## **Chairman’s Report – AGM 2024** ## **Introduction** As another year ends, we can look back with pride having successfully operated a highly utilised and valued community asset in what is a continually challenging economic landscape. Our biggest challenge in my view is growing the membership of our Committee to ensure that a broad range of our community is represented and the workload is shared fairly. As we say farewell to Alan Brinkworth, a stalwart of the team, we must increase our efforts to make it clear that the hall cannot operate without volunteers and bring more people to the table. ## **Hall Usage** Alongside the regular large events including the village fete, Christmas Market and Quiz Night, the hall continues to be busy and well occupied, making it possible to offer great value for money to all our users whilst providing a facility that receives great feedback from visitors. The introduction of a new booking system should simplify the process of managing bookings and give us strong financial tracking. ## **Refurbishment & investment** Since our last AGM, the refurbishment of the kitchen has been completed to a high standard with strong positive feedback from users. We have been able to keep on top of decorating of the kitchen, committee room, main hall and lobby and continue to provide small improvements including new lighting to the lobby. Thanks to strong fundraising efforts, particularly driven by Owen Upton, the installation of a substantial solar array with battery storage has ensured that the hall is a resilient facility for the community and materially reduced our spending on energy. This means we can continue to offer great value for money to all our users having been able to offset increasing energy rates as our fixed deal ends. ## **Playground** At the last AGM, we reported that we had begun a project to replace the popular zip wire and that work was completed last summer ahead of a formal opening by Steve Borthwick. It continues to be a popular piece of equipment which few other play areas benefit from. We have been able to provide the village with a high-quality basketball practice hoop replacing the previous item that had failed. Other gradual repairs and improvements have ensured that we continue to offer a varied and safe set of facilities and a strong performance in our latest ROSPA inspection demonstrates the ongoing focus on maintenance. Our next major project is to replace the fencing around the tennis court to ensure it is safe and functional, whilst looking more widely at the maintenance requirements that the court will require over the coming years. ## **Fundraising** Our fundraising, led by Owen, continues to be successful with further support from Chippenham Area Board and other funders. The Events group, Fete and Village Stores continue to support us generously. An upcoming project that will require funding is replacement of the ageing tables and chairs in the hall, and we are hopeful that both a funding source and quality product have been identified. We will likely need to match-fund a proportion of the cost and we plan to offer the community the opportunity to support this by gifting a chair to the hall. ## **Landscaping** As always, Jim, Claire and their team have kept the grounds in excellent condition, including providing us with a fantastic Christmas tree for the first time. It will be necessary to remove the shelter next to the pond as it is past end-of-life and we will review what to do with that space. ## **Constitution** We reported previously that we intended to review our Constitution, and having done so we wish to convert the organisation to a Community Interest Company. However, the initial quotations for legal support in doing so have been significant and we would like to reach out to the community to establish whether there is anyone locally who could assist with this. ## **Help Required** Wrapping up with a nod back to the earlier remark around the need for more volunteers, it’s increasingly critical that we grow our Committee. We have discussed the possibility of putting in place representatives for each area of the village as a way of ensuring that all are able to contribute to the operation of the hall and we will go into the new year with some specific messages to the community seeking help. ## **Thanks** Finally, my thanks once again to the small group of volunteers that form our Committee. Your generosity in time, skills, ideas and enthusiasm allows us to continue to operate such a highly regarded and valuable community asset. Thank you.