2023-08-31-accounts

Ovingdean Village Hall minutes 12[th] October 2023.

Meeting started at 8.15pm.

Minutes of the AGM for 2022 held on Thursday 27th October 2022 have been available in the Hall if you wanted to read them.

Does the meeting approve the minutes?

Proposed by… Teresa Stirling Seconded by… Lorna Davies

I would like to welcome everyone to the AGM of the Ovingdean Hall Management Committee.

Apologies for absence - Given by Mandy (Acting Secretary),

Rose Daly, Robbie and David Wilson, Julie Veck, Catherine Yeomans, Debbie Power, Ros Halls, Mike Buckingham, Ted Skinner, Martin Ebeling,

Matters Arising – not addressed elsewhere on the agenda, None.

Chairman’s Report

The Hall committee met regularly throughout the year.

Hall bookings and user group meetings are back to and exceeding pre-pandemic levels. The Oxford International School are very keen to integrate with the Hall and they have booked a couple of slots for their activities. We are also expecting the teachers to join the club as members.

Thank you very much Suzie for your work and considerable patience in organising the bookings. Everyday maintenance and gardening conducted whenever required. We do have a regular contract for the gardening and a local window cleaner comes at agreed intervals.

More major items of expenditure were the PAT testing of the electrical items. Fire extinguishers replaced, following a very comprehensive Fire Safety visit and report. Steve Wedd has agreed to be our Safety Officer, thank you Steve. This year has been more general repairs and replacements, but we will be having the hall decorated next February following four quotes received from local firms. We have chosen a Company and have agreed a start date of 19[th] February for approximately 2 weeks. The Hall will close throughout this time. Provisional re-opening is Monday 4[th] March but may be the weekend before.

At this point, I would like to express my sincere thanks to Debbie and Catherine for the immense amount of work they do in the Hall.

I know they are sunning themselves in Cape Verde at present and will not be thinking about how much they are missing the AGM but

it is safe to say that the Bar and the Hall would not run as it does without their hard work and amazing support for the Village.

At the beginning of the Hall year, we were lucky enough to have a new Secretary and Treasurer. Unfortunately, Louise had to resign for various family reasons halfway through and I have recently had a conversation with Julie that she wishes to stand down as Treasurer.

Mandy has been kind enough to step into the breech as an acting Secretary and we are grateful for all the work she is doing.

We will need a new Treasurer, so if there is anyone here who feels they would like to join us please let me know or even if you know of anyone who we could speak to about the role. Thank you, Julie, for the work you have done during the year. Unfortunately, she could not be here tonight.

There are several people involved in the successful running of the Hall. To all the committee who put in a great amount of work to ensure everything runs as efficiently as possible, a big thank you. Also, to everyone involved in serving behind the bar and keeping the hall clean, especially Debbie, ensuring it is ready for use and clearing up any mess afterwards. Also, to the gardeners who look after the patio and flower beds.

Please remember, the Hall is run by volunteers who are willing to give their time to make the village hall a warm and welcoming place to come. Things do not always run completely smoothly but we do our best to ensure things turn out right in the end. Please support the events, bar and family nights and other functions run by the multitude of clubs and user groups.

This is my 9[th ] AGM as Chair and I apologise if much of what you have heard is remarkably familiar, but it is difficult to put what I want and need to say in different words. It is a pleasure to be your chair and to meet with so many wonderful people on a regular basis. Thank You

Included on the agenda is ‘Proposed merger of Hall and Club.’

For those of you who do not know the history of the Hall and club, when we applied for Charity status in 1988, we were told the Hall can be a charity, however the club would have to be separate because a charity cannot be wholly reliant of the sale of alcohol for its funds. Hence the club was set up.

This situation has now changed, and the Hall is not reliant on the club alcohol sales for its income. You can see from the accounts that the other income streams are higher than what is transferred from the club. It is only sensible to look at the current year as the 3 years previous have been decimated by Covid.

