NORTH NORTHUMBERLAND



NORTH NORTHUMBERLAND

VILLAGE HALLS CONSORTIUM

Minutes of Ordinary Meeting held at Bamburgh Pavilion Thursday 7 September 2017

7.00 pm for 7.30pm

Present: May Wilson - Breamish Hall Powburn, Bill & Barbara Brook -Bamburgh Pavilion, John Haughie – Howick Vill Hall, Roger Styring - Lesbury Vill hall, George Courtice – Middleton, Gustav McLeod & Eileen Duncan – Ellingham Vill hall, Andy Gray and Sue Jackson -South Charlton, Maureen Blakey & Ian Blakey – Whittingham Mem Institute, Angela Peerboom & Annette Manning - Beadnell WI Hall, Dudley & Judy Williams – Newton-on-the-Moor, John & Andrea Munro Longframlington Mem Hall, Eleanor Phillips – Longhoughton Comm & Sports Centre

Apologies were received from: Jack Hasson – Chairman, Pat Moloney -Jubilee Hall, Rothbury, Heather Leatherland - Wingates Vill Institute, Jean Humphrys -Lesbury Vill hall, Vera Filer - Mitford, Pauline Martin - Ulgham WI, Joyce Porter- Dinnington, Mike Keating - Crookham, Shelagh Coxon - Creighton hall Embleton, Dawn Greally - Netherwitton, Paul McIver and Judith Scott – Eglingham, Liz Spence - St James’s ,Alnwick

Attending: Louise Currie - Community Action Northumberland (CAN)

Sylvia Pringle - iNorthumberland

| |Action |

|Welcome & apologies | |

|George Courtice explained that Jack Hasson was unable to be present and had sent his apologies. Jack had asked George | |

|if he would take his place and those present consented. GC welcomed all present and thanked Bill Brook and his fellow | |

|trustees for agreeing to host the meeting and providing such delicious cakes. | |

|Introduction from Bamburgh Pavilion | |

|Bill Brook explained that a Pavilion was first erected over 70 years ago but had burned down in 1977. It was replaced | |

|in 1979 with a new, timber framed building. Over the last 5 years major improvements to the fabric of the building | |

|have taken place. It started with a new kitchen after £20k was raised from a variety of sources including Awards for | |

|All and the Community Foundation. The roof was refelted and more recently a major refurbishment occurred at a cost of | |

|£60k (£45k from the Lottery Sports for All) which involved a new floor, insulation, boiler, redecoration thrughout. One| |

|of the lessons learnt was to keep trying - they were only successful with the Lottery grant on their third attempt. | |

|The biggest change to the earnings of the Pavilion over the last few years has been the fees earned from hosting | |

|weddings. Last year they earned £5000 and now aim for 8 weddings/year…they even have bookings for next year. The | |

|presence of Bamburgh castle across the green is clearly a major draw. Recently they decided to take over the tennis | |

|courts and need to raise £20k to bring them up to standard. Bill, who had recently stepped down as a trustee, agreed to| |

|return as Chairman for a year to help put the funding in place. GC thanked Bill for his contribution. | |

| | |

|Minutes of meeting 7 June at Lesbury Village hall. | |

|The minutes were accepted as accurate. Matters arising: Christine Nichols of CAN has asked whether any members would be| |

|interested in attending a free workshop on renewable energy and village halls. A few people present said they would. GC| |

|would send round an email inviting anyone interested to contact him. | |

| |GC |

|4. Presentation by Sylvia Pringle on fast broadband in halls | |

|Sylvia had provided limited copies of her presentation but promised to send an electronic copy to GC for wider | |

|dissemination. Sylvia had gone through our list of members and discovered that the overwhelming majority had access to | |

|superfast fibre broadband should they wish to take advantage of it. The halls which currently had no access were: | |

|Bolton, Boulmer, Ellingham (coming soon), Hepple (coming soon), Howick, Lucker (coming soon) Netherwitton (coming very | |

