Charity Commission Report for 2010-11

Our annual 'SORP' (Statement of Recommended Practice) Charity Commission Report for 2010-11 is now available from our website. Go to the Downloads column of the Trustees — Contacts — Volunteers page of the Village Hall website.

For further information, see previous item below.

Slinfold Magazine item - February 2012

Slinfold Village Hall News

Blog (contraction of “Web-Log”)

To facilitate the easy and rapid publication of Village Hall information, we have now set up a blog, which is accessible from the menu on our main website or directly from blog.slinfoldvillagehall.co.uk. The Blog will be used to publish information more quickly than can be done through this Magazine, and to publish information and detail not appropriate for inclusion here. It will also contain our published Magazine items (back to early 2010).

Publication of Trustee Decisions

In the January Magazine, we stated that “the amount of Village Hall information [being] published … is actively being increased when volunteer resource permits.” We are pleased to say that since then we have published summaries of the key Decisions from 2011 Trustee Meetings. More information on this subject, and also the Decision Summaries themselves, are available in the Blog.

Hall Redecoration

We are grateful for complimentary comments received following repainting of the Entrance Hall, Main Hall and Kitchen. The cleaning of the Entrance Hall carpet and the stripping down, re-treatment and re-polishing of the hard floors in the Main Hall, Entrance Hall, and toilets is now scheduled for Friday 17^th February.

Cleanliness & Damage

The Village Hall is there to be used, and accidental marks, knocks and scratches will inevitably occur during normal use. Nevertheless, it was rather disappointing to discover crayon and other marks on the walls only 10 ‘hiring days’ after the redecoration. It took the cleaner more than an hour to remove these marks.

If damage of any sort should occur during your use of the Hall, please notify the Bookings Secretary as soon as possible, so that it can be attended to quickly.

Caretaker

We have previously mentioned the loss of several long-term and hard-working trustees and volunteers: it is only when they have gone that you realise how much work some of them did! Because of the increasing burden on fewer people, we are now actively considering the employment of a Hall Caretaker for a few hours per week. This is only in the early stages of planning, but, depending on the person appointed, we envisage that a caretaker would primarily assist in the day-to-day oversight of the Hall, attend to routine jobs, and possibly help co-ordinate volunteer effort.

If anyone would be interested in discussing this opportunity,
we would be pleased to hear from them (contact details below).

Volunteers

The possibility of having a caretaker, does not affect our need for volunteers — but it should reduce the burden on all volunteers, new or existing. We have arranged a meeting with existing, new and possible volunteers on Wed 22^nd February at 7:30 p.m. at the Hall. If you might be interested in helping and would like to find out more — even if you can spare only the occasional hour or two — please contact us or just turn up.

Contacts: Neil Peachey (Chairman) -791554, Trevor Dayneswood (Vice-chairman) – 790374
website: slinfoldvillagehall.co.uk

Publication of Summaries of Trustee Decisions

Over the past few months, requests have been made for publication of the minutes of Slinfold Village Hall Trustee meetings: a direct request to the Trustees for the publication of their minutes, a Freedom of Information (FoI) request for such through the Parish Council, and an implicit request in an article in the December 2011 issue of the Slinfold Magazine.

As a Registered Charity, the Village Hall is not a public body and hence is not subject to the FoI Act. Additionally, constitutionally, the Parish Council has - and can have - no involvement in the running of the Village Hall, which is a Registered Charity. The Parish Council merely holds the role of Custodian Trustee, which means that the building and land is held in their name on behalf of the Managing Trustees, who cannot hold it in their own name because they do not legally constitute a Corporate Body.

The Trustees do not consider it appropriate to publish the minutes of their operational meetings - which may include sensitive or condfidential business - and as far as the current trustees are aware it has never been the practice for the Hall to do so.

Nevertheless, although the Trustees do not consider it appropriate to publish the minutes of their meetings in full, they do recognise the benefits of frequent and open communication and, in addition to regular updates in the Slinfold Magazine, their intention has been to publish a Summary of key Decisions from their meetings when volunteer time became available. The current Christmas break has finally afforded that time, and summaries of the decisions made at Trustee Meetings during 2011 have now been produced and retrospectively published in this blog. It is the Trustees intention to continue publishing such summaries, but it must be noted that they are under no legal obligation to do so, and that their continuance to do so is subject to volunteer time being available.

Reserves Policy

As promised in the January 2012 issue of the Slinfold Magazine, a document explaining the charity's policy on Financial Reserves Allocation is now available for download from the Hall's website or directly from here