The annual general meeting was held in the Village Hall on 17th September 2020 at 7:30pm. Due to corona virus regulations the meeting was attended by the trustees only. Minutes of the meeting are posted below and will be published in the Parish magazine shortly. If you have any questions for the trustees please contact the chairman, Michael Moss, who will be glad to answer them.
Elsted and Treyford Village Hall
Minutes of the Annual General meeting
17th September 2020 7:30pm
Trustees and Committee Members Present: Michael Moss – Chairman; Russell Kyte; Jane Thwaites – Secretary; John Rider – Treasurer ; Dru Furneau; Tim Shaxson; Jonathon Clements
Attendees: There were no attendees
Due to the Covid 19 guidance this meeting had been delayed, as it hadn’t been possible to hold it in May. The committee had hoped that it would be possible to hold it, as usual in public, in September. However, the Covid 19 guidance precluded this, so in the event it had to be held as a closed meeting, hence unfortunately no members of the public were present.
It was agreed that the meeting minutes would be published on the website.
Apologies: Rosie Troubridge
Minutes of Last AGM 1st May 2019– these were agreed as accurate and signed by the chairman. There were no matters arising.
Treasurers Report
John presented the accounts for 1st April 2019 to 31st March 2020 originally prepared for the AGM in May. These had been reviewed by the accountant Alan Mardle and are summarised as follows:
19/20 18/19
Total Receipts 12,389 13,531
Expenditure 23,015 22,734
Deficit (10626) (9203)
Current Account (2,203) 8,423
Deposit Account 35,386 35,386
Total 33,183 43,809
John reported that the deficit this year was caused by the following expenditures:
1. Kitchen refurbishment of £7138
2. Electricity certificate (required every five years) £1686,
3. The Summer tea party to thank the retiring chairman £1532
4. The set up of the website £700.
The previous year’s deficit was due to the hall curtains being replaced £9585.
The aim in future years is to make a small surplus.
£10k had been received from CDC Covid-19 business rate relief after the year end in April 2020 – this was unsolicited, but welcome!
The deposit account with HSBC has now matured. The interest from this was paid annually into the current account. The £35K is now in the current account.
GSK and Pearson shares were ‘gifted’ to the Hall some time ago and are valued at approximately £10k
The committee will be evaluating the investment strategy for money invested in the deposit account and shares later in 2020.
The accounting policies in this year’s accounts have been changed slightly. Deposits received for hiring the hall in future periods are not recognised as income until the future period. Deposits of £2158 have been received and shown as a deduction from the current account as at March 31st 2020.
Treasurer’s report Proposed Mike seconded Tim
Cricket club report
Russell reported that initially they thought there would not be any cricket in the 2020 season. Then the Government allowed recreational cricket to start in early July.
The Elsted Cricket Club ( ECC) completed a risk assessment and were able to comply with the English Cricket Board guidelines. Thanks to the Village Hall the ECC were able to play, the pitch was prepared in accordance with the Covid 19 and ECB guidance.
The first match was played on July 12th, and then about half of the Sunday games were played, no evening games and only one game was affected by the weather. The results were very good with ECC winning 8/9 games. The support from the players ( a young team) and spectators was excellent.
Many thanks go to Mully for his briefings and Terry for managing the team.
Elsted & Treyord Village Hall Bowls Club
It is with great regret that Mike informed the meeting of the demise of this club during the last twelve months brought about primarily by a lack of support. Funds that had been loaned to the club by the Village hall have since been returned.
All of the equipment still resides in the hall and there is no reason why it could not be resurrected were sufficient interest shown.
Tennis Club Report
There are currently 45 paid-up memberships up from 25 the 2019/20 year, and Junior coaching week saw a record 46 children participate versus 39 the previous year.
Throughout lockdown the court saw an unprecedented amount of use which has continued through the rest of the summer.
Accounts for 2019/20.
Income was £ 2305.11 versus expenditure of £4258.50 which included the court resurfacing at a cost of £2754.00. This equates to a loss of £1953.39 but it was more than covered by savings made over the years specifically for this type of improvement.
The club has seen a large influx of membership from outside the village, namely Rogate and Harting, and are currently considering whether members from outside of Elsted, Treyford and Didling should pay a slightly higher membership fee.
Chairman’s report
Since taking over the role of chair of the E&TVHC I can report significant progress on a number of fronts.
Thanks must go to John Rider for producing our new website. This has resulted in a much greater number of enquiries regarding the hire of the hall. Also we now have a comprehensive set of Hire Terms and Conditions which can be found on the website.
We reviewed our hire charges for the first time in many years and introduced them in Q2 2020, and there appears to have been general acceptance of the proposed increases.
John and I oversaw a partial renovation of our kitchen facilities back in February of this year which sadly due to coronavirus have seen very little use since. At the same time Jane Thwaites undertook the arduous task of writing a number of essential policies which have been agreed and which can also be found on our website.
When lockdown was announced Covid 19 decimated our potential hire income for the year but I am pleased to report that we were eligible for the chancellor’s business rates relief and as such were the beneficiary of a £10,000 grant from CDC back in April, and that having completed a Covid 19 risk assessment the hall is now partially re-opened for cricket, yoga, pilates, and other classes so we are starting to generate income once more.
Thanks go to Rosie Troubridge and her team who made the Harvest Supper such a wonderful occasion last year. It’s most regrettable that sadly it won’t be happening this year but we are still considering the possibility of replacing it with something much nearer Christmas if the government guidance at the time allows it.
With regards future bookings Karen McMullen tells me that we already have ten bookings for weddings and parties in 2021. As a result of Covid 19 and because of its size we are also seeing more interest in the hire of the hall for a variety of exercise classes, as a result of smaller halls being unable to accommodate the class sizes.
Finally, I would like to thank all my fellow committee members for their generous support during the last 16 months and special mention should go to Russell Kyte for the excellent job he does looking after the playing field and generally helping out around the hall, to John Rider for his work making sure we remain solvent, to Jane Thwaites for her work as Secretary and although not a committee member to Karen McMullen who took over the role of Bookings Secretary in July of last year and has done such a wonderful job since then.
Chairman’s report Proposed Russell seconded Dru
Election of Trustees
All present resigned and were agreed to be re-elected for another year,
Meeting Closed 7.45pm