Corscombe Village Hall

CORSCOMBE VILLAGE HALL REGISTERED CHARITY 264959 MINUTES OF AGM HELD ON FRIDAY 28 OCTOBER 2016

Present: Steve Brown, Patricia Carrivick, Rob Fear, Charles Gaskell, Jennifer Gregson, Peter Gregson, Roger Hallett, Mel Harper, Julie Harvey, Freda Hennessy, Valerie Lawson, Edna Leonard, Henry Lovegrove, Rosemary Lovegrove, Chris Lunt, Sarah Lunt, Paul Rendell, Rita, Debbie Rix, Rod Robertson, John Viol, Geoff Williams, Jan Williams

Apologies: Chris Chapman, Lesley Chapman, Dot Gaskell, Rachelle Green, Andrew Tomkins, Celia Tomkins

1. Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on 28 October 2015 - The minutes were approved

2. Matters Arising from the Minutes - None.

3. Chairman’s Report Steve thanked Roger for his work on the boundary wall. During the year Ladybirds playgroup (our major hirer) had closed but a new Parent and Child group was now meeting at the hall and we were pleased to welcome the Youth Club who had moved from Halstock. The hall committee had taken over organising the Big Breakfast from First Responders – the next one will be on 5 November with an improved menu from the first one in September.

The existing hall is crumbling and we are still investigating the possibility of a replacement hall, but we are not yet at a stage where this can be put out for consultation. In order to fund a new hall we would need planning permission on the existing site plus lottery funding.

Anyone who thought they could help run the hall was invited to stand for committee

4. Booking Secretary’s Report Pat reported that over the year we had lost bookings from Ladybirds and messy church and the drama group but had welcomed the youth club. One off bookings are few and far between so we are dependent on regular bookings for our lettings income.

5. Financial Report Rob circulated copies of the accounts to 30/6/16. He thanked Henry for his help with preparing them. Our balances had increased by about £2786 over the year, meaning there was now £11711 in hall accounts. However we still needed about £3000 fund raising a year to keep the hall going. Rob would compile a detailed budget for the next committee meeting. The draft accounts were approved for submission to the auditor.

6. House Keeping Report Edna reported that the biggest problem of the past year was the leak which caused the collapse of the kitchen ceiling. Thanks to a grant from the Parish Council & part cost met by the insurance company, waterproofing of the roof & replacement of the ceiling & lights was carried out without any cost to the Hall finances.

There appears to be no remedy for the damp floor level cupboards, particularly those under the long worktop. There is an ominous crack visible above the end of the work surface down the wall between the entry door & corner. The failure of the outer porch light was attributed to the guttering sloping the wrong way & resulting in water cascading directly on to the light.

The main cause of damp on the W wall of the Small Hall is historic pointing of the outer wall with cement, instead of lime mortar. In consequence the cupboards & Short Mat Bowls Mat storage area are also damp. In addition there is evidence of something sinister happening on the SW corner of the wall. The damp in the Lobby is caused by condensation in cold weather on single thickness walls. There is no evidence of actual ingress of water as the walls are bone dry in warm wet weather. With grateful thanks to Henry, the boiler, mostly, is working. He has solved the pellet settling problem by purchasing pellets by the bag & feeding the hopper when necessary , so many thanks.

The storage position is still difficult. Although the Playgroup stuff is gone from the storeroom, but we now have equipment used by the Mother & Toddler Group & the Youth Club.

Outside there is a nasty crack at the bottom corner of the ramp & the cladding is blistered & falling off. By mutual agreement our cleaner is leaving. She is prepared to stay until we find a replacement but not beyond Christmas.

Steve thanked Edna for her report and all her work. .

7. User Group Reports First Responders - no report

Babylon Rosemary invited anyone who wanted to have a go at Morris dancing to come to practices on 7, 14 and 21 December. We won’t be blacking our faces this year for insurance reasons. We will be having our usual New Year’s Eve ceilidh at the village hall followed by dancing round local pubs on New Year’s Day.

Corscombe Players There is no pantomime this year but the players are looking into the possibility of a variety show.

Parish Council – Nothing to report

PCC A lot of work is needed on the church so they are doing a lot of fund raising. The village hall will be used for some services over the winter until the church heating is repaired.

Tuesday Club - The Tuesday Club continues to meet once a month.

Bowls – Short mat bowls used the hall from October 15 to March 16 and was just starting again for this year.

Line Dancing – Line dancing has started again and will be carrying on through the winter.

Youth Club – Youth Club is going well. About 28 children came along last week. They like having different rooms they can use. The Youth Club are looking for more helpers. If you think you can help out please let Debbie Rix know. They would like 2 bins they can use for rubbish and recycling. Rob confirmed that we would be having general waste collected from the hall again, but users will still need to take recycling home. Debbie said adults are welcome to use Youth Club equipment, possibly on Friday evenings after 8.30 p.m.

Seedlings/Craft Club (Additional Report from Rachelle Green not presented to the AGM) Sorry I am not able to make it tonight: Here is a quick update from Core Creative Education:

Seedlings: We are half way through the 10 week course of Seedlings for Parents and children 0-6 years and the numbers attending have been good with 6 families regularly attending and 2-4 other families dropping in when it suits them. We have explored the theme of apples, wheat, harvest, Earth and Leaves - making traditional craft items, baking bread with singing and playing and story time. I think that we would like to book the hall for a further course in the spring and Summer months on Wednesday mornings. Craft Clubs: We are waiting for our bookings to come in for Craft Club which will run on Monday 10-2pm and Tuesday 10-2pm from 21st December but we are hoping for 8-10 children at each session. The children will be learning spinning and carding fleece and making presents out of wood and natural materials for Christmas.

We are hoping to be able to run the Craft Clubs again in January and February for 4 weeks each before our Outdoor Programme begins again.

We are also looking at booking the Hall on Tuesday 13th December to have a Winter Party for the children and families that attend our courses and to show a film by the Dorset Mammal Group on Hedgehogs and showing the work that other students have researched on helping animals who are at risk of extinction in our world.

8. Election of Committee The aim of the village hall constitution is to ensure that the hall is run by its users. The number of elected members therefore needs to be less than the organisations entitled to be represented

The following organisations are entitled to be represented on the committee. The name of the current representative is in brackets:

Parish Council – (Roger Hallett) PCC - (Andrew Tomkins) Corscombe Players – (Paul Rendell) First Responders – (vacant) Babylon – (Rosemary Lovegrove) Tuesday Club – (Dot Gaskell) Line Dancing - (Mel Harper) Short mat bowls – (Valerie Lawson) Youth Club – Debbie Rix or Julie Harvey Core projects (Parent & Child/ Craft clubs) – Rachelle Green

The following committee members were duly elected: Steve Brown Patricia Carrivick Rob Fear Edna Leonard Rod Robertson John Viol Sarah Lunt Geoff and Jan Williams

9. Any other business for the AGM 300 Club Henry is looking for subscriptions now. Also he would be grateful for anyone who would like to volunteer to help him administer it. Henry also commented that he felt that action should be taken to make the hall more welcoming to hirers.

Charity Trustees - In answer to a question from Freda, Steve reported that we are in the process of appointing two replacement Charity Trustees.

New Hall Freda reported that there was opposition in the village to the replacement of the hall. Steve explained that all options would be put out for consultation in due course.

Hall Grounds - Freda/Rob to meet to discuss maintenance of the hall grounds to promote wild flowers before a new contract is let.

There being no further business for the AGM the meeting closed at 20.45 p.m.