LONG MELFORD VILLAGE MEMORIAL HALL ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
7.30pm on Monday 23[rd] August 2021
Present: R. Delderfield (Chairman), P. Buck (Melford Movies, Secretary), L. Tipper (Treasurer, Parish Council), E. Haywood (Lettings Secretary), J. Nunn (Heritage Centre), P. Windsor (Scouts), Alison Ewbank (PCC), M. Richards (RBL), J. Willets, 23 members of the public.
The Chair welcomed the public and explained the constitution of the LMVMH committee including the conditions relating to the AGM.
1. Apologies for Absence
Apologies were received from J. Ebejer (WI).
2. Minutes of the previous AGM (September 2020)
The Chair noted that the minutes of the previous AGM had been discussed and agreed by the Committee. As most of the current audience were not in attendance at that meeting, a vote on the the accuracy of those minutes was not put to the meeting.
3. Treasurer’s Report
Lisa Tipper presented her report as follows:
“A copy of the independently examined accounts is on the back of the agenda sheet.
Comparing the year to March 31st 2021 with that of the previous year, our income was £2,186 less than the previous year and this was due to the hall being closed for a large part of the year. The overall bookings income was down £11,327 YOY. There were also £1,226 of refunds on bookings made due to COVID. Melford Movies income was also down YOY by £1,549
However, donations increased YOY by £5,706 – of particular note was the £20,708 that were received during the course of the year from BDC as COVID grants – these were awarded to the Village Hall because it is registered with Babergh to pay business rates and after a simple form was filled out these donations were made in various different tranches.
Car park donations were up on last year by £129. And from this year Melford Matters has come under the umbrella of the Village Hall and its invoicing and expenditure is being recorded within the accounts and we would like to thank Pat Davey for kindly donating £200 towards Melford Matters. The aim of Melford Matters is for it to be self-funding, so the revenue it receives from advertisers should cover the costs of the printing.
There is a new line entitled Admin – for income that didn’t fall under any of the other listings, and the £443 is a combination of the sale of second-hand chairs and plate warmer and also the Heritage Centre’s donation towards the annual insurance.
Turning to extraordinary expenditure, just over £3,500 was spent to improve the quality and offer of Melford Movies with a new sound system and projector being purchased. It was also agreed to finally upgrade the chairs in the hall and the first instalment of 56 chairs were purchased at a cost of £1,600. Purchases were made to make the hall Covid secure and a repair to the car park tarmac was required and this was financed via the accumulated car park donations.
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At the end of the financial year the bank balance with Barclays for 2020/21 stood at £25,633 and for 2019/20 it was £12,095. As we have a good amount of money sitting in the bank now, the committee has been preparing a Reserves Policy and decisions will be made by the new committee on this matter.
I would like to take the opportunity to thank Mrs. Rosey Eade for her time and experience in carrying out the independent examination of our accounts.”
There were no questions regarding the Treasurer’s report.
4. Lettings Secretary’s Report
Elzabeth Haywood presented her report:
“This will be a rather short report for, as you can well imagine, the period I am basing my report on – April 1[st] 2020 to March 31[st] 2021 – was the year of the onset of Covid: a most trying time of great uncertainty which started with a lockdown, then we had a slight lifting of government regulations in the summer which was followed by the introduction of zoning, another lockdown then by an even stricter lockdown.
All our bookings for the Spring of 2020 had to be cancelled and it was not until August that we were able to reopen following stringent government Covid guidelines for the reopening and letting of Village Halls enforced through Suffolk Acre. To start off with the govt was keen to promote socially distanced classes for children and adult fitness classes. We were able to restart our Baby Ballet class as well as introduce a Fitness class on Tuesday and Thursday mornings and evenings. A socially distanced Melford Movies was also able to restart.
Then at the beginning of November we entered another lockdown period and everything had to be cancelled. In December we were allowed to resume our permitted classes but only briefly as another lockdown was enforced.
Basically the lettings year has been a series of cancellations, rebookings, cancellations, rebookings, and cancellations.
To end on a positive note, looking forward, once lockdown restrictions began to be lifted in mid May our calendar quickly began to fill up and we are now in fact much busier than we ever were pre-Covid.”
There were no questions regarding the Lettings Secretary’s report.
5. Chairman’s Report
R. Delderfield present his report.
“I very well remember the last few weeks of March last year as we were supposed to be in Australia to attend our grandson’s wedding and our granddaughter’s graduation but the world was brought to a halt in the middle of March and we missed both events and subsequently the birth of our great granddaughter.
