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During the 2006-2007 financial year, Online
Transport Archive continued to build on the progress of the past six
years and is in a strong position to undertake some major projects
in the near future.
Income was significantly higher than in the
previous financial year, for three main reasons:
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The receipt of a generous donation from the estate of a
deceased enthusiast.
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The establishment of
Gift Aid which allowed tax to be claimed back on the above donation
and a previous generous donation in October 2003
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The receipt of initial
royalty payments in respect of the Ian Allan publication Streets of Liverpool, which has been co-authored by two of the
Archive’s directors, and with royalty payments being waived in
favour of a donation to the Archive.
There was a slight reduction in resources
expended, meaning that a healthy surplus was generated for the year.
The accumulated surplus will contribute to OTA’s immediate
needs.
Since January 2004, the company has been
registered as a charity.
Its stated object, as registered with the Charity
Commissioners, is:
“... to
advance the education of the public, particularly but not
exclusively, in the history of railway, tramway, road, air and water
transport through the collection of film, colour slides,
photographic negatives and prints, videotape, electronic images in
all formats and other artefacts.”
Its activities can be summarised as:
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care and administration of transport-related film and
photographic collections
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conservation work
relating to these collections
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assistance to bona fide
authors/researchers in the field
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availability of the
Archive to bona-fide publishers thereby ensuring that the
collections are made available to the public at large
Corporate governance is provided through a
board of directors most of whom have standing in the fields of
transport heritage, photography and film making.
During the 2006-2007 financial year, a new board appointment
of Honorary Treasurer was made.
This has allowed the finances of the Archive to be managed on
a more active basis, as evidenced by the Gift Aid scheme described
above and by the opening of lower cost/higher interest banking
facilities to ensure the most favourable position for the Archive.
The directors each take an active role in
furthering the company’s aims and they are assisted in this by a
number of members and other supporters. The directors are appointed
by the members of the company, all of whom are encouraged to bring
skills in support of the Archive’s work.
In 2006, the proprietor of Online Video (OV)
decided to severely curtail the production of new tapes.
However, OTA is still entitled to on-going royalty payments
in respect of some of OV’s back catalogue, but clearly the revenue
stream from this source will slow down significantly.
Allied with the cessation of the agreement with Photobus in
2005-2006, this means that income from these two previously
significant sources is now very small.
With no other obvious like-for-like replacement partners, OTA
is therefore more reliant on contributions to books and magazines
and its directors have been actively helping authors on a number of
projects. During
2006-2007, the Archive has provided material to a range of
publishers including Ian Allan, Capital Transport, Lightmoor Press,
Middleton Press and Trolleybooks.
Income from PhotoCD sales and prints from plate glass
negatives has remained small but steady. OTA directors continue to give illustrated public
lectures, although these tend to spread the word about its
activities, rather than acting as a major revenue source.
During 2006-2007, the Archive has received
further important film and photographic donations and
collections/material from among others: E C Bennett, M de Beer, J A
Canfield, D Beath, J Joyce, T Marsh, P Matthews, C Orchard, W R
Stillman and K Thorpe. Problems
still arise where people have not made appropriate provision in
their wills. OTA
is currently involved in exchanges of correspondence to ensure that
the futures of two particular collections are secured in an
appropriate way.
Accommodation for the Archive is close to
being finalised. Much
of the material was transferred to the designated premises by a
number of working parties during 2006-2007, although its precise
location within that remains fluid. OTA’s directors now feel that the Archive is close to
being able to function as fully as they would wish and has
implemented plans to purchase scanning and other IT equipment.
2007-2008 will see OTA build on the strong foundation which
exists at present.
Directors
The directors
during the year were:
David John Bishop
David Michael Dyer -
appointed 2 January 2007
Frank Ernest Martin Jenkins
Charles Christopher Roberts
Michael John Russell
Michael Peter Waller
Peter Alexander Whitehead
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