LLANSANNOR COMMUNITY HALL ASSOCIATION

5th Annual General Meeting

Wednesday 9 April 2008 at 7.30 pm     Community Hall

 Minutes

 In attendance: 19 members of the Association.

 1  Welcome by Chair. Phil Summers welcomed everyone to the meeting and thanked them for their continuing interest in and active support for the community hall.

 2  Apologies for absence. Apologies were received from Jenny & Tony Radzimierski, Pam Salmon, Mark & Julia Jarvis, Anne Jarvis, Rob James, Jon Rosser.

 3  Minutes of the 4rd AGM held on 28 March 2007 (circulated with notice of AGM). The minutes were approved as a correct record (proposer: Liz Jervis; seconder: Jenny Whiting; accepted nem con). There were no matters arising.

 4  Annual Report.   The Chair pointed out that as a registered charity, the LCHA had to return a Trustees' Annual Report to the Charity Commission and a copy was available for inspection at the meeting.  By way of a more useful report to this meeting, he proposed to present a fuller account of the main events and activities since the last AGM based on the tabled document.

 He reminded members that the financial wellbeing of the hall depended on hiring it out for a range of uses. During 2007 the hall had been used on 90 separate occasions for a wide range of events and activities. In order to boost income, the aim for 2008 was to increase the number of bookings to 120 or more - still only a little more than two events per week. In his role as lettings officer, John Townsend continued to oversee hall usage and to offer direct help to hirers and the Chair thanked him for his continuing hard work on behalf of hall users.

 All information about the hall, including an up-to-date booking diary, was now published on the LCHA website: www.llansannor.org.uk. There were accounts of the old and new halls, with pictures and paintings that could be downloaded - as could David Morgan's excellent poem to celebrate the opening of the new hall. There were also links to other websites of local interest. In terms of local groups, the whist club continued to meet on the third Monday of every month, and the table tennis club met in the hall every Thursday evening. Equipment was now on order for an indoor bowls club which should be up and running very soon.  All members were most welcome to join in one or more of these activities – or suggest other types of activity that should be added to our growing repertoire.

 A year ago, the main problems with the hall had been identified by the committee as: (1) a shortage of good tables and chairs; (2) poor acoustics; (3) inadequate heating; and (4) a shortage of storage space.  New folding tables, card tables and chairs had now been purchased. Thanks largely to Liz Jervis, we now had superb curtaining which had not only dramatically improved the hall acoustics but also helped with the heating problem by increasing the amount of thermal insulation. With curtaining in place and the installation of a 3Kw fan heater the heating problem had been largely solved, though the committee remained ready to install a second fan heater if necessary. Therefore, all but one of the main problems identified a year ago had been addressed. But we continued to have an acute storage problem - made all the worse by our new tables and chairs and the impending arrival of equipment for the indoor bowls club. Plans were in place for a store at the side of the hall, with double-door access from the main hall, and we hoped to have this store completed by the autumn using local volunteer labour.

The committee were grateful to external funders for financial help with hall projects. During the past year we had received a VCVS Kick Start II grant to develop the front garden and much progress was already in evidence thanks to the hard work of the garden group and local volunteers. Indoor bowls equipment had been funded by a Sports Council of Wales CREST grant, and the Chair thanked Mike Clancy for his hard work in helping us to win that award.  As reported to the last AGM, a Community Action Self Help grant administered through the local Community Council would be used in part to fund the construction of the new store. We had recently received a generous grant from the Allotment & Recreation Ground Charity, Ystradowen, to support a number of hall developments.

 The committee continued to rely very heavily on the contribution of local volunteers for ongoing work in and around the hall, and were most grateful to the many local residents who gave generously of their time not just to help maintain, but also to improve, our hall facility.  It could perhaps fairly be claimed that the new community hall had established itself as a vital and thriving amenity for local people. The Annual Report was approved nem con.

