Hullavington Village Hall Management

Committee

Minutes of Hullavington Village Hall Management Committee Meeting

held on

 Wednesday 4th November  2009

PRESENT:  Bob Fenner, David Hunt, Paul Hadley, Roger Gee, Frank Birlison, Nick Fry, Rachel Hurst, Julian Greenman,  Alan Henson, Liz Parry-Williams, Fraser Haffenden, Anna Durrant.

Bob welcomed Fraser Haffenden to the committee, representing the PC. he also welcomed Nick Fry to his first meeting with the committee. Nick is representing the PCC.

 1.     Apologies: Joan Shaw, Peter Parry-Williams.

2.     Minutes of the last meeting held on 2nd September 2009 were corrected (David Hunt was added to the 'present' list) and signed.

3.     Matters arising:  There were none.

4.     Financial matters

4.1.   Roger presented, and commented on, the current financial report as of 31st October 2009.  For income: after the usual quiet August the rental income has picked up again and is now almost on target. The 200 Club has handed over £1,050 this year which is £100 less than last year. For expenditure: both the audit fee and insurance are less than budgeted for. For reserves: around £15K are held in a fixed interest bond which gives 3.5% interest. The remaining £20K is split between a CAF deposit account and the current account, both of which pay minimal interest at the moment. Bob commented that we have had to pay Brinkster fees of £130 which was not budgeted for. This is for the running of the on-line computer booking system. In the past Alan Jones has subsided the cost of this to the hall, as well as putting in many hours building the system. Paul suggested that we give him some wine as a thank you; all agreed that Paul will buy a crate of wine costing up to £6 per bottle for Alan.

4.2.   Roger presented his proposals for an increase in hall rental charges from April 2010. The figures that Roger has worked out amount to around 3% increase and will bring in around £400 extra per year. As our finances are quite healthy at the moment but many user groups may not be faring so well it was decided not to increase charges until April 2011. This needs to be publicised; David will put it in his hall report for the Hullavington News. We pay 1% of rental income each year to PRS for playing music in public. It was discussed whether we should charge extra to those user groups who play music when renting the hall but, after discussion, it was agreed that it would be too complicated. 

5.     Hall bookings update

5.1.   New bookings - The local WI would like to hire the hall for the whole day on July 27th 2010.

5.2.   Comments on existing bookings - Dog training classes will revert to Saturday mornings from November 28th 2009 to 17th April 2010 (Robin Chiang prefers the classes to be on Friday evenings during the summer months as dog shows tend to be held on Saturdays). The New Year's Eve party booking has been cancelled. Dave will ask, in the Hullavington News, for villagers to book the hall well in advance, especially for Saturdays.

5.2.1.  SMB bookings - All user groups need to have a booking confirmation before turning up for sessions. To avoid confusion for Short Mat Bowls both Jackie Henson and Dave will have booking confirmations for the 2 different sessions. Roger still has regular groups of users claiming for a reduction in rent because of sessions not used. He is not made aware of when cancellations occur and so cannot check up on this easily. Groups need to notify Paul or Bob of cancellations in plenty of time. If a session is missed because of illness then the bill is adjusted.

5.3.   Election - Thursday 6th May 2010 - the hall will probably be needed for this from the hours of 6.30am to 10.30pm. The council has a special rate for the long hours.

5.4.   No Harfest in 2010 - the organisers are having a year off..

6.     Current Temporary Event Notice Applications.  2 for this calendar year.

7.     Hall related social events

7.1.   RAW event.  Anna reported that it was a great evening with Michael Lunts; 48 people attended and £72.20 was raised for the hall. Bob thanked Anna and Simon for organising it.

8.     Quotation for audio-visual upgrade.  Bob has found some difficulty in finding a company that will be able to give a second quote for a comparable system to that which EES has quoted for. Chris Fry from EES is recommended by Community First and has kitted out other halls so is experienced in this. The figure he gave of around £3K for products and installation sounds reasonable so, unless someone else can find another provider, Bob will proceed with EES and ask them to refine the quote. Paul commented that the hearing loop part of the quote needs to be separate as Area 1 committee will probably give us a grant to fund this. We need the products and installation to be guaranteed.

9.     Village hall maintenance -

9.1.   Bob thanked Peter Parry-Williams for sorting out the exit lights. We need to keep spare bulbs on hand.

9.2.   Frank has fitted a new lock, supplied by Terrapin, and Paul has had new keys cut and distributed to all hall users. Unfortunately, many of the newly cut keys, although opening the door fine, cannot be used to lock it. They are slightly different in size to the originals. As the number of keys not working seems to be still rising, Paul is waiting to see how many in total are faulty. If this cannot be resolved with the key cutter then it was agreed that Bob will investigate getting a new, better quality lock fitted. There was a discussion about the merits of keys versus a key pad for entry into the hall - it was felt that remembering a number, which would need to be changed regularly for security, would not be popular. Reducing the number of keys in circulation was also discussed, but was felt to be very inconvenient. Bob will check the insurance details to find out what is needed. This will be more important when we have new audio/visual equipment in the hall. We have an alarm system which is currently switched off as it is thought to be unworkable with the number of hall users that we have. One suggestion was to have it on a timer so that it is only activated at night.

ACTION - BOB TO INVESTIGATE A NEW LOCK

9.3.   New systemiser in gents' toilet - Pete Shepherd has fixed the taps but thinks that there is no descaler present and so the taps jam up when scale builds up. It was agreed that Bob would ask him to investigate further.

ACTION - BOB TO ASK PETE SHEPHERD TO INVESTIGATE DESCALER

9.4.   Trimming beech hedge along side of site boundary - Ray Tiley has not finished trimming the hedge which now looks very messy. It was decided to pay someone to complete the job. Nick and Frank will get quotes for the job and then the best will be chosen.

ACTION - NICK AND FRANK TO GET QUOTES FOR FINISHING CUTTING THE HEDGE

10.   Projects/major repairs

10.1. Clean up and paint the external porch area -  this will have to be left until better weather in the spring

10.2. Paint, or clad in plastic, the fascia and soffit boards - Alan Cook suggested that these could be washed and cleaned with good effect for the next few years and clad before the wood starts to rot. Julian suggested contacted Wayne Morris, the window cleaner, to clean the fascia and soffit boards, which can also be left until next spring.

10.3. The problem of puddles in the car park was known about when the hall was first built and £1500 was deducted off the bill because of the problem, so we have this amount that we can spend on finding a solution. Julian will ask Hugh Greenman if he can suggest someone to quote, and we will also ask Thornbury to quote.

ACTION - JULIAN TO ASK HUGH GREENMAN FOR NAME OF CONTRACTOR

11.   Report on Annual Show - Bob reported that it went well with a good number of entrants.

12.   A.O.B -

12.1. Anna requested help with setting up tables on the night of 20th November for the Christmas Market the following day. Paul, Dave and Bob offered to help if they could and Paul will find out when dog training finishes.

12.2. Dave and Julian will lock the gates to the hall for a 24 hour period over Christmas.

13.   The date of the next meeting will be Wednesday 6th January 2010 at 8pm.

There being no further business the meeting closed at 9.40pm

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