Beech Village Hall and Recreation Ground
Chairman’s report – AGM 2010
The Annual General Meeting of the Beech Village Hall and Recreation Ground Management Committee was held on Tuesday 19th October in the Village Hall. The following is an extract of the report presented by Chairman Peter Cox.
The last 12 months have been a period of consolidation for Beech Village Hall.
Firstly, progress on the Hall itself has been as follows:
- The Kitchen is fully functioning and is believed to be one of the best facilities for a village hall in the area. We did incur an extra considerable expense of fixing an automatic electric fire screen on the serving hatch that we had not budgeted for but was required by the building inspectors.
- A noise inhibitor system is now in place in the Main Hall. This consists of a set of traffic lights that warn users if the level of noise (mainly music) exceeds the decibel limits that we have set and will eventually cut off the power it continue to exceed them.
- A loop system for the hard of hearing will be installed shortly. This would already have been in place but has been delayed due to a missing part.
- We have now received several quotes to deal with the acoustics in the Main Hall and Lounge. These have taken some time to secure and have involved several meetings with suppliers, as well as delays waiting for their quotes. The quotes have ranged from £8,000 down to about £3,500 – obviously depending on how far we wish to go with the level of acoustic tiling installed. Finances preclude the larger outlay and we are therefore looking at affordable quotes that will deal with the sound reverberation issues in stages until an acceptable level is reached.
- Automatic external lighting is now in place and the area around the entrance to the building has been partially tarmaced.
Phase II of our work is under way and involves the upgrading of what we are calling the ‘Annexe’ – that being the old toilets and meeting room.
- The original back storage room has now been blocked off internally and has been cement rendered inside and out as well as having new double doors fitted for external access. This enables us to store large objects with easy access.
- The old Gents will become a small internal storage room while the Ladies is being converted into a new unisex toilet facility with new sanitary ware and hand drying unit.
- The Meeting Room has been plastered and is in the process of being decorated. A ceiling projector and screen have been installed and it the room has facilities for the use of laptops and the Internet.
- The Meeting Room will also be ideal for recreational activities.
- The entire Annexe now has automatic entrance lighting and has been re-wired throughout. The windows have been replaced with double glazed units and it has a new front access door and rear emergency exit door.
We also intend to look at the condition and facilities at the Recreation Ground and see how this area can be utilised better.
Saturday 6th March this year saw the Official Opening of the new Beech Village Hall and we were delighted to have Alan Titchmarsh to carry out the Opening Ceremony and unveil a plaque commemorating the event, which is now to be found over the entrance to the Main Hall. We were also honoured the Alan brought his wife, Alison, along, especially as they both have great memories of living in Beech for over 20 years.
The essential bookings needed to cover our costs have continued to be good. The new Beech Village Hall has become very popular for private bookings and our regular users have already taken up bookings for 2011.
Just a reminder here that Beech residents booking the facilities for their own use receive a 25% discount off the hourly rate (booking forms can be found here) but it is advisable to get in as early as you can due to the high level of bookings.
Our social programme has continued to be well attended throughout the year. Events have included our annual Fete and Hog Roast, Quiz Nights, Comedy Evenings, Valentine’s Dance, Big Band Picnic, Craft Fair, Bonfire Night, Cricket Tournament, Vallage Walk and the infamous Christmas parties. You can find out more about some of these events here and see pictures here.
The Social Evenings on the last Friday of every month have also continued to be popular. We do, however, need more volunteers to help produce the food for each social evening if we are to carry on catering these events, so please let us know if you are prepared to give it a go, even just once a year.
Keeping on with the theme of ‘Your Village Hall Needs You’…
Unfortunately, success brings with it new problems and here I make a plea for help in the running of the Beech Village Hall complex. We urgently need volunteers to act as caretakers and make regular checks on the condition of the facilities. Ideally this would be done by someone on a daily basis, provably first thing and would take between 15 and 30 minutes – reporting anything that requires attention. Alternatively the task could be undertaken by a rota of volunteers. Failing this we will have to employ someone to carry out this task – a drain on our much-needed funds, but essential if we cannot find volunteers to help maintain the high standards that our new Hall deserves – and that those who pay to hire it expect.
As a result of the success of the new Hall, the time and efforts of the Management Committee are becoming more and more directed to the tasks of planning and control. It is therefore vital that our social calendar does not suffer and it is becoming increasingly necessary to set up various sub-committees outside the Management Committee to ensure that the standard of the events does not diminish.
A plea here, then, to any residents of Beech who would be willing to contribute some of their time, along with their ideas, to volunteer. Please let a member of the new Committee know if you know of anyone willing to help.
Details of all the social events and – where available – photographs afterwards can be found on the Beech Village website. Thanks here to David Woodroofe for setting up the site initially and to Helen Jayalath for its ongoing maintenance and updating.
It would help the organising Committee enormously if we could have as many residents’ e-mail addresses as possible so that we can keep the village up-to-date with what is going on. If you are happy to be added to this list, please send us your email address.
Finally, I would like to thank again the Village Hall Committee who have made my job as Chairman so much easier through all their hard work:-
- Philip Ladds – Financial & Building Projects
- Helen Jayalath – Social & Website
- Brian Wagstaff – Building Maintenance & Mowing
- Louise Stagg – Kitchen Management
- Paul Fleming – Social & Advertising
- Helen Lamb – Fete & Christmas Fair Stalls
- Alan King – Bar Facilities
- Sarah Castle-Smith – Social Events
- Margaret Avery – Bar Support & Social
- Elaine King – Beech Ladies & Bar Support
- Sally Leech – Voluntary Minutes Secretary
- Cheryl Thomas – Bookings
I would also like to express my thanks to the many residents of Beech for all their help and support during the year.
Peter Cox
Chairman
Read more about recent social events in Beech.