Minutes of the 2011 AGM

of

The BYPA

Friday 18th March 2011 at 7.30 pm

BYPA Hall, Manor Lane, Baydon

1.            Present

 

Committee: Venice Marriott, David Price-Goodfellow, Kate Norman, Kate Buckingham, Di Choules.

Visitors: Barbara Furber, Mike Steele and Margo Gulvin, Tony Prior (Chair, Parish Council), Mark Austen, Kim Austen, Jan Bowra, Mary Spanswick, Denise Dawson (pre-school), Wendy Appello (Brownies), Jane Dominy (Brownies).

 

2.            Apologies

 

Alison Jones (Toddlers) Gordon Walker, Nicola Scotchmer

 

3.            Review of period 2006 - 2010 from the BYPA Chair

 

Venice Marriott welcomed everyone explaining that it was a slightly unusual AGM in that it was a catch-up for several that were missed due to the accounts not being finalised and therefore unable to be presented.

 

For the most part of this period the Youth club for the 8-11s ran successfully attracting 20-30 young people every Friday. 

 

However, what started as a strong team of volunteers gradually declined over the years and it became increasingly difficult to find other parent volunteers to make a commitment and come regularly. 

 

More recently Gordon Walker took on organising the youth club to allow the Chair to concentrate on the management of the Hall.  However, without regular support, it became impossible to run and the youth club has had to close temporarily. With new people coming onto the committee and potential support through Wiltshire Youth Service it was hoped that this might start again.

 

Finally, it was good to be able to present the accounts, vote new members onto the committee and look to the future. The focus in the coming year would be on refurbishing the Hall and re-thinking how it could best be used to suit young people and the wider community.

 

Kim Austen, a professional accountant had checked the accounts and presented them on behalf of the outgoing Treasurer David Price-Goodfellow.

 

4.            Financial Statement for 2010

 

Kim Austen presented the Accounts for 2006 to 2010. She explained the running costs had remained fairly constant of around £3,000 to £4,000 and the income from the 4 main users - Pre-school, Toddlers, Brownies and the Parish Council,  covered the running costs, but there was very little spare for development or refurbishment.

 

Denise Dawson (Pre-school) thought that as she and her staff spent an hour cleaning up after themselves after the Pre-school session each day it might be unnecessary to also pay for a cleaner as they had nothing to do. Jane Dominy pointed out there were other users and there were sometimes children’s parties and other use of the Hall at the weekend. Venice Marriott explained that the cleaner came in on a Monday evening after Toddlers so that the Hall was clean for Preschool on Tuesday.

 

5.            Election of Chair and Committee Members

 

Venice Marriott was re-elected as Chair and explained it was the last year she would stand. She was proposed by Kate Buckingham and Seconded by David Price-Goodfellow.

 

Kim Austen was elected as Treasurer; She was proposed by Venice Marriott and Seconded by Kate Norman

 

Also elected to the committee:

Denise Dawson. Proposed by Venice Marriott, Seconded by Kim Austen

Alison Jones: Proposed by Venice Marriott, Seconded by Denise Dawson

Gordon Walker: Proposed by Venice Marriott, Seconded by Kim Austen

Nicola Scotchmer: Proposed by Venice Marriott, Seconded by Kate Norman

Di Choules agreed to remain on the Committee.

Standing down from the committee were; Kate Buckingham, Kate Norman and David Price-Goodfellow.

 

The Chair thanked David for his 7 year commitment and for turning up week in week out to help run the Youth Club every Friday and to both Kate Buckingham and Kate Norman and who had also given years to helping run the Youth Club.

 

6.            Any other business

 

Jan Bowra introduced the work she and Mary Spanswick did on behalf of Wiltshire Youth Services and explained their approach to developing Youth activities. They were primarily interested in the 13-19 year old group and were very keen to develop this work in the villages surrounding Marlborough.  There was the possibility of them coming into Baydon to run sessions for young people on a short term basis (up to a year) in order to re-establish a youth club. Volunteer support from the village would still be needed to ensure it was sustainable.

 

Jan felt there was a need to talk first with young people in the village to try and establish what they want. Suitable activities and a suitable space for young people to meet were discussed at length as was the need for CRB checks on everybody who would be working with the young people.  Up until the end of March it was possible to get CRB checks free through Jan.

 

Jan also mentioned that money was available for transport from the village for trips elsewhere and could be applied for through the Marlborough Development Trust (up to £1000).  Jan also recommended that we get a job description together for a youth worker and apply for funding.

 

BYPA needed to decide if it wished to go down the route of a traditional youth club, or create a Youth Council (as in Aldbourne) and let young people decide on activities and the BYPA provide more of a supportive role.

 

Amy Wallis, the Youth worker from CAN was keen to create links with Baydon Youth Club and look at sharing facilities, combining activities and organising inter-village events.

 

The discussion around the Youth Club and creating a space young people could call their own raised the issue of the use of the BYPA and how we could meet the needs of all our users. Barbara Furber remembered a time when the young people did have somewhere that was very much their own and that it was very popular. The chair said that the committee would need to think creatively about how we can make this happen, and whether it was possible to combine this with making the BYPA Hall more accessible to the wider village community.

 

Tony Prior touched on the issue of ownership of the BYPA Hall and the Chair said that in line with Charity Commission advice we would be getting Charitable Status established first, before we look at this issue.  The Chair was also working with the Charity Commission to make sure that the original deeds of 1949 were understood and complied with.

 

Mike Steele asked whether the committee should be considering a name change to reflect it’s potential wider usage.  The Chair said it was being considered in terms of distinguishing between the management of the facility and the youth club itself as BYPA currently represented both and that it would be raised with the Charity Commission.

 

7.            Date of next meeting

 

The next AGM would take place within a year of this date.  The next meeting of the Committee would be arranged within the Committee as there were a number of members missing.

 

 

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