Slinfold Magazine item - June 2012

Slinfold Village Hall News

Your 130 year-old Village Hall is an independent charily. It is run by volunteer trustees for the benefit of Slinfold and has no affiliation to, or subsidy from, any other village body (eg the Parish Council, the Church). To-date, running costs have been met by rental income, and any fundraising or grants have gone to improving the Hall and its facilities. However the ongoing difficulties in finding new volunteers means that we are having to pay for more and more work that would previously have been done for free. This coming year we need to take action in order to balance the books. Our options include substantially raising rental rates, fundraising (which needs volunteer effort too) to subsidise running costs or just running down our reserves and hoping a rich benefactor appears before we become insolvent.

It is your Hall, so please come to the AGM and let us know your opinion.
Contact: Neil Peachey (Trustees' Chairman) -791554
website: slinfoldvillagehall.co.uk

Summary of Trustees' Decisions - May 2012

• Default position now to pay for work to be done unless sensible to use volunteer resource.
• Village Hall to have a stand at Village Jubilee Day, to raise awareness and solicit volunteers.
• In the future, Parish Council to be asked for grants for replacement of old equipment as and when required, rather than attempting to fund such replacements from Reserves.
• Ongoing annual allocation to Reserves to be reduced to £4k.
• Budget for small operational loss in 2012-13, to be covered by a fundraising activity.
•  Just change code to Front Door for now, new sets of cards to be a) Downstairs only, and b) All Building

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 

Slinfold Magazine item - January 2012

Slinfold Village Hall News

Hall Redecoration

By the end of January we hope to have completed a substantial redecoration programme. The outside of the Hall was repainted during the autumn, and the Entrance Hall and Main Hall in the week before Christmas. The floors are next: the carpets are to be cleaned and, for the first time since the 2000 refurbishment, the hard floors are to be stripped down, retreated and re-polished. This is planned for one day in January and it is hoped to avoid any disruption of bookings.

Governance

An item in last month’s magazine opened by commenting on “the loss of much of the 'Golden Oldie' [volunteer] support” and on the potential implications for the financial situation and the “present excellent state [of the hall]”. The article then went on to question some of the Hall’s policies – specifically on Reserves, Openness and Accountability.

The financial and legal implications of running an operational charity precludes going into much policy detail here, but more information continues to be available on the Hall’s website and in the publicly-available annual report to the Charity Commission (also available from the Hall’s website).

Reserves

• The Charity Commission and various fund-awarding bodies (eg. WSCC) require a forward plan and policy on Reserves.
• In order to maintain the excellent state of the hall, an annual allocation of funds enables major fluctuation in maintenance and replacement costs to be averaged out over several years.
• Each year, the forward plan is reassessed as part of the annual inventory audit, and then the budget, including Reserves allocation/draw-down, is discussed and agreed at the AGM – which is open to all local residents. This year’s AGM agreed a net reduction in Reserves of £3.1k, in part to fund the redecoration programme outlined at the top of this article.
• More information on Reserves and their calculation is available on the Hall’s website.

Openness

• The amount of Village Hall information readily available far exceeds that previously published, and is actively being increased when volunteer resource permits. As well as the detailed information on the website, the ‘News’ column on the home page is regularly updated; and news items are included in most issues of this magazine.
• The Village Hall is a registered charity not a public body. Charities do not normally publish minutes of their operational meetings, which may include confidential business – and as far as the current Trustees are aware it has not ever been the practice for the Hall to do so.

Accountability

• The Governing Document provides for the AGM to be the primary forum for accountability of the Trustees to local residents. The AGM is held in June each year and is open to all local residents, and the minutes and accounts are published on the Hall’s website.
• The majority of the trustees are representatives of local groups that regularly use the Hall – this provides an ongoing mechanism for communication between regular hall users and the Trustee body. There are also four trustees who are nominated and elected by public vote at each AGM.

For more information or to offer your services as a volunteer, contact Neil Peachey (Chairman), Trevor Dayneswood (Vice-chairman) or go to SlinfoldVillageHall.co.uk

Summary of Trustee Meeting Decisions - Nov 2011

1. Trevor Dayneswood (as Web-Manager) has authority to develop, test and release web-site changes in line with agreed prioritisation. Mark Singleton (on behalf of Computer Café group) can develop Computer Café group page(s) in line with overall slinfoldvillagehall.co.uk guidelines. Code to be tested and released by Trevor
2. Hall premises licence to be changed so that Designated Premises Supervisor (DPS) is the Management Committee, and that operational restrictions (no films Monday to Thursday) are ‘tidied-up’ to reflect experience.
3. Slinfold Village Hall will not follow other halls in granting Trustees free-of-charge use of the hall for personal events.
4. Delegated Authority limits changed to £150 for Minor Repairs and £250 for Urgent Work & Repairs.
5. A Morris Dancing group can use the free Wednesday-night slot on a renewable six-month basis. A Furniture Restoration group can use the Parish Room, subject to them using adequate floor protective sheeting.
6. Go ahead with proposal for developing new marketing materials with Hilary Bates.
7. Develop Google Calendar as a short-term replacement for the various Bookings / Usage Schedules currently manually produced each month. The current Bookings-to-Invoices spreadsheet will continue to be used.
8. The internal and external lock codes will be changed in January, in line with Insurance Requirements and our Security Policy,
9. Internal redecoration of the hall will be done this time by Adam Cheeseman. Costs will be met from Reserves.
10. Stripping and re-surfacing of hall floor will be done this time by Nigel Davies of TrueClean, Southwater. Costs will be met from Reserves.

Summary of Trustee Meeting Decisions - Sep 2011

1. As per previous discussions, the Village Hall is not subject to the FoI Act so minutes will not be made publically available, though decisions summaries will be produced for the web-site if and when time allows.
2. Agreement reached with all parties regarding Rent-Free use of Hall by St. Peter's Church
3. Delegated Authority limit set at £100 for Training and Documentation.
4. Slinfold Village Hall to subscribe to the new AirS Village Hall service.
5. External re-decoration to proceed at once with Adam Cheeseman. Costs to be met from Reserves.
6. Internal re-decoration and floor resurfacing to take place over winter, once competitive quotes have been received.

Summary of Trustee Meeting Decisions - Jan 2011

1. New Treasurer to be David Thompson
2. Oven and Parish Room carpets to be professionally cleaned
3. External Lettering repainting (as agreed at AGM) to go ahead once the weather improves. Costs to be met from Reserves.