Meeting minutes 26-02-22

Download the meeting minutes document here.

Date: 26/02/22

Time: 6pm

Attendees: Lynne Caulfield (Trustee Chair), Sandie Emmerson (Treasurer Trustee), Michelle Cusick (Secretary), Sylvia Simmonds (History Trustee), Tina Cardy (Trustee) Richard West. Nigel Benwell (Maintenance)

Agenda Items and discussion points: 

Café Work Group conclusion statement- Café Group lead

Our research into the ways we might look to operate our café business at the Hub has taken several months and has covered three approaches, all of them with one main aim in mind: ‘to look at different ways to increase the potential revenues from the café facility so we can increase the funding required to sustain the Hub and better support the community.’ 

Treasurer: Do we need social media volunteers to help respond to the negative FB posts?We met with large numbers of local cafés, both commercially and community-managed, to gain insight into the pros and cons of each type of structure. We thoroughly reviewed the financial, legal and organisational structures required to sustain 1) a purely volunteer-run café, 2) an in-house managed café model with paid employees instead of volunteers and 3) the option of increasing Hub revenue by creating and renting a larger café space to a commercially managed café business. We researched option 1 first because this had the potential to create a maximum of revenue for the Trust and hence for the community. We regrettably had to reject this option because of its reliance on sufficient numbers of volunteers, not just to cook and serve but also to manage the administrative, legal and Health and Safety aspects of running a café. We were then left with options 2 & 3 which each require a financial investment. 

Luckily through astute financial management over the years and in part thanks to Covid grants received during lockdown, the outgoing Trustees had been able to increase the General Reserve of the Hub from its usual £15K to £36K. As a result, and for the first time in the history of the Hub, there are the necessary funds available to finance either option:

2) the initial 6 months of salary to pay a café manager and refurbish a Hub-managed café at the rear of the building or,

3) the purchase and installation of kitchen facilities in another part of the Hub to facilitate the creation of a bigger café area which could be rented to a commercial cafe business at a higher rate than the previous café area. 

After much deliberation we recommend option 3), because it has the advantage of guaranteeing the increased revenue that will allow us to safeguard the physical maintenance of the Hub building as well as provide the additional income we need in the long term to invest more in the community. This option also presents considerably less risk than a self-managed cafe model which, our research has indicated, requires a formidable and complex legal and financial infrastructure that we believe is not suited to the nature and structure of this Charity. 

Revitalisation Plan and slides

Chair submitted proposed 1st draft of Revitalisation plan and Focus Group slides to Trustees for approval. A few changes made but the documents are now ready for the Community Consultation stage.

Community Consultation Progress

Trustees have now finalised the list of attendees for the Focus Groups and Online Survey and Chair will now communicate dates with all participants.

Online survey

Trustees approved questions for online survey via Survey Monkey, cost approved at £90 and testing carried out – now ready to send to community consultation participants.

Chair – Charity workshops and research

Chair attended a zoom training session hosted by Community Impact Bucks on Safeguarding on behalf of the Trust

Chair to Update our safeguarding policies and share all slides with Trustees

Chair applied for Grant for gardening project -fflgettogethers.org

New Trustee Election

Richard Wessex was proposed for election as a Trustee by Tina Cardy and seconded by Chair. Trustees voted approval. Richard is interested in working on Events for the Hub and helping Chair with Grant applications.

Branding workshop

Tina presented the outcomes from the Branding workshop and agreement was reached on our formal ‘objectives & aims’ and initial designs for the new Hub logo were approved. New name for the Hub discussed to make the full name much shorter and snappier. Trustees voted for ‘Ivinghoe Village Hub’.

New projects/ideas identified:

Historical pictures to be published on our Facebook page and ultimately in frames at the Hub Cafe.

Hub Hikes (Michelle to work on a Hub Hike to post on the FB page next time we update it)

Next Trustee Meeting: TBC

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Minutes Secretary.                                        Date of approval