You can’t build if you don’t have good foundations

The Village Hall Management Committee warmly welcomed seventeen members of the public to the hall on the 19th March. They enjoyed a complimentary drink, heard an update from the Chair and Treasurer on our 2024 year of operation and also touched on plans for 2025. The Any Other Business section was particularly busy - with plenty of questions and suggestions from the floor. Thank you to those that took the time to attend.

A summary of the information shared during the AGM can be seen below.

The Chair (Ben Viollet) outlined how the committee is most grateful for those that have served before them, providing a platform on which to further improve the hall and the service it provides to our community. He mentioned that the hall’s marketing refers to the building as a “community hub” as it felt that rather better reflects its role in our lovely village.

He continued with thanks to our volunteer Trustees and committee for giving so much of their time, covering not only our monthly meetings, but with special projects, homework and devising and running our many fundraising events. 

During 2024 the hall focused on a number of areas: administrative, refurbishment, marketing, cost control and fundraising.

• Administration - the Chair thanked Jackie Keyser (Trustee and Hall Secretary) for her ongoing work to modernise our 1929 Deed and to the committee more widely for collaborating to update the myriad of policies and procedures necessary to safely and legally operate a community space
• Refurbishment - the team likened the hall to the Forth Road Bridge with bits falling off from time to time and as part of a rolling programme of works how the team not only put those bits back up and put some new bits in, and also refurbished some other areas. He shared that more is planned in 2025 as and when funds and time allow 
• Marketing - the hall is aware of the age diversity within the village and has developed an inclusive approach, across our website, social media, email and through The Record. The Chair thanked Jacqui Franklin for kindly hosting the Village Hall Box Office at the Post Office - a service very widely used. Improved marketing has raised awareness of the hall for hiring, with an increase in revenue of 24% over 2023 and signposting fundraising and other community events
• Cost control - the team shared the pressures of increasing costs, particularly in the cost of energy. He shared that villagers may be surprised to know that even though we are a charity we are treated as a business by electricity suppliers, so whilst we can fix our rate, we do not benefit from a rate cap. During 2024 a change to our tariff effectively wiped out the income from over 100 hours of hall hiring. He took time to explain how the team had secured planning permission for installing photovoltaic panels, beginning a multi-year programme working towards reducing our usage of electricity and aiming towards Net Zero, to benefit the hall and users for the longer term. He took time to publicly thank our Trustee and Treasurer, Judy Webb, for her tireless work on grant funding and developing a prudent yet adventurous path for the Trust
• Fundraising - the team outlined the financial gap between our income, expected expenditure and our refurbishment plans and the need to fundraise. During 2024 that has been a successful endeavour with a net [JUDY NOT SURE HOW YOU WANT TO SAY THIS - BUT IF IT CAN BE A CLEAR £XXX THAT IS NOT INCLUSIVE OF THE STUFF WE DID FOR OTHERS I THINK THAT WOULD BE CLEAREST] £xxx of financial benefit to the Trust. He also shared that the hall played a pivotal role in supporting events raising funds for other causes. This included Carers4Carers, Muscular Dystrophy, Roland and Shirley Cherry’s Ambulance Appeal, Mary’s Meals and the Royal British Legion. In total the hall helped those causes to raise just shy of £3,500

Committee structure for 2025

Your hall committee stood down as part of our constitutional process, and through nominations and acceptances were reformed. We are pleased to welcome Alex Lane and John Tongue to the team and look forward to their inputs over the years ahead.

Financial summary

The Trust recorded a deficit (loss) of £3,076 for the year ending 31st December 2023. Following a busy 2024 with increased hiring, fundraising and significant expenditure on refurbishment the surplus (profit) for the year ending 31st December 2024 is recorded at £3,681. This can be summarised as follows:

Overall Income / Expenditure

• Hiring Income £11,335.28
• Other income (inc. rent) £19,346.52

Total Income £30,691.70

Expenditure £26,830.67

Surplus for year £3,861.03

Summary

The Chair shared an important statistic with the audience, that including the hall’s regular and occasional hirers and fundraising events, this important rural asset receives over 10,000 visits per year. He thanked neighbours and friends for their attendance and support, as without them there is no Village Hall.