Sneinton Alchemy held its AGM on April 17th 2012. This is a summary of outgoing Chairman Tom Hughes' report to the meeting.

During the year Sneinton Alchemy, formerly a Company Limited by Guarantee became a Community Interest Company. We were supported through this process by Locality (formerly the DTA). We have established a map of our defined area of benefit, identified details of our enterprise model and put in place an asset lock for future potential purchase of buildings. The Alchemy Directors now hold three ‘portfolios’, to champion our three areas of community, enterprise and sustainable development.

Funding was obtained from the Commission for the Built Environment (CABE) for the Sneinton Vision Project, which is now nearly complete.   

Sneinton Alchemy became the first Nottinghamshire area to join the Community Organiser Scheme. Funding was obtained for three posts; hosted by Sneinton Alchemy, the scheme is managed by Locality.

We have developed our website to be more informative about what we do. The "What's on in Sneinton" Calendar and ‘The Sneinton Alchemist’ newsletter provide a service to local people, and we are linked in to Facebook and Twitter.

Earlier in the year we undertook a great deal of work researching demand for a community hub building, with the object of purchasing the Bendigo pub for the community. Initial funding from Community Builders enabled us to be supported by Locality who encouraged us to bid for funding for feasibility work. The fund was unfortunately closed ahead of schedule causing a great deal of disappointment. The Bendigo has since been sold. We have submitted a new bid for feasibility funding in the latest round, and this will be to look at the various options available to us in the future. 

Our main challenges for the next year are to attract further Directors and Members to carry on the work that we do, and to become more diverse in our membership. We've put a lot of effort into reaching out across the Sneinton community but it has proved difficult to get a membership that reflects the diversity of Sneinton, in tune with our priority to work for the benefit of the whole community.

To summarise. We have carried out a lot of work on governance and now have stable Directorships. We have undertaken a variety of projects that will all continue to develop over time, and have a really good basis for publicity and marketing.

Photo credit: Nottingham Essence