NYCE Minutes of Committee Meeting on Wednesday 22^nd May 2024 

 7.30pm in Upstairs Meeting Room, Subscription Rooms

         Present: Jonathan Duckworth (JD), Chair; Tracy Shipp (TS),Treasurer; Fern Bratby (FB);  Pam Brown  (PB);  Dave Parker (DP), Iain McIvor (IM), Les Haines (LH), Minutes Secretary, Andy Hammond (AH), Fred Ashworth (FA) 

         Apologies for Absence: Cliff Jordan, Claudia Weston, Mark Peer 

         Welcome: The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting. 

1. Minutes of Committee Meeting 20^th March 2024:
   1. The Minutes had been circulated by LH by email on 24^th March; committee approved them as an 

      accurate record and the chair signed them; to be added to website (PB).

Matters arising:

1. 1. Draft terrorism legislation (Martyn’s Law): JD said that no further news has been received about 

         any major changes to the proposed legislation or any implementation date; the announcement of the 

     General Election on 4 July will inevitably impact on timings. Editor’s note: since our meeting, both

     main party leaders have been reported as saying they will pursue the legislation without delay

     if elected;

2.2    Calendar for significant events and actions - LH to complete this task and DP promised some additional 

         dates for inclusion; 

1. 1. 2.3.   Annual Town Meeting 20^th April: the small team of TS, FA and LH who supervised NYCE’s display-

stand reported that there had been a steady footfall of people who wanted to learn more, especially

about the work of the workshops and the guitar production. We had updated the display boards with

new material and it was very useful to have workshops products and a guitar to act as a draw-in and

 to show to visitors; LH said that the Town Council could do more to use the event to ‘talk up’ the wide

range of voluntary organisations which are the backbone of the town;  

Action: mainly positive feedback has already been given to NTC; it is considered worthwhile taking

part again next year (Saturday 19^th April?). 

1. Finance:

1. 1. At this time the Charity has £36,745 on account; TS is actively using Quikbooks and apart from one

     or two isolated gliches the payment process is generally working well; she is in touch with DL to

     fine-tune the process; 

3.2    Preparation of Annual Accounts for the year 2023/24 - Action: TS will confer with DL regarding this;              

3.3    Update on utilities: water – it is believed there are no bills outstanding (FB); 

         gas and electricity – DP says we are almost at the end of our current contract with Octopus 

         (5^th July) and he has been researching the market. That company still looks the most favourable

          option to renew. He notes that gas consumption is up about 30% (extra usage, cool weather?); 

          solar energy: DP reports that the panels are efficiently producing electricity for us; on a negative

          point it has taken longer than expected to get the system registered with Octopus for us to get some 

          pay-back on the electricity returned to the grid. This has mainly been due to the contractor promising

          to register ours at the same time as the Workshops solar set-up but that installation has been much

          delayed. Action: DP says that all the necessary paperwork (by email) is now in the hands of 

          Octopus and he awaits their response 

1. Building:

1. 1. Conclusion of works to sand down, re-surface and re-paint lines of floor of main hall; DP reported

 that the works had been concluded very satisfactorily on time and on budget by Reflex Sports on 

 28^th/29^th March; as reported before this meeting all are impressed with the result and the sports users 

 like the non-slip  surface;

 Action: the challenge now will be to maintain the surface in optimum condition; cleaning instructions

 have been obtained from the contractors and our cleaners have been briefed; in about 2  years time

 we will ask the contractor to carry out recommended routine maintenance; it has already  been decided

 not to purchase a heavy duty (and expensive) cleaning machine;      

1. 1. FB reported that Matthew Taylor was contracted to make good the window returns on the 7 

          new windows and he did at good job at a reasonable price in mid-March; she also pointed out that    

          condensation builds up in cold weather between the panes of the Gothic style window; meeting 

          considered possible remedies but nothing was decided and we may have to live with this problem; 

1. 1. DP reported that a problem of poor supply of hot water from the boiler located in the small kitchen    

 was caused by build-up of hard water scale and had been rectified by the fitting of a new heat   

 exchanger by our boiler contractor, Amber Heating; this hard water issue has also led to DP arranging    

          for new taps in the toilet area and this was carried out by plumber, Chris Watson (who could be useful  

          for other jobs of that nature);

 Further Action: IM said that we could look at fitting the latest type of water softener equipment and he

 will confer with DP to show the product to deal with this on-going hard water problem;   

1. 1. Installation of dust extractor housing outside workshops garage - PB reported on progress - she 

 is looking for an outside contractor to take the lead on these works;              

1. 1. Installation of solar panels for Workshops – PB reported good progress, viz, scaffolding erected, 

 a bank of panels fitted to the roof and connections about to be completed by the contractor CME; 

 PB said that a few roof tiles had not been replaced – DP said that he had been in the loft earlier

 and had seen no sign of any rainwater ingress. Action: PB to check this out with the contractor.

