LANGHAM COMMUNITY COUNCIL
Minutes of a Finance Sub-Committee Meeting
held on 24th April 2017 at 7.30pm.

Present Alan Cadman, Liz Schofield, Liz Winter, Sue Armstrong and, by invitation, Sue Trimnell.


Minutes of Previous meeting on 27th February 2017
These had been approved by those present at the meeting and circulated to all Trustees.

Matters Arising
Car park repairs Alan has been too busy to make enquiries of ProMac yet but will begin to seek quotes when he returns from holiday at the end of May. We ought to ask Whitnells also and try to find other alternative contractors. We also need to put a sum into the budget for this year. AC
Servicing of Velux, etc. It was felt this should be considered in the budget for 2018/19 but we should check with the guarantee. SA
Boilers These were hopefully fixed. Sue asked for new timers when the boilers are replaced, as setting the current ones each week is a lengthy process.
Asset list Alan has drawn this up with values. He passed it to Sue Trimnell.
Pension The set-up of Sue’s pension with NEST is complete, although she has not received her Welcome Pack yet. Liz W has written to Marilyn at Asset asking her to confirm that she will make the payments each month on our behalf in accordance with the direct debit which NEST received from us in March. Liz has also tried to complete our Declaration of Compliance with the Pensions Regulator, but they have asked for some information from Sue about her current pension before we can finalise this. EW
VOIP All the paperwork for this has now been completed and the service should commence at midday on 28th April.

Budget for 2017-18
The proposed budget had been circulated and was discussed item by item with the following changes being made. £4,000 has been put into this year’s budget for car park repairs, whilst fuseboard upgrade (£2,000) and shower heaters (£2,000) are deferred until 2018/19, as neither is urgent. Ceiling fan servicing is moved to 2019/20 and plastic wall protector for the hall removed from the budget, as the Trustees had agreed that it was too expensive. £1,000 was in the budget for roller blinds in the main hall and Sue A was asked to go ahead with their purchase based on the quotes we had seen. SA
Andrew Craig had provided a useful overview of our position based on Sue T’s figures.

Annual report and Accounts
Prior to the meeting Sue Trimnell had provided the Finance Committee with copies of her spreadsheets for the financial year ended 31.03.17. These showed the year’s transactions in the format suggested by the RCCE and were quite easy to follow. As we had spent such a large sum on building maintenance during the year, there was only a profit of around £3,000. However, our bank accounts contain £16,539 (current) and £20,189 (saver), so we remain in a healthy position.
Some adjustments were made to the categories for Sue’s cost centres. Green sacks were moved to Cleaning (3) and Volunteer bar (now 4) would include purchases of and income from all refreshments sold, be they for bar, café, cinema, toy fair, etc. since it is not possible to split such items as tea, coffee, sugar, etc., which are shared between these events. It was agreed to delete 2G and include all weddings in 2F. Recreation ground payments were now made directly to the Parish Council, so 2H was deleted, as were Internet and Raffle, both unnecessary. Sue would redraw the list. SA
Whilst Sue Trimnell was not prepared to continue with our accounts, she agreed to attend the AGM to provide any explanations which might be required. The Committee passed on to Sue the huge gratitude of the Trustees for the work she has done for the LCC. Now that a simpler format for the accounts has been set up by Sue T, it should be much easier for someone else to take on the role of Treasurer. Sue Armstrong would contact Debbie Sainty. SA
It was felt that we should approach a new person to be our Independent Examiner. Liz Winter agreed to contact Bill Durlacher, who Liz S believed had done this for us in the past. EW

Community Shop
At the Trustee meeting it had been agreed that the Finance Sub-Committee should decide on an appropriate level of rental to be paid by the Shop. Unfortunately, Alan had not had time to draw up figures yet and the matter will be deferred until he returns from holiday. Liz W would inform Gill Flack. AC/EW

Chairs
Liz W had written to Office Furniture Online, who had responded favourably to our complaints regarding the broken chairs and agreed to supply a further 48 chairs as replacements free of charge. They also offered a 25% discount on any further chairs of that type which we might choose to purchase to ensure we have 120 good chairs. 48 further chairs would cost £961.20 inclusive of vat. The committee felt we should accept this offer.
However, some of the “new” chairs were showing damage to the backs and some screws had fallen out. Sue and Liz W would meet at the hall tomorrow to assess the damaged ones and decide what to do. (After this inspection with Cheryl, it was felt the chairs were probably still the best we could afford, a lot of time and effort having been spent over the past few years researching the subject. Liz would contact OFO and mention that screws appeared to be working out from the chairbacks and some backs cracking, while asking them to send us a written quote for 96 chairs.) EW

Disabled Toilet upgrade
The meeting was asked to think about what form the refurbishment of the toilet should take: whether we would try to make the toilet accessible from the field, as had been suggested by Bob Schofield, or simply refurbish the interior. Alan felt we could probably make an entrance via the boot room, which could be reduced in size. We would need to find someone willing to draw up some proposals and Liz S would approach someone she knew. Andrew Craig had agreed to help with sourcing grant funding. ES/AC/EW

Banking Arrangements
Whilst Alan is away from 30th April – 17th May, Liz W and Andrew Craig will need to authorise transactions. Sue A will send copies of invoices requiring payment to them with a copy to Alan. She will also forward them April timesheets for herself and Cheryl, which Liz will forward to Marilyn at Asset. Alan gave Liz a copy of last month’s full payment submission as a guide to payment of the wages.

Any Other Business
Sue A reported that most of the keys she had recalled had been handed back and immobilised.

Date of Next Meeting AGM on Thursday 25th May at 8 pm in the main hall
(not as advertised in the club room).

The meeting closed at 10.15 p.m.