Craignish Village Hall AGM - 29.11.06 Draft Minutes

Present: There were 10 members of the public and 8 committee members present.

Minutes: The Minutes of the AGM held on 30.11.05 were read. Their adoption was proposed by Mairi Thornhill and seconded by Paul Smyth.

Matters arising: The formation of a new structure for the hall committee was still under consideration. Legal advice will need to be sought.
Following the last AGM, a badminton court was marked out by tapes, in Hall 1 and an active badminton club now plays regularly.

Chair's Report: Peter reported on the first year of running the hall, which had been interesting and challenging. It was gratifying that most, if not all the comments from both users and performers had been favourable. During the year the following issues were covered: Financial tidying up in relation to s structural beam which had failed. This was settled amicably between the builders, the engineer, the architect and the hall committee.

The builders are still in the process of completing the snagging issues which have come to light over the past year. This should be finalised by the end of November.

Poor drainage at the rear of the hall results in mud being carried down from the track. Funds will need to be found to build a retaining wall and to improve the drainage.

Learning how to manage the hall and the sophisticated equipment within it is still ongoing. To date John Sinclair has been available when required, but capable volunteers are needed who can run the equipment when John is not available.

The heating system is still not working in the way that we think that it should. This issue is in hand and should be resolved soon.

The grounds round the hall were planted by Bob and Jane Goudy and already this has made a tremendous difference. Thanks are due to both the Goudy's for doing the work and for donating plants and to Philip Bowden Smith of Braevallich Nursery, who also donated plants

Running the Hall Usage of the hall has been higher than anticipated, but running costs have also been higher. Although there have been complaints that hall charges are too high, it can be seen from the financial statements that these are necessary to cover the running costs . However the committee recognised that that the charging structure was complicated, so separate charges for use of the sound/light equipment and kitchen have now been dropped. It is important that a maintenance fund is built up for the future.

The committee has discussed the possibility of appointing a Hall Manager as the amount of work involved is becoming more than can be expected of volunteers. Comments on this idea would be welcome.

After a long time in the planning and following some modifications to Hall 3, the Pre five unit is now up and running and proving a great asset to the community.

The computers have been very well used throughout the year, both in terms of public internet access and Argyll College courses.

Performances and Exhibitions
Over the past 12 months there have been a wide variety of exhibitions and performances ranging from well attended mainstream events to smaller more specialised events with smaller audiences. The committee feels that for the future it should organise fewer events involving outside performers but that they should be of a higher calibre. Comments on this would be welcome.

Cleaning
A survey of hall users carried out before the building opened indicated that having a hall cleaner was a high priority. Thanks are due to Drew Watson who started out as a volunteer caretaker and cleaner. Drew was an enormous help earlier in the year and although he has relinquished his 'jobs' he is still always willing to give a hand. The caretaking side of things has been taken over by the committee, but we are extremely lucky to have Lizzie McVean as Hall Cleaner. Lizzie is an invaluable part of the team - not only does she keep the hall looking really good, but she always notices if something is not working or needing attention which is a great help to the committee.

Thanks Thanks are due to both Erica Thornhill and Chirsty McLarty who stood down from the committee during the year, after many years of service.

Thanks to Clive Brown who has become the hall's unofficial electricity consumption expert and system analyst.

Finally thanks to the rest of the committee for all their hard work during the year.

Secretary's Report: Hall usage has exceeded expectations. There are now 11 groups using the hall on a regular basis and 6 on an occasional basis. In addition Elemental Arts took Hall 2 for 3 weeks during the Arts festival.

There have been 9 private parties, 4 wedding receptions, and 6 day conferences/meetings. Of these several required refreshments which the committee took on as fund raising opportunity. Thanks are due to Lucy Thornhill who came down from Oban to help.

The secretary thanked the majority of hall users for paying within the fortnight allowed, but explained that late payment created a lot of extra work for the bookings secretary.

During the year, 17 different events have been organised by the Hall Committee. Of these, 12 involved professional performers, 2 were fund raising events and 3 were social events.

Arts Report. The committee was indebted to The Scottish Arts Council, Argyll & The Isles enterprise and Awards for All for providing grant aid for the Arts Programme.

