REPORT OF THE CHAIRMAN OF THE WICKHAM INSTITUTE TO AGM MAY 15 2013
Welcome everyone, and thank you very much for attending tonight. Your support for the Hall is much valued.
In general, I believe, things have continued well this year and there are definitely more regular users and, I believe, slightly more one-off hires than there have been in the past
Andrew will report on the finances after me so I will not waste time on the details of that, but will touch on some issues relating to this in connection with fund raising and costs.
We need to continue to fund raise if we are to carry out repairs recently identified as essential to the fabric of the building; in particular the rendering is failing in parts and we need some replacements carried out to small areas of woodwork and possibly redecoration of the same. We have recently carried out very expensive repairs/upgrading to the electrical system, which we were surprised had not been identified by the recent renovations as being essential to conform to modern standards.
I understand that we have received agreement from the Parish Council to further extend the garden fencing to the rear of the building and to put up a new fence and gate at the front at their expense; however this does need ratification by EHDC, which we are awaiting. We felt it was necessary to install proper fencing at the front and a gate to prevent small children from running into the road, given that there are frequently under-fives using the hall and they are very capable of disappearing out of the door with no warning. On the subject of the garden, we should like to ask that if anyone has a respectable garden table and chairs surplus to requirements, we should be happy to house them for you! Hopefully the weather will be warmer and we may expand our Coffee mornings outside during the summer.
The major project which we have in mind now is to upgrade the kitchen facilities in order to secure more hirings for private events. The stove is, I understand, not in good condition and we have no dishwasher and the storage is not as well planned as it might be. I am taking some initial steps to consult with other halls who have carried out such work and to then proceed to get some idea of cost. The Fete and Flower Show Committee have already generously offered to award us a sum of £1000 which they would like to be used towards a specific project such as this. Of course, it may take years rather than months to find the money to carry out this work and we need to carefully discuss the amount of work we should be undertaking – a facelift and some new equipment or a complete refit????
However, now that the extension to the Lease and Trust Deed has been negotiated by Trevor with the Diocese, I feel that we would be more justified in starting a project of this nature. I believe that the legal costs of this work are to be approximately £600, which should largely be covered by the generous grant we received from the Fete and Flower Show last year for this purpose. Trevor will report on the situation later this evening.
Events and Users
Our regular users are, as you probably know, Binsted Society, the Church – both their GEMS group and meetings, Sing for Joy, Pilates and Tai Chi, plus our own Coffee morning every Wednesday. I should like to thank Pat very much again for her management of the latter. It has proved a very popular way of gentle fundraising and is a great social forum for the young mothers in the village. We would like to find more regular users for Thursdays and Fridays.
On the fundraising side we have just held our Spring Supper, with slightly reduced numbers, but still a busy and successful evening with 65 attenders and the usual delicious meal. We had such efficient helpers in the kitchen and waiting at table that the organisers felt much less exhausted than usual at the end of the evening. We are very grateful to Sarah Jane and her sister-in-law and to Kitty and her friend and Anna for their hard work.
We held a successful Quiz Night, which we hope to repeat fairly soon, an excellent Garden talk by Ros Wallinger on the restoration of her Gertrude Jekyll gardens and are looking forward to Saturday night’s show by the Oakhanger players, which has already sold out for their one night tour to Binsted.
I should like to thank everyone who has given their time and energy to keeping the hall rolling along. We have a new bookings secretary, Ann , who has been a great help. Shauna, the Committee Secretary is extremely efficient and well organised, which is a great support to me, and Andrew has shouldered a lot of work in addition to his Treasurer duties, including ticketing for events which can be very onerous. A special mention for Sandie, the representative of the Parish Council on the Management Committee who is so proactive in liaising on our behalf with the PC and has been instrumental in putting forward our requests to them and also in our fundraising activities. Thank you also to the Spring Supper Committee, organised by Hilary, all the coffee morning ladies and to Helen whose boundless energy in keeping the garden on track is much appreciated.
CH 15.5.2013