It is our proposal, with your agreement to merge the Hall and Club for the purposes of accounting and the Charity Commission.

Richard has spoken to the Charity Commission, and they now see no reason we cannot merge. There will be no real visible difference in the way things operate. The Club will still be run by a committee and the Chair will be a Trustee of the Hall Committee as has always been the case. This Committee will still make the decisions about the club and the everyday running of it. At the end of the year, the results will be amalgamated into one set of accounts with one AGM.

This is a basic outline of our proposal. If the meeting approves this, we will put the details together to ensure it runs smoothly with the input of both Committees.

Are there any questions?

Christine asked how many committees would be needed, Richard replied two and in principle things would run the same. The hall does not want to be involved in running of club, sub committees will be made. No change will be noticeable. The main positive would be to only have one set of accounts at the end of each financial year alongside saving money with insurances, bought to the room by Lorna Davis. Christine raised the issue of insurance being the same price Richard replied that hopefully being one it would be cheaper as one Company. Richard said we can run this the way we want and can talk about this as we go into the merger.

Faye asked what would happen if bar takings overtook the user groups, Richard said he did not think that would happen, if it did, we take point on board and discuss. Marion Higgins stated the rule was set years ago and that the sole income was the bar.

Alison then wanted to clarify dual savings and less people to find…one treasurer and one secretary.

Can we have a vote?

Proposed by Suzie Baird Seconded by Nick Baird

Majority of the floor agreed, Abstention by Christine, Richard replied we did not have all information as not sure it would have been voted in favour of, so finer details could be thrashed out. So, in principle it was good. Richard thanked everyone.

Whilst looking at the merger, the ‘Area of Benefit’ has been discussed. This was again set up in 1988 and a radius of 1200 metres from the Village Hall was deemed sufficient to encompass what Brighton Borough Council called the Ovingdean Neighbourhood.

With the new development in Ovingdean Road and the new apartments about to be built at Blind Veterans. we feel the area should be widened slightly to include these and the potential for new members. We are proposing an increase to 1500 metres radius from the village hall. Richard has spoken to the Charity Commission, and they agree that we can do this under the terms we operate under.

Any questions?

Why was it 1200 metres, Mike Higgins reported that at the time, charity commission said a circumference of the village hall was to be used. Marion Higgins asked Richard if he had measured this area out as to where the new boundaries would be, he said he had done it manually and it would include Blind veterans, Rottingdean, more of Woodingdean and a little of Roedean and would go out to sea!

Lorna asked if old rules still apply. Associate members pay more for first year. Could we change? Pauline then said that guests can be signed in and everyone can access classes and groups and people choose what they want to be involved in. A Circle diagram is the suggested method to draw area and keep to what we know, Russell suggested good idea to keep existing area and extend.

Can we have a vote?

Proposed by Rusell Smith Seconded by David Day

Majority of the room agreed. Richard thanked the room.

Richard then reported on Julie’s behalf her treasurer report. Please find these attached. CCLA not up to date. Awaiting the Statement

True reflection

Proposed by Marion Higgins Seconded by Pat Anderson.

Election. Re-elect the existing elected members of the committee seeking re-election for 2023/2024 are Richard Lintott, Martin Ebeling, Steve Wedd, Suzie Baird, Russell Smith, and Mandy Saunders

Please can we have a proposer and seconder to re-elect these six in a block…. We have vacancies for a Treasurer and Secretary.

Just to remind you, the committee elected at the AGM will be appointed into the committee at the first meeting which is on November 28th.

User Group Representatives

The User Group representatives nominated by each group to attend the Hall meetings and should be at the AGM.

Arts Club TBC Julie Palling to stand down. Bowls Club Marion Higgins Gardening Club Lorna Davies ORPS Bernadette Skinner Village Club Geoff Woods St Wulfrans/PCC Pat Couchman WI Teresa Stirling

are the ones that are eligible to vote. You can send a representative to the meetings if you cannot attend but they cannot vote.

