| Date | 3rd December 2024 | |
| Present | Hamish, Damian, Claire, Alex, Steve, Maggie, Bill, Stella | |
| Apologies | Nick, Pierre | |
| Next meet | Next meeting: Tuesday 7th January | |
| Item | Details | Actions |
| All actions | Stephen to look at advertising the hall as a flexible workspace (June meeting). Damian and Carol to agree a process to reconcile booking income to list of bookings (September meeting). Damian to cut three new keys using Maggie’s key as a template. Hamish to write to Terry (and Cordelia who resigned her position at the October meeting) to express the committee’s thanks. Hamish various banking transfer tasks to Damian. Damian continues to chase the installation of a smart meter Someone to make an attractive ‘Hall in use’ sign. New actions: Nick to organise Hamish’s leaving do. Stella to send round next iteration of the governance document. Alex to take forwards our response to the successful EDDC grant. Hamish to write to community kitchen benefactor to convey thanks. Alex to circulate a google doc with emerging lottery grant, for everyone to review / contribute. Stella to purchase chosen cooker model. Stella to circulate quotations from various electricians and other workmen for the kitchen works so that we can chew over and make an informed recommendation before January meeting. Alex to convey our thanks to the flower and produce show committee for the excellent tables. Alex to seal the deal with the black mugs. | |
| Committee members and governance | This was Hamish’s last meeting as Chair of the Village Hall. The Committee’s thanks to Hamish are captured in previous minutes, and a note recognising his long service and significant contribution was posted in the December Gittisham Gazette. Nick has the action to organise Hamish’s leaving do in the new year. As Nick is Vice Chair it was agreed that he would take over chairing of the Committee until the next AGM (scheduled for the summer) or earlier if Nick chooses to schedule a SGM at which committee roles could be voted in. A meeting was held late in November to review the hall’s constitution, which is still in draft. Only half of the committee could attend. Stella has taken the action to iterate the document and submit to the January meeting. | Nick Stella |
| Finance | Monthly accounts are still pending. They will added to these minutes when they are ready. The Christmas Bingo was a huge success, in terms of enjoyment and profit, and the committee expressed its thanks to Claire and Stella in particular for all of their work organising the event. | |
| Grants | The committee discussed the EDDC grant application submitted by Alex: solar panels with batteries and new lighting; £15k bid; our payment is 10% + VAT. Since the meeting we have found out the terrific news that we have been successful with our application. This achieves a long-standing aim of the Village Hall to install solar panels and puts us on the path to significantly reducing our long-term running costs. Spend will need to be incurred by end of March 2025 – Alex to coordinate our next steps. A parallel DCC carbon offset grant application has also been submitted: full reimbursement for insulation of roof spaces, new windows and doors. Given that the grant requires us to pay for the costs up front, and given the advanced position within the financial year, there remain challenges about our ability to spend any successful grant award before 31st March. However, we are under no obligation to accept a grant should we be successful. We will return to this bridge should it need to be crossed. Nick confirmed that he has spoken with the anonymous benefactor who has confirmed that they will donate funds to the village hall to help pay for the hall’s running costs of the community kitchen. This is fantastic news. Hamish will write to the benefactor to convey the VHC’s thanks. The Growing Communities Fund deadline is coming up again – we will need to submit an application in January. The lottery grant deadline is also coming up. Alex will circulate the lottery grant document as a google doc to allow the whole committee to edit. As always a huge thank you to Alex in particular for all of the time he spends researching and supporting grant applications for the hall. Great to see this hard work rewarded with a substantial, successful application! | Alex Hamish Hamish Alex |
| Maintenance | Stella presented an update on the cooker. She has not purchased the chosen cooker model yet as she wanted to get a clear sense of the costs of the other necessary works, primarily electrical work to support the cooker installation but also quotes for new surfaces, plastering, etc. There are questions about aquaboards. It is complicated, there are a lot of quotations and Stella is still building a picture. Stella took the action to summarise the costings and different options and circulate before the next meeting so that we can make an informed decision at that point. We cannot delay beyond the January meeting if we want the cooker to be installed in a timely fashion to meet the £1k grant award we have received. No other maintenance issues were raised; the long-term maintenance schedule remains unchanged in the annex. | Stella |
| Bookings | Bookings for December are set out in the annex. | |
| Future events | Future events schedule agreed as follows – some great events coming up!: Saturday 14th December, Christmas Quiz, £7 on the door. There will be a raffle so please bring donations. Bill and Sue are cooking, committee setup from 5pm. Friday 3rd January, Ed Fuller talk about his Paralympic Gold Medal. (Can someone make a poster about this?) Saturday 18th January, Burns Night, Mary Marker is booked, price still up for debate. Saturday 25th January, next monthly cake sale – I’m afraid I didn’t note down who is in charge of this. Friday 31st January to 1st Feb, Gittisham cabaret, with compressed rehearsals in the days leading up. Friday 7th February, Damian’s Joanna Southcott talk. Saturday 8th March, Mad as a March Hare, Spanish Evening. Title may change. Saturday 29th March, Easter Bingo. Sunday 15th June, Father’s Day.Potential future events:Hardy talk / Gittisham history talk / gardening talk / astronomy talk | |
| AOB | The committee agreed to purchase 20 plain black mugs. Alex to sort with Damian. The committee expressed its thanks to the Flower and Produce Show committee for the excellent tables – Alex will convey our thanks to the committee. | Alex Alex |
Booking for December
Accounts for November
MAINTENANCE SCHEDULE
| Long term maintenance list, for progression when funds allow. Rough hierarchy order. |
| New large range cooker |
| Rear foyer leaking roof |
| New kitchen refurb: sink, worktop…or full kitchen |
| Replace two front windows |
| Sewerage and drainage pipe replacement |
| Re-fit audio visual capabilities |
| Rewiring of cabling, particularly in the loft |
| 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 |