I would like to welcome you to the 2026 AGM of Alphamstone Village Hall. It is lovely to see you all here. This AGM covers the period from April 2025 to the end of March 2026. As you all know, I am Kathryn, Chair of trustees and I will be chairing this meeting.
Attendees:
Trustees: Kathryn Parsons, Lynne Potter, Sue Gardiner, Laura Richardson, Sue Faull
Others: Robert and Deirdre Hume, Rosemary Ingram, Ian Rutledge, Simon Johns, Chris Parsons
Apologies for absence
Adrian and Hilary Huggins.
Approval of the 2025 AGM
We now need to approve the minutes of the 2024 AGM.
Proposed by Sue Gardiner. Seconded by Lynne Potter
AGM Chairmans report 2026
So this was my second year of being Chair and although I am getting used to things I am not sure it was any easier. Each year brings different challenges.
I would like to say a huge thank you to my support team of Laura, Sue Gardiner, Sue Faull and Lynne who have worked really hard alongside me to keep this hall functioning and the events happening. I couldn’t do this without them. My thanks too to Ian who quietly beavers away on the accounts and keeps the finances in order. I would also like to thank Simon Johns who is now working alongside us updating and running the website. And I would like to record here the passing of Desmond Bridge in December 2025. He gave a lot of time and energy to Alphamstone Village Hall, was Chair for many years and is sorely missed.
So what did we achieve in 2025/26?
During the year we ran the regular meeting events of the fortnightly coffee mornings and monthly film club with a good number of attendees. These regular events play a big role in bringing in funds to the village hall. In addition to this we held the Fete, The Alphamstone Art Walk, a new venture organised with the help of Jules. Games on the Green, Winter Warmer Supper, Christmas Craft Morning, Christmas Wreath Making and Big Breakfast. We have also supported other charities with our Macmillan coffee morning and Chocolates for Christmas given to the Sudbury food bank.
This financial year we have been very fortunate to apply for and receive three grants. These were:
- £934.80 from Hypercharged Foundation to paint the outside of the hall.
- £1000 from Essex Association of Local Councils towards the cost of our new oven.
- £4760 from Rural England Prosperity Fund to cover 80% cost of the new heating and air conditioning system.
These grants take many hours of work to apply for but have helped us in the maintenance and updating of the halls equipment and we thank the grant donors for their financial backing and confidence in us as a charity.
I know that it is not relevant to the financial year of this meeting but some of you have asked and I would like to reassure you all that we will be applying for money from the National Grid Community Fund. We are applying to have solar panels and batteries fitted to the hall with a transfer switch so that we can used the saved power for the community in the case of a prolonged local power cut. The power created would cover much of the hall’s electricity bills and might even make us a small profit. This will free up money to spend on other things. In fact this is a rolling fund of £2.1million and if there is still some not allocated we can apply again in the next financial year for another project.
This year also included the Emergency General Meeting which voted to convert our Charity from an Unincorporated one to a Charitable Incorporated Organisation. The work on this transfer has commenced but due to all of our other commitments is slow. But we are on it and will get there, I hope that by the next AGM we will have positive news.
We have also worked on some small improvements in the hall of installing an automatic light to come on when you enter the lobby and the removal of the conker tree in the car park.
In March, due to the demolition of the conservatory at Old School House we were able to commission a comprehensive survey of the rear wall and roof of the hall as we have had ongoing damp issues. This showed that there was much work that needs to be done to repair cracks in the wall and replace all the roof felt and tiles. I am pleased to say that that work is now underway.
As you will hear in Ian’s financial report, we have made a nice sum on Easyfundraising this year. I know I mention it regularly but that is money made by supporters shopping online at no cost to themselves. If you haven’t joined in to support any charity in this way then please can I urge you to do so. It is a great scheme.
I hope that we have run a range of events, something for everyone in our village. But we are very open to ideas on this so please tell us if you have any suggestions.
Everything we do for the hall, events, grant applications and repairs take a lot of team effort and organising but our overall aim is to use the hall as much as we can for the good of our community and raise enough money to keep the building in good repair and make improvements where necessary.
Treasurer’s Report
I would now like to ask Ian to give the Financial Report.