Proposed by Sheila Buckingham Seconded by Pat Anderson.

Diana Woolridge said Julie Palling did not want to be a trustee. Committee members suggested they find another representative. Committee agreed she could not continue unless she became a trustee.

To Appoint an Independent Examiner.

John Bryant has said he is willing to continue. Thanks to John for agreeing to carry on. I presume there are no other nominations or volunteers.

Proposer Teresa Stirling

Seconder Derrick Stirling

Our thanks to John Byrant.

Any Other business

Sheila Buckingham suggested that the ploughman’s fee to be increased to £5.00. Everyone agreed to this and to start as soon as possible. Mandy to ask Catherine to include this information in an email to members.

Proposed by Sheila Buckingham Seconded by David Day

Christine asked about booking online system. Suzie is looking into this with Russell and will start the system once her life is a little less busy! And will be organised as soon as possible.

Once again, thank you for coming, meeting closed. 8.50pm There will follow the AGM of the Ovingdean Village Club.

Ovingdean Village hall Charity number

Income and expenditure for the year ended 31st August 2023

Income User groups Club Hall hire Events Ploughmans Raffle Total income Expenditure Major repairs over £250 General maintenance Cleaning Gardening Light & heat PHS Rent Rates Water rates Insurance Fire inspection and security Electrical PRS Telephone and broadband Postage and stationery Sundries Total expenses Profit/(deficit) for the year Balance sheet as at 31st August 2023 Assets and Liabilities Cash in hand Cash at bank Deposit account Investments CCLA Reserves Reserves as at 1st Sept 2022 Profit/(deficit) for the year Increase/ (decrease) in investment for the year Reserves as at 31st Aug 2023	8,456 11,500 3,905 554 1,011 298	2023 25,723 18,245	7,180 2,656 334	2022 10,170 16,689
	- 920 5,735 1,245 3,618 390 1,650 254 370 1,507 678 642 244 335 153 505		3,281 544 4,800 930 2,715 354 1,650 298 232 454 361 33 1,037
	100 13,236 5		1,692 4,165 5
		7,478		6,519 -
		13,340 64,027		5,862 63,313
	7,478 714		6,519 - 6,425 -
		77,367		69,175
		69,175 8,192		77,119 12,944 -
		77,367		64,175

EXAMINERS REPORT OIIINGDEAN VILLAGE HALL YEAR ENDING 31 AUGUST 2023 Rwrt to the trusteesl members of Cfvingdean Village Hall On accounts for the y•ar •nd•d 11&f23 Charlty no 240453 R•sponibllilies and basis of r•por As th• charrty trusteos of th• Tnmt, you Jre responsible for the Fwarati of th• accounts In A¢¢ordano wilh the requifemènts of the Charitj'es Act 2011 {Ih• Act"). I report in respect of my examination of tha Trust's •¢COUftls carri¢d out undér section 145 of Ihe 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I havo followed the app1￿?bIe Diredions given by the Charty Commi$$ton under section 145{5)Ib) ot the ACL Independ•nt 9xamin•r's stat•m6nt I have cOm￿etd my examinab"on. I Confirm th•t no material matters hav• mft io my attention (other than thal disclosed ￿loW "l in conne¢tion with tho exarnin4t￿n whth giv•s rne cause to beI￿ve that in. any material r•spect: accountin9 records werf• rtot kapt in accordanc• wlth S•cbon 130 01 th• Act or the accounts do r￿t accord with the •C￿unting records I have no ￿nCem* and have come across no other matters in c￿ne¢￿'0n wrth the examination to which attention should be drawn in ord•r to anable proper under5tandina of the accounts to be r•ached. Sign•d: Dat•- 8112r23 Name: John A Bryant Addr•ss: 8, The Rotyngs Rottingdean BN2 7DX