Dear all,

 

Very sadly, another of our best loved villagers has died, and this Newsbite is to let you know the arrangements for Barbara's funeral and wake. The Funeral Service will be next Tuesday, 14th May, at St Andrew's Church, starting at 11 a.m. After the church service, the family will move on to a private farewell ceremony at Weymouth Crematorium, but while that is happening they invite all villagers to a Wake, at the Mission Hall. Barbara's family will join the rest of us at the Mission Hall as soon as they can.

 

It is the wish of Barbara's family that, rather than sending flowers, people should make donations to the Mission Hall Trust. Details of the Trust bank account can be found below.

 

Barbara is the last member of the Harrison family who had lived in Sutton Poyntz for almost 150 years. Although not a native of Sutton Poyntz, she was always a warm and generous member of our village community since she came here on marrying John, who many of you will have had the joy of knowing. The first Harrison in the village was John's grandfather, William, who moved to Weymouth from East Coker, met and married a Sutton Poyntz girl, and was living here by 1881. The family lived for a time in Prospect Cottage, and were the village carpenters, wheelwrights, and later builders. The family built the house Springside for Walter and his wife Rose, and this is the house that their son John was born in and lived for his whole life, and that Barbara then lived in ever since she and John married.

 

John and Barbara's family lived and grew up in that cottage, and both John and Barbara were enthusiastic members of the Sutton Poyntz community. Barbara was a long-time member of the Village WI, and a member of their Committee for a number of years. She was an energetic member of the Mission Hall Committee for about 9 years, being the WI's representative, before retiring just 4 years ago. She and John were both members of the Sutton Poyntz Players who produced a number of Thomas Hardy dramatisations, and then of the Preston Pantomime Group. Finally, she was a very talented artist, a member of the village Art Group and a contributor to their annual Exhibitions; an exhibition of her art work is planned, at the Mission Hall at the very end of May. Barbara was a great asset over many years to the life of the village.

 

Bill (acting as stand-in for J & S)

 

Mission Hall bank details: Sort code 20-26-62 Account number 00739871 Account name Sutton Poyntz Mission Hall Management Trust

 

 

So we will of course be lighting our Sutton Poyntz beacon - at the same time as everyone else - 9.45pm on June 6th. 

9.45 you say?  Like me, you'll almost be ready for bed that late in the evening,  So we're going to begin our event earlier and finish it off with the beacon lighting and a glass of something bubbly - to help us sleep.

 

As it happens, the association of fish-and-chip fryers have set their 2024 fish-and-chips celebration day to coincide with D-Day.  So what else could we do than honour that other great tradition by having a fish supper at the Mission Hall first.  Then I've heard that there might be a little quiz - I'm sure you can guess the topics the questions will address!!  Finally we'll step outside just far enough to be able to see up the hill to the beacon, where some fit youngsters will have scaled the heights of West Hill to light the blue touch paper for us.

 

We've given Stracey's a provisional order, but now we need to confirm numbers of who is coming.  For a tenner you're going to get a delicious portion of cod and chips (veggie option available on request) and we're going to provide the liquid refreshment.  Please make contact with one of the committee members below for your tickets.  Stracey's need to have the order confirmed in plenty of time so don't leave it too late - call, text or email now!

 

 

J & S

 

J & S

 

p.s. A lot of you took the opportunity to renew your annual Society membership at the AGM - thank you - a mere £5/household (or £2.50 for singles).  You can cross the palm of any committee member at any time, don't be shy...

 

Dear all,

 

Please may we give you advanced notice of the date of our Annual General Meeting, which will be held on Wednesday 26th June, starting at 7.30 p.m., at the Mission Hall. Here are some notes on a busy year for the Mission Hall. Also, can we give advance notice of a Summer Barbecue at the Mission Hall, on Sunday 30th June - more details to follow but please make a note in your diaries.

Lease: Following the very useful Open Meetings in December 2022 and January 2023, which confirmed the village's enthusiasm for the Mission Hall, we have been in discussions with St Andrew's Parochial Church Council about an extension to the existing Lease, and have now jointly written a rather technical letter to Salisbury Diocese, formally asking for the Lease to be extended. We are awaiting a reply, but the fact that the local PCC are strongly supporting an extension makes it reasonably certain that we will get it. The original 30-year Lease ends in 2029, but we have felt confident enough to ask for a 40-year extension. As the Lease is a legal document, both we and the Church will need to employ Solicitors to be sure the document does what is wanted.