The end of year accounts are now complete and this year produced a profit of £3,858, helped by £283 of interest on the two savings accounts. We have had a number of expenses this year, assisted by the grants mentioned by Kathryn. The new cooker cost £1,349 but after the grant only cost us £149. Likewise the air conditioning was invoiced at £6,000 but only cost us £1,190.
Many thanks to those who applied for and obtained the grants.
The Fete earlier this year brought in the region of £1,800 to the Hall accounts and also to the Church. The projected income figures for 26/27 are based on a conservative estimate based on the prior 2 years, simlarly the projected expenses.The current account balances as of 2 days ago are £20,268.65. The Fete profits have been paid in but we are yet to distribute the Church share. The Business Reserve account stands at £2,621.45 and the Liquidity Manager £2,564.36, bringing total funds to £26,464.46.
This year there are some unexpected expenses. A new projector is required for the Social Club and the major roof expense has already been alluded to. As such we will be digging heavily into our hard-earned savings. Having said that we have some generous friends and donations for the roof are currently in excess of £5,000, and a further £200 has been donated towards the new projector.
Chair – Thank You Ian, as Ian has said the donations towards the roof have been amazing and humbling. Although £26,000 seems a good balance, and we have already paid a £5,000 deposit towards the works, there are probably a further £12,000 of expenses. The roofers have been very good in highlighting potential additional costs and savings, though obviously until the work is undertaken the exact bill remains uncertain. I would like to headline the end of year balance. Through our hard work in providing events and money-making ventures we made a year on year profit even with the spending on improvements we made to the building. This is a huge success and one I am proud of us as a team in making.
Secretary’s Report
I would now like to ask Sue to give the Secretary’s Report
Since the date of the last AGM the AVH committee held 6 meetings, in September & November 2025, in January & March 2025, and twice in April 2026.
An EGM was also held on 17th January 2026 to discuss and vote on the Trustees wishes to change the structure of the charity from an unincorporated one to a Charitable Incorporated Organisation or CIO. This was unanimously approved.
2025 AGM committee elections. At the AGM all current trustees stood down. Those willing to stand again were Kathryn Parsons, as Chair, Sue Gardiner, Lynne Potter and Laura Richardson, as Secretary. All proposed and seconded and approved by those present. Joining committee members – Sue Faull was willing to stand and was proposed and seconded by KP and SG.
In September 2025 Sue Faull was appointed as Secretary, taking over from Laura. At the January 2026 EGM Simon Johns kindly volunteered to take on the role of looking after the website, previously kindly run by Nicola Waters.
All legal requirements for fire safety, health and safety and safeguarding continue to operate, with renewal of documentation and insurance where appropriate.
Questions from the Public
Chair – Over to you, are there any points you would like to raise or questions or comments you have? None. There had been a suggestion about a Pilates class. The issue here is that as with the seated exercise class, unless we find enough people willing to attend every week, it is very hard to find someone willing to hire the hall and run the class, which would probably need a minimum of 8 weekly attendees.There are also established classes in Lamarsh.
We will continue to run village-centred events and obviously events such as the Fete do bring in outside money, which is very helpful as there is a limit to what people can locally afford. As the Finances have shown, last year even though we spent a lot on improvements we made money, and if we can makea small positive result each year to cover eventualities and the running costs then that works well. I would be worried if we were running at a loss.
Election of Trustees
At this point all elected trustees stand down and can be re-elected.
Myself. Sue Gardener, Sue Faull and Lynne are willing to stand for another year but I am sad to say that Laura has decided not to restand. I am very sorry to see you go Laura, you have put in six years as a trustee, as secretary for many of them and we will miss you and your IT skills.
But I am glad to say that Laura isn’t too far away and has offered to remain a very helpful villager. As a small token of our appreciation, we would like to present you with these flowers.
If there are no objections to the rest of us re-standing then I could have a proposer and seconder for
Myself- Robert Hume / Deirdre Hume
Sue Gardiner – Kathryn / Lynne
Sue Faull – Sue G / Lynne
Lynne – Kathryn / Sue G
Thank you very much. However, this means that we are down to four trustees which isn’t enough for the workload so we are now on the lookout for two new trustees so if you are interested in a role or can think of someone to nominate please let us know.
Thank you all very much for attending.
Simon Johns on behalf of everyone attending wanted to thank the Trustees for their hard work at the Village Hall which was a wonderful resource for the village.
Meeting closed at 09:50
Alphamstone Village Hall 