HAWKESBURY UPTON HALL COMMITTEE
Agenda
Annual General Meeting
To
be held online via Zoom
Monday
8th February 2021
Apologies
Previous
Minutes
Matters
Arising
Chairman’s
Report
Treasurer’s
Report
Election
of Officers
Election
of Committee Members
Any
Other Business
Date
of next AGM
The
date of the next AGM will be 14th of February 2022.
HAWKESBURY UPTON HALL COMMITTEE
Agenda Annual General Meeting
To be held online via Zoom
Monday 8th February 2021
Apologies
Previous Minutes
Matters Arising
Chairman’s Report
Treasurer’s Report
Election of Officers
Election of Committee Members
Any Other Business
Date of next AGM
The date of the next AGM will be 14th of February 2022.
HAWKESBURY UPTON HALL COMMITTEE
Minutes of Annual General Meeting
Held on Monday 8th February 2021 by Zoom
Present
Chris & Vicky Rispin Angelo Sauro Bill Cullen Phil Dennett Neil Fozard Amy Barnfield Jackie Sandy Andrew Webb Karen Bexter Louise Roberts Alan & Liz Hemmingway Sam Allen Jane Stanbridge Fiona Steeds Steve Magrath Kate Bashford Neil Adams Jon Simmons Sue Hope Phillipa & Pete Satchwell Sally Roberts Chris Harding
Apologies
Hilary Rogers Mandy Clark
Previous Minutes
The minutes of the previous AGM were signed by Chris, as a true record.
Matters Arising
None.
Chairman’s Report
Chris Rispin read out his report at the meeting and a copy is attached. The report will be printed in full in the March issue of the Hawkesbury Parish News. He concluded by saying that he was resigning as Chair of the Committee with effect from the end of the AGM.
Treasurer’s Report
Bill presented his report at the meeting and a copy is attached. Main points to note were that he is currently implementing a new system of accounting with the help of Emma from the Shop. It has been a difficult year due to the Covid Pandemic and we have survived thanks to grants received from South Glos Council. Sue asked if these have to be repaid (which they do not). She also asked if we hold the funds for the Bonfire Committee. Angelo replied that they have their own account.
Matters arising
None – Bill was thanked for his work over the past year.
Election of Officers
Chairman - Chris explained that in the absence of an immediate replacement chairperson the chair’s roles have been divided among 7 trustees (Kate, Bill, Fiona, Phil, Angelo, Jackie and Jane) in a number of co-ordinating positions
Vice-chair – Kate Bashford
Treasurer – Bill Cullen
Secretary - Fiona Steeds
Bookings Secretary – Jackie Sandy
Chris paid tribute to Martin Horner, who sadly passed away this year, for his valuable contribution to the Hall Committee. He is greatly missed.
Andrew Webb has put himself forward as a possible Chair of the Committee. He introduced himself and gave an outline of his business experience and the skills he can bring to the Hall Committee. He has just taken early retirement and is therefore in a position to get involved with the Hall. He will be co-opted on to the Committee at the February Committee meeting.
Election of Committee Members
The 5 elected trustees standing for re-election (Bill Cullen, Phil Dennett, Jackie Sandy, Jane Stanbridge and Fiona Steeds) were proposed by Sue Hope seconded by Kate Bashford and re-elected nem. con. Chris Rispin did not stand for re-election.
For information, the trustees nominated by the user groups remain in place irrespective of the AGM and are:-
Parish Council – Sue Hope
Evergreens - Mandy Clark
Pre-School – Amy Barnfield
Royal British Legion - Sam Allen
WI – Hilary Rogers
Badminton Club – Hilary Rogers
Drama – Sam Allen
PCC – Hilary Rogers
PTA – Kate Bashford
Youth Club – Neil Adams
Play park/Skatepark – Steve Magrath
Cricket Club - Chris Gardner
FOSM - Neil Fozard
Show Committee – Sally Bleaken
History Group – Neil Fozard
Guiding – Louise Roberts
Bonfire Committee – Angelo Sauro
Community Library – Pat Sherry
Tennis Club – Sally Roberts
Any Other Business
No other business recorded.
Kate thanked Chris for his great service to the Hall Committee over the past 20 years and he was presented with a gift. Chris Harding also thanked him for his guidance and leadership on behalf of the Parish Council.
Date of next AGM
Chris thanked everyone for attending and the date of the next AGM will be 14th February 2022.
There being no further business the meeting was closed at 8.10pm.
Charity Number 1176993
Here is my report for 2020, some might think it was a non-event at the Hall given the serious medical crisis which materialised, however, it was for some of the volunteers a very busy year, but more of that shortly.
The Village Hall is run by the Hawkesbury Hospital Hall Charity for the benefit of the Parishioners of Hawkesbury and the objectives are as follows:
The objects of the CIO (Charitable Incorporated Organisation) are to establish and run a village hall and to promote for the benefit of the inhabitants of the Parish of Hawkesbury (“area of benefit”) without distinction of sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, nationality, race or political, religious or other opinions the provision of facilities for recreation or other leisure time occupation of individuals who have need of such facilities by reason of their youth, age, infirmity or disablement, financial hardship or social and economic circumstances or for the public at large in the interests of social welfare and with the object of improving the conditions of life of the said inhabitants.
