MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING HELD ON 11 JULY 2019
Present: Julia Kaye, Lesley Hamblin, Mike Balmer, Sarah Carter, Robert Ellis, Mary Button, Jo Bissonnet, John Ford, Rosie Gidlow and Andrew Mussell.
Apologies: None
Others present: Pat Clare, David Hamblin
The minutes of the last AGM held on 12 July 2018, having been previously circulated, were read, agreed and signed.
Chair’s Report
Julia began by thanking fellow officers Lesley and Mike for their work. She also thanked all the other committee members who have helped achieve such a successful year.
The refurbishment programme has seen initial improvements and safety matters completed. Redecoration, new curtains, etc will happen when finances allow. Julia thanked David Bissonnet for his help.
The questionnaire had only given rise to one suggestion – an evening exercise class. A Pilates teacher has been found and arrangements are being made to start the class very soon.
The 200 Club is a very useful fundraiser and Julia thanked Mike for organising this.
The 50/50 Auction was held in September and was a great success. Edgar Hoddy was auctioneer assisted by Rosie and Sarah. Julia thanked everyone involved for giving up their time for this event.
Julia said that she felt very strongly that the Committees of the Village Hall and the Social Club should work closely together and foster a good relationship. To this end there will be 2 joint meetings a year. The first one has taken place where there was animated discussion and progress made.
There is a new cleaner, Sam who is doing a good job.
We had our summer quiz in June and Julia thanked our new quizmasters Paul Carter and John Ford. We are planning a winter quiz in February when Mike will return as quizmaster.
In May we held our first Pamper Night for both ladies and gentlemen. There were several therapists and stalls. It is proposed to do this again and to have more therapists.
We have several regular bookings: the art group, the dancers, yoga and the Community Café. Other bookings are up and we have 2 weddings.
Treasurer’s Report
Mike Balmer provided the meeting with the full financial statement for the year which ended on 31 May.
The balances as of 31 May were:
Current Account: 4,808.32
Unpresented cheques: 4,000.00
Unbanked cheques: 4,000.00
Improvements Account 4,700.00
200 Club 4,292.50 (see comment in 5th para below)
Cash 4,200.61
TOTAL: £6,001.43
The figures would benefit from some explanatory comments. On Income hire charges from individual users and groups was £124 higher than the previous year. Some Trustees have asked for a breakdown of income from the more regular users, which are set out in the box to the right.
The rent from the Social Club is well down as it only covers the first 3 quarters of the year. In the future this will not be an issue as we will receive the payments on a schedule which doesn’t affect the end of our financial year. We did well in our 3 fundraising events, netting almost £1,150 from them. Thanks partly to the hot summer in 2018 we also earned £200 more from the solar panels. There was no calendar this year so we had neither income nor expenditure. It does generate a small surplus so Mike is glad we are planning one for 2020.
On Expenditure we spent more on electricity, less on heating oil and water, and slightly more on insurance. We paid the Pits Trust more from the solar panel income but our net income from the panels was around £70 higher than the previous year.
We also spent quite a lot on one-off expenditure (though nothing like as much as in 2017-18). Specifically we paid half the cost of a new internal vacuum motor (£106) and bought a new vacuum cleaner (£135), we had the fascias painted, front steps and roof capping tiles repaired, replaced the front windows, bought 3+ years’ of urinal cartridges and started paying for bin collections, along with a host of miscellaneous expenditure.
We made £348 annual profit from the first 200 Club (up to March 2019) which was moved across to our main account at the time. The sum shown above is half of our takings for the current year as at 31 May, meaning this is the minimum we will make in 2019-20. Mike would like the Committee to sell more numbers so looks to the Trustees to help out. It should be remembered that half of everything paid in comes to the Hall. Another 11 players would match our income from the first year, and increase the size of the monthly prize.
Early in the new financial year we should receive £200 from South Norfolk Council for the 2 elections in May. A General Election or Second Referendum in the next 12 months would reap another £100! We also expect the Social Club cheque for £385 in June so should start off the year very well.
At this point the committee stepped down for the election of officers:
Chair, Julia was proposed by Sarah and seconded by Mary.
Secretary, Lesley was proposed by Sarah and seconded by Andrew.
Treasurer, Mike was proposed by Andrew and seconded by Robert.
Julia asked if all other committee members intended to continue. John Ford announced that he would be standing down after 30 years. Rosie also said she would also be standing down. They were both thanked by everyone, with John given special recognition for his long service.
Julia said Adrian Gidlow had volunteered to join. She proposed him, he was seconded by Andrew and voted onto the committee.
The meeting closed at 7.50pm.
