Dear All, I hope you are well and coping with the current situation. Many of you will doubtless by now be proficient users of things you had until a few weeks ago never heard of – Zooming, WhatsApping and House Partying the day away.
I wrote at the end of March to talk about the immediate steps we were taking to keep the Athenaeum on a sound financial footing. I wanted to take the opportunity to update you now we are further into the lockdown. We continue to follow Government advice and will have to remain closed for what will hopefully be only a little longer but please be assured that plans are already being made for reopening when it is safe to do so.
Firstly, I want to reassure you that we currently have sufficient cash resources to cope with the ongoing closure. We have now received the £25,000 Hospitality Grant and I am grateful to the staff at Liverpool City Council for processing our application so quickly. We have also received our first payment under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme which has helped us to ensure that all of our staff can continue to be paid. Please be assured that our cash flow position is the first thing I look at each morning and the last thing at night.
I would like to thank you again for your continued support in terms of your membership subscription payments. I am acutely aware that you are currently paying for a facility you cannot currently access, and I am thinking about how we can recognise this, once things are back to normal.
With an eye to the future I’m working with our auditors on the 2019 accounts for the time when we manage to get together for our Annual General Meeting. I’m also starting some work with fellow Proprietors Peter Bounds and Dr Lee Wells on our governance processes to ensure that they meet our future needs.
I’d like to thank my colleagues on the Finance Sub Committee (David Antonia, Ian Cubbin, Nigel Hobro, David Swift and Lee Wells) for their ongoing support and wise counsel.
I wish you and those close to you the very best and look forward to seeing you soon.
Martin