Parkside Hall AGM 16th May 2016
2015/2016 has been another busy year for Parkside hall.
Since the refurbishment and reopening of the hall in December 2013 Parkside has continued to develop as one of the best local community venues in the villages of Mid Beds. Bookings have grown steadily with our calendar of bookings stretching out into next year and beyond. Our meeting rooms are also now very popular for a wide and diverse assortment of hirers.
Due to the success of Parkside it is also taking more time to manage and run the hall. We now have a team of 30+ volunteers who effectively provide caretaking duties for the halls hirers. On some busy days we can have 7 or 8 individual groups using the various parts of the hall at different times of the day. To manage these volunteers we have a recruited a weekend manager who produces the volunteer rota, manages our higher profile events (such as weddings) at the weekend and undertakes routine maintenance tasks around the hall. My thanks to Jenny Mackay for her hard work in helping this complex hall run smoothly for our hirers.
Our bookings success and the resulting maximisation of hire in part goes down to our bookings officer Eileen Summerfield, who I would also like to thank. Eileen plays an important role and has made a significant contribution towards to £40,000 operating turnover so far this year alone. Eileen has indicated a desire to stand down from her role and we are seeking to find a suitable replacement. The replacement will need to be capable of implementing the online automation of our booking process and support the weekend manager. We did recruit a candidate, but unfortunately for personal reasons she has had to step down before the transition could commence. We are now searching for a new candidate who will become a paid member of the team.
After 2 years of stop and start activity Steve Todd our hall maintenance manager has successfully concluded the project to resurface the existing car park, surface the disused netball courts and provide much needed external lighting. Working in partnership with Central Beds, we have made an arrangement with the Coroners court to be provided with 10 spaces for 10 years. This covered the additional cost of the works (above Central Beds contractual obligations). The completion of the car park has now really transformed the hall, and Steve should be congratulated for his endeavours and patience. We need to get Central Beds to confirm the maintenance agreement has now novated to the Alameda School Academy.
Steve also needs to be thanked for all the work involved in the maintenance aspects of the hall. From tweaking an errant tap washer to procurement of various ad hoc items. Steve has also deployed his theatrical knowledge, and working with Brian Russell, we now have a very state of the art Lighting and Sound capability at Parkside Hall. Our thanks go to Tom Bardon for a sizeable donation to this project, as a result we have named the stage after Tom.
Brian has now formally taken over as Treasurer, and is in the process of working with our Auditor to refresh and simplify some of our financial processes. As part of our move to CIO status (as adopted at the 2015 AGM) we have had to migrate all of our bank accounts to the new Charity. This has resulted in considerable inconvenience around online banking, but corrective actions are now in place. My thanks go to Brian for all his work on picking up this role within the Charity.
Transition to the new CIO status should be complete by the end of this year, and we will file two sets of accounts to the Charity Commission. Final actions to be completed include transfer to bank accounts to the new charity (as mentioned above) and transfer of land and assets with the Land Registry. Anthony Northey is working this through on our behalf and we extend our thanks to him for overseeing this activity.
Margie Hudson has again continued to dedicate a lot of personal time and angst in driving the fund raising for Parkside Hall. She has very successfully continued our Comedy Nights, which are now a firm favourite in the Parkside calendar and very popular in the community. Food Fairs have continued and again provide a good source of fund raising. Margie has had to step back slightly due to taking on full time employment, which makes all her efforts even more remarkable. Well done Margie.
Linda White continues to work as Caretaker and Cleaner, a role she undertakes with good humour and diligence. Linda provided the highlight of the year when she test drove the new Scrubber Dryer for the first time, and successfully gained her provisional license. Thanks also to Terry White for all his good work on the maintenance aspects beyond the range of Steve.
Sue Cannon also must be thanked for the work she does managing the payables and wages aspects of the hall, again as a volunteer.
We still have several large programmes of work to undertake this year and include the following:
- Provision of Air-conditioning at Parkside – we are currently considering 3 quotes following an ITT process. (Lockcraft, Ambivent and Airco) Approx cost £20k
- Redecoration of the Main Hall. Approx cost £1.5k
- Provision of sound proofing to Meeting room 1. Approx cost £6k
- Provision of Pension arrangements for employees
I would like to thank the remaining trustees and members Doreen Stoddart, Roy Tebbutt, Ann Russell for all the work they put in to make Parkside Hall the superb community venue it is.
Finally I would like to thanks the 30+ volunteers who make Parkside work. Without them Parkside would not be able to operate. To thank our volunteers we held a successful recognition event at the White Hart and I think this was very well received.
Andy Wood
Chairman – Parkside Community Hall
16th May 2016