MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
King`s Somborne Village Hall Management Committee
Thursday 19th May 2011.
Present:
Terry Mackintosh (Chairman)
Eileen Reynolds (Secretary)
Linda Aucock (W.I.)
David Bidwell (KSPC)
Jo Brooke-Webb
Tony Brooke-Webb (Chairman, Fund Raising Committee)
Vickey Burden (Somborne Players)
Lucy Chadwick (Pre-school)
Dick Dyke (Development Committee)
Frank Fahy (Cricket Club)
Tracey Harris (Co-opted)
Ethna Long (Baby and Toddler Group)
Nola Mackintosh
Gordon Pearson
David Pepperell (Horticultural Society)
Sandie Pepperell (Parish Church)
Mike Reynolds (The Somborne Society)
Carolyn Stammers (Football Club)
Doug Stammers (Football Club)
Michael Templeman
John Vanderpump (Community Responders)
The Chairman, Terry Mackintosh, opened the Meeting by welcoming all present.
1. Apologies:
Apologies were received from Mary Bradley, Ian Bradley, Norman Denison, Bill Hartley, Wendy Hartley, Peter Storey and Pam Watson.
2. Minutes of the last AGM:
The Minutes of the last AGM held on 29th April 2010 were considered a correct record and signed by the Chairman. There were no matters arising not covered elsewhere on the Agenda.
3. Chairman’s Report:
The Chairman, Terry Mackintosh, reported that there had been excellent progress in spite of there being some problems. He then outlined the following points.
a) Use of Hall; There had been an increase in the number of bookings because of improved facilities and tighter control of booking and invoicing. Mary Bradley, the Booking Secretary, passes details of the bookings to Linda Aucock, the Invoice Secretary, who sends out the invoices and collects the money. This system is working well and the Chairman expressed his thanks to Mary and Linda for all their hard work.
A review of hire charges and conditions of hire has been carried out during the year under the leadership of Pam Watson and we are indebted to her for all her hard work. Further information on this is provided will be presented later.
The Committee is also indebted to Frank Fahy who is arranging for a new notice board to be located at the entrance to the Hall from the road to advertise forthcoming events.
b) Maintenance of the Hall; Joyce Weekes continued to look after the hall until the New Year when she decided to retire and subsequently Sheila Fleming, who already undertook the deep cleaning of the kitchen, was appointed to take over the cleaning of the hall. Terry expressed the gratitude of the committee for the years of service that Joyce had given over the years. The users of the hall contributed to a leaving present for Joyce which was presented at the pantomime.
The Chairman also expressed his thanks to all those who had given up time to help with the working parties. Some essential maintenance had been carried out and windows and doors had been painted. In addition some leaks and other emergencies had been rectified.
A review of the emergency fire systems has been carried out by Bill Hartley and some minor faults are being put right.
c) Pre-school; The Chairman was able to report considerable progress on locating the school in the hall. Meetings had been held with the Pre-school Group and the problems of security and timing of sessions were being overcome. It is hoped that the Pre- school will start in September if staff can be appointed and Ofsted approval has been received.
d) Financial Support; Appreciation was expressed by the Chairman for the financial support that the Hall had received for both maintenance and development work from the Parish Council, TVBC and HCC and also for individual donations from councillors. Two events held to support the Hall, the Dog Show and the Coffee Morning had both been successful. Tarmac had made a donation of £500 for the possible provision of an all weather path running along the back of the Church to the Car Park, this had been spent on an archaeological dig to ensure that laying down the path would not cause damage to any remains/artifacts.
Finally, he thanked Eileen Reynolds, the Secretary, Mike Reynolds for keeping the financial records and Norman Denison, the Independent Examiner and the members of all committees
for all their hard work during the past year.
4. Financial Matters:
The Chairman reviewed the events of the year explaining that Michael Hunt had resigned soon after election and his place had been taken by Pete Myhill who, as he was planning to move, was not able to continue in the role and resigned in August. Mike Reynolds had then agreed to keep the financial records of the VHMC until a Treasurer was appointed. Terry expressed his gratitude on behalf of the Committee for all Mike’s painstaking hard work. Peter Storey continued as Treasurer of the VHDC.
a) Financial Report
Mike Reynolds presented both the VHMC accounts for the year and also the consolidated accounts for the Village Hall as a charity, incorporating those from the Development Committee. He drew attention in particular to the satisfactory increase in bookings income but also to the substantial rise in utility costs. He also expressed the gratitude of the VHMC for the generous donation received from Stephen Burgess. He then answered questions from the floor on the Management Accounts.
b) Adoption of Accounts
The adoption of the accounts was proposed by John Vanderpump and seconded by Tony Brooke-Webb. The accounts were adopted.
5. Report of the Development Committee:
This was given by John Vanderpump on behalf of the Committee who reported that this had been a very busy year for the committee.
a) Pavilion; John was pleased to say that this was eighty percent complete and would be inspected by the Football Foundation, who had provided nearly £20,000 towards the cost, on 3rd June. During construction there had been some problems, not least the need to re-locate the water storage tanks, but these had been overcome and the cricketers, footballers and others were now looking forward to using this excellent facility in the near future. It was planned to celebrate the opening by holding a football tournament in mid-July.
b) Future Development; The provision of a Community Room is planned as the next major improvement to the Hall. This would have large glass doors opening on to the Recreation Ground and could also be accessed both from the entrance hall and the main hall. This would take up the area at present used for storage. In order to accommodate this, new storage areas are planned along the far side of the hall where the fire doors were located at present. Leading from the back of the main hall would be a shelved area suitable for archives. To the side of the hall and leading towards the back would be a larger area suitable for storing tables and chairs. Another area was planned to be located along the side of the stage – mainly for use by the Pre-school (if this went ahead) and the Football Club. The access to these would be from the outside and the need for a canopy was being considered. Additional doors were being planned from the main hall leading onto the hard standing at the side of the hall. It is hoped that these will act as fire exits. John was able to indicate all these changes, which had been approved by the VHDC, on a large scale plan.