|soon) and Kirknewton. The next phase of roll out had started and ends in December 2018. In this phase Bolton and | |

|Boulmer are planned for fibre connection. So that leaves only two with no plans at present although Sylvia stressed | |

|that the rate of technologcal change is such that this situation could well change. | |

|Sylvia described how some village halls are benefitting from superfast broadband: warm hubs engagement, offering web | |

|based training, conferences which offered WiFi , farmers markets and craft fairs allowing payment by card, allowing | |

|halls to offer volunteer run techy tea parties helping local people to get to grips with the world of digital | |

|communication using ipads, tablets and smartphones. | |

|Halls considering installing fast broadband needed to have a telephone line, a broadband service and an access point (a| |

|home hub can provide for a maximum of about 6 people - any more, then a more expensive commercial access point would be| |

|required). Each element should be carefully costed with care taken to check the download limits offered by the | |

|providers’ various packages. Longhoughton Comm & Sports Centre who were about to have it installed reckoned their | |

|on-costs were going to be £33/month. | |

|Monitoring and controlling use is often a concern and policies should be in place but there is plenty of information & | |

|advice available as to how to achieve this. It was also important at the outset to make clear to potential suppliers | |

|that you wanted the service for a charitable organisation. Sylvia Pringle was thanked by the meeting. | |

|Notices | |

|i) Insurance changes | |

|There are a number of insurance companies /brokers specialising in village halls. The two largest are Allied | |

|Westminster and Aon but Norris Fisher, Village hall Plus Group (big in the south) and a more recent arrival, Insure | |

|Your Village hall are also very active. The change is that Aon announced a few months ago it was ceasing its | |

|involvement in community buildings. From Oct 1, assuming the client’s agreement, its old business will be transferred | |

|to Allied Westminster. Those insuring with Aon should already have been informed of the new arrangements and if your | |

|insurance was due, halls should have received a quote from Allied Westminster. A seamless transition was promised and | |

|Allied Westminster assured GC that its greater market share would not result in any reduction in quality of service or | |

|value. Contact at Allied Westminster: Helen King tel 01943 845 245. | |

|Dudley Williams asked about the value and need for trustee indemnity insurance. He was advised that provided the hall | |

|was being well run this insurance was often unnecessary but that he should seek further advice from Louise Currie of | |

|CAN. Also GC would forward some information. | |

| | |

|ii) Funding Fair at Felton Vill hall afternoon of Tuesday 26 Sept A hard copy of this notice was distributed. The | |

|deadline for notifying attendance is September 18th. A link to the booking form can be found here. | |

| | |

|iii) VAT: Parish councils and Village halls A hard copy of the changes in advice relating to community buildings |GC |

|working with parish & town councils to maximise community benefit by minimising VAT expenditure was made available to | |

|attendees. | |

|Finance & Membership | |

|GC has acted as the Consortium’s temporary Treasurer since Ted Brown stepped down in June. May Wilson will take over | |

|once our new bank account was up and running. | |

|Since the start of this financial year in April we have spent £357 and received income of £1384. This is mainly from | |

|PAT and membership fees. Our bank balance is currently £6707 which is £1027 higher than in June when we last reported. | |

|Membership. GC was pleased to report a record number of paid up members - 64 in total. He extended a thanks to all | |

|members who had paid so promptly. | |

|Next Meeting | |

|Our next meeting was due on Tuesday 28 November. A number of halls volunteered to host it but found Tuesdays difficult.| |

|Newton-on-the-Moor, Longramlington and Longhoughton. GC thanked all three and asked if he could confirm the venue and | |

|the date in the weeks ahead. |GC |

|Any Other Business | |

|George had received a note from Ted and Pauline Brown thanking us for the whisky and flowers. He also announced the | |

|sad & sudden death of a good friend to the Consortium, John Herriman of Bolton Village Hall. He would pass the | |

|condolences of members to his wife Pat and his family. | |

| | |

|Bamburgh Pavilion was again thanked for agreeing to host the meeting. | |

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