November 1996 - Editorial
COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION AND VILLAGE HALL
What is the Community Association? What does it do? Is it like the Parish Council? Who finances it - do our rates pay for the running of the Village Hall? Does it affect me at all?
What is the Community Association?
The Association was set up over ten years ago and had two main objectives,
- To promote the benefit of the inhabitants of the village and its neighbourhood, without distinction of sex or of religious, political or other opinions, and to provide facilities for the social welfare, recreation or leisure time occupations of those inhabitants.
- To establish and manage a Village Hall for activities promoted by the Association.
Both these objectives have been and remain the centre around which the Association is run.
What does it do?
The Association organises activities in and about the village and the Village Hall. It manages the Hall and has been very successful since its inception in improving the Hall itself, including the repainting which took place in the Summer and the very attractive and useful extension, which was built a couple of years ago. It also looks after the car park, which incidentally is owned and maintained by the Association, and the grass and shrubs around the Hall.
In the village, the Association organises the village lottery, arranges an annual village quiz, provides the facilities for the annual Sutton Six and Fun Runs, and has been very successful in recent years in organising a Craft Fair and Flower Demonstration. Other social activities have been arranged in previous years, such as a Caribbean Evening, Valentines Dance and wine tasting, but these have fallen off lately because of a lack of an organiser.
The Association also speaks on behalf of the village to various interested bodies, for example the City and County Councils and always seeks to promote the village and its inhabitants. It is a convenient way of contacting a number of organisations who use the Hall and the Association acts as an intermediary between these groups and the Councils as well as canvassing the views of the village through the Association’s members.
Is it like the Parish Council?
The Parish Council is a statutory body, part of the local government network and linked to the City and County Councils. It is financed through rates, which are levied through an annual precept on all householders in the village.
The Community Association is a group of volunteers who meet and work to progress the interests of the village. It is solely financed by fund raising activities, by the village lottery, by the surplus generated by the Hall and by voluntary contributions. It is set up as a registered charity and does not pay out money to any employees or officers, other than to a very hard working part time cleaner.
It is run by two main committees,
- An Executive Committee who oversees the general activities of the Association, including running the lottery, arranging social functions, managing the major items of expenditure, such as the Marigold Room extension, and takes a view on the policy decisions affecting the Association. Members are elected to this committee at the Annual Meeting held in May.
- A Hall Management Committee, who look after the day to day management of the Village Hall. This is composed of a representative from each of the various groups who use the hall and they decide on the everyday matters which affect the Hall and the User Groups.
Who finances it - do our rates pay for the running of the Village Hall?
As I explained above, the rates do not contribute to the Village Hall in any way. The Village Hall is run by the Association, which is set up as a registered charity and is totally financed by the income from the Hall and by any other fund raising activities that they we may organise.
Does it affect me at all?
It does not have to. If neither you nor your children are involved in any of the organisations who use the Hall, you do not want to participate in the social activities, are not a member of the village lottery and do not want an organisation to speak up for you when putting forward the views of members of the village, then you will not be affected.
However, if you care about what happens in the village, you think it is about time that we had another of those marvellous Caribbean Evenings, you would like to have a say in how the Hall is managed and how it develops, and you recognise that an organisation such as this does not just ‘run itself’, then you can find out what goes on by contacting Derek Hughes on 300185.
SUTTON SIX AND FUN RUNS
The annual Sutton Six and Fun Runs took place as usual this year. They were organised by CEPAC ( the Chester and Ellesmere Port Athletic Club) and were held on Sunday September 22nd finishing at the Village Hall. The format for the day was the same tried and tested formula, with CEPAC organising and preparing the races and the Community Association providing the Village Hall and laying on refreshments, a barbecue and a cake stall. It was a real family occasion, with things to do for all members of the family.
The race was very successful with a good sized, high quality field and a larger number of competitors than the last few years. The weather was kind to us again (how many more years can we be lucky with a nice day?) and it was a really enjoyable day. My thanks to all who helped on the day and beforehand.
You can never plan too much ahead - next years will be on Sunday 21st September, same time, same place.
CRAFT FAIR
The third Craft Fair was held in the Village Hall on the first Sunday in November, as in previous years. It followed the same style as the last couple of years by having a wide range of craft stalls and by retaining the idea that all items sold were hand crafted.
My thanks to all who helped in the organisation of the Fair and who put in all the hard work to make it an enjoyable affair.
The attendance at the Fair was not as large as we have had before, and it may be time to try to think of something else for the village. The Fair was a wonderful opportunity to buy some Christmas presents, but if we do not have the support of the village, there is no point in organising it.
