SICA 51st Annual General Meeting

The Community Association held its Annual General Meeting in the Richardson Room on Tuesday 15^th June 2010  at 7.30 pm. Before beginning his review of the year the Chairman reported that the seat commemorating Ruth Robson’s services to this community, put in place in the Community Woodland  in January, is much appreciated by many residents of the village. The cost of the seat and commemorative plaque had been shared by SICA and the Parish Council.

Changes in the Management Committee since the last AGM were recorded with Mr Gordon Lavin replacing Mrs Myra Middleton as Carpet Bowls’ representative and Mrs Lizzie Mainwaring joining the Committee to represent parents of children in Playgroup.

As always improvements to the buildings occupied a major part of the Chairman’s report. Major improvements this year include the new fire alarm system, installed last August, the cost of which had largely been met by grants from both the County Council Community Chest and Councillor Dale’s Member’s Fund. Work to reduce heating costs by re-routing the central heating pipe work was also carried out last August, much of it by Bill Robinson. It was pleasing to hear that creating ‘zones’ which could be heated separately had reduced our heating costs, despite the severity of the weather last winter. Another major improvement was fitting new flooring in the kitchen and upstairs toilets carried out last October.  Members will recall that  the kitchen flooring laid some three years has been the subject of a dispute with Wallace Carpets and the Chairman was pleased to report that this dispute had finally been resolved through the County Court Mediation Service.  Other significant improvements reported were the installation of a low hand rail on the stairs and major changes to the Playgroup kitchen. Most recently, following the break-up of the concrete surfaces outside the main entrance, was the replacement of this concrete with attractive and ‘safer’ flagstones. The Chairman stressed how fortunate we are in Stocksfield to be able, once again, to have all this work carried out by local craftsmen or members of the Committee.

The Chairman’s annual review of  Community and Social activities included the very successful ceilidh which ended a fantastic first Stocksfield Festival, as well  as welcoming our involvement with the Highlights Touring Theatre Company. This partnership has enabled some high quality entertainment to be provided locally without financial risk to SICA.  He also welcomed our link with the Queen’s Hall in Hexham which has enabled us to show films here to both children and adults. Having initiated this venture he hoped that volunteers would come forward from the wider community to run this Film Club - as it was not part of our Manager’s job to continue to do so.

The Chairman thanked our President and Vice President for their continued interest and support and went on to thank the Officers and Committee for their hard work through yet another busy year. Both our cleaner and Centre Manager were thanked  for their contribution to the continued success of this Community Centre. The importance of communication with members was stressed and the  Editor of SCAN,  Ian Newton as well as Phil Howie our Website Manager, were both thanked for their work this year.

The meeting went on to receive both the financial report from our Treasurer , which had  already been approved at the May Management meeting, and the membership report, read out in the absence of Membership Secretary Jean Robinson, by the Vice-Cairman. This showed a  continued growth in membership with a 10%  increase on last year. The  report also contained details of Mrs Robinson’s successful efforts to secure Gift Aid tax relief on members’ subscriptions and our thanks to Jean for what had been a great deal of additional work, were recorded.

The Manager’s report  showed once again the extensive and increasing use of the Community Centre . She listed the many and varied regular activities and some of the major social events which took place last year, drawing particular attention to our  link up with the Highlights Touring Theatre Company. This has resulted in four high quality productions, including two for children, all of which have been very well supported. Two more productions have been confirmed for December. She confirmed the purchase of a digital projector for our Film Club bought with grant aid from the County’s Community Chest plus a private donation.  Beth thanked Peter and Betty Scott for all their help and the Officers and committee members for their support.

The final report was from our Playgroup leaders which included the pleasing news that our Playgroup has been chosen to take part in a national pilot scheme involving 11 Local Authorities. Each Local Authority, Northumberland being one, then chooses 6 childcare providers near to a ‘SureStart’ Children’s Centre. Northumberland has chosen Prudhoe Children’s Centre and our Playgroup as one of the 6 child care providers. The leaders of Playgroup were thanked for their work during the year, with further discussion of Playgroup staffing deferred until the Management meeting which followed the AGM.

All the Officers and current members of the Management Committee were re-elected.  A full list of Officers and Management Committee members will appear on a notice board within the Community Centre.

SICA Management Committee Report

A short Management Committee meeting was held after the AGM mainly to agree on the staffing needs of Playgroup for next year. The consequences of lowering our age of admission last year to 2 years from 2 years 8 months is still causing some problems, due to the higher leader/ child ratio required.  This has resulted in our employing two assistant leaders this year resulting in our Playgroup running at a small loss and the Management Committee cannot allow this to continue. The playgroup leaders are consulting parents to find out how many children are likely to be on roll in September but it is very difficult to establish at this stage how many children are likely to be present at each session. The  playgroup leaders have suggested adding a fourth morning session so that we could continue to employ our two assistants for two sessions each. The committee agreed this might provide a solution but felt the financial viability of this needed further investigation. It was agreed that the present uncertainty was unfair to both assistants, and the committee agreed to offer temporary contacts to both assistants for one term.  It appears that SICA Playgroup may be the only local playgroup admitting children at such an early age possibly because others are put off by the extra costs involved.

