## Annual General Meeting Wednesday 19[th] November 2025 ## Chair’s Review Welcome to the East Meon Village Hall Annual General Meeting 2025. It is the immense effort of everyone who contributes so much that makes running the Village Hall possible. Huge thanks to all. The members of the Village Hall Management Committee are the Trustees of the East Meon Village Hall Charity - Charity No. 226,855 - with responsibility for managing the Village Hall. The _object of the charity_ is mounted in a picture frame in the entrance lobby. _The_ _**object of the Charity** shall be the provision and maintenance of a village hall for the use of the inhabitants of the Parish of East Meon without distinction of political, religious or other opinions, including use for meetings, lectures and classes, and for other forms of recreation and leisure-time occupation, with the object of_ _**improving the conditions of life for the said inhabitants** ._ And that is what we commit to. The most **enormous thanks** to everyone who contributes to and uses the East Meon Village Hall. This review covers the financial year ending 31st August 2025. Sandy Lague, our **Treasurer** , has prepared the Treasurer’s Report which, like this Annual Report and the annual accounts will be submitted to the Charity Commission. The past year has been one of real progress for the Hall. After a few challenging years, the hall’s finances have shown a strong recovery, helped by increased bookings, successful fundraising, and careful cost management. We finished the financial year with a healthy surplus, strengthening our reserves and putting us in a good position for the year ahead. At the end of the financial year, the hall’s accounts were in a strong position, with healthy reserves and no outstanding debts. We have maintained a solid balance across our main and reserve accounts, ensuring that we can meet both day-to-day commitments and future investment needs. The Hall Overhaul Fund remains a dedicated pool of money set aside for ongoing improvements, and we continue to manage it prudently to ensure long-term benefits for the community. Matt Millward looks after our **Technology** and has led the way towards better systems that deliver more for villagers. Matt has lent the hall his own (fabulous) sound equipment for a long time, we realised the hall should have its own kit. This year we have procured better PA gear to improve the experience, planning to bring external performances to the hall attracting new audiences. The Parish Council enabled this with an allocation of CIL monies which is hugely appreciated. We continue to support the Pavilion CCTV system we installed (which operates over the hall’s broadband connection) and our portable projector supports East Meon Arts events in All Saints’. Work for the Hall OverHaul includes technical issues such as recovering and controlling costs, linking, lighting, air conditioning and sound to bookings, billing hirers that don’t respect their stop & start times. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 1 12/03/2026 _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ## The Chair’s Review of the Year 2024-5 **Hall Manager** Emily Rich has continued to generate new business but with the added challenge of moving to a new booking system. As the primary operator of the online booking system, she has been at the centre of transferring from our current system - conceived, developed and maintained by our previous chair George Thompson - to a new system. Lemon Booking was selected after careful evaluation and is now live. It brings new features and will be better for both customers and the hall. The hall continues to host the nursery, the community café, Moviola cinema as well as the history group, garden club, Remembrance Sunday, harvest supper, parties and much more! We have new hires in the small hall (redecorated in October) with the Pop-Up Choir, two art groups and Ear Care Micro-suction. Upstairs, the hall continues to host administration for the Upper Meon Benefice. Gemma Griffiths continues to works her **Caretaker** magic keeping up the hall to the condition that the building allows. We welcomed a new Karcher floor scrubber (at a heavily discounted price) after the NuMatic finally succumbed. **Moviola** goes from strength to strength, thank you Team Hollis, with growing numbers and wonderful movies. We are working towards showing National Theatre, Covent Garden and other events in the hall now that we have the qualifying sound and screen. The **Community Café** continues to be a big contributor to the hall’s finances, with a loyal following, hardly surprising given the always fabulous cakes! Thank you Diana, Connie and team so much and for the extra tasks taken on too….. **The Village Nursery** and Pre-School had a good start to the year and improved as the year progressed. East Meon School and The Village Nursery work together well for a smooth transition to the school. So far the school has received approaching 40 children the result of knowing each other well and working together as nursery leavers become school joiners. This year the **May Fair** (thank you Doug Craig for stepping into the breach!) and the **Great East Meon Boat Race** (thank you David Lewin for leading yet another great event) were held on different weekends. Huge efforts were put in by lots of villagers. As always, each year we look to see where we can improve for next year especially as there is always the need to generate funds while the availability of volunteers is perhaps not as great as in years past. ## The **Hall OverHaul** . Continues to be developed, changing ideas on paper is cheaper than rebuilding, and we have updated the plans in the Small Hall. Villagers ideas that shape the future of the hall are vital. Consultation will continue. We need to hear from everyone on everything from layout to colour schemes. **Looking ahead** , there are always opportunities to improve and deliver more, the Hall OverHaul will be the most substantial and comprehensive project since the hall was completed in 1974. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 2 12/03/2026 _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ## The Chair’s Review of the Year 2024-5 The **Management Committee** has grown with the arrival of Chris Beard, Doug Craig, Jo Baker, Julian Marks and Steven Jenkins which brings our strength up to eight plus our Hall Manager Emily Rich and Caretaker Gemma Griffiths. The village hall is East Meon’s principal community asset – the hub of the village. Lots goes on in the hall but much more could, a look at neighbouring halls soon shows how much more the hall could be contributing to the village. Many hands make for much lighter work, more enjoyment and a very much better village hall As Chair David Pepper and Treasurer Sandy Lague are resigning at this AGM, the need for fresh faces and energy continues. We need all the excellent energy & ideas from the village that the hall could and should have. We are entering a new phase with much to be achieved and much fun to be had. The Hall OverHaul is an exciting and wonderful opportunity to secure this hall’s future. So if you haven’t already, do step forward to help the hall like so many did back in 1974 when the hall was first completed. Specifically, the hall needs willing hands to help in: - Fund raising - Marketing - Communications - The website - Events - Maintenance - IT - Marquees & Gazebos and - The Hall OverHaul ## **Your Village Hall Needs YOU!** Thank you. David Pepper Chair East Meon Village Hall Committee chair@eastmeonvillagehall.co.uk Delivered at the East Meon Village Hall Annual General Meeting Wednesday 19th November 2025. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 3 12/03/2026 Document2 19/11/2025 Document2 19/11/2025 Document3 19/11/2025 Document3 19/11/2025 Document3 19/11/2025 ##