Dear Resident. On 5^th March a meeting about the Future of the Village Hall took Place, as Post Pandemic the finances were not healthy.  A small team undertook to review at the feedback from the tables and post-it notes and report back within 6 weeks with that analysis and recommendations.  Not only did they do that but the trustees have accepted the findings and have undertaken to implement the recommendations as soon as possible.  The full report is  published here.  The report followed two threads, namely the establishment of:

A Management and Operations Team.

• The day to day running of the Village Hall should be vested in a “Management/Operations Team”, initially formed from volunteers from a “Needs Based Assessment”. The needs were to be based on the functions of management of Stroud Village Hall (see later)
  • Volunteers should be invited to an interview process (to be defined) lead by an independent chair, such as a Trustee from SVHARA, the remainder coming from the current Trustees as they are legally responsible for the charity.
  • The purpose of the interview process would be to ensure the needs based assessment for the functions of the team were covered as much as possible, and not unbalanced. For example The needs based analysis will likely cover business planning, fundraising, employment, social, H&S amongst others. A team of 6 willing volunteers with only H&S experience would be unbalanced.
  • Initially they would be tasked to produce a business plan, to include financial independence to act as well as reporting criteria.
  • That plan may introduce a paid manager/caretaker role when affordable.
  • It was envisaged that the plan would include a request for a PC grant (from the Precept) of about £1000 pm (approx. £1.25 per house per month in the parish, details tbc), to help underpin this parish wide resource.
  • Initially the existing management team from the trustees would assist in order to provide background information.
  • Once appointed this team should have SWMVC email addresses and access to relevant records, subject to accepting the Data Protection Policy
  • Calls for volunteers should happen in April, interviews in early May, the Business plan agreed with the Trustees by the end of May/beginning of June and be operational in June. Whilst a tight timeline, this was essential if the current direction of financial travel was to be turned around.
  • In the meantime, the Trustees have accepted offers of help to put the bins out, open the hall, integrate booking on the website and running the online accounts. All will be reviewed as part of the management team’s business plan.

The initial functions of the extracted from the Steep & Stroud Village Hall requirement follow the set up of a Social and Events Team.

  A Social and Events Team.

• Concurrently the Social Team of volunteers should be appointed. This could be less Needs Based and more enthusiasm based as each activity should come with a micro cost plan. However, in the short term the Trustees should call for volunteer(s) to run some quick wins events starting in April/May (such as a [Monthly?] Quiz Night).
  • It was envisaged that the Management Team would generate a business plan that modelled the revenue that socials/events team needed to raise each year and the Social/Events team would take this on

Requirements for the Management and Operations Team

In addition to the task set out above, it is envisaged that this group of volunteers will need to conduct the following functions until such time as finances allowed a paid employee to tke some/all of this on.

General List of Duties

• Bookings
  • Deal with all booking enquiries email/phone calls. Ensure bookings diary is up to date.
  • Send out booking forms for private and commercial bookings.
  • Check relevant documents are provided for commercial bookings i.e. PL insurance, Safeguarding policies, etc.
  • Send invoices for private bookings and refund security deposit after booking. Check hall and contents are intact after each private booking prior to refunding deposit.
  • Send invoices to commercial hirers at the end of each month.
  • Send Opening up instructions to hirers.
• Upkeep of Village Hall.
  • Weekly – check fire alarm, visual inspection of kitchen appliances, boiler and contents are all in place.
  • Check heating is at a reasonable temperature for time of year.
  • Nappy bins emptied every Wednesday by CJS – leave outside hall.
  • Check stores of loo rolls, cleaning products, etc and order as necessary.
  • Identify any maintenance requirements and arrange repairs as necessary.
  • Monthly – Mats and sanitary bins changed first Wednesday of each month by CJS.
  • Annually – Boiler service, Alarm, Fire Risk Assessment, PAT testing and other policies updated.
• Finance
  • Send invoices for commercial and private hirers.
  • Reconcile Scribe Accounts weekly.
  • Arrange payment of any bills and enter onto Xero attaching necessary information.
  • Circulate monthly Profit and Loss and Balance sheets to Trustees.
  • Website and Facebook
  • Update regular hirers classes and information.
  • Update weekly blog posts.
  • Advertise new classes, social events, etc. on Facebook and website.
  • Produce monthly newsletter.

• Considerations for future support for a Hall Manager, if or when viable.
• On call out of hours – to establish who is responsible for dealing with problems from hirers or issues with the VH out of hours.
• Annual Leave – who is responsible for covering when hall manager is on leave, also who is responsible for carrying out cleaning when cleaner on leave.
• Regular contact from Trustees to oversee village hall and discuss any problems arising. Also to include business planning and setting vision for the future expectations/performance.  Regular review with line manager
• Maintenance and upkeep – who will be responsibility to identify any maintenance should they also be booking repairs? If so what is the process for this, regular contractor, collect quotes??
• To establish and make clear to all parties the various roles and responsibilities to ensure boundaries not blurred.

VOLUNTEERS for either the of the teams should email [email protected] outlining where they feel they can contribute and in particular for the management team their experience of creating business plans.  An Interview process, yet to be defined, will be conducted as early as possible in May for the Management/Operations team, who will take on responsibility for the Social/Events team. However, anyone who wishes to organise an early quiz night or two (or has other quick win ideas should get in touch at the same email address.

 Thanks

 Charlotte Duthie

On behalf of the Managing Trustee.

[email protected]