During the course of the year, Tom McCardel resigned from the Arts sub committee and his place was taken by Viv Dobbie. The sub committee now consists of Tom Fisher (Chair), Jan Brown, Viv Dobbie and Paul Smyth. The hall is unable to get a Public Entertainments Licence, but the Arts sub committee can get 4 occasional licences per year, in addition to those available to the Hall, so it had been agreed to operate on that basis.

Meetings:
During the year in addition to meeting with Argyll & Bute Council, Paul & Jan had attended a CADISPA (Conservation & Development in Sparsely Populated Areas) day conference. They had also met with representatives from Arrochar & Tarbet Development Trust and Furnace Hall, who wanted to learn from experience gained in Craignish.

Visits had been received from representatives of Boat of Garten and Lismore.

In April members of Argyll & Bute Council visited the hall to assess it for an architectural Planning Award. Although the hall did not win outright, it was Highly Commended and congratulations and thanks are due to Tom McCardel.

In June members of HIPP came down for an ERDF monitoring visit, which was quite intense, but which resulted in a favourable report.

In October, Sarah Menzies from CADISPA came to update herself on how the project was progressing.

Awards:
In addition to the Planning Award, the hall has been shortlisted in its category for a National Energy Award. Paul and Mary Smyth will be attending a dinner at the Science Museum, in London, when the winners will be announced.

Evaluation Study:
As part of the terms and conditions under which the large grant for the Community Fund (now The Big Lottery Fund) was received the committee was obliged to undertake an evaluation study. The first part of this was done in 2004 and the second part has now started, with a general survey sheet currently available in the hall. The main bit of part 2, will take place in the autumn of 2007, when once again every household in the community will be surveyed.

Pre Five unit:
After a huge number of obstacles had been overcome, the Craignish Primary School Pre five unit finally opened in September. Thanks were due to Aidan Gregory for making the various last minute alterations and amendments as required by The Care Commission. As it stands the unit can only be registered for 10 children, however over the Christmas Holidays a second toilet is to be fitted in place of the shower, which will allow the unit to take up to 16 children. Ideally the unit should have an outdoor play area immediately outside the door and this is something which will be looked at in the future.

The secretary concluded her report by thanking Peter Richardson, on behalf of the whole committee, for chairing the committee throughout the construction and snagging periods. At times this was an unenviable task, but he managed to hold the committee together and to allow everyone to have their say.

Treasurer's Report:
Paul presented the accounts. Although it was not a legal requirement, due to the sums involved, for the second year running the accounts had been examined by the accountants, RA Clements. Additional income generated during the year had been swallowed up by additional costs, however everything had been covered.
When non recurring items connected to the building costs were taken out, it showed an income of approximately £3,000.

IT Representative's Report:
Liz MacInally gave a presentation to show the changes since starting with 4 Scottish executive computers in the old hall. The computer room is now an Argyll College Learning Centre and is connected to all the other Argyll College centres. A new server has just been installed, more memory put into the computers, broadband upgraded to 8 megabytes and video conferencing facilities installed.
Public internet access will still continue, but everyone will require to have a user name and password and will have to log on. Inappropriate web sites will not be accessible.

Election of the Committee.
During the course of the year, Chirsty McLarty and Erica Thornhill had resigned from the committee. Peter Richardson and Tom Fisher both wished to resign, leaving 5 existing members prepared to stand again and 4 vacancies. Namaste Bevan, Taryn Blair, Kate Norman and Iain Saunders had all agreed to stand for election. Sandy Mackilligin proposed that the 5 existing committee members (Pat Barclay, Jan Brown, Liz MacInally, Paul Smyth and Mairi Thornhill) be re-elected en bloc. This was seconded by Gill Hind. Faith Mackilligin proposed that the four new members also be elected en bloc. Seconded by Rob Nolan.

The new committee consists of Pat Barclay, Taryn Blair, Namaste Bevan, Jan Brown, Liz MacInally, Kate Norman, Iain Saunders, Paul Smyth and Mairi Thornhill.

Faith Mackilligin thanked the committee for all their hard work throughout the year.

A.O.C.B.
Points raised during general discussion were; A hall manager is now a necessity.

More publicity for events could include a large noticeboard down near the road.

A feedback page on the website would enable the public to comment on hall events.

It would be good if the hall website included all other local community events. This is possible but dependent upon the information being passed to Liz MacInally.

More people should be encouraged to get involved with the produce show.

These minutes remain draft until the next AGM.