Claxton Village, Norfolk

You are invited to spoil yourselves at our Pamper Night on Thursday 16^th May at the Village Hall at 7pm for 7.30.  This is a first for us and will offer all sorts of life enhancing activities, therapies, treatments, opportunities for advice and to try beauty products.  There will be a representative from Bodyshop who will do a demonstration, have products to sample and will be taking orders, and a Tropics representative who will also be bringing beauty products and will offer facials.  A Reflexologist and an Indian Head Massage practitioner will also be offering consultations and there will be an opportunity to purchase pretty handmade craft items. Tickets are £5 and include a glass of bubbly or pressé and nibbles. (Individual therapists may make a small charge for taster sessions on the night.)

To buy tickets or for more information contact Sarah Carter on 01508 480555 or Julia Kaye on 01508 480527.  Tickets will also be available at the Community Café on April 9^th and May 14^th.

Further dates for your diary should include Saturday 15^th June for our ever-popular Quiz Night, which as always will include a delicious home-cooked two course meal and following last year’s successful event, the return of the 50/50 Auction on Sunday 15^th September.

As always everyone is welcome at the monthly Claxton & Carleton St Peter Community Café – 10.00 till 12.00 every second Tuesday of every month.

A lot of hard work by a small number of volunteers ensured that the first 50/50 Auction in Claxton for many years went off successfully on Sunday 16 September.

There were in excess of 150 items put in for sale, and the Hall’s 50% share of the proceeds from the event (including sale of refreshments) is currently slightly over £350.  We would like to thank everyone who brought items to sell, came to hunt out a bargain or helped with the organisation.  Special thanks go to our Auctioneer, Edgar Hoddy, and his two glamorous assistants, Sarah and Rosie.

The photos below record the event.

MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING HELD ON 12 JULY 2018

Present: Julia Kaye, Lesley Hamblin, Mike Balmer, Sarah Carter, Robert Ellis, Mary Button, John Ford, Rosie Gidlow and Andrew Mussell.

Apologies: Jo Bissonnet

Others present: Pat Clare

The minutes of last AGM held on 20^th July 2017, 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 the Village Hall in so many ways during the past year. She thanked Jo who has taken over the bookings and introduced an online system which can be accessed by all committee members. Special thanks were given to David Bissonnet who has guided and advised us through a difficult time of refurbishment. The past year has concentrated on this refurbishment to hopefully bring the hall up to standard and make it one of the best in the district. She welcomed new members Rosie Gidlow and Andrew Mussell who joined the committee at the beginning of the year. Sam, our new cleaner began work a few months ago and is doing a great job.

Julia went on to report that this year we have installed a CO₂ detector and updated the fire alarm system. We have had a full electrical report and a health and safety report has been carried out and we will be implementing their recommendations when finances allow. An asbestos survey showed no problems. The hall has been revalued and is now well insured. Acoustic panels have been installed, part funded by a donation from the Fair on the Yare. Hopefully these will improve the previously poor acoustics. Further improvements will be made as and when we are able.

Jo Bissonnet has been running an Art Class on a Monday morning which is very popular, but unfortunately has had to be postponed until Jo is in better health. Mike is running a computer class on Wednesday mornings which Julia reported has been very helpful. Yoga sessions on a Thursday morning with Caroline continue to be enjoyed. The Community Café continues to be held on the second Tuesday of every month and is proving to be a good way of village networking. The Social Club meets every Friday evening and also the last Saturday evening of every month.

In September a Macmillan Coffee morning was held where photographs of the two villages were displayed and the most popular chosen for the calendar which was sold to raise funds for the hall. Mike has set up a 200 club with currently 56 numbers sold. The draw takes place monthly at the Community Café, with the first one in May. Rosie, Lesley, Andrew and Mike produced a questionnaire which was delivered to every property in the two villages. We had hoped for some useful feedback to find out what people want from the Village Hall, but the response has been very disappointing. Last month the annual quiz was held which raised almost £500. Julia thanked quizmaster Mike.

Julia reported that bookings have been a little down, but hopefully this will improve.

Treasurer’s Report

The full (unaudited) Financial Statement for the year as well as complete Bank and Cash Transaction Sheets have been sent to all Trustees.

We started the year with a balance (Bank and Cash) of £4,054.25 as well as £5,371.21 in our Savings and Improvement accounts, making an overall balance of £9,425.46.

Aside from normal/regular expenditure in the year we have spent almost £4,200 on “one-off” items, as follows:

Hall Revaluation Report	£	510.00
Fire Safety Report	£	361.70
Asbestos Survey	£	492.00
Acoustic Panels	£	2,834.53
TOTAL	£	4,198.23

It is therefore pretty remarkable that at 31 May we ended the year with an overall balance of £6,625.46, made up of the following elements:

		Current Account	£ 889.36
		Unpresented cheques	£ 0.00
		Unbanked receipts	£ 0.00
		Savings Account	£ 4,000.00
		Improvements Account	£ 1,000.00
		200 Club Account	£ 609.00
		Cash	£ 127.10
		TOTAL	£ 6,625.46

However the total in the new 200 Club account (above) is slightly misleading as the lottery year runs from April to March the next year, and cuts across two Hall financial years. We’ve paid one prize of £26 in the year and £291.50 from the above balance will go in prize money, with £317.50 going to the Hall.

That indicates an in-year surplus of £1,106.73 (£6,625.46 + £4,198.23 – £9,425.46 – £291.50).

In advance of meetings every Trustee receives an updated Financial Statement and Transactions List so that Trustees can ask for any clarification.

We took out Silver membership of Community Action Norfolk this year at a cost of £50. That outlay not only gave us a discount of over £100 on our insurance, but also gave us free access to their series of Village Hall Information Sheets. We so far have 19 of these downloaded and available for Trustees to see. We now have an online Dropbox storage account for the Hall, to which have been uploaded the Information Sheets and a sizeable amount of financial and management information.

Staying on online issues we have also set up an online Bookings Calendar which Jo uses regularly and which also serves as a maintenance schedule going forward. It is checked regularly and other Trustees find it useful to be able to check on bookings and availability at any time.

At this point the committee stepped down for the Election of Officers.

Chair, Julia was proposed by Sarah and seconded by Lesley.
Treasurer, Mike was proposed by Julia and seconded by Robert.
Secretary, Lesley was proposed by Sarah and seconded by Julia.

The rest of the committee remained in place.

Meeting closed at 7.45.