lohnshaven Village Hall Annual General Meeting Thursday 25th lanuary 2024 2. Chairfs report gave the Chair's reporL a copy of which is given at the end of these iiiiiiutes. 3. Treasurerfs report lan gave his Treasurer's report, a copy of which is at the end of these minutes. 4. Election of office bearers thanked the comlnittee for their work over the last year and Inanaged the election of office bearers. Karelia stood down as Chair but there ii-ere no nominations for this role frotn the Committee. It was siiggested that coijld take. lip the role of Chair again with the support Of￿ as Secretary. Both￿ to have a think about this before the next meetin& was nominated by to be the Vice Chair/President and this was secoiided by lan was iioiiiinated to be Treasurer by￿ and this was seconded b￿ll1 Chairfs Report Last year was another busy and successful one at the Hall. More ilnprovements were made to the building and its facilities. and we are now seeing a significant increase in the number of people using the Hall and in the activities and events on offer to our community. A lot was accoTnplished in 12 months and this would not have been possible without the people sitting round this table. The biggest projert last year was the installation of solar panels and battery storage. With funding froTn the Scottish Government's Comvnunity & Renewable Energy Scheme and the National Lottery. our panels and batteries should lead to an estimated annual saving of around £2500 on our bills as well as 2 tonnes in carbon etnissions. A clear picture of the actual Savings Jnade should emerge by the Spring once we’ve had a full year of solar power. With our external and roof space insulation, led lighting, air source heating and solar panels, we must now be up there with the greenest village halls in Aberdeenshire. Thanks to funding from Tullo, the Upper Hall is now fully furnished and we bought new tables for the Small Hall. A number of foldable, bistro style tables were purchased and have already proved their worth at evening events. Other improvements to the building include the repainting of the kitchen which is now looking much more wholesome. did this at a reduced price for us which we very much appreciated. Beautiful flag signs advertising the cafes at the Hall now fly high each week thanks to the kindness of . We also have an excellent, new PA system which has been very useful at large events. Many thanks to John for all his efforts in organising this. In terms of safety, we have taken some strides forward over the last year. did a lovely job of updating the fire information signage and we now have a muster sign outside the Hall which can be seen from Gourdon! Aberdeenshire Council Roads Team very kindly painted a white line on the road to discourage parking outside the Emergency Exit in the Main Hall. This have proven very effective. all continue to do regular tests and checks on the building to make sure it is safe for people to use and that we comply with legislation. Thanks to their efforts, we now have a thorough system in place. More Committee members underwent First Aid training so the majority of the committee is now trained up. The Hall is busier than ever. There are more activities in the daytime, almost every week night is booked and there are many weekend events in the Hall diary. There may be a number of reasons behind this but the new annexe has to be a factor. It has been transformative, changing people’s perceptions of the Hall and its potential as a venue. Badminton for children has returned to the Hall, something would have been delighted to see. This got off the ground with the help of Active Schools, Aberdeenshire Council, and is being run by local volunteers. The support from the Active Schools team was excellent. A youth/adult badminton session is also now on offer. We have new Soulsa and Yoga sessions in the Hall and the community café continues to be a real success. art weekends ran again last year, bringing people into Johnshaven for her excellent classes and benefiting both the hall and the village itself. Although obviously biased, I think the Hall Committee did a magnificent job last year in organising and running events. From the gig to the BCO, five NEAT touring theatre productions including a puppet show for kids, the Fish Fest Café, the Hallowe’en Minifest and the Christmas Fair, we provided entertainment and fun for all ages. We also managed to raise some funds for the Hall along the way. The job of some hall committees is simply to manage a building rather than make things happen there. It is considerably more work to 2 put on events but it does add so much to village life and I hope people feel it’s worthwhile. Finally, a huge thank you to every member of this Committee for their help last year and a very special mention for our youngest recruit, Ivy, who is clearly a natural and is showing great skills as a committee member! I’d like to say a big thank you to for his work on the Hall finances, to for all her help and to for her invaluable assistance with the bills. We are very lucky to have two excellent Trustees in . On behalf of the committee, I’d like to thank you both for your ongoing support for the Hall and the local community, it makes a real difference. has now been our Hall Keeper for 25 years and has been outstanding in her service to this Hall and the people who come through its doors. A huge thank you once again from all of us. And we could not get by without the wonderful job does for us as Hall Cleaner. Thank you so much Dottie! I’ve written a lot of these AGM reports over the years, I reckon around 12 in all. So I think the time has come for me to stand down as Chair and let someone else have a shot. It seems a healthy thing to have a change and bring a new way of doing things and some fresh ideas to the group. Perhaps it would also be helpful to have someone with less lurid colour sense in this role. Possibly someone who likes beige. ## **Treasurers report** A healthy year with credit of just over £1000 and a balance of around £16,000. The main projects in this financial year were: finishing the extension and the installation of solar power. The solar power system cost £18.7K and was largely funded by a grant from the Scottish Government CARES scheme and the National lottery. As the extension was not funded through the village hall the main costs are not included in the accounts but a total of £3,813 was spent on furnishings to complete the project. A major expense in recent years has been power. This year the situation has improved with the installation of the solar cells and batteries, with also a reduction in the cost of power. We are currently paying 18.3/23.0 p/kWh. The value in the accounts does not represent our actual costs as a credit has been built up with the unchanged payments to the electricity supplier. Payments to Ringlink are therefore currently on hold and will be reviewed in the spring once we have a better idea of what our actual usage pattern is. Donations: We have been grateful to receive a total of £2,435 this year, £1,150 from the Fish festival Committee and three personal donations totalling £635. Income this year is back to, and in some cases greater than, pre-pandemic levels. Events have been of particular note, income being £5,266. More than £4000 greater than last year and also more than our prepandemic high ( .£3,367 in 2016/17). Hopefully this is a reflection of the works we have conducted to make the hall a more desirable venue over the last few years. 3 Inrthne Expenditltre Salary/aeanerHall Keeper a*anIn￿Sundrie5 Events Lutky Flall intenarKe Projects Ucenses/Fees Insurance Elettrkity ,08250 Q.680.(71 £1.981.60 E306.39 £3.851.53 £1.128.00 £1,232.88 £24.101.41 £388.00 Regu￿r1ets Fundraiser Donation5 E¥ents Credtt kry Hall £2228.Cl) Grants £19.634. £2.435.CKI 265.93 £5.010.00 Total £J9326.29 Totsl E37.999.81 End olye8rstatus Bank Cash £15.616.65 £496.C Total credlt on y￿r Deficit on year 6.112.65 £1.199.66 N/A 2023-24 Accounts ohnshaven vlllage hall accounts 2023-2024 Income lets Regular lets Fundraiser Donations Events Credit Lucky Hall Grants Expendlture Salary/ Cleaner Hall Keeper Cleaning/Sundrles Events Lucky Hall Maintenance Projetts Llcenses/Fees Insurance Electrlcity £7,082.50 £2,680.00 £1,981.60 £306,39 £3,851,53 £1,128.00 £1,232.88 £24,101.41 £388.00 £2,435.00 £5,265.99 £2,228.00 £19,634.80 £5,010.00 Total £39,326.29 Total £37,999.81 End of year status Bank Cash £15,616.65 £496.00 Total credlt on year Deflcit on year £16,112.65 £1,199.66 N/A