| Date | Tuesday 8th April 2025 | |
| Present | Nick, Damian, Claire, Alex, Steve, Toni, Jess, Kadence | |
| Apologies | Bill, Stella, Maggie, Pierre | |
| Next meet | Next meeting: TBC, to review and agree final governance documents. AGM: Tuesday 13th May, 19:00, Village HallFollowed by regular meeting: Tuesday 13th May, after AGM | |
| Item | Details | Actions |
| All actions | New actions:Stella to send round the final draft version of the governance document, alongside the two foundational documents already tabled, before the interim meeting (meeting before May 13th). Nick to agree a meeting point / location. Carol/Claire to advertise the date and location of the AGM in the Gazette, Jess to advertise to Baker Estates. Damian to circulate a list of options for where to deposit the Redwood savings account money, for discussion and agreement at the May meeting.Alex and Toni to explore options for changing electricity and gas suppliers to a cheaper evening / business tariff, also considering smart meters and contract break clauses. To bring options to May meeting. Damian to contact hall insurer and investigate how the installation of batteries and solar panels affects our insurance premium. Jess to ask Mike to build the new bench for wheelchairs and mobility scooters.Stephen to dispose of asbestos sheets at recycling centre before the end of April.Claire and Toni various approved maintenance tasks: making bunting, trading potted yew trees.All various cabaret tasks, including publicising and selling tickets. Old actions: Maggie to combine the next graveyard tidying group with a Village Hall ground force group and to coordinate both activities for the village.Alex to share details of the free Microsoft Office tools. Damian and Carol and Nick to agree a process to reconcile booking income to list of bookings. All to review emerging lottery grant application and comment on google doc, by May meeting. Bill to plaster and paint around the boiler. | |
| Committee members and governance | Nick has presented former committee members with presents, both of whom expressed their thanks. Thank you to Nick for organising this on behalf of the committee. Nick set out the work he and Stella have undertaken to clarify and establish the new governance. The original governance document has been unearthed and was circulated in advance of the meeting, alongside a resolution to make minor amendments to update the document. Once the resolution is agreed at a meeting we will submit both documents to the Charity Commission. A third document – setting out instructions for how trustees and the committee will operate – remains in draft. The committee discussed the resolution and agreed that some committee members would value more time to a) review the two circulated documents and b) consider all three documents as a package. To this end it was agreed for Nick schedule a further meeting between now and the AGM to agree a final draft of the resolution, a final draft of the instruction document, and therefore have all of the committee’s operating protocols agreed in advance of the AGM. Nick to schedule the interim meeting and Stella to circulate all three documents. The committee thanked Nick and Stella for their ongoing time progressing this important work. The AGM needs to be advertised. As per last year the committee agreed if the weather was good to hold the public meeting in the garden outside. Jess to publicise in the Baker’s Estate WattsApp group and Claire and Carol to advertise in the Gittisham Gazette. Damian to prepare accounts in advance of the AGM. | Nick, Stella Jess, Claire, Carol |
| Finance | Damian presented the monthly accounts, a summary of which is included in the annex to these minutes. A thorough summary of income and expenditure will be presented at the upcoming AGM. The hall successfully finished the financial year with a year-end surplus of nearly £2k. This is the first year-end surplus recorded for three years, made all the more impressive for the huge outlay (£45k) on maintenance and material upgrades undertaken throughout the year. Very well done to everyone on the committee for reaching this significant milestone and thank you to everyone in the parish who has supported with the fundraising efforts. The committee also wanted to put on the record its thanks to Damian for marshalling the complicated end-of-year income and outgoings to reach this satisfactory conclusion. Damian updated the committee that all of the money in the Redwood savings account will be transferred to the current account, making this money significantly more accessible than the currently difficult to access Redwood. Damian is considering the various savings options that are in place in the HSBC banking suite and also with other banks. Damian to circulate a list of options for where to deposit the money for discussion and agreement at the May meeting. In other news Damian is now the primary user of the banking current account meaning he can add others to the account as necessary. We agreed to clarify which other committee roles should be granted access when we agree the constitution and committee positions at the upcoming AGM. The new solar panels have already led to a marked decrease in electricity usage and cost. In addition they have raised the possibility that we can profitably renegotiate our existing contracts with electricity providers. The committee discussed the current electricity and gas contracts (both of which still have some duration to run) and the possibility of transitioning to an electricity contract that is cheaper in the evenings. Until we have clarity on this there is little point in continuing to chase the installation of a smart meter with our existing provider. Alex and Toni took the actions to explore the various options, including contacting the existing supplier to understand break clauses – thanks to both. | Damian Alex and Toni |
