LANGHAM COMMUNITY COUNCIL

Minutes of the ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
held on 30th May 2024 at Langham Community Centre

Twenty-five people attended the AGM including fifteen members of the public.

Apologies for Absence
Denise Hobday, Sallie West, Sue and Paul Armstrong, Shannon Barnes.

Review of the Minutes of the AGM held on 25th May 2023
Alan Cadman, Chairman, welcomed everyone and said how good it was to see so many members of the public in attendance. Referring to the Minutes from last year’s AGM, which had been circulated to all Trustees and were available to the meeting, he asked for a proposal that they be accepted as a true record. Martin Bottwood proposed and Liz Schofield seconded the motion. There were no objections and Alan signed the minutes.

Matters Arising
There were no matters arising.

Managing Trustees’ Report - Chairman’s Review of the Year
Alan referred briefly to the printed report which had been circulated to Trustees, copies of which were available to the meeting.
He mentioned that we had, for the first time, had to take a hirer to court for non-payment of charges accrued. We had been successful and the debt is now being paid off under a court order in monthly instalments.
He spoke about the monies received from Section 106 payments made by Colchester City Council from developments in the village, which had paid for the acoustic panels in the hall and the stairlift to the Committee room. There had been unexpected delays to the new disabled toilet and the Parish Council had begun investigating the possibility of a public toilet.
The hall had been the venue for a public meeting by National Grid providing information regarding the proposed new Pylon network. Two more such meetings are in the offing. Another well-attended public meeting with Anglian Water and MP Bernard Jenkin had been run by the Parish Council in the Hall in February.
Monthly Langham Film Nights are proving very popular and “Oppenheimer” was a sell-out.

Treasurer’s Report
Maureen read her report for 2023/24, referring to the annual accounts which had been circulated to Trustees and were available at the meeting. Compared with last year’s loss of £8,843.77 the small profit of £598.60 was encouraging. This left us with balances of £1,924.13 in the Current Account and £70,802.73 in the Saver Account, with Petty Cash totaling £598.60.

Turnover was around £75,000 pre-Covid (excluding grants) compared with around £58,000 for 2023/24. More commercial hires are required to subsidise the local regular hires which are at maximum.

Our biggest expenses are salaries and electricity. A new contract, with EDF replacing British Gas Lite, will hopefully keep our bills down below £1,000 a month but salaries are rising following legislation to provide holiday pay for the first time and increases in the minimum wage. It is hoped that some of the jobs undertaken by Cheryl, our Premises Manager, and the Marketing Manager can be undertaken by Trustees to help reduce workload and salary costs.
We currently need at least £4,000 per month to cover basic costs and we have only carried out essential maintenance this year to keep within our income.

Liz Schofield proposed that the Treasurer’s accounts be accepted as a true record. This was seconded by David Druitt and carried.

A discussion ensued about how to attract more hirers. There are more enquiries coming in from commercial hirers, particularly the NHS. Colin Parker pointed out that it would take a long time to recoup the £8,000 loss and it was agreed that we need to market the hall more widely and pro-actively. Liz Schofield would like to see more local Clubs established to replace those such as the gardening club and badminton, which both folded due to lack of support.

Maureen said she had enjoyed her time as Treasurer and thanked the management team for their help and support. A presentation of flowers and vouchers was made to Maureen to thank her for her work over eight years.

Election of non-appointed Members to the Management Committee
Alan Cadman had agreed to continue as Chairman. No other candidate had come forward. He was proposed by Liz Schofield and seconded by Gill Woodman. There were no objections.
Liz Winter had agreed to stand as Secretary and was proposed by David Druitt and seconded by Jutta Brawn. Carried.
Carol Grime, who is a volunteer at Langham Shop with a banking background and lives in the village, made herself known to the meeting and agreed to stand as Treasurer. She was proposed by Sue Thorpe, seconded by Colin Parker and willingly accepted by everyone.

Appointed Members to the Management Committee
Liz Winter had contacted all groups named in our Governing document as able to appoint a Trustee. Patchwork Pals had folded and not been active for around two years. Liz proposed that their name be removed from this list. Maureen Shouksmith seconded the motion which was carried unanimously.
The following Members have been appointed as representatives of their organisation for the year 2024/25:

Martin Bottwood Parish Council
Bob Schofield Recreation Ground
David Druitt Langham Bridge Club
none Parochial Church Council
Liz Winter Langham Ladies
Charlotte Parker Community Shop
Sallie West Pre-School
Denise Hobday Scouts
Rob Clark Bowls Club
Stuart Rudge Tennis Club

Co-options to the Management Committee
Three of the attendees at the meeting gave their names forward for co-option to the Management Committee. These were Raynor Sumner, Colin Parker and Cath Hine.

On a point of order, Martin Bottwood informed the meeting that these co-options and those of Liz Schofield and Maureen Shouksmith should be considered at the Trustee meeting immediately following, as the AGM was not the correct forum. The item was transferred to be dealt with as the first item on the Trustee Agenda.

To ratify the appointment of George Pearce as Independent Examiner
Because she was retiring, the Treasurer had contacted George as soon as the 2023/24 accounts were completed. George was able to examine them for us straight away and the Finance Committee agreed that this would be the best policy, since at that point we had no-one to replace the Treasurer after the AGM. George completed his report and returned the approved accounts which are now ready to submit to the Charity Commission.

Those present were asked to ratify this decision of the Finance Committee and did so unanimously.

Urgent matters
a. Replacement of the Commercial and Marketing Manager who had resigned on 13th May 2024.
Emma Stevens introduced herself to the meeting. She lives in the village and has two children currently attending Langham Primary School. She is a staunch supporter of village halls and uses one at Rayne and another at Aldham for a Dance School, so has experience of other premises. She also has experience of a village hall which was closed for two years because nobody came forward to replace the retiring Trustees and it was taken over by the Parish Council.
Emma has a very positive outlook and outlined some of her ideas for publicity and making the LCC more attractive to hirers.
All those present were very pleased to hear that Emma would be joining us as an employee and gave her their full support.

b. Replacement of Treasurer
This is dealt with under Election of Members above.

Any Other Business
There was no other business and the meeting was declared closed at 8.45 pm.
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