LANGHAM COMMUNITY COUNCIL

Minutes of a Trustee Meeting
held on 23rd July 2018 at 7.30pm.

Present
Alan Cadman (Chairman), Liz Winter (Secretary), Maureen Shouksmith (Treasurer), Denise Hobday, Peter Dawson, Elizabeth Schofield, Bob Schofield, Andrew Craig, Jutta Brawn, Sue Armstrong.
Gill Brown attended by invitation as the appointed representative of Langham Ladies (Item 8).

Apologies for Absence
Daphne Bettle, James Puxley, Marlena Lipski, Mark Kleingeld. Maria Bukovenczki.

Maria Bukovenczki was briefly introduced to the meeting as newly-appointed representative for Langham Pre-School. She was very tired and hot after a sweltering day spent clearing out the Pre-School, so apologised but asked to be excused from attending. Everyone was very sympathetic.

Minutes of previous Trustee Meetings held 22nd March and 24th May 2018
Liz Schofield proposed and Maureen Shouksmith seconded that the Minutes be accepted as a true record. Carried unanimously. Alan signed the Minutes. Now that they had been approved, they would be posted on the Community Centre noticeboard. EW

Matters Arising
Pre-School Boiler Lindseys would replace the central heating valve in the Pre-School before the start of the Autumn term.
Pre-School Rent Alan reminded the meeting that they had agreed to pay the full rent of
£506 pcm from 1st Sept 2018. Alan suggested we review rent at end of March 2019.
WiFi The Shop had agreed to pay £10 a month from 1st July 2018 for their WiFi connection. Andrew asked Alan to invoice them quarterly with the electricity invoice. The committee agreed to accept the Pre-School’s offer to pay £10 a month from January 2019.
Car park closure There had been plenty of notice of the closure on Wednesday. Alan hoped to begin measuring and marking by 8.30 am and expected to take one to two hours.
Barclays - direct debit to XLN Andrew asked Maureen about the bank’s response when she queried how a direct debit had been set up without two signatories. Their response was not satisfactory but was based on our having authorised Sue Armstrong to take out the contract.

Chairman’s Report
Three people were willing to submit tenders for patching the car park. As soon as he has drawn up the specification, Alan will send it to them.
The spec for the disabled improvements is ready and Alan intends to give the CBC a list of three builders and three stairlift companies to acquire quotes. The disabled work should be
70 per cent funded and the stairlift 90 per cent. No VAT will be payable.
Alan had also heard from Cardy Morgan, Development Officer for Community Health for the CBC, that in March 2019 a local fund should be available to community buildings in Boxted, Horkesley and Langham towards improvements. We needed to draw up a “wish list” which Sue had already begun. Alan thinks the fund is only available for buildings, so may not be of direct assistance to the Shop or Pre-School. Some discussion of ideas ensued.

Item 8 of the Agenda
This item was brought forward as Andrew Craig needed to leave the meeting early. A resolution that Langham Ladies should be added to the bodies having representation on the management committee was proposed by Liz Winter, seconded by Andrew Craig and carried unanimously with nine votes in favour. Two-thirds of the management committee needing to be in favour, the secretary had asked those Trustees unable to attend the meeting to vote in writing. James Puxley had responded supporting the resolution, which brought those in favour to ten, the necessary number for the resolution to be adopted. Gill Brown was present at the meeting and had been appointed Langham Ladies’ representative.

Treasurer’s Report
Maureen’s cumulative balance sheet and P&L account for June had been circulated prior to the meeting and showed less profit than we might have hoped due to capital expenses. We still await a refund from HMRC of overpaid income tax for Sue. Maureen has replied to a letter from them stating that everything they need has been done and asking for our money. Santander had erroneously paid us two months’ rent from the Shop at the full rate as well as the reduced rate, which has now been repaid. Alan queried why Wave (Anglian Water) had only refunded us £242 when we had a much larger credit and they had not reduced the direct debit. Maureen would look into this. MS
There were no queries and the figures were accepted.
A salary review had granted Sue and Cheryl a three per cent increase from 1st June 2018.

Marketing Manager/Caretaker’s Report
Sue’s comprehensive report had been circulated and raised the question of the Sunday bar which Sue and her daughter had been running every week under Alan’s licence. However, they could not continue this until the end of September, when the family parties will cease. The booking was secured on the basis of a bar with profit going to the LCC. However, it was clear that volunteers would not be forthcoming and Alan could not run the bars himself. In the circumstances it was decided Sue would have to let the hirers know this. SA
At the October Toy Fair there would also be a lot of caravans on the field. Parking may prove difficult. Films would be shown on the recreation ground on 10th August and in September. Students from Essex University were coming to paint on 14th October, mainly the chair marks on hall walls, the stage floor and possibly bar front and committee room. 100 Club reminders will go out in late August. PAT testing is happening next week. Class Cleaners are deep cleaning the downstairs floors (apart from the hall) this week. The committee thanked Paul Armstrong for updating our website.
On the “to do” list: the air-conditioning is being serviced in September, the oven door seal is booked in August, Terry is repairing the paving slabs, fire escape steps and sticking rear fire door this week. Sue will label the switches on the stage for the windows and blinds as they had been accidently switched off recently. Skyview will service the windows on 13th October.
Sue and Cheryl were thanked for their hard work.


Hire Rates
New hire charges have not been finalised and will be dealt with at the August Finance meeting.

Any Other Business
1. A letter had been circulated to all Trustees from the Pre-School asking for our help to support their application for grant funding. A discussion ensued about their importance in the village. The secretary read out a paragraph which Andrew Craig had drafted. The committee felt it was excellent and, if Andrew agreed, Liz would use it in her letter of support. EW
2. Sue had been asked by the Heritage Committee if they could store some files in the hall loft. This might be a fire hazard and a problem for our insurers, the loft is difficult to access and already holds some of our own items. It was felt that their documents would be much better stored at Foxash, where the Parish Council and ourselves store our archives. SA
3. Liz W informed the meeting that on 1st August new grounds for disqualification of Trustees were being introduced by the Charity Commission alongside the current ones. She outlined what these were and demonstrated a new form of Trustee declaration which she proposed to introduce for all current and future trustees to complete. EW
4. Sue had printed a new notice for the car park gate stating that the car park may be closed once the shop has closed if there are no more hires that day. It was agreed to stipulate the time as 5.30 p.m.

Date of next meeting
The next Finance Sub-Committee Meeting will be held on Monday 20th August at 7.30 pm at Alan’s house.
The next Trustee meeting will be in the clubroom on Thursday 25th October at 7.30 pm.
Dates were suggested for January and March meetings. These would be confirmed shortly.

There being no further business the meeting closed at 9.40 pm.