Chairman’s AGM Report – Tues 7th May 2024.

This year has been very busy and productive. We have made many improvements to the village hall both inside and out, updated our admin and added new regular hirers.

We started in May 2023 with the introduction of new flower planters and the Book Exchange to the front of the VH. The Book Exchange has proved very popular and is in daily use. It is good to see that it has helped to improve the social side to village life.
It was sad at this time because of the untimely loss of our friend and colleague Julian Halls. Julian had been taking an active part in bringing the Book Exchange together. We commemorated Julian by planting a Pear Tree on the VH meadow and attaching a plaque to the bench beside the Book Exchange.

In August we had the new Kitchen up and running. The Kitchen has been a great asset to the VH, it is used every day and has improved our hiring capabilities. Thank you to the community council and Mr Alston via SNDC for providing some of the financial support for this project.

In the autumn we had all the trees at the front of VH pruned so that it improved the growth, look and shape to frontage of VH.

Christmas saw the introduction of outside lighting for the first time. Feedback was that it added to the village Christmas atmosphere.

In January we replaced all the lighting in the VH. As the lighting was becoming unreliable and not very efficient, we updated to low energy lighting. This will be more cost effective and improved our green footprint.

February through to April saw the redecorating of the main hall. The idea was to brighten and freshen up the look. All work was carried out by volunteers from the VH committee therefore keeping the cost down to materials only. The internal decorating is on-going so the rest of the VH will get the same make over in time.

We had a good year fund raising with the Fete and Quiz & Chip nights being very popular. The village hall relies on its volunteer committee members, donations, grants and the support of the villagers of Spooner Row, Suton, Wattlefield and beyond without whom we would have no village hall. New committee members are always welcome, and we are always open to fresh fund-raising ideas.

Lastly, I would like to thank all the committee members for their hard work this last 12 months. Caroline our secretary, Nikki our treasurer, Sue for sourcing grants, Paul our vice chairman, Christian our IT guy, Francis our booking secretary and Vijala, Helen, Mavis and Terri our fete squad, book exchange and gardening team, without their commitment we would not have our Village Hall.

Thank you
Andy (Chairman)