HANGING BASKETS
Representatives of Village Hall groups agreed to fill hanging baskets again this year to hang around the Hall and to brighten it up throughout the summer. We are grateful to the Badminton, Bowls, Executive, Junior Club, Marigold Playgroup and Players Groups for providing some bright and very colourful displays from the baskets.
It was particularly appropriate that we should be able to put them up again as the village entered the Best Kept Village Competition. The Hanging Baskets looked extremely attractive throughout the summer and brightened the Village Hall up considerably.
FLOWER DEMONSTRATION
The third annual flower demonstration was held in the Village Hall on Friday 5th July at 8 p.m.. It was entitled "Summer Fanfare" and was given by Diane Fair, who has had a lot of contact with the Village Hall and was recently awarded "Best in Show" at the Chester Carnival.
Again, it was a tremendous success and over 80 people were entertained all evening by Diane, who stunned the audience with her displays. Diane’s connections with the Village Hall centre around her daughters who used to go to ballet classes here.
Our thanks go to all the people who helped in any way - preparing for the demonstration, making cakes, selling raffle tickets, serving refreshments and clearing up at the end.
REPORT OF THE COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION ANNUAL MEETING HELD IN MAY
At the Annual Meeting in May this year, the Association Chairman gave his view of the progress during 1995.
After a hectic 1994, when the Marigold Room extension was built, probably the most important year since the Hall was opened by the Duke of Westminster over 12 years ago, last year was a quieter year. I think the final product we have is a credit to the Hall and to the Association and reflects well on the people who helped to provide it. We have maintained the tradition of the Hall and enhanced its overall appearance, as well as providing a valuable and different extra facility, that is now well accepted by Hall users.
We operate very efficiently and with a low cost base because of our cautious financial decisions and our dependence on volunteers. All Users obviously benefit from this approach, with low rental charges and minimal increases each year. But the User Groups must be prepared to provide the voluntary labour, or we will have to employ and pay for these jobs to be done - something that will jack up our costs considerably.
Running through other matters, the village lottery is in good hands. Again, Alan Jackson has done a very good job by consolidating it and has stemmed the steady decline in income which we suffered for a number of years.
On the social side, we still do not have an organisation in place to arrange social functions. At the moment, we are relying on individuals to organise specific events and keep the money and the social side just ticking over. The Craft Fair was the second of these events to take place last year and turned out to be better than the first. It is essentially a fair selling hand crafted items and there are some high quality products for sale. It was visited by over 500 people last year and is a welcome opportunity to buy some different Christmas presents for friends and family. We intend to have another one this year and I will mention the date later. Thanks to Ruth Hughes for organising this event.
The Flower Demonstration last July was also the second annual event of its kind to take place in the Hall. This is different to any of the other evenings we have in the Hall and enables people from inside the village and quite a large number of outsiders to visit the Hall. Over 90 people came to see David Robertson, a NAFAS Area Demonstrator, and marvelled at the displays.
The Quiz is a regular and welcome activity because it attracts people into the Hall who would not otherwise come here. It seems to have settled down at about 20 teams each year and is a very enjoyable evening. My thanks to Al Christmas, and to Viv Downing and her team of helpers for all the work that goes into it.
The Sutton Six and Fun Runs are another regular event and we seem to have agreed a good balance between us, with CEPAC organising the run, the village providing the venue and the Community Association providing the games and refreshments. The event always seems to go ahead in fine weather (watch out for rain this year) and we receive a welcome contribution from CEPAC towards the Association’s funds. We have worn out the backs of our Barbecue volunteers, so we are looking for some new ones if there are any offers.
John Beavan produced The Marigold newsletter throughout the year and has created an excellent product. I have heard a number of plaudits from several people praising the newsletter. It is regularly printed on three A4 sized pages and is a very professional document. My thanks to John and to the distributors for their work on The Marigold.
On the financial, I believe we are in a strong position, but this is dependant on our being able to do many of the smaller jobs with volunteers. If we have to pay for a caretaker, it will involve us in a lot more expense.
Lastly, as this is the tenth Annual Report I have delivered, let me take you back those ten years to when I was still a lad and when the Hall was still paying off the loans for the original building. It was a time when the Village Fair was booked providing "spectacular entertainment and competitions", including sheep trials, duck trials, archery and pony rides.
This was when Chris Powell was asking for men to help with Junior Club, and Linda Turner was in charge of Playgroup. The biggest problem faced by the Association was something called the "missing link" and the hourly rate for hiring the Hall was £4-80. It was also a time when the car park was unsurfaced and before we had secured over £20,000 in grants for various projects at the Hall. We have made a lot of progress in the last ten years.
