enhancing our communitymeeting notes |
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MINUTES OF A MEETING OF THE STEERING GROUPSATURDAY 11 MARCH 2006 IN THE VILLAGE HALL AT 10.00 AMPRESENT: James Lilwall, Chairman, David & Janet Cockburn, Alex
Kirby, John Mallen (from 10.30), IN ATTENDANCE: Jean Hanks, of Little Ellingham Village Hall, from 10.35 APOLOGIES: Jayne Bown, Gillian Horner, and Piers Wallace. Minutes of the Last Meeting
The Minutes of the
meeting on 11 February 2006 were gone through and agreed. Matters Arising
It was agreed that the
meeting scheduled for 24 June should be cancelled and will be held one
evening at High Windows to prepare the stands for the village fete with Web Site
DC projected the website
onto a screen and went through it. He
reported that some links had been added of organisations that may be of use
to the Committee. Of especial interest
is the Lottery Big Fund, which Veronica Savage talked about at the last
meeting. DC suggested that we look at
the window for 2007, which is in May.
There is only one a year. AK
and DC are looking at adding a ‘counter’ in order that we can see how many ‘hits’
the site gets. Robin Taylor is the
site back up at the moment and AK will become a further back up. Community Survey The Chairman reported
that they are at the printers. The
cost of the printing is just over £500.
The Chairman is expecting a proof in the next week. DC spoke about the schedule he has
prepared. There are 330 houses to be
surveyed. There was discussion on how
the areas would be broken up and who would do them. JC and DC, JB and PW, and MM will do their
Reeves’ Tale delivery areas. NW and JL
will do the rest of The Street and DC went through the
proposed schedule, which will be used to show the results of the survey. He is willing to do a pc presentation at
the village fete and this could be included on our stand. Reeve’s Tale Launch It was agreed that the
proposed centre pages were too full of text and needed editing and a
photograph or two included. DC will
not be able to do this until 14 March and requested feedback from the
committee immediately in order that he meets the printing deadline of 15
March. AK offered to go through it
over the weekend. We can have the
front cover but it won’t be printed in colour. Green paper was chosen. Jean Hanks The Chairman welcomed
Mrs. Hanks to the meeting and thanked her for giving up her time on a
Saturday to travel to Bawdeswell to report on her experience of successfully
obtaining the funds and building a new hall at Little Ellingham. JH went through the
history of their project. Their survey
was delivered over a period of 3 days and they allowed 10 days before
collection. When they went to collect
they found that often the forms were blank and the collectors then helped to
complete them. They received a 70%
response. Little Ellingham’s first
event was a cheese and wine with the launching of a “buy a brick” scheme at
£10 per brick. They also wrote to
people who had previously lived in the village to buy bricks. This kind of funding impresses
Breckland. A list of the brick donors
is hanging in the new hall. JH reported that they
had a weekend exhibition to communicate the survey findings and suggested
that we do something similar, which could include the history of the village
and of the school. She recommended
having a Visitors’ Book for messages from the community and to invite
VIPs. She went on to say that when
people see that something is happening they will fall in behind it. She said part way
through their lottery grant was cut.
One of the lottery’s recommendations was to include plenty of storage
and that was good advice. The
demolition costs were part of the grant.
She stated that you have to do what they want you to do not what you
want to do and you are up against organisations that have professional
fundraisers. They were successful
only after their 4th lottery bid.
The professional fees were about 20% of the costs including VAT. The finance has to be “ring fenced” and
accounts have to be examined or audited for the Charity Commission. They raised £343,000, £270,000 from the
lottery £32,000 in 2 lots from Breckland, £10,000 from WREN, £10,000 from
NRCC, £1,000 from the Parish Council, and the balance from fund raising. She reported that the bookings for the new
hall could be better. She began speaking to
the lottery information officer on day 1 of their project. She said do not resist or argue with them
but do what they ask. Whenever plans were
changed they were shown to the villagers.
She recommends the book by John Acre that gives lots of information
about village halls. JH stated she received
essential support from Veronica Savage, ACA, NRCC
and from Breckland CC. She said the
lottery knows nothing about rural communities. She recommended getting a list of charities
from NRCC. A project will get points
from the lottery on how well they think it will be managed. The Village Hall constitution has to be
included in the submission to the lottery fund. AK asked about
ecological grants and JH said they had been awarded £10,000 from WREN for
recycling. She said that when looking
for environmental grants remember that this includes a bigger picture than
ecology, i.e. the social and economic environment. She recommended claiming
a grant lower than the maximum and being realistic about what can be provided
in a new hall. Guaranteed numbers of
users are needed if any special adaptations are going to be made to the building,
and quoted Badminton as an example as it is expensive to maintain a hall of
that size and to redecorate it and there are health and safety issues. Sustainability must be
proved and that the villagers are behind the project when going to a Funder. There must
be a good mix of what people want and what they will support. She said people will say “yes” on a form
rather than “no” but in fact only one out of ten will actually do it. She said you could buy a modular stage once
the hall is built and necessary lighting but need to consider these things
with the architect so allowance is made for them in the design. Instead of having an extra room you can
consider having a good quality screen that can be pulled across to separate
part of the hall. For their hall this
cost £18,000. Her advice is that it is
essential to build in enough flexibility.
She told us that Sport
England no longer exists and sport money seems to be going into the
Olympics. She said we have along
hard road ahead and her advice was to “keep it simple” and “go for it”. She feels our project needs breaking down,
as she believes it is attempting to do too many things and we should focus on
one thing as a priority. The Chairman said all the projects should be
included in the Business Case but then they will be prioritised. DC says he thinks we
need a new programme – survey, feasibility study,
exhibition and business plan. The Chairman thanked
Mrs. Hanks for coming to the meeting and for providing us with so much
information that, it was agreed, was of great help. Business Plan
AK took us through her
draft, which has been forwarded to all members of the committee. The Chairman asked that
everyone work through it and contact AK with any comments. He thanked everyone for their attendance. Next Meeting
10.00
a.m. Saturday 22 April 2006 in the Village hall. |
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Contact us via email info@ProjectBawdeswell.org.uk or write to:- The
Secretary, Project Bawdeswell, High Windows, Meadow Loke, |
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