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Woodcote Village Hall Charity

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Chairman’s Report to the Annual General Meeting
yo Woodcote Village Hall
one | 7 May 2024
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== The Woodcote Village Hall Charity is registered with the Charity Commission (number 304393) with the charitable aim of ‘providing and maintaining a village hall for the use of the inhabitants of the parish of Woodcote and surrounding District.’

The Trustees are: = Geoffrey Botting Chairman # John Worsfold Vice-chairman =» David Booth Treasurer =» Ken Ison = Sam Peates = ~=Malcolm Smith

Introduction

Last year | reported on the Parish Council’s decision to withdraw the services of the Parish Clerk as Hall Manager and the financial and operational strains this imposed upon the Charity. We have, as | note later in this report, recovered from that but are now struggling with a new challenge following the Parish Council’s decision to change the ownership structure of the Hall.

Trusteeship Changes

Currently the Parish Council are registered with the Land Registry as the owner of the Hall. However, in November 2023 the Council, based on advice of their solicitors, approved recommendations from their councillors Helen Booker and Bryan Urbick that:

i. the current arrangement whereby the Charity lease the Hall from the Parish Council be replaced by one in which the Charity become the owner of the Hall and the ‘Management Trustee’ with the Woodcote Parish Council as the ‘Custodian Trustee’ (whose only role is to hold the deeds);
ii. that a revised constitution of the Charity will be required;
iii, the Chairty become financially self-sufficient; and
iv. the Parish Council become a user of the hall paying a rent for the use of the parish office.

The impact of this on the continuing operation of the Hall was such that the Charity accepted these proposals on the understanding that:

i. amutually acceptable constitution for the charity could be agreed with the Charity Commission;
ii. the Parish Council fund the costs associated with implementing the changes;
iii. that the Parish Council pay for, or provide grants to cover the cost of, the structural changes required to remove some of the obstacles to growing the use of the Hall;
iv. that the Parish Council Pay for, or supply grants to cover, the estimated £400,000 of repairs identified in the survey commissioned by the Parish Council February 2021; and
v. AJoint Working Group of members from the Charity and Parish Council be established to make recommendations of the future of the Village Hall, the Charity’s constitution, the ownership, and the operational and financial structure of the Hall.

A condition for the continuing support by the Parish Council was that councillor Kevin Davies become a Trustee of the Charity. This will happen once the Charity’s Constitution has been amended to permit this. In the meantime, councillor Davies attends all meetings of the Trustees.

Operating Income and Expenditure

The Treasurer has presented the Charity’s accounts for the year 2023-24 which showed that despite investment in the facilities and inflationary pressures performance was on budget with a small operating surplus of £1040. This is the result of significant efforts from the Trustees and, in particular David Booth, our Treasurer, and Louisa DeVismes, our new Hall Manager. | would like to thank everyone for this outcome is what has been, and continues to be, a challenging environment.

The Charity would also like to record its thanks to the organisers of the Summer Fete and the Woodcote Rally; the proceeds of which continue to contribute to improving the Hall’s facilities.

Hall Management

The withdrawal of the Parish Clerk as the Hall Manager required the Charity to hire a replacement. This is a critical role combining marketing, user support and administration, and maintaining the facility. The Charity was fortunate to persuade Louisa DeVismes to help in this respect with significant benefit to occupancy rates, the facility improvements and, in particular, user support.

The withdrawal of the Parish Clerk also necessitated the purchase, configuration and installation of our Own accounting system as the system. This was completed, and is now running, successfully.

In addition, the automation of the Hall booking, invoicing, bookkeeping and banking has proceeded such that a new Hall booking system, HallWizard is now fully operational as is the first of several remotely controlled, via HallWizard, electronic locks.

This was no small challenge, and our thanks go to Malcolm Smith, David Booth, and Louisa DeVismes.

Hall Development

i. Facilities Improvements (financed from donations and grants) During the year the Charity has:
replaced all the main appliances in the kitchen which now has an electric range cooker with 2 ovens, a separate grill and 5 plate-hob, an extractor hood, refrigerator, microwave, hot water unit for tea and coffee making, dishwasher, hand-wash basin and stainless-steel food preparation surfaces;
"purchased new serving equipment, and a selection of basic crockery, cutlery and tea/coffee pots;
removed all non-food and non-charity materials from the kitchen and provided new lockers for regular users to store their supplies;
replaced the old refrigerator in the bar area of the Function Room with a new bottle cooler , added a microwave, urn , new glasses, and some new crockery, and an ice bucket/
added surround sound speakers to the audio system in the Main Hall; and
" replaced many the broken tables in the main Hall with new one.