| Grants | Both of the EDDC and DCC grants have now successfully concluded – thank you to Alex for liaising with the councils and the various workmen who completed the installations. Damian needs to follow up with the hall insurer about how the batteries and solar panels on site may amend the terms of our contract and our insurance premiums. The grant for national lottery funds has been circulated by Alex but needs more input from various committee members. We agreed to set a deadline of the May meeting for committee members to access the google document, make suggestions and where possible contribute draft answers to the various questions. | Damian All |
| Maintenance | Alex has tweaked the boiler setup to ensure that the water heats up a little more quickly. Alex also painted the side of the village hall under the new boiler flue – well done Alex. Thanks to Claire we have received more extremely helpful donations to improve the hall site. MKM has donated £500 worth of materials: a dumpy bag of chippings to go around the fire escape and alleviate trip hazards, ten litres of white paint, a new toilet seat for the Gents loos and £200 worth of timber to build a garden bench suitable for wheelchairs and mobility scooters. The trader is keen to establish a good and lasting working relationship with the parish hall and Claire is writing a thank you card on our behalf. Well done Claire for the sterling work. Much of the improvement has already been delivered thanks to Claire and Gary and the outdoor space is looking fantastic. The bench still needs to be built – Jess took the action to organise for Mike to do this for the Hall, thank you both. There is lots of material on site that needs to go to the tip including wood, tyres and glass. Claire is coordinating. There are also a number of sheets of asbestos that need sealing in plastic and paying for at the tip – Stephen took the action to ensure this is completed before the end of April. A private booker has offered to pay for the garden at the rear of the hall to be levelled. The committee was pleased to accept this generous offer, which will take place in May. Claire to coordinate the works. The committee approved various other maintenance actions: exchanging our potted yew trees for new plants, buying / making bunting and purchasing new parasols for outdoor tables. | Jess Stephen Claire Claire/Toni |
| Bookings | A list of April bookings is set out on the parish website. The committee discussed the various tiers of booking fees currently received and agreed to the pricing structure for the coming year at an upcoming meeting. The committee has researched the option of advertising the hall as a flexible working space and decided not to pursue this further at this stage. | |
| Future events | All eyes on the upcoming cabaret. Posters were distributed for everyone to disseminate and a big push on securing tickets is needed. A temporary event license has been purchased. Maggie, Stephen, Nick and Alex are in the cabaret and so will not be able to do much of the on the night support. Jess, Claire, Toni and Damian will be attending to run the door and the bar. Hamish is buying the booze and Damian will liaise with him. Claire is buying individual ice creams. Alex will bring extra fridge space. Claire to ask Len if he will support on the bar. Other upcoming events below but we did not have time to discuss them properly and will need to flesh out at the next meeting:Saturday 25th April cake sale (same day as the cabaret), Alex is in charge. We discussed 17th May, Nick running a quiz. As we next meet on the 13th we would need to progress plans for this in advance of our next meeting. Sunday 15th June, Father’s Day BBQ.Saturday 21st June, Set in Stone, band performing. Potential future events:Trader’s social, perhaps in July, meet and mingle with traders. We liked the idea and discussed various ways we could cover costs. Skittles. Hardy talk / gardening talk / astronomy talkSpanish event | All |
| AOB | Alex provided all committee members with a code for the new key safe outside the front door. If you weren’t at the meeting please contact Alex directly. |
Bookings for April
See Parish website
Accounts for April
MAINTENANCE SCHEDULE
| Long term maintenance list, for progression when funds allow. Rough hierarchy order. |
| 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 |
| Bin Store |