Hullavington Village Hall Management

Committee

 Report Jul/Aug 2008

Village Hall Committee AGM - 2^nd  July 2008

Since the last newsletter and the reporting of the AGM we have now received the audited accounts. These represent the first full year of the new hall although there was a final payment to Terrapin of £12,046.59 during this last accounting year. A summary of the accounts is as follows: -

                                             2007-2008            2006-2007

Carried Forward                  £43,978.30               £21,064.42

Total income during year    £15,531.24            £283,412.55

Total:C/F plus income        £59,509.54            £304,818.84

Total Expend.during year   £27,500.62              £261,349.15

End of year Balance          £32,008.92              £43,469.69

Increase in Hall Booking fees from 1st April 2009

Although there was no increase in hall rental charges for the year 2008/9, with the sharp increase in utility bills this year it will be necessary to increase the charges for the year 2009/10. Therefore at the recent Village Hall Management Committee meeting the Treasurer put before the committee figures that represented an approximate 5% increase in booking fees to apply from 1st April 2009. With one minor adjustment the committee unanimously accepted these as follows: -

                Core User       Village User        Outside User

Large Hall      £16.00           £21.00              £32.00

Small Hall      £10.50           £12.50              £19.00

Both Halls      £21.00           £26.00              £42.00

Village Autumn Show – Sep 6th – Village Hall

Once again we enjoyed a very successful Autumn Show on September 6th in the Village Hall, and we give our sincere thanks to Jebbie and Duddley Hewitt for all their hard work in organising it and all the many other helpers both on the day and on the Friday evening. Again it has been a difficult year for the vegetable growers, but it was still a very reasonable show. Congratulations to all the prizewinners and a big thank you to everyone who made the effort to enter and come along on the afternoon. Without entries there is no show and it is an important event in the village calendar. Almost £200 was raised for Village Hall funds.

Re-sealing the hall floor

   Over the two days 20/21st August the hall floor was again re-sealed. Doing the job in the past involved applying a liquid to dissolve the old polish with the help of buffing, and then mopping up this milky like liquid from the floor with mops and buckets. In the past this has been the most time consuming part of the exercise, particularly in winter when the floor takes longer to dry.  To address this problem Peter Parry-Williams invited a company with floor cleaning expertise along to the hall to advise whether or not there was a machine that could make this task simpler. They recommended that we purchase a vacuum machine that would suck up the liquid.  This we did and we were absolutely delighted with the way that the machine sucked up the liquid leaving the floor all but dry as it passed over. This task and the applying of the first new coat of polish was completed by 9 pm on the Wednesday evening when in the past it has been past midnight. Subsequently, at intervals on the Thursday, three further coats of polish were applied. Incidentally the visiting cleaner company representatives were extremely impressed with our hall floor and could not criticise our procedure for keeping it in good order.

We do thank Peter Parry-Williams for his research with regard the above problem and as usual for the fact that he led the floor cleaning exercise. Plus we thank all the committee members who assisted at various times over the two-day period.

 Items to dispose of

 Following the burning down of the old hall a number of items rescued undamaged were stored in Victor Rawlins. Barn. One item was the large cupboard that was used by the caretaker to store brooms and mops etc. It is a substantial wooden cupboard and has overall dimensions of 7ft 5in. high, by 2ft 7in wide by 1ft 8in. deep. It has a top cupboard with a door 1ft 8in high and the remainder has a door 5ft 6in. high. The bottom cupboard is divided vertically. It might make a good storage cupboard in a garage and we would love it to go to a good home. If anyone is interested please ring me, David Hunt, on 01666 837729 or email me on daveyjhunt@btinternet .com and I could send a picture of the cupboard if it was of help.

Further, there are two Safeway containers of china. One has about 14 cups and 50/60 plates and saucers of various colours. The other has about 40 dinner plates, mostly of a yellow pattern but with some blue, plus several other plates that had obviously been left at the hall by their owners at some time in the past. Maybe someone could use them. Again I could email a picture or contact me by telephone if you might be interested.

We would perhaps appreciate a small donation to Hall funds.

Hall bookings – Important Notice 

 As mentioned in recent newsletters the booking secretary is faced with the difficulties of balancing having the hall booked on Saturdays for regular users but also making it available for individual village residents to celebrate weddings, anniversaries, parties etc

Therefore early in the year the committee proposed the following: - 

• We accept the current balance between individual and “new group” (e.g. Dog Training and Flash Dance) bookings for the remainder of 2008.  At the same time we agree that, during 2008, some of these new group bookings might need to be cancelled in favour of those events (such as HarFest, the Village and/or the Church Fetes, and the Annual Show) that can be seen as major community events during the year.

• That from now until 30th September 2008, an “advertising campaign” should be mounted to draw attention to the fact that bookings for 2009, and for Saturdays mornings/afternoons in particular, are now being accepted from those individuals in the village who might want to use the hall for such purposes as wedding receptions, birthday parties, or anniversary parties etc

 Although we have now reached the above end date we are still accepting bookings for 2009, and for Saturdays mornings/afternoons in particular, and therefore it may still not be too late to book the hall for that special anniversary date in 2009.

 The 200 Club

The 200 Club continues to provide an extremely valuable source of income to the Village Hall. There are still places available.  Contact John Greenwood on 01666 837227 for further information.

 Booking the Village Hall

We continue to welcome new groups and organisations to the hall and bookings are extremely healthy. Nevertheless there are always a few spare slots. Please refer to the sheet printed in this newsletter for details of hiring costs and booking details. Please contact Paul Hadley on 01666837096, email auff54@dsl.pipex.com or Bob Fenner on 01666837320, email bobfenner.99@tiscali.co.uk for advice on hall availability and cost, or simply access the Village Webb site where you will find booking details.

Note: to book the hall you do not need access to the internet.

David Hunt

 <<< Back to List of Reports