I emphasise this because many still believe the Hall is owned and run by the Parish Council, but that is not the case. The Village Hall should certainly be considered as a Community Asset, but it is self-funding and that fact has been brought home to the Trustees in a big way this year as the lettings figure is down from £15,447 to £6,964. Fortunately, during 2020 the Hall has had extra support of £12,501 from Government funding to cover such a situation due to the lockdown requirements. More has been forthcoming since.
The actual accounts are distorted by the residue of grant income for the play park, which has also been spent and this overall produces a loss of £36,000. Fortunately, the situation is not as it would seem due to the imbalance of the play park funding. You may recall we were carrying a significant profit from the previous year due to grant funding, which was spent this year. We recorded in the year 2019 that the Hall was making a small underlying loss and that will be the same for the 2020 year.
The issue this year is that from March the only use of the Hall has been for Pre-school and a limited amount of Badminton. Even when the lockdown restrictions eased most users declined to come back, partly because they were unable to operate under the guidelines and partly because their users were in the higher risk groups.
At a time when many village halls remained closed the Trustee volunteers did everything they could to ensure our facilities were safe within the prescribed recommendations and could be open for legitimate uses. We provided hand gel both inside and at strategic places outside the Hall. In the dry summer months’ we did periodic disinfecting of the play area. We posted notices, painted 2 mtr lines and set up guidance on how to use the Hall. Therefore, we consider we fulfilled the requirements expected and have been using the grant funds wisely. The recreation field has been well used, particularly the play park. However, we have suffered a spate of vandalism and this has had to be paid for out of already depleted funds.
Our intention is to extend the CCTV surveillance as a deterrent to such activity, but also appeal to parents to try and have some influence over the children involved.
In the previous year we advised that we would put an action group together to discuss how we could help the Hall to change to meet modern day needs. This resulted in a Business Plan and one of the recommendations was to produce a survey for the residents of the Parish to seek their thoughts on what they wanted from the Hall and to see how they could support it to make it a more sustainable community facility. The following should be borne in mind when formulating the answers.
The crux of it is that the Hall costs are about as low as they can be, because where possible we use volunteers, however, the income is insufficient to cover all the costs. If we need to undertake maintenance for which we cannot get grant funding then we have a problem. The business plan shows 3 scenarios. The first relies on us putting up the rents quite substantially (25%) and then being able to organise sufficient big events throughout the year that generate in the region of an additional £5,000 profit. This has not happened for many years, indicative that the use of the Hall has changed. However, if we can achieve this then we have a viable option, with funding for essential maintenance.
The second and a very speculative suggestion is to merge the community use with commercial uses. This would possibly involve building an extension to allow certain functions to run in parallel with others. There is included with this the suggestion that the village shop should merge with the Hall. There are numerous benefits to this, but also, for some, possibly a few negatives. A principal benefit is that by merging two such operations makes the enterprise more commercially viable and would allow for the employment of a manager/caretaker, who could drive the operation forward. Ironically this option will only be possible if we can get grant funding and it is more likely we will get grant funding for this than replacing the car park.
The third option is to continue as we are but be reliant on some form of subsidy either from a benefactor or possibly raised through Parish Council from the community. As part of our fundraising activities and following the Air Ambulance decision to remove the clothes recycling bin, we have set up one that will give funds directly to the Hall. Each bin full should produce over £40 and this can happen at least once per month and possibly more. The other fund-raising activity now promoted more widely is the use of Easy Funding or Amazon, where anything spent would also add funds to the Hall. These ventures will help, but on their own they are not sufficient.
Given the year we have just had it is impossible to be precise on what amount is being lost every month, but projecting our 2019 figures and removing the grants associated with the Play Park we were losing in the region of £400 each month. The grants supporting us through the covid crisis are helping alleviate an immediate problem.
It has not been a year with no activity, we have started painting the interior of the Hall (but more to do), Louise Roberts has created a community garden by the basketball court and not only were lots of flowers and shrubs donated but also a bench. Thank you to all concerned.
After the hedge laying exercise along the western boundary, we needed to plant some more trees that could be incorporated into the hedge and so a small working party lead by Neil Fozard planted 110 saplings of many varieties, so thank you for that.
I had hoped we could start 2021 in a more optimistic mood and there is a lot to be cheerful about, but with a touch of realism creeping around the future finances of the Hall. It is also my last Chairman’s report as I am retiring after 6 years in the role and 20 years on the committee, time for some new ideas. Many thanks to all the Committee members, Trustees and volunteers who have helped me fulfil the role. It has been both an enjoyable and “interesting” time and I have made some very good friends and many more acquaintances.
Many thanks
Chris Rispin – retiring Chair.