| Date | 10th September 2024 | |
| Present | Hamish, Damian, Maggie, Pierre, Sue, Stella, Claire, Alex, Steve (arrived late) | |
| Apologies | Nick, Bill, Terry | |
| Next meet | 8th October, 7pm start, 30 minutes early to accommodate discussion on Community Kitchen | |
| Item | Details | Actions |
| All actions | Hamish to use caulking gun around flashing (June meeting).Hamish to replace bathroom tap (June meeting). Stephen to look at advertising the hall as a flexible workspace (June meeting). Everyone to look for a noticeboard for foyer (July meeting). Hamish to make contact with Cordelia re committee membership (September meeting). Hamish to invite Sara Trumper to the next meeting. Hamish and Alex to meet on Monday 16th September to progress grant applications. Damian to explore grant opportunities presented by Gittisham alumni. Pierre, Stella and Alex to bring cooker options to next meeting. Damian and Carol to agree a process to reconcile booking income to list of bookings.? to take forwards September cake sale. Stephen to agree with Steve M a date for beekeeping talk. Hamish to speak to Fullers about Ed Fuller talk and agree date if possible. Claire to organise Christmas bingo. Pierre to organise Spanish and Flamenco evening for the new year. Hamish to look at transferring the card reader so it works on phones. | |
| Committee members | Hamish to make contact with Cordelia re committee membership. | Hamish |
| Finance | Welcome to Damian, our new treasurer, who presented the monthly finances (see annex). In spite of the increases to hall prices agreed at the turn of the financial year year-to-date expenditure has exceeded income by nearly £1k. The hall also operated at a loss in the previous two financial years; a third consecutive year operating at a loss will stymy our ability to attract grant funding. The village fete was a great success and the Village Fete Committee has kindly agree to donate ~£1200 [exact figure not noted] to the Village Hall. The committee discussed how best to utilise this income and agreed, in line with the request of the Village Fete Committee, to split the proceeds between investing in a new cooker and subsidising for a time-limited period the hiring fees for the weekly Community Kitchen. The Committee will invite Sara Trumper to the next meeting to discuss how best to utilise these funds and ongoing funding models for the Community Kitchen’s hiring of the hall. | Hamish |
| Grants | The meeting agreed the immediate priorities for grant expenditure as follows: a new range cooker, replacement windows, and new replacement drainage / sewers. (Full list of potential remedial works for the hall updated in annex.) The committee was unsuccessful in its recent application for grant funding for replacement windows. However, Carol Hall has this month applied to the EDDC locality budget for a £1000 grant to go towards a new cooker. Alex is also making a huge effort to explore grant opportunities – thank you Alex! – as follows: The South West Water grant (video) application is still pending and we await a response. Alex is submitting another video application to the Sykes Holiday Cottages Community Fund (a national fund). Alex has approached EDDC about its Carbon Offset Fund. We are on the list to be visited by EDDC officials so the hall can be assessed. The lottery grant is re-opening and we agreed to submit another bid for the lower threshold amount. The results of our village hall survey (publicised recently in the gazette) will stand us in good stead here and improve our chances of being successful this time around. In addition Hamish has taken an audio-visual company around the hall. They have provided a quotation for improvement works and suggested grant opportunities to fund the works. Hamish and Alex to meet on Monday 16th September to progress applications. Damian suggested two ways in which we could leverage famous alumni of the village for possible funding opportunities. The Panacea Trust (Joanna Southcott’s organisation) has a trust fund which may be approached. And Hardy Wines (Australian wine company) may also want to support the home village of their founder. Damian to explore further. | Alex and Hamish Damian |
| Maintenance | The priority is researching new cookers. We formed a cooker sub-committee (Stella, Pierre and Alex) to explore potential options. Hamish will provide a more detailed specification but key points: same size as current cooker, two ovens, electric/induction, real knobs not electric interface. Options to be considered at next meeting. | Pierre, Stella, Alex, Hamish. |
| Bookings | The list of bookings for September is provided in the annex. Unfortunately we have now lost the regular toddler group booking. We need to ensure that the booking income is reconciled to the list of bookings. Damian to discuss with Carol how this will work in practice. | Damian/Carol |
| Future events | We have agreed that we will use the last Saturday of every month, 2pm-4pm, to run coffee and cake sales to fund the new cooker. Autumn schedule agreed as follows: Harvest Supper, Saturday 12th October, organised by the church.Sparklers and hot dogs, Sunday 3rd November, 5-7pm.Christmas Bingo, Saturday 30th November, Claire to organise.Gittisham Christmas Cabaret, Friday 13th and Saturday 14th December. Steve M beekeeping talk. Date not yet agreed, Stephen to take forwards.If possible, Ed Fuller to talk on the subject of his Paralympic Gold Medal. Hamish to approach Fullers. Date not yet agreed. Hamish/Carol to advertise the above programmes in the gazette, Alex to advertise on Facebook. Future events: Pierre and Fiona are investigating running a Spanish and Flamenco evening to raise funds for the Village Hall! Pierre to investigate and return with dates. Thank you Pierre! | ? Claire StephenHamish Carol/Hamish/Alex Pierre |
| AOB | Hamish to look at transferring the card reader so it works on phones. | Hamish |
| Long term maintenance list, for progression when funds allow. Rough hierarchy order. |
| New large range cooker |
| Replace two front windows |
| Sewerage and drainage pipe replacement |
| Extractor fans in kitchen |
| (Rising) damp in southern elevation |
| Internal repaint including / especially ceiling |
| Loft insulation |
| Replace all windows, not just front windows |
| Bin Store |