           Further Action: there is an opportunity with the scaffolding in place for the rainwater gutter on that 

           side of the roof to be cleaned – IM will arrange with PB for Ben of Future Six Co. to do the work; 

4.6      LH has drawn up a list of jobs around the building for completion in the short, medium & long term. 

                         Action: please see the list added to these minutes as Appendix 1.   

   

1. Grounds:

5.1     LH reported that some short working sessions been completed since the previous meeting to clear the    

          paths and rainwater gutter of the ‘garage’, paint 2 radiators in the toilet area, clean the windows in the 

          meeting room and clean the canopy above the side door.

          Action: LH and DP expect to do the next session in either week commencing 3^rd or 10^th June  

1. Fire Safety:

6.1    DP continues to oversee the fire prevention procedures and no issues of concern were reported.

 

1. Updates from User Groups:

7.1  Tennis Club: MP in his unavoidable absence has furnished a Club report viz:

       “The summer season is well in progress with all 6 teams playing matches throughout the county and

        at home.

        Our annual maintenance of the 2 main courts took place on 8^th May when the courts were re-dressed

        with sand and a moss kill applied around the edges. 

        Our coaching sessions continue to be very well attended by both seniors and juniors.

        As previously mentioned, the Club’s next major expenditure will be to replace our floodlights with LED’s.

        Estimates so far indicate costings around £17K plus VAT.   

        Recently Minchinhampton TC managed to secure grant funding to replace their lights from a waste 

        disposal company. Enovert Community Trust deals with such applications. One condition on application

        is that if you are a lease-holder there must be at least 10 years remaining. Our current lease expires in

        April 2031 so only giving us 7 remaining years.

          This will be on our TC committee agenda on the 10^th June; possibly a lease renewal ‘agreement in 

          principle’ at this time may be sufficient to allow an application? Will advise again on this after making

          further enquiries with Enovert”                              

7.2    Phoenix Table-tennis: AH reported that their Club is now in the close season for competitions 

         but play/practice sessions continue on reduced days; the Monday booking will not be needed

         until September (PB has noted this). 

         The AGM of the Stroud Table- tennis League will be held here on 10^th June.

         The Bat and Chat group is looking to link up with Phoenix for insurance purposes.  

7.3    School of Larks - Circus Skills: No report from CW on this occasion. 

         Action: LH will ask CW for a retrospective report (done). 

7.4     Community Workshops: PB reported on their latest news. They have been spending some time

          re-jigging their website. They’ve had issues with their insurance renewal, e.g. the cover offered by

          the company via the broker no longer covers one of their activities, silverwork. Meeting discussed

          whether this was another example of a failing service by the broker.

          Belatedly, PB was informed by SDC that their grant of £3.5K towards the solar panel system did not

          cover the VAT element. She and the team were of course very grateful for the financial support given.             

1. Safeguarding:

8.1     No issues had been brought to attention since the previous committee meeting. 

1. Business Plan 2023-26:

9.1    The meeting noted and accepted the latest business plan monitoring report (3 pages) produced by LH

          for the period 1 December 2023 to 30^th April 2024; the report included a record of the average number

          of  weekly users of the Subscription Rooms services viz: 400/450 across all activities;

                   Action: The next report will cover the period to 30^th September (LH).

                   Meeting briefly discussed next tasks (aside from any day-to-day maintenance which is dealt with 

                   separately) and it was agreed that our website could do with an update – the overall look is fine                   

                   but some up- to-date photos and text would improve the site. Committee noted that our facebook page

                   is in abeyance as we have other more effective methods of communicating with the public. 

                   Action: JD to lead on this website work and seek input from other Trustees where necessary.

1. Any Other Business:

10.1  IM said that on a recent afternoon there had been a noisy music session in the hall which

         had disturbed the peace of the neighbourhood. PB noted this and will inform the music group

         if they have a future booking – keep windows and doors closed.

10.2  PB said that the woman neighbour who rents parking space no. 3 at the front of the building has  

         acquired a reputation for being difficult if she returns to find her space occupied by another car. 

         On at least 2 occasions she has just parked her car on double yellow lines, blocked in the other 

         cars without first making any enquiries in the workshops and then walked away.

         Action: as a first step, LH in liaison with PB, will draft a letter warning the renter about her future

         behaviour. If this action fails to get a positive result the committee will be asked to decide on the

         next steps which could include a cessation of the arrangement.      

1. Dates of Next Two Meetings:      

• 7.30pm Wednesday 10^th July; 
• 7.30pm Wednesday 4^th September