Village Hall Committee Meeting – 11th September 2023
AGENDA
· Apologies for Absence (Fiona)
· Minutes of Previous Meeting (Fiona)
· Decisions, Approvals, Committee Ratifications (proposals circulated prior to meeting)
· Briefing on serious Youth Group accident & future requirements (Andrew)
· Brand design/Logo endorsement (Andrew/Kate)
· Policy Review (updates for approval circulated prior to meeting)
· Finance Procedure (Bill)
· Strategic Plan Activities (inc Environmental Strategy)
· Update on website development (Andrew/Angelo)
· Update on Hall heating control system and grant application (Angelo/Kate)
· Section 106 funds
· 2024 Capital Projects list to be presented in Q4
· Hall Operations Status (Kate)
· Bookings & events update (Jackie)
· Booking updates/info (Jackie)
· 2023 Fund raising events/bookings calendar (Andrew/Jackie)
· Bar staff requirement – Christening party, Sept 16th
· Monthly Reports (issued in advance - arisings only)
· Finance (Bill)
· Health & Safety (Andrew)
· Monthly checks register (Angelo)
· Parish Council feedback (Katie)
· Correspondence & Publicity (Fiona & Jane)
· AOB (All)
Date of Next Meeting: 9th October 2023 at 7.45pm
HAWKESBURY VILLAGE HALL
Minutes of Committee Meeting
11th September 2023
PRESENT
Andrew Webb Angelo Sauro
Bill Cullen Sue Hope
Alan Charlesworth
Hilary Rogers Jackie Sandy
APOLOGIES
Kate Bashford Fiona Steeds Vicky Rispin Jane Stanbridge Neil Fozard
Katie Griffin
Sally Roberts
MINUTES OF PREVIOUS
MEETING
The Minutes of the July
meeting were agreed as a true record. No meeting held in August.
DECISIONS, APPROVALS,
COMMITTEE RATIFICATIONS
Youth Group serious accident
Andrew briefed the meeting
on a serious accident that had occurred in July to one of the Youth Group staff
who had a finger trapped in the Youth Group alcove storage door. The A&E
report stated that the individual suffered a partial amputation of a finger
with a compound fracture and separation of the bone. Fortunately, she is
recovering well. The Youth Group did not report the accident for 4 days but
that has now been addressed for any future incidents. On being informed Andrew
and Angelo immediately placed the alcove storage into quarantine with no
permitted access and having consulted the Health and Safety Executive Andrew
decided to submit a RIDDOR report (The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and
Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013). The root cause of the accident was a
failure of the damping hinge on the door that should restrict the door to a
slow gentle closure. This has been replaced and also door stays have been put
in place as a secondary measure to ensure when open the doors cannot suddenly close.
Following submission of the RIDDOR the Hall was subjected to a Safety
Inspection by the S.Glos Environmental Health Officer which Andrew hosted. A
full inspection of all doors was undertaken. The officer was happy with the
immediate response and the actions we have taken and was impressed by our
overall H&S policy and Risk assessment process. We are awaiting their final
report, but the following actions were agreed at the inspection;
1. The Youth Group are to write a specific Risk
Assessment regarding their use of the alcove space. With this and the measures
already put in place the Officer is happy that Youth Group sessions can resume.
2. Hall Committee to undertake a full audit of every
internal door in the hall to include closing mechanisms, stays, fire door auto
closure mechanisms and use of finger protection strips in hinges, and to put in
place measures as we see fit.
3. Signs are required on both kitchen doors that state
“Adults Only”
4. Finger entrapment to be added to the Hall Risk
Assessment
Whilst a very unfortunate
accident the Committee need to be happy that sufficient regular H&S
inspections and checks are being undertaken. To be reviewed at next meeting.
The meeting agreed that
the hiring T’s & C’s should be checked to see if they require hirers to
undertake a Risk assessment specific to their hire (Kate). In addition,
all Village Hall User Groups to receive a group email asking if they have Risk
assessments in place for the general nature of their activities with the
Committee recommendation that they should have these in place. (Fiona)
Brand design/Logo
endorsement
Some final tweaks are in
progress and with Kate and Jane unable to attend, both of whom have been
driving this action along with Jackie and Andrew, it was decided to do this at
the next meeting.
POLICY REVIEW
Finance Procedure
Bill has this 70% complete
but due to personal issues has not been able to complete it yet. To be reviewed
at next meeting.
STRATEGIC PLAN
ACTIVITIES - 2023 consolidated development plan
Website development – Andrew and Angelo reported that very good progress
is being made on this with a significantly reduced cost that means applying for
grant support is no longer necessary. The graphic designer that Kate sourced
for the brand design/logo offered to also undertake the website development
using the Wix platform (a commercially available website construction platform
that effectively “copies and pastes” and reformats existing templates hence not
requiring coding skills). As we have all our information, details, photographs
etc on existing templates this works very well for us and therefore allows this
approach. In addition, the designer has decided to only charge us for her
expenses incurred so we expect what was originally budgeted at circa £2500 to
actually only cost us around £250 and provide a perfectly good solution that
meets our requirements. The work is on-going and further updates will be
provided prior to launch.
