Chairman's Report to Annual Parish Meeting

21st April 2004

The year from March 2003 to March 2004 in the life of this Village Hall could not in any sense be described as uneventful.

The Annual General Meeting of the Village Hall Committee held in March 2003 came at a time of crisis, the previous chairman and treasurer having resigned leaving John L. as secretary to hold the fort, as you might say, ably assisted by Sheila McK..

At that AGM a new Chairman appeared in the form of Mrs Paula C. and subsequently a new treasurer in her husband Mr Noel C. Paula and Noel set to with gusto to pull the finances of the hall into a tidier shape, to tidy up some of the accumulated but unused items stored in various places and to move towards the idea of modernising the Village Hall and its facilities.

They also had different ideas on how the various organisations using the village hall should be dealt with.

Considerable differences of opinion began to appear within the committee and to such an extent that, at a meeting of the Village Hall Committee on 26th February, the chairman asked for a vote on a motion of No Confidence in the chairman and treasurer. This was debated at length, in their absence, and a unanimous vote of no confidence was passed.

As this happened at a time very close to the next AGM no new officers were elected at that point but at the AGM on 10th March 2004 a new committee was elected in accordance with the constitution of the Village Hall. This meeting was very well attended and the required number of FOUR elected members was achieved, the rest of the committee being made up of one member from each of the village user groups.

This gives us a committee of 16 at present with one vacancy, that being for the Chapel, shortly to be filled. Following the AGM the new committee met to elect its officers who are Chairman John R., Vice Chairman Ken R., Treasurer Vernon G., Secretary John L.

Apart from myself, the other three officers are elected members. I represent the Parish Council. The rest of the committee is :- [list omitted]

The new committee will be working to ensure that the village hall provides for as many interest groups, both old and new, as it possibly can.

We are here to manage the village hall facility, not primarily to run activities in the hall. However, we will do all we can to help new ideas to get off the ground and if anyone has ideas of activities or clubs which they would like to run or to be a part of please contact any member of the committee with your ideas.

A village survey run in the autumn of 2003 showed considerable interest in active pursuits such as Keep Fit and Badminton. Keep Fit in the form of Aerobics is now in full swing every Monday evening. If anyone would like to start a Badminton Club I think it is fair to say that we could get funding for the marking of the court from the Recreational Trust.

Come on folks lets have some suggestions!

To encourage everyone to feel keener to use the village hall the committee decided to spruce it up a bit.

So I hope you all feel the floor l and walls look better and should be easier to clean. Hopefully something can be done to make the toilets more acceptable.

There is no plan to spend too much money at this stage as the new committee are pressing ahead with the feasibility study for refurbishment of the hall.

An initial brief has been given to the architect Keith C. from Pershore who has done a number of excellent schemes in the area.

The options being looked at range from bringing the present hall up to date in terms of basic facilities to a completely new hall either on the present site or on a completely different green field site - if such can be found within the village.

Everyone's viewpoint is valid and will be listened to. The committee wish to work in co-operation with the village and will listen to all ideas.

We are here to make the village hall work for everyone, young and old.

Thank You.