 5  Treasurer’s Report.  Copies of the 2007 Annual Accounts were circulated to all present. The Treasurer did not go over the content of his report in detail but commented that the narrow £150 surplus of letting income over normal expenditure in 2007 was aided by the £100 fee for use of the hall as a polling station. The current cash position, after paying the retention monies to the builders, was approximately £10000, of which half represented restricted funds. The remainder would be needed to cover the cost of the new store and normally working capital. In answer to a question, he said that the current financial position was satisfactory at this stage of the hall's existence but that we would need to build up reserves to cover maintenance and future enhancements to enable the hall to meet changing needs. The Annual Accounts were approved nem con.

 6  Election of Executive Committee members.  The Chair reported that all existing committee members were prepared to continue to serve and that no new nominations for membership had been received.  It was proposed by Bill Salmon and seconded by Jim Duffield that the existing committee be re-elected en bloc, and this was approved nem con.

 7  Election of Honorary Officers.  The Chair reported that the existing officers were prepared to continue to serve and that no new nominations for office had been received.  It was proposed by Liz Jervis and seconded by Trish Duffield that all three officers be re-elected, and this was approved nem con.

8  Open Discussion.  A number of issues were raised in general discussion:

8.1 Garden project:  Dave Jones reported that during the past year: local volunteers had cleared the site of fallen trees and rubble; the site had been levelled with the help of Dai Williams of Brigham farm; a patio had been laid and stone steps down from the balcony installed; several trees and tree stumps had been removed; a rockery had been built below the balcony. Donated memorial benches would be used as seating in the garden. A ceilidh organised by LAMBS had raised over £500 for the garden and the Ystradowen allotments charity award included £300 towards garden development. Immediate plans were the construction of a safety fence around the patio and contouring of the bank above the southern boundary of the garden in preparation for laying of topsoil. Evan Rosser had offered to install the fencing. Two weekends had been set aside for the tasks and it was hoped that a large working party would  volunteer. Consultation was underway regarding suitable planting of the bank. A large decking area was planned for the western end of the plot, connected to the patio by a pathway. Major remedial work on the southern boundary wall would require some heavy machinery excavation.
8.2 Indoor bowls club:  Mike Clancy reported that the equipment for indoor bowls would shortly be in place and that it would be tested out in the hall in the coming weeks.  Members interested in joining the new indoor bowls club were asked to give their contact details to Mike before leaving the meeting.

8.3 Hall usage and publicity:  Margaret Edwards asked if the hall could be advertised, and Peter Jarvis and Scilla Williams suggested more frequent and systematic use of the Cowbridge Gem to gain local publicity for hall events. Mike Brooks pointed out that a recently established Village Hall Forum, and a Guide to Village Halls in the Vale to be published shortly, would be useful vehicles for attracting new users.  He suggested that the committee might benefit from the establishment of a marketing / publicity brief, and Peter Whiting suggested that cooption of a local resident with relevant skills might offer a way forward. The Chair agreed that these and other proposals to encourage wider use of the hall would be considered by the committee.

8.4 Poor attendance at AGM: it was pointed out that tonight’s meeting was barely quorate, with 10 less attending than a year ago. The Chair stated that the committee would explore ways of making the AGM a more interesting event, perhaps by linking it to a social occasion.

8.5 Heating: Bill Salmon stated that whist club members continued to complain about heating levels in the hall. The Chair stated that the new committee would consider the early installation of additional fan heaters. 

8.6: Feedback from hall users:  Mike Brooks pointed out that in response to issues raised at the last AGM, the committee would now be holding a special meeting each year for discussion with representatives of user groups.

8.7  Hire charges:  Mike Brooks reported that the new committee would need to review hire charges.

 9  AOB.

9.1  Prize Draw of the 100 Club.  As a diverting conclusion to the AGM, Bill Salmon organised a prize draw of the 100 Club. One member present and two absentees were the lucky prizewinners.  Bill drew attention to a current 100 Club membership of 82, compared with 94 in 2007. Members were invited to join or extend their existing shareholding. Bill was thanked for his continuing fundraising endeavours.

 26 April 2008