MEETING OF THE UMBORNE HALL TRUSTEES

 Monday 18^th July 2022, 6.30pm

Present: Phillip Ambler, Lorna Ockenden, John Pearce, Carolyn Selley, Henry Smith, Rob Summers, Teresa Wilmington-Wills, Eleanor Wood

 

1. Apologies: Jane Alsop, Neville Cheeseman, Ann Shepherd

 

2. Minutes of previous meeting and anything arising

We agreed the minutes from the previous meeting on Wednesday 18^th May. Rob reported that Walker didn’t get back to him about the fire alarm testing, and we need to arrange to get this done elsewhere. Henry agreed to send the Fortress contact details to Rob who will try to arrange this with them.

Action: Henry, Rob

3. Finance/Treasurer’s update

Carolyn gave an update on the finances. Current balances are £29,424 in the bank account and £6375 in the COIF account. She reported that we did receive the second Covid grant of £2667, and we received £2346 from the Grizzly run. We also made a profit of £800 from the Big Breakfast which went to the Ukraine appeal. Carolyn paid this and was able to gift aid to make it £1000 total donation. There is still the Ug money to be banked (£1357).

4. Bookings

There have been some bookings of the hall for events – a few birthday parties and a christening.

5. Events planning

Eleanor updated us on planned events.

Instead of the Free Friday in August (Friday 26th at 6pm) there will be a hall barbecue. Eleanor will arrange people to help with this, and Carolyn will ask Lee if we can hire the barbecue. We will need a bar licence (Jane has agreed to organise these for us now).

On Saturday 24^th September there will be a quiz and soup night. Rick has agreed to be quiz master. Again we will need a bar licence, and we need to ask Jane to arrange this for these two dates.

There will be the autumn/harvest supper in October and a ‘1^st Christmas dinner of the season’ meal in December, which Carolyn has kindly agreed to help with (roast turkey, Christmas pudding etc). Dates to be arranged for these two events, which we will also need bar licences for.

Lorna will book the hall for the barbecue and quiz and other events when dates confirmed.

Action: Eleanor, Jane, Carolyn, Lorna

6. 6. Website

Henry now has the password and access to add things to the website.

We discussed the communication channels available to us. Bijan continues to do the email community group which has been renamed to include Umborne in the title.

Sue has said she is happy to continue doing posters.

There is a WhatsApp group in the village but it’s not known who can add people to this. It was decided that we should set up a new group for the Hall and Umborne Valley, and add the trustees as administrators, so that we can add any people who express an interest in joining. Henry agreed to organise this.

There is also a ‘subscribe’ button feature on the website where people can be notified when new content is added. This is not used at present. We could consider promoting this for use in the future if it was felt it was needed.

Action: Henry

 

7. 7. Maintenance and Improvements

Thanks to John for repairing the leaking toilet.

We need to plan to replace some of the exterior woodwork, decking, railings and steps etc next year. There is a tripping hazard at the top of the grassy carpark steps to the deck. It was agreed that we would do a temporary repair to this with a round edged beading strip. Henry and John agreed to meet at the hall to fix this and have a look underneath the decking to see what will need to be done. They agreed to meet on Wednesday 27^th July at 6pm

Action: Henry, John

We will also need to rethink the exterior lighting at some point, whilst doing this work, or the extension. Henry has contacted a company in Dunkeswell about a wooden extension building approx. 7msq. This would be around £60,000. Rob will see Frankie on 4^th August and will ask him about options. Henry and Rob agreed to meet to discuss this on Monday 8^th August. We can then set up any subgroups of trustees needed for planning and fundraising. Phillip agreed to look into the grants that may be available.

8. 8. AOB

Teresa raised the issue of rubbish and recycling left behind after recent Free Fridays, which she then had to separate and dispose of herself. It was agreed that we needed 2 plastic containers clearly labelled for recycling (in line with council collections). Phillip agreed to look into this.

Action: Phillip

Lorna had previously looked into getting council waste collections, but we would need to register as a Royal Mail postal address, and be able to receive mail, which has some cost implications. Lorna agreed to check the details again and find out what would be involved.

Action: Lorna

Phillip has had an offer of tablecloths which might be nice for some hall events and for use by hirers. He will arrange this, and then notify Lorna who will write a thank-you letter.

Action: Phillip, Lorna

Ann had asked about getting Wi-Fi for the hall as there are some grants available. It was felt that this would involve ongoing costs, and there was a 4G signal at the hall which could be used and was probably adequate. We agreed to discuss this again when Ann was present, to find out how often this might be needed – carried forward to next meeting agenda.

9. 9. Date of next meeting

Wednesday 14^th September 6.30pm – we need to add a review of hall hire charges on the agenda in light of the increasing utilities bills etc.