Meeting Notes 21st May

  Friends of Ramsbottom Civic Hall

Review Group Meeting at the Civic Hall on 21st May 2024 at 7pm

Minutes

  Action
   
1.Attendance and Apologies 
   
 Present: Eddie Jones, Janet Smith, Steve Treadgold, David Catterall, Bill Fildes, Cath Harrop, Chris Shannon, Helen Tomlinson, Neil Long (Bury Council’s Assistant Director, Operations)   Apologies: Julie Cornall, John Leyland, Stuart Rothwell, Dorothy Gunther, Mark Griffiths, Chris Hill, David McCarthy   
2.Introductions  Neil was introduced and conducted discussion for a period including the Council recognition of other Community Groups and their links with the Council. Neil commented on the Council’s willingness to relate to community initiatives and the mechanism for volunteers to be passed to the Council for insurance cover in the hall in the consideration of risk assessment, when users were under consideration.   Until there is a Council resolution as to the Hall’s future alongside Market Chambers and the rest of Ramsbottom (following on from the published “Ramsbottom Town Centre Plan”) the Hall remains open with costs to the Council kept to an absolute minimum. For example, trusted people could have keys to access the venue.   Sara, Hall Manager, will manage bookings and caretaking duties.   
3.Minutes of last meeting –agreed   
4.Progress since April Review Group meeting Cath gave some details of the work she had been doing including an upgrade of the Hall’s kitchen.  She already has a good working relationship with the Hall manager and a successful marriage event had been held.  Taking liability for her own staff, she is eager to do more weddings and hopes to press on with community events and her leadership. She will come forward with a model for developing the Hall’s potential including the Holcombe Room and garden which she sees as being underused at present.   An interim policy for procedures related to volunteers will be developed.              CH       CH, CS
5.Communications Systems within Groups Cath confirmed that she with the volunteers had set up a What’s App group for their communication and undertook to forward the rules to the group to ensure awareness of the procedures.  So far there are 9 members including SA   Cath will be sent a copy of the FORCH Partnership Agreement with Bury Council so she can add to it.  This will eventually lead to a service agreement with details of volunteers who can be registered with the Council.              JS CH
6.FORCH Governance Governance issues were considered without the presence of Mark whose paper, Proposed Organisation Structure, was available and would be considered at the next meeting. Helen advised that FORCH could become a Community Interest Company (CIC) with at least 3 directors. A business plan, which would amount to little more than a vision at this stage, would be needed and some trading would need to take place. Registration would be needed but could be done quickly.  Consideration of the options for the constitution of the group and the partnership with the Council was also delayed until the next meeting when Tony & Debbie McDermot would be invited to be present.            JS, EJ
7.FORCH finance David Catterall was invited to maintain links with Steve Treadgold, the Treasurer of Forch to allow support for the group to be considered.  DC
8.Date and time of next meeting – tbd to enable agenda to include matters as outlined above in item 6EJ, JS after further contact with Review Group members