Consequently, April 1st 2020 was not exactly April Fool’s Day. Just a few weeks before we had concluded all of the refurbishment of the village hall including new doors front and back. AND THEN SHUT – the strangest of years to report upon.
During the course of the Covid closed year we have tweaked various elements of our refurbishment programme, most especially in the store by the side of the stage. This has enabled us to provide equipment storage facilities for two organisations who otherwise would not have been able to make good regular bookings
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If you reflect upon our Hon Treasurer’s report and remove the Covid Grant money and early monies coming from the Melford Matters Magazine our turnover for the whole year was just £1,900 but of course the expenses continued to come in and how very grateful we are to Babergh District Council for the several generous Covid Grants we received.
I am indebted to our committee and most especially those with very practical and demanding voluntary challenges – Elizabeth in her role as Lettings Manager has had to find her way through the myriad of government advice and guidance whenever it MIGHT be possible to reopen the hall and constant questions much of the time as to when are we going to open.
Phil Buck took on the challenge of become our Hon. Secretary with every meeting and every government change giving him more and more reading to ensure that his guidance to us was the most appropriate and up to date.
Lisa Tipper took on the demanding role of Hon. Treasurer, thank you Lisa for presenting our Independent Examined accounts with a clean bill of health and because of BDC Covid Grants a very healthy bank balance.
The new committee will be considering what projects the healthy bank balance might support before we look at investing surplus funds for the future.
Philip Windsor has kindly committed himself to bringing our web site home with the initial help of Indigo Ross and setting about to much improve the information base of the web page to make it a community support.
During the latter part of the year, we have been pleased to provide the new Melford Matters magazine with an accounting base and it has integrated well into our system.
Looking forwards we have now engaged Stour Valley Catering to operate our bar facility as required and it is encouraging to note that our long-standing monthly events such as the Antique Fair have made tentative restarts but the organiser is very concerned about the pandemic’s effect on his traders and visitors.
There are two factors that may have an effect on village hall business, firstly the closure of the URC hall has already brought the Kurling Group to this hall on a fortnightly basis and secondly, we have an unknown effect of the opening of the new and no doubt splendid facility at the Football Club. I guess both buildings will find their place in providing social facilities in Long Melford.
So, thank you to the whole committee for your support and to those who have taken on a demanding yet voluntary role, THANK YOU VERY MUCH.”
One member of the audience asked for clarification of the financial year end and the car parking receipts since that date. The Chair noted that income from the car parking donations box had been increasing since the year end. This income was being used for car park costs such as minor repairs. Lisa Tipper noted that in the current financial year she had already recorded car park donations in excess of £1,300.
6. Election of Committee Members
The Chairman confirmed that four of the current committee members (R. Delderfield, E. Haywood, P. Buck, J. Willets) had offered themselves for election to the committee. He thanked the other elected member, S. Ilczenko, for her service on the committee over the year. A member of the public, Helen Read, had offered to stand for election to the committee. There being 5 candidates and 5 elected positions, the Chair requested the meeting to confirm the election of those 5 candidates. This was carried unanimously.
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7. Other Business
A member of public proposed a vote of thanks to the Committee and its members for their stewardship of the hall over the year. This received the full support of those present.
There being no further business the Chairman closed the meeting at 19.47hrs.
