now and Colette more on the management. Jamie Marriott is still Digital Media Officer and Designer.
Colette and Polly reported on the finances and recent activities of the project respectively. The financial headlines were that the BM currently has enough funding to keep going until August 2022. Jamie’s re-design and the move to a full colour, matt paper format alongside several editorial changes since the re-launch in April 2021, have already seen a significant increase in local business advertising. Sustainability and fundraising plans are in place to secure our future. Grant funding and increased advertising revenue, as well as fundraising via crowdfunding and community events are all being worked on as a priority.
Polly reported on the success of the Mini Messenger project which has seen renewed engagement from the community’s young people and has attracted some much-deserved funding from the Sheffield Grammar School Educational Trust. Polly is also running a pilot outreach project in the Park and Arbourthorne area of Sheffield to see if we can help to seed a Messenger project in another economically deprived area and to try to spread community-lead magazines across the city. Other plans include hosting community events and more outreach and engagement work to ensure all of Burngreave can have a voice in the magazine. Please let us know what you want us to focus on in the future and share any ideas or concerns with us by email, phone or post.
The Board of Trustees functions as a management committee to oversee operations and ensure the best future for the BM. These people all have good local knowledge and contacts and a wide range of relevant skills, experience and most importantly passion for this project.
The new trustees are:
Yasmin Plews
Chair of Trustees
Film and media lecturer, Film maker, performance artist, TTK activist and parent.
Chris Hood
Treasurer
Burngreave resident and runs the Sheffield Eating Disorders charity/service.
Tchiyiwe Chihana
Secretary
Director at Opus Independents, Co-founder of UBI Lab Women and board member of World Basic Income and World Bicycle Relief.
Emilie Taylor
Burngreave Resident, parent and internationally recognised artist.
Lloyd Samuels
Project manager,
BBC Sheffield Radio DJ, youth work leader and media expert.
To learn more about our Board visit our website.
To contact our Trustees please email: trustees@burngreavemessenger.org
Or write in to:
Trustees of the Burngreave Messenger,
Abbeyfield Park House,
Abbeyfield Park, Sheffield, S4 7AT
We want your feedback!
We’d love to hear from more of Burngreave’s people about how they think the Burngreave Messenger could best serve the community, so we’ve created an opportunity for you to tell us what you’d like us to do.
Please complete our survey at www.burngreavemessenger.org/survey/