Changes to Mission Hall Trust Constitution: As part of the process of extending the Lease, we have re-examined the Trust Constitution, which is contained as a First Schedule to the Lease. We are proposing some changes, which we feel will improve the way the Trust Committee is chosen and does its work. We have sent these changes to the Charity Commission (whose agreement is required) and also as a courtesy to Salisbury Diocese. If we get agreement from those two bodies, we will submit the changes to the AGM for discussion and vote. In outline, the changes are as follows:

1. Change the balance between Committee members appointed by Hall users and Committee members elected at the AGM. At the moment, the AGM elects 3 Committee members, and user bodies (the PCC plus SPS, WI, Art Group etc.) appoint 7. We suggest changing this to 5 elected at the AGM, 1 appointed by St Andrew's PCC, and 4 appointed jointly by the user bodies.
2. Include a criterion defining which user bodies are involved in appointing Committee members. At present the Constitution has a list, including bodies that no longer exist. We suggest that all user bodies using the Hall 10 times a year or more should be entitled to participate in choosing Committee members.
3. At present, the Constitution does not explicitly specify how the Secretary and Treasurer are appointed. We suggest that this should be done at the first Committee meeting after the AGM.
4. At present, there is no provision in the Constitution for public availability of Committee Minutes, although in practice these have always been available at the Hall, and now on the village website at https://suttonpoyntz.org.uk/index.php/archive/archive-documents/category/168-meetings. We suggest, in the interests of "open government", a requirement that Minutes must be available on request to anyone living in St Andrew's Parish.

Building Survey: In preparation for a Lease extension, we have commissioned a Building Survey. This shows a building that is basically in a good state, for which congratulations and thanks to the Trustees who have cared for the building over the last 25 years. The survey did show a number of things that need attention, and gave us a very helpful suggested schedule of works for the next few years.

Building works: Partly as a result of the Survey, we have sought tenders for a set of building works, some (such as repair work to the floor) being repairs arising from the Survey, and others (such as refurbishment of the WC behind the stage, and thermal lagging of the hall's roof space) being improvements. We are currently awaiting tenders, and expect to have to spend around £30,000 on this work. We also need to get the hall decorated this year, which is not included in that £30,000. In addition we are getting ideas and costs for new double-glazed windows and for new, more efficient, heating. The Hall's bank account currently has a very healthy balance of about £43,000, but we will find that is not enough for all the improvements we would like to implement.

Fund raising and grants: We have run a number of fund-raising events during the year, and are hugely grateful for the people that have worked so hard to make these the enjoyable success they have been (with a special thanks to Colin and Rita for their catering work for several of these events). These events have given us a profit of about £2,200 in the last year. The next event planned is a Summer Barbecue, on the afternoon of Sunday 30th June - watch out for more information. We are also planning a themed Supper Night in October.

We have also been very fortunate (thanks to lots of hard work by Sue Cottam) to receive a £5,000 grant from the Darlington Charitable Trust, who support a variety of works, particularly for elderly and excluded people and old buildings, and mainly but not exclusively in Devon. We continue to seek other grant sources.

Policies: In an age dedicated to more and more demand for endless paperwork, we need to make sure our Trust's policies and documents are as close to "best practice" as we can reasonably achieve. So, kick-started by some very hard work by Sheena Dearness, we have been looking at our Policies and working practices, and aim to have a revised set by about the end of 2024. Of particular importance are Health & Safety and Safeguarding, but we also need to look at a group of "Corporate Behaviour" documents including topics such as Equal Opportunities, Conflict of Interest and Financial Management.

Committee: During the year, Sheena Dearness has retired as a Committee member and we have also lost Yvonne Emery (hugely missed by the whole village) - we thank them for the energy and enthusiasm they both brought to their roles. Yvonne had already stepped down as Secretary, but that job was taken up most excellently by Sue Cottam. So we have a couple of vacancies for new Committee members. Being a Trustee of a Charity is a responsible job, but there are no particular qualifications other than normal common sense and the ability to work "honestly and reasonably" (Charity Commission wording). If you would like to join and help us run this most important village facility, do please come and discuss with any of the current Committee members, who are Sue Cottam, Maureen Cribb, Shirley Davies, Sue Davis, Bill Egerton, Anthea Heathershaw, Maureen Morris, and Sue Wintle. Fresh ideas and extra willing hands would be very greatly welcomed.

Best regards

Bill

 

J & S

 

Several people have been asking about arrangements for the funeral of Yvonne Emery.
Please note all details can be found on the web link below:

https://yvonneemery.muchloved.com

 

You will have already noted in your calendars and diaries that our local (town and county) councillors are coming to see us next Wednesday at 7pm in the Mission Hall.  They'll be open to your questions, some of which we already know will relate to speed limits, dog poo, pot-holes, resurfacing and bus services.  I'm also going to ask them to stop the rain.

 

This will be followed immediately* by the Society Annual General Meeting.

* There will be a short break for refreshments - and medical attention for any councillor who couldn't answer the questions to your satisfaction.  You can also pay your subs (cash or contactless) and we'll have smelling salts to revive you if that's too much of a shock...

 

Attached you will find the document pack for the AGM, comprising the Agenda, Minutes of the 2023 AGM, and reports from the Chair and Treasurer.

 

While I have your attention (you are still with me?) there are a few future events for you to pencil-in:

May 25th - Barn Dance at Preston Village Hall

June 6th - D-Day 80th anniversary - National Beacon Lighting and National Fish & Chip day.  Hmm, how shall we celebrate?

End of July - No Vegetable Show this year :-(   You can still grow 'spuds in tubs' but purely for personal pleasure and consumption

 

And don't forget it's Coffee Morning this week!  Guest appearance by Amanda Anderson, the Neighbourhood Watch representative from your local constabulary - best behaviour please.

 

J & S