Work has also begun the identify the cause of the flooding and drainage problems in both the main and the Function Room tools

if. Building Upgrade As reported last year most the building is in a poor, deteriorating state of repair . A major concern this year has been the flat roofs over the pavilion and changing rooms. The parish council has engaged architects, agreed a design and is seeking planning permission for the work. The next stage will be to agree the internal restructuring essential to increasing rental space.

Marketing and Events

| reported on the benefits accruing from the new focus on marketing the Hall in May 2023. Since then, led by Louisa DeVismes, progress has been very encouraging: increased promotion has led to an increase in bookings and a widespread awareness of the Hall as a significant Gypsy Jazz venue and sites of an entertaining Spring Fair and packed-out Autumn Food Fare. Audiences for the Village Hall Film Nights continue to grow with audiences enjoying drinks from the bar as they watch, films such as Ticket to Paradise, Barbie, Elvis, and Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One on the Hall’s big screen.

Next Year

The Charity will aim to produce a modest operating surplus to support a continuing programme of improvements to the facilities available to the community. During the previous year the Charity has absorbed the costs of new accounting systems required following the withdrawal of the Parish Clerk from the Hall Manager role and attention is now focussing on new sources of income to cover the substantial labour costs incurred by the withdrawal.

Should the Chairty assume the ownership of the Hall then the Trustees will register as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) which, generally, means the Trustees are not personally liable for what the Charity does and reduces the personal risk placed upon the Trustees by the Parish Council’s proposed Trusteeship changes.

The Charity will continue to work on improving the financial position of the Hall. Operating expenses cannot be significantly or productively reduced further thus attention must focus on income generation which, avoiding undue rent rises, requires internal changes to enable an increased occupancy. The Charity will work with the Parish Council to agree these for implementation after the — completion of the re-roofing. The Charity will also continue to work with the Parish Council to reach an agreement on the respective responsibilities and contribution of the Charity and Parish Council in the joint effort to maintain and improve an essential community asset. To date progress has been slow and agreement on the respective responsibilities for repair and maintenance of the building and grant aid to cover some of the additional costs imposed by the Parish Council’s withdrawal of the Parish Clerk as Hall Manager must be rapidly concluded to allow the Charity to focus on its charitable purpose.

Currently we have no date for the start of the work to replace the flat roofs but scheduling this to reduce the inevitable disruption will require the Charity to work closely with the Parish Council and their architects and builders and the user community.

Finally

As chair during some interesting times, |’d like to record my thanks to the Trustees for their support and efforts on behalf of the Community, to Louisa for her enthusiasm and contribution, to the Village Fete team, the many others who have helped us, and to those who have weathered the various plumbing and heating crises during the last year

Geoffrey Botting

Chairman, Woodcote Village Hall Trustees May 2024

Woodcote Village Hall

Registered Charity No 304393

Financial Report and Accounts March 2023-February 2024

The Charity’s accounts are now maintained on a Xero accounting system (data from the Alpha system, as used by the Parish Council, was transferred over on 1 March 2023). The Hall’s booking system was processed previously through “Hallmaster” and was transferred to HallWizard booking system on 1 March 2023; both systems are managed by the Village Hall Manager. In my opinion, the set of accounts prepared represents a true and fair financial position of the Woodcote Village Hall Charity for the financial period 1 March 2023 to 29 February 2024.

Below are the comments referred to in the accounts:

Total income for the 12 months is £45,270 (2022/3 £35,875) generating a loss of £(6,908). The loss for improvements to facilities of the hall was £(7,948), and the operating profit from hire of the hall and fund raising was £1,140.
The operating income for the financial year was £40,703 (2022/3 £29,502). . The operating costs were £39,963 (2022/3628, profit 103)generating an operating of £1,040 (2022/3 £1,399,|
Donations and Fund raising received in the year were £6,820. Fund raising £4,589, Woodcote Rally £2,000 and others £231.
A Grant of £8,000 was received from the Parish Council to cover extra cost incurred resulting from the Parish Clerk resigning from the roll of Hall Manager from 1 April 2023. £7,000 was offset in this year’s accounts and £1,000 held in reserves to cover March 2024 costs.
Accrued expenses of £6,411 are all current creditors. |
Prepayments £4,661 are hire receipts for bookings made for the year 2024/5. The Charity now demands payment when reservations are made.
Marketing costs of £6,127, includes £2,118 for Sales and bookings.
Reserves have decreased by £6,908 being the loss of £7,948 from the net costs profit.of the improvements to the Hall’s facilities, and the £1,040 from the operating