In order to obtain grant in the current financial year an application had been made to both TVBC and HCC. It was hoped to secure an amount of between £25,000 and 30,000 by using the multiplier generated by the generous grant of £4,000 already provided by the Parish Council. The application had included three quotations from builders based on the proposal but not on a detailed specification. Outline planning approval was also being sought.
The plans would now be submitted to VHMC for consideration.
David Bidwell raised the question of the storage under the stage which he felt was poorly utilised and Dick Dyke pointed to the possibility of making better use of the roof space.
Mike Reynolds drew attention to the fact that the proposed storage was less than the main storage available at present which was considered inadequate and consideration should be given to more storage which could be accessed easily. John said the provision of some storage cupboards along the passage in the pavilion was also under investigation.
Certain other modifications were being considered to accommodate the Pre-school. These included improved security, provision of a nappy changing unit and a secure play area.
The Chairman thanked John for his report and for all his hard work and that of all members of the Development Committee over the past year.
6. Report of the Fund Raising Committee:
The Chairman of the Fund Raising Committee, Tony Brooke-Webb, reported that the committee had continued to put on a range of different, interesting and entertaining events to raise money needed for the development of the Hall. During the last twelve months the committee had run a Beer and Band Festival, a Ladies Indulgence Evening and the third Clay Pigeon Shoot.
Events planned for the next twelve months include another Beer and Band Festival, a Variety Show, an Indulgence Evening, a Pre-Christmas Party with Broadband and another Clay Pigeon Shoot. Additionally, we are supporting a new venture called the Somborne Sessions, which will get national groups or bands to play at the Hall.
The latest Clay Pigeon Shoot raised over £10,000 for the Village Hall and brought the total amount raised including grants to £120,000.
Tony paid tribute to all the hard work of his committee members, Terry Mackintosh, John Vanderpump, John Davies, Doug Stammers, David Pepperell (since resigned) Tracey Harris, Eileen Reynolds and for the Shoot, Colin Reeve and for applying for external grants Peter Storey, for their extraordinary efforts in running these events which take a lot of hard work, both mental and physical. If these events are to continue more help will be needed especially as the Committee are all getting older. As some of the equipment used for these events is inadequate Tony also sought support for further expenditure in the future, possibly for additional marquees.
Terry Mackintosh thanked Tony for his hard work and able leadership of the Fund Raising Committee.
7. Report of the Working Party on Rates of Hire and Conditions:
During the Spring, a Working Party led by Pam Watson, had reviewed both the Rates and Conditions and a summary of their findings, which had been accepted by the VHMC, had been circulated in advance of the meeting. This review is carried out annually and in 2010 no increase to the rates was considered necessary. However, since that time the running costs of the Hall, especially those for utilities, have increased substantially. At the time of the previous reviews it was recognised that once the renovation work on the Pavilion was completed this part of the building should attract a higher rent.
Bearing these points in mind the following modest increase of rates was recommended by the Working Party and approved by the VHMC.
Room Day/s Current rate per hour New rate per hour
Main Hall Sunday to Friday £7.50 £8.00
Main Hall Saturday £9.00 £10.00
Committee/ All week £5.00 £6.00
Meeting Room
Pavilion All week £4.00 £6.00
It is estimated that these increases should generate additional income of £1.000 in a full year.
However, the VHMC is also mindful of the need to build up reserves to enable the Hall to be properly maintained. Accordingly, the decision has been taken to discontinue the discount of 10% offered for block bookings. It is estimated that this measure should generate additional income of £1,200.
Both these changes will come into effect on 1st August 2011.
The Conditions of Hire were also reviewed and certain changes made to ensure that the Hall and the Trustees would be fully protected. The changes made follow ACRE (Action with Communities in Rural England) recommendations and are in line with those used by other halls in the area.
These will also become operational on 1st August 2011.
The Chairman thanked Pamela and her Working Party for all their hard work.
8. Election of Officers/Trustees for 2011-2012:
The resignation of all officers/ trustees elected at the last AGM was accepted.
The following were then proposed to serve for the coming year;
Chairman; Terry Mackintosh, proposed by John Vanderpump and seconded by
Tony Brooke-Webb..
Secretary; Eileen Reynolds, proposed by Linda Aucock and seconded by Frank Fahy.
Vanderpump.
Treasurer; Michael Templeman; proposed by Mike Reynolds and seconded by Terry Mackintosh..
All three were elected unopposed.
The Chairman expressed his gratitude in particular to Michael for offering to stand for election as Treasurer.
9. Nominations of representatives from Village Organisations to serve as Members/Trustees on the Committee for 2011-2012:
The following nominations were received;
Linda Aucock (W.I)
David Bidwell (Parish Council)
Frank Fahy (Cricket Club)
Ethna Long (Baby and Toddler)
Bill Hartley (Neighbourhood Watch)
Wendy Hartley (Twinning Association)
Sandie Pepperell (Parish Church)
Mike Reynolds (Somborne Society)
Carolyn Stammers (Football Club)
John Vanderpump (Community Responders)
Additional nominations were expected in due course. It was agreed that the Pre-school should be represented once sessions started .