| Date | 14th May 19.30 at the Village Hall | |
| Present | Hamish, Alex, Stephen, Claire, Stella, Terry, Sue (arrived late), Janet (left early) | |
| Apologies | Cordelia, Bill, Nick, Maggie, Pierre | |
| Next meet | Tuesday 11th JuneAGM: Tuesday 2nd July | |
| Item | Details | Actions |
| All actions | Hamish to circulate new fee structure for approval. Janet to add signatories to bank account. Alex to check and amend website re deposit taking. Hamish to write to Combe Estate requesting a copy of lease Nick to progress Victoria Windows quotation Hamish to advertise working party Alex to lead fix of shed roof Hamish to use caulking gun around flashing Hamish to replace bathroom tap Hamish to advertise Father’s Day BBQ and liaise with Damien Carol to book Smeatharpe Aerodrome talk Hamish to approach Steve M re beekeeping talk Stephen to approach Villages in Action Everyone to look for a noticeboard for foyer Alex to progress Gazette MS Forms survey questions | |
| Finances | Janet presented the accounts for the month. See annexe. We returned to the discussion of increasing the hall booking fees, last discussed at the March meeting. T he committee agreed that a discounted parishioner’s rate should continue to be part of the new fee structure. Hamish is tidying up the analysis of 2023/24 costs and booking utilisation with year-end figures and will circulate a proposed set of fee increases (parishioner/non-parishioner, hour/longer sessions, weddings) via email for consideration and agreement at the next meeting. We are still searching for a new Treasurer to take over from Janet after the AGM. Hamish remains in discussions with a resident. We need to have more signatories to the HSBC bank account as currently it is just Janet. Agreed that Carol and Hamish should both become signatories (the former to enable the taking and returning of booking deposits), plus the new Treasurer when one is found. Is the website clear that a deposit may be taken at the point of a booking? If not we need this to be made clear to support Carol in taking deposits. Alex to check and amend as necessary? Thank you Alex. | Hamish Janet Alex |
| Grants | Lease. A number of the upcoming grant applications need details of our lease arrangements from the estate. Hamish to write to Combe Estate requesting a copy of the lease as we have replaced our original copy. Replacement windows. We have made some progress on quotations (we now have one quotation from Hani and one from Select Windows) but our third quotation from Victoria Windows is still outstanding despite Nick’s best efforts, so we need to pick up this thread again. Thank you Nick. Range cooker. Alex has applied to the South West Water grant scheme (with a video application!), a £2k application for a new range cooker. Many thanks Alex. If this grant is successful then it may be sensible for Phil Twiss’s £1k top up money to also go towards a range cooker (rather than the replacement windows). Decision deferred until we know the success of the application. Community kitchen. Carol is this week submitting the application to the Devon Communities Fund for the next grant for the community kitchen – thank you Carol.Thermal heating and insulation grant. Alex is scoping this out. | Hamish Nick |
| Maintenance | We agreed a date for a village hall working party for outdoor maintenance – Saturday 1st June, 11am. All committee to attend if possible, and Hamish to advertise to the wider village. Aim is to get the hall spic and span before the Father’s Day BBQ. Shed roof has been temporarily fixed with tarpaulin, thank you Claire. But long-term fix still needs to happen. Alex has sourced some galvanised roof sheets from his dad and will tackle – thank you Alex. We have made no progress on the occasional leak in the back porch so rolling on the action: Hamish to get up in the loft above and use caulking gun around the flashing. If this doesn’t fix it then we can go for a specialist.The bathroom tap needs replacement. Hamish to take forwards, thanks Hamish. All of the above and more could be part of the working party work. | Hamish Alex Hamish Hamish |
| Bookings | See annexe for list of May bookings. | |
| Future events | Saturday 18th May, skittles. £2 for adults, £1 for children, BYO. Stephen to advertise, including poster.Sunday 16th June, Father’s Day BBQ. £5 a head. We will use June meeting to discuss in detail. Hamish to liaise with Damian about table tennis tournament (entry fees for the tournament to go to a men’s charity; money for the Father’s Day BBQ to go to the Village Hall). Hamish also to advertise. July – Smeatharpe Aerodrome DDay Talk. £2 entry. Carol and Hamish to organise a date on either a Tuesday or a Friday. Should be good! Villagers’ talks. All agreed this was a good idea and would get people in. Hopefully Steve M can kick this off with a talk about bees. Hamish to approach him. Then through the late summer / autumn: Alex – stargazingHamish – flood defencesSue and David – eco-agri farming Live music. No progress on this since the last meeting. It would be good if some of our approaches came good. Villages in action. Stephen to approach about late 2024/2025 bookings. Long list of other options discussed previously but not priogresses: Ceilidh, art exhibition with scones, hosting the pizza van. | Hamish Carol Hamish Stephen |
| AOB | We need a noticeboard in the foyer and to make better use of the noticeboard outside to advertise village hall events. Questionnaire to the village in the April Gazette did not receive any responses – thank you Alex for trying. We need responses to gather data to support grant applications, but we also want the communication to gather ideas on how the hall can be used and to advertise the community asset. Alex is going to have another go, this time using Microsoft Forms to create a light touch survey that shouldn’t take as long to complete. Please circulate around the committee when ready Alex so that we can comment/add questions. | Everyone Alex |
| Gittisham Parish Hall Accounts – 1st April 2024 to 31 March 2025 | Gittisham Parish Hall Accounts – 1st April 2024 to 31 March 2025 | |||||||
| INCOME | EXPENDITURE | |||||||
| 2023/24 | 1.04.23- 30.04.23 | 1.04.24 – 30.04.24 | 2023/24 | 1.04.23-30.04.23 | 1.04.24-30.04.24 | |||
| Balance brought forward | 3,627.91 | Insurance | 690.38 | 0.00 | 0.00 | |||
| Non-domestic rates | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | |||||
| Hire of Hall | 5,588.85 | 2,025.95 | 332.50 | Cleaning/grass cutting | 1,019.62 | 125.00 | 153.90 | |
| Social Events | 1,371.36 | 68.00 | 36.31 | Maintenance/Equipment | 5,840.55 | 0.00 | 98.53 | |
| Interest | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | Water/Gas/Electric | 3,031.87 | 345.00 | 278.27 | |
| Miscellaneous | 2,005.91 | 29.51 | 2,244.00 | Miscellaneous(inc. bank charges) | 1,014.59 | 5.80 | 527.95 | |
| 1058.65 | ||||||||
| Balance | 5182.07 | |||||||
| Total | 6240.72 | 6240.72 | ||||||
| Redwood Deposit A/c | £24,811.22 | |||||||
| Miscellaneous receipt is the grant received from Devon CC | Miscellaneous includes payments to Hall booker and to accountants for audit check | |||||||
| for the Community Kitchen |