Village Hall

Management Committee Meeting - 26th Feb

I was glad I attended the second meeting of the new Village Hall Management Committee (VHMC) last night, however I was left wanting for a number of reasons.

I was the only village attendee outside of the Committee - a rather lonely figure sitting on his own in the audience and completely over-whelmed by the size of the new body facing me, which consists of eleven representatives and three officers.

I liked the healthy discussion at the meeting surrounding the issues facing the Village Hall. It was good to see the newer members of the Committee taking an active role, asking searching questions and providing suggestions. However, possibly due to the size of the group, I did notice some members who didn't contribute at all - perhaps the Chairperson might have directly invited these people to speak so that we could hear their views too?

I do feel the proceedings could be improved by having a summary of outcomes at regular intervals. This would have assisted those in the Committee who had difficulty hearing what was being said; it would also have clarified the action points and who was responsible for what. In future it may be useful to have the action points and responsibilities highlighted in the Minutes, so there is a clear way forward on issues that have been discussed?

During the meeting it became apparent that the hire charges need a thorough review. These have been in place since April 2011 and there appeared to be uncertainty as to whether these even cover the costs of opening the Village Hall. This needs to be urgently rectified in my opinion.

It seems very strange in these days of delayering and lean organisations, that we have a small village hall in a rural community, that effectively has three large Committees involved in managing it. The Social Club plays a huge part (contributing over half of the income that appears in the accounts for the village hall), the VHMC deals with the day-to-day management and provides the remainder of fund-raising and the Parish Council owns/oversees the building on behalf of the community.

I believe this is bureaucracy gone mad... it is my strong view that the community would be better served by having a much smaller Committee to run the Village Hall. I would advocate this could be best achieved by a merger of the Social Club and VHM Committees, using the skills/competencies available from current members. It would perhaps result in far more efficiency.

It would be interesting to hear other residents views on this.

Finally, I have obtained copies of the Minutes from the last meeting for perusal - you can click on each of the links below to access the documents.

VHMC AGM Minutes
VHMC Inaugural Meeting_Minutes
VHMC Inaugural Meeting_Parish Council Minutes