D Booth

J Wilson

3 May 2024

Profit and Loss Woodcote Village Hail (Charity 304393) For the year ended 29 February 2024

Account 2024 Budget

	Account	2024	Budget
	Turnover
	Operating TO
	Bank Interest	856.23	264.00
	Events income less expenses	2,159.42	800.00
	Income - Other	302.25	0.00
	Income - Hall hire	28,600.66	27,900.00
	Grant -WPC reVHMngr	7,000.00	7,000.00
	Recovery costs from Partners	1,575.00	1,575.00
	SODC Lottery Income Reverse of Drs and Prepaids from previous year	231.00 (22.00)	360.00 0.00
		40,702.56	37,899.00
	\Summer Fete sales	2,430.23	2,000.00
	Dividends Received	137.88	176.00
	Gift/Donations TotalNonoperational-Improvementstofacilties	2,000.00 4,568.11	2,176.00
	Total Turnover	45,270.67	40,075.00
;	Total Turnover	45,270.67	40,075.00
	Expenditure
	Expenditure Costs
	Administration
	Admin other costs/expenses	3,620.22	3,000.00
	Staff Costs wages	9,674.13	9,725.00
	Hall management	6,695.00	5,250.00
	Total Administration	19989.35	17,975.00
	Total Utilities	12136.90	13,614.00
	Total Maintenance	1408.89	1,408.00
	Total Marketing and Events	6127.61	4,750.00
	Improvements to Facilities
	account now closed 29 Feb Cost of Project "Change"l	1,800.00	0.00
	ReplacementF&F,equipment	5,658.95	400.00
	Refurbishments and upgrade facilities	4,957.25	2,000.00
	Closed - Marketing - Re Start the Business	100.00	0.00
	Total Improvements to Facilities	12,516.20	2,400.00
	Total Expenditure Costs	52,178.95	42,147.00
	Total Expenditure	52,178.95	42,147.00
	Profit/(Loss) on All Activities	(6,908.28)	(72.00)
	Profit/(Loss) Operating Hall	1,039.81	152.00
	Profit/(Loss)onimprovementtofacilities	(7,948.09)	(224.00)

Balance Sheet Woodcote Village Hall (Charity 304393) As at 29 February 2024

Account	Feb 2024	_Feb-23
Current Assets
Cash at bank and in hand
Current account Lloyds	2,639.12	3,191.33
32day Deposit account	10,136.26
Deposit Account - Business	7,980.23	21,556.68
Fixed term 18Mths deposit	20,546.42	20,000.00
WVH website Stripe Feeder account	89.92
Total Cash at bank and in hand	41,391.95	44,748.01
Prepayments and accrued income Prepayments	(4,661.18)	(735.00)
Total Prepayments and accrued incom	(4,661.18)	(735.00)
Accounts Receivable	70.00
CCLA Fixed Interest Fund	6,000.00	6,000.00
Debtors	1,788.00	746
Wizhall Stripe clearing account WVHWebsiteStripeclearingaccount	36.76 (228.80)
Total Current Assets	44,396.73	50,759.04
Creditors: amounts falling due within one year
Accruals	6,411.00	5,865.00
Total Creditors: amounts falling due within oney	6,411.00	5,865.00
Net CurrentAssets (Liabilities)	37,985.73	44,894.01
Total Assets less Current Liabilities	37,985.73	44,894.01
Net Assets	37,985.73	44,894.01
Capital and Reserves
Current Year Earnings	(6,908.28)	(272.21)
General Reserves	15,447.22	6,884.22
Retained Earnings	(272.21)
ReservesRestrictedbygrants/donations	14,175.00	20,838.00
Reserves restricted Grants	8,544.00	9,444.00
Reserves Disruption re building works	4,000.00	2,000.00
Reserves Restricted Charity Regulations	6,000.00	6,000.00
TotalCapitalandReserves	37,985.73	44,894.01