Hall heating control
system – Kate has identified a
grant opportunity via Thrive Renewables, the people who supported our cavity
wall insulation. The application forms are well advanced just needing a final
input and endorsement from Andrew. In the meantime, Angelo has revisited
both of the original quotes and received updated inputs from both potential
suppliers. Both specifications meet our requirements and savings of up to 40%
on heating costs may be achievable. One is considerably cheaper than the other
and with the grant support would fall comfortably within the budget we set for
the Hall share of the cost. The cheaper option will require manual inputs to
the heating control system (digitally through the website) in line with
bookings. This should be typically a once/month input for all the regular
bookings and a dedicated input for any one-off bookings. Jackie is happy
to do this in conjunction with confirming bookings. The more expensive system
could automate this functionality but will not integrate with Hallmaster so we
would end up paying extra for redundant capability. Angelo will
undertake a final check on the position of the ceiling mounted De Strat fans in
the main hall to ensure no interference with badminton.
SECTION 106 FUNDS
2024 Capital Projects list
to be presented in Q4.
HALL OPERATIONS STATUS
Playpark/Skatepark
Insurance – the new group running
the Christmas Shopping evening have asked if they can use our Zettle system.
Jackie to check it will be used for general receipts such as entrance fee,
refreshments etc, for which the Committee are very happy to agree.
BOOKINGS & EVENTS
UPDATE
Bookings update/info
No new regular bookings
have been received recently. Angelo is planning to trial the short mat
bowling in the Autumn.
Some of our regular hirers
are not updating their bookings in the calendar and may therefore loose a slot.
Jackie to write to all regular hirers to remind them they need to do
this, probably at the start of the year and the start of the new school year.
2023 Fundraising
events calendar
Not expecting any additional
event bookings between now and year end. This would mean 13 events held
throughout 2023 which is a great result, some of which generated significantly
more revenue/profit than anticipated. Jane has reported that 7/10 tables for
the December gin evening are already sold out!
Christening – Sept
16th
There is a christening
celebration at the hall on the 16th with a bar booked. Andrew is
away that day but can get it all set up in advance. Jackie volunteered to staff
the bar but a minimum of 2 more are required. Please contact Andrew if you can
help. The bar hours are 11am-3pm.
MONTHLY REPORTS
Finance – Bill had
distributed his report which was discussed. He reminded the Committee we now
operate just one account and showed how the reserved accounts (eg playpark) can
be recognised on his monthly report. Some significant payments received last
month include the rental for the office from the PC for the next 6 months.
These have swelled the current account balance but there are some significant
spends to come. However, the balance is currently above what Andrew was
forecasting at this point.
Health and Safety – no further issues other than that raised earlier. The
next 6 monthly risk register update is due at October’s meeting.
Monthly checks register – Angelo compressed his report to a summary of main
issues in line with the requirement to only report issues and exceptions. This
worked very well. The electricity usage and water usage in August were both
extremely high due to the Show. Angelo will calculate what the additional cost
of this is so we can make sure the hire charge to the show committee adequately
covers this usage/cost.
Steve McGrath has said he
can no longer afford the time to empty the rec ground bins so either we need a
committee volunteer or perhaps one of the new maintenance volunteers could take
this on? Not sure if Steve will continue to undertake the playpark/skatepark
and general rec safety check – Angelo to check with him.
PARISH COUNCIL FEEDBACK
Katie was not at the meeting.
Sue commented on the Shop
Committee’s ambitious plans for the Fox Inn, part of which would include
establishing a village “social hub” in competition with the Hall. Andrew
reported that he was at the shop AGM where this was presented and voiced his objection
strongly given that the Hall is suffering from underutilisation and suggested
that any future investment to increase village services/amenities could be
undertaken at the Hall in conjunction with the Hall Committee. His input was
very well supported by the majority of Shop members present.
CORRESPONDENCE
None
AOB
Jackie reported we have a
potential regular booker for the meeting room for 15 hrs per week. This would
not preclude other bookings and the interested party is happy to work around
other bookings. He would need to store some books/documentation and is happy to
put a locked cabinet in the alcove storage area. Andrew will prepare a
quotation.
Alan Hemingway has kindly
offered his support to the Hall Committee to manage future grant applications.
Andrew has received inputs
from two people new to the village who would like to join the maintenance team
and he will pass their details to Angelo.
We are still seeking
support from anyone who can contribute toward supporting contracts with 3rd
party suppliers.
There being no further
business the meeting was closed at
21h35.
Date of Next Meeting is
currently scheduled for Monday 9th October, however Andrew stated he
will be on holiday and with current attendance levels we need to maximise
availability. Andrew is happy to move the meeting to Monday the 2nd
. We will ask for availability and make a decision in good time.