Signed: Position: Date:
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Village Hall Bank Account Overview 2020/2021
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APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR TOTAL
Income £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £
Regular 80.00 536.00 629.00 1,245.00
Over/under payments 0.00
Caretaker 0.00
Casual Lettings 58.50 20.00 120.00 52.00 250.50
Car Park Revenue 40.00 260.00 313.00 613.00
Bar Income 0.00
COVID 19 Refunds -380.00 -104.00 -60.00 -212.00 -32.00 -438.50 -1226.50
Nethergate 0.00
Donations & Grants 10200.00 200.00 1334.00 7278.00 2096.00 21,108.00
Admin 68.00 340.00 35.00 443.00
Melford Matters 1327.00 3206.19 450.00 4,983.19
Melford Movies 296.50 211.50 70.50 578.50
TOTAL MTHLY INCOME 9820.00 0.00 234.50 -60.00 -172.00 1180.50 1581.50 930.50 70.50 8657.00 3206.19 2546.00 27994.69
APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR TOTAL
£ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £
0.00
Babergh Rates 0.00
Electricity 107.25 30.96 25.90 26.84 78.84 116.31 109.27 85.96 581.33
Gas 45.18 6.30 6.51 6.30 6.51 7.09 8.02 14.58 6.88 30.10 76.52 47.68 261.67
Water 112.07 14.27 51.00 45.35 222.69
Telephone/Internet 4.96 21.60 21.60 21.60 21.60 21.60 21.60 21.60 21.60 21.60 21.60 21.60 242.56
Caretaker / Cleaning 243.58 15.00 63.00 15.00 348.00 30.00 714.58
Howe (Grass) 400.00 400.00
Babergh Bins 55.94 55.94 55.94 55.94 55.94 55.94 111.86 447.50
Babergh Licence 70.00 70.00
Insurance 1051.77 1,051.77
Anglian Fire services 318.00 12.00 330.00
Sundry 51.00 300.00 351.00
Nethergate 0.00
Parish Council 0.00
Melford Movies 3528.71 280.30 31.50 84.00 40.25 3,964.76
Website 150.00 540.00 16.50 66.00 772.50
Repairs & renewals 84.00 268.91 927.31 97.20 1,377.42
Equipment 1873.62 655.30 54.92 2,583.84
Melford Matters 1085.00 1,085.00
Uncashed Cheque 0.00
Cashed Cheque from previous mth 0.00
0.00
TOTAL MTHLY EXPENSES 550.97 58.86 320.08 6,716.98 739.35 449.12 1,248.33 1,436.43 363.71 937.95 207.39 1,427.45 14,456.62
Monthly increase/decrease 9,269.03 -58.86 -85.58 -6,776.98 -911.35 731.38 333.17 -505.93 -293.21 7,719.05 2,998.80 1,118.55
Year to Date increase/decrease 9,269.03 9,210.17 9,124.59 2,347.61 1,436.26 2,167.64 2,500.81 1,994.88 1,701.67 9,420.72 12,419.52 13,538.07
Balance B/Fw 12,095.81
2019/20 Bank Balance 21,364.84 21,305.98 21,220.40 14,443.42 13,532.07 14,263.45 14,596.62 14,090.69 13,797.48 21,516.53 24,515.33 25,633.88
Barclays Current account 21,159.84 21100.98 21015.4 14238.42 13327.07 14058.45 14391.62 13885.69 13592.48 21311.53 24310.33 25428.88
M M Float 205.00 205.00 205.00 205.00 205.00 205.00 205.00 205.00 205.00 205.00 205.00 205.00
TOTAL 21,364.84 21,305.98 21220.40 14443.42 13532.07 14263.45 14596.62 14090.69 13797.48 21516.53 24515.33 25633.88
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LONG MELFORD VILLAGE MEMorL HALL-ANNUAL ACCOU[S COMPARISON 2018r2019 tv 2019r202(I to 202012021 2020121 2019120 2018119 INCOME TOTALS 250.50 1.165.(K) TOTALS 5,435.Q2 6.935. 4,353.QO Regulars Comd RefiEnd Bar Income MeSford Movie8 Inc4)me Meword Matters Income Donatons & 9rants Car park revenue 1.014.33 895.14 3,082.55 T18.50 6.023.CK) I 20,908.00 15.201.09 484.00 1.62D.00 443.(M) ', 28.9505 31.768.46 17.967.71 EXPENSE Bar expenses IPRS) & Bar licence BinslGrass cutts.ng RepairsJmntenanCe CarelakerlCleanin9 Suppks Gas Eleetnty . Water R*es Telephone Insurance Firè Chècks Equiprnent Purchase NQdford Movies Exp's Mdford Matters Exp's Electnc stoveldisp¢yae of gas cooker Internet & Web Site 29D_19 772.94 2,401.15 822.94 18.949.70 200.30 331.67 1.908.75 433.21 1 8903 20.(x)"I . 1,282.33 473.96 79.49 974.33 330.(X) 2.515_10 3.964.76 503.79 1.191.72 1,716.69 1,015.% 1 351. 684 08 Bad debtwbte iiff TOTAL 14726.62 29.387.09 14.690.55 Cumlative Profft (Loss) Balance BIFNvd Year End Total 1381.37 9,784.44 11165.81 3.277.16 6.507.28 9,784.44 11165.81 26,393.69 ' Bank Accounts Debtors Prepaxments Credrtots bfvdd Year End Total 25.633.88 839.81 11095.81 40_00 -10.IXJ -10.CM): 26,393.69. 1116S.811 £9.784.44 I have examinad thése aceounts and based on the inforniath)n proMded. I caTr confimi that this rs a true ané accurate record Daled osemary Eade- Independent Examiner