The year has been an interesting one with new projects and developments of old ones which have raised funds for the support and repair of our county's historic places of Christian worship.

The annual WREN grant has reduced this current year to £60,000 and we are having difficulty restricting grants to churches to £15,000 per quarter, with additions from our other funds. These consist of the income from the Ride and Stride which last September raised over £20,000 divided between churches and the NHCT. I wish to record the Trust's appreciation of the work done by Boby Stefanov and Mike Elliott in promoting and administering this annual event. This year the date is Saturday 11 September 2010 and a new promotional web site has been set up by the National Churches Trust which is linked to all the county trusts, including ours, to encourage participation by non-church members.

The Summer Concert with Cantamus Girls Choir was a great success socially, musically and financially with a profit of over £4,000. My thanks to all those trustees, secretaries, friends and family who helped to make it so.

Efforts to raise money through the production and sale of Christmas cards have not been so successful, as all the profit lies in the future sale of more than half the stock of 2,000 at £2.50 per pack of five cards and envelopes.

Membership of the Friends of the Trust grows slowly. Visits to Thurgarton Priory, Strelley and Wollaton churches and the illustrated talk on painted organ cases by Paul Hale all had their enthusiastic followers but more has to be done to raise the profile of the Friends which in other counties is a major source of Trust income. We are still looking for a volunteer to provide leadership for the Friends to reduce the time spent by Anthea on organising visits.

Less successful has been the move to update the letterhead and the web site which are still target issues although the web is better than it was and has images of the Ride and Stride launch in June.

Another regular activity has followed the usual chivvying; the production of the Annual Report which is distributed to sponsors and supporters. My thanks to Maureen Hallam for her persistence which also helped in achieving the concert success.

More personal thanks to Graeme Renton and the Grants Sub-Committee members who meet quarterly and to Linda Francis who hosts the meeting and provides comparative information from applicants which simplifies the decision making.

Thanks to Peter Hoare for attending the Churches Tourism Association Workshop which may be another source of inspiration and expertise; to Anthea Moat who went with me to the National Churches Trust annual meeting at St Martin in the Fields, or was it the other way round? One of Anthea's many abilities is her networking skill or is it just friendliness. In either case we are hosting next year's national county churches trusts' annual meeting at Southwell Minster on Tuesday 18 May 2010.

David Digby Atkins
Chairman