Hall AGM Minutes November 2021

Minutes of Stoodleigh Parish Hall Annual General Meeting

16 November 2021

Present: Linda Brice (chairman), Dick Sibley (vice chairman), Janet Russell (treasurer), Geraldine Talbot (secretary), Alex Hannis, Viv Menear, Geoffrey Parkman and Chris Whitehead

Others attending: Di Brice, Phil Turner and Jean Winter

1 Apologies: Jill Chant, Shirley & Trevor Cope, June & Malcolm Jones, Dionne & Julian Mansfield and Phil Talbot

2 Minutes of the meeting of 6 July 2021:

The Minutes of the meeting held on 6 July 2021 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the chairman.

3 Chairman’s Annual Report:

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting. She pointed out that it had not been long since the last AGM in July 2021 which, because of Covid, had been postponed from November 2020. She believed the world and Stoodleigh were now emerging into some sort of normality. Despite Covid being a big worry to a lot of people, the Parish Hall had been able to organise a few events to encourage people to begin to socialise and re-establish our community.

The Walk and Cream Tea had made the most of our wonderful countryside with a fabulous cream tea at the end. The Coffee Morning and the Autumn Market & Coffee Morning brought out a lot more people than we had anticipated and it was fabulous. The chairman thanked everyone on the committee for making these events a great success. She was also pleased to report that the exercise classes, Pilates, Yoga and Zumba, had now returned with weekly classes and the parish council had now been able to meet at the Hall instead of battling with online meetings. As a result of this, it felt as though the Hall had begun to return to the centre of the community.

The chairman reported that first of the improvements had been completed as the split phase electricity supply had now been installed. She thanked Janet for her persistence with the electricity companies to achieve the final result.

She expressed her huge thanks to all committee members for supporting the Parish Hall and also thanked Janet and Geraldine for keeping everyone fully informed of progress between meetings. She reported the recent resignation of Andrew Thwaite and thanked him for his time on the committee, his help and expertise with planning and design and wished him well.

4 Treasurer’s Report:

The treasurer presented the Annual Accounts for the year ended 31 October 2021 and circulated details of the Income and Expenditure for the year and total funds as at 31 October 2021 (details attached to the Minutes).

Capital reserve £29,253.00

Business reserve (improvements) £16,922.48

Current account £ 1441.79

Funds not presented £ -235.00

Outstanding monies £ 15.00

Cash £ 645.17

Total £48,042.44 As at 31/10/2020 £32,743.60

Copies of Current Assets (current account, capital reserve account, business reserve account, cash in hand) and Property Improvements were also available (full details attached to the Minutes). The treasurer said she hoped that everyone had been able to have a look at the documents forming the annual financial report. She pointed out that despite the fact that the Hall had been closed for a long period, during the short time it had been open, almost £300 had been raised from hall and equipment hire, and the net income had totalled nearly £850. This, of course, would not go anywhere to cover the cost of running the Hall for 12 months and so the committee had been grateful to receive government covid grants intended to help community buildings during the lockdowns and to recovery from the pandemic. The Parish Hall had received two government grants totalling £17k. She reported that some of that money had been spent on new chairs for the Hall to make it more comfortable and more pleasant to use by the community. The grant funding also helped with bills such as the large annual insurance costs of over £800.She advised that grant money from local charities, obtained in 2019, had covered the cost of the recent electrical improvements. Members of the public were invited to submit questions.

Question: A member of the community asked about the purpose of the covid government grant money and whether this would need to be paid back

Response: This grant funding, administered by Mid Devon District Council, was offered to all local businesses, including community buildings, to help carry them through the lockdown, pandemic and the difficult times afterwards until the world began to return to normal and regular income streamed through. There was no request that the grant funding would need to be paid back. As mentioned before, some funding had already been spent and the committee had already met to agree plans for the spending of some of the grant funding with more discussions to follow.

The chairman thanked the treasurer for preparing and presenting the Accounts.

Update on, and plans for, repairs and improvements to the Hall to provide a better environment and facilities for use by the community

The chairman reminded those present that the large planning project had been withdrawn in January 2020 as the new MDDC Conservation Officer was not in favour of the style previously recommended by MDDC and now recommended submission of new designs. As soon as the Committee had been able to meet following covid lockdowns, etc, there had been a re-think on the direction of improvements as the possibility of raising in excess of £1k for a major project from grant and local funding was not a possibility. Following Committee discussion, a long term plan (7-8 years) had been agreed for the major works so that members could concentrate on a short term improvement plan. The Committee had, therefore, agreed the priorities at this stage were to improve the internal arrangements to provide a more welcoming, user friendly and warmer environment for community use. Members of the public were invited to comment.