Notes  had been circulated to all committee members summarising the issues involved in changing the status of SICA to that of a ‘charitable company limited by guarantee’ including a report on a meeting held between the Chairman, Vice-Chairman and Membership Secretary with Anne Lawson from Social Enterprise Northumberland.  Having fully discussed the issues involved at the May management meeting it was unanimously agreed to recommend this change to members at an Extraordinary General Meeting.  Such a  meeting is  necessary since it will require members to approve a new governing document which would replace our existing  Constitution.  The date for this meeting was set for Tuesday 12^th October at 7.30pm in the Richardson Room.  A summary of these proposals will appear in SCAN to inform members of the nature of the changes and of course all members are eligible to attend and vote.

Changing our Charitable Status

The present Management Committee have had some concerns about the financial  responsibilities of members of the Management Committee, who are trustees under our present charitable status.  It appears that in certain,  admittedly very unlikely, circumstances, there could be some financial risk to trustees.  Advice was sought and at meetings with an adviser from Social Enterprise Northumberland, the potential risks were made clear.  It was also pointed out to us that our control of the building itself was limited since back in 1963 the Charity Commission received our deeds (which they continue to hold) and assumed the status of trustees for the land and building.

The change which the Management Committee are now recommending is to replace our existing Constitution with a new governing document which would then enable us to  become a ‘charitable company limited by guarantee’.  Our adviser has produced the necessary governing articles and, whilst the size of this document is a little  intimidating, the aims and objectives in our current constitution remain exactly, word for word, as set out in our current constitution.  This means they have remained unaltered since first set out in 1958.  Since this a constitutional change it will require the approval of a general meeting at which all members are able to vote.  If the new articles are so approved we would then be helped to register as a ‘company limited by guarantee’ at Companies House.  When that registration is confirmed we would then re-register with the Charity Commission.   We understand this last part may take some time.

The Management Committee would welcome interested members to come to the General Meeting on 12^th October but wish to re-assure all our members that, whilst  this change may have some effect on the Management Committee,  it will have no effect on our members or on the day to day running of the Community Centre.

The resolution to be put to the General Meeting on 12^th October is that:

The members of  Stocksfield Institute Community Association (SICA) approve the replacement of the existing Constitution by new governing articles to enable SICA to register as a ‘Charitable Company Limited by Guarantee’ and then re-register as a Charity with the Charity Commission.   

Manager’s Message

Another year over – a SICA year that is since we go from September to July!

It has been another busy year and I am pleased to say that the diary is filling up with bookings for the coming year.  If you are thinking that you may wish to book a room, it may be worth contacting me sooner rather than later to check availability.

On Friday 2^nd July the Film Club are showing  ‘It’s Complicated’ (cert 15).  Come at 7pm and enjoy a glass of wine before the film and catch up with friends.   All welcome.  The film stars Meryl Streep , Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin and is a comedy for lovers of a more mature vintage.  When attending their son’s college graduation, a couple re-ignite the spark in their relationship…but the complicated fact is they’re divorced and he’s remarried.  We now have a new digital projector, so the picture on the screen will be brighter and sharper.  Many thanks to the Local History Society who kindly let us borrow their projector until we had funding to buy our own.

Remember to make  notes in your diaries for the Blood Donor session on 3^rd September, the Barnardo’s 61st Coffee Morning on 8^th September and a ceilidh at SICA on 18^th September.  The Scouts are holding a jumble sale on the 26^th September so if you are having a clear out over the summer break, please hang on to any jumble for them.

I’d like to say a big thank you to the volunteers who help me collate the SCAN magazine once a month.  We have developed an efficient system and are able to complete the task in about an hour!  If anyone else would like to volunteer to help, I’d love to hear from you.

Finally,I hope you all enjoy your relaxation over the summer.  Let’s hope for some sunshine!  I look forward to seeing you all again in September.

Beth                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

The new year’s advertisements will appear in the September SCAN.

 If anyone wishes to place an advertisement in SCAN, please contact the Community Centre Manager on 842346 or the Editor on 843898. 

 Copy is needed by 8th August.

WRVS  provides Meals on Wheels in Stocksfield.  They are looking to recruit additional cooks to prepare hot meals in the SICA kitchens.

Your commitment would be one morning (either a Tuesday or a Thursday) each month, and there are normally two cooks at each session.

If you are interested in finding out more, please contact Ruth Askew on 01661 842301.