Question: A member of the community asked whether these improvements would include the kitchen and, more particularly, a replacement cooker

Response: The committee had previously agreed that the kitchen had been of the most importance to the committee and were currently looking at the plans previously approved for the re-fit along with an updated estimates and timescales. The cooker was in need of urgent replacement in order that the committee and members of the community could host events to provide hot meals at the Hall. It was the committee’s intention to get this work done as soon as possible in the New Year.

Question: A member of the community asked if there were plans for improvement of the lobby.

Response: The committee had recently met with a builder to look at repairs and improvements for a lighter and more welcoming entrance. Several ideas had been considered including boxing in of recent new electricity cable arrangements, insulation of single layer concrete blocks on back wall, and possibility of built in bookshelves, corner cupboard update, repairs to floor boards, updating of lighting, using mirrors for light reflection and repainting. The committee would begin to compile a formal list of works required in the lobby to obtain quotes. No structural works would be involved with this repair/maintenance work and any structural work would not take place without discussions and Listed Building advice from MDDC Conservation Officer.

Question: A member of the community asked if the Committee had sought advice from any other planning advisors. It was pointed out that a company, XL Planning from Cullompton, could be recommended.

Response: One of the committee members had spent much time attempting to contact MDDC for planning advice in recent months without success. Although the committee was not in a position to carry out any major works currently, as previously described, but contact had been made with a local conservation professional who, it was hoped may provide some ideas for the future long term. However, the recommendation provided would be recorded for possible future use.

6 Proposals and suggestions for fundraising and events

Bingo and Grand Draw – the committee had not organised the event this year in view of the pandemic and it was hoped that the event would re-appear in 2022 for which there was support;
Cinema/Film Nights – the committee had looked into the possibility a few years ago but it had not been possible to join the local group who shared the equipment. Some local villages had now set up film nights for their communities, also offering refreshments. There was much support for such an event. Linda agreed to contact the Bampton organisers to find out more about the organisation of such an event;
Markets & Coffee Mornings – the support for the continuation of these events was unanimous;
Coffee Mornings – the first of these since the start of Covid was held early in the autumn and was a success and further events were planned, perhaps on a monthly basis, to encourage members of the community to socialise in as safe an environment as possible;
Dog Show – this had not taken place in 2020 but it was hoped that the event would return in 2021 run jointly as usual with the Church;
Monthly Community Meals – this was a popular suggestion and the committee hoped that this would be possible once the new cooker and kitchen arrangements were ready. It was agreed that options for other events would become a possibility with an upgraded kitchen;
Your ideas – a questionnaire had been available for those visiting the Hall to let the committee know what functions and activities they would like to see taking place at the Hall. It was agreed that Geraldine would make the questionnaire available via community email for further contributions (copy attached to the minutes). Of the results so far, the response from Hall users had favoured the following: Musical Evenings, Garden Talks, Seasonal Parties with dancing (Christmas/Easter/Valentines Ball), Walking Groups, Craft and Cookery Demonstrations along with many other ideas.

7 Management Committee

(i) Nominations to the Management Committee from village organisations: The following had agreed to sit on the Committee and represent their various village organisations - Geoffrey Parkman had been nominated to represent the Parish Council; the Garden Club had nominated Jill Chant as its representative; Dick Sibley represented the Cricket Club and St Margaret’s Church had nominated Chris Whitehead as their representative.

(ii) Election of Members to the Management Committee: Volunteers were invited from those attending the meeting to join the Committee but no-one felt able to offer support currently. It was proposed that Linda Brice, Alex Hannis, Viv Menear, Janet Russell and Geraldine Talbot be elected to the Committee for the year 2021/22. All five advised of their willingness to continue to sit on the Committee and were duly elected.

The chairman reminded everyone that if others wished to volunteer during the coming year, they would be most welcome to join the committee.

8 Any Other Business:

A member of the community raised a query regarding Covid arrangements for the Hall, in particular, requirements for mask wearing. The chairman advised that there were no government rules for indoor premises such as community buildings. Following advice from Devon Communities Together, the committee had agreed Covid Hiring Conditions to hirers and organisers of events at the Hall which included advice to wear masks until seated, use of sanitiser, one way system, windows to be opened to provide ventilation and that users have a responsibility to respect others and help protect each other from the virus. It was also pointed out that guidance for events in community buildings allowed for closure of windows in cold weather/use of heating and in that event included advice that windows should be opened for 10 minutes during an interval and at the end.

A member of the community thanked members of the committee for giving their time and making things happen at the Parish Hall.

There being no other business, the Chairman thanked everyone for their attendance and the meeting closed at 8.10pm.

…………………………………………………………….. Chairman

…………………………………………… Date