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- 30th January 2025 |...
25th January 2024 | Dalton Community Association Trustees meeting
Minutes of the Trustee meeting held 5.30pm
Thursday 30th January 2025
1 Welcome. VR (Chair) opened the meeting and welcomed Trustees present wishing them a Happy New Year and hoping that 2025 would be a good year for the DCA.
VR reported that she had received an email from Anthony Callister on 25 January 2025 resigning as a Trustee. She had tried to call him but her calls were not answered nor had he returned her calls. She therefore sent him an email noting the sadness of his departure but thanking him for his contribution.
Attendance: Val Robinson (VR) Chair, John McGill (JM), Raymond Willock (RW),
Brian Ryninks (BR) Treasurer, Barry Doughty (BD), Steve Nott (SN), Dave Ward (DW), Ian Maddox (IM),
2 Apologies: Nick Perie (NP), Sue Johnson (SJ)
3 Declaration of interests:
Raymond Willock – Fairtrade,
4 Minutes of the Previous Meeting
The Minutes of the Meeting of 31 October 2024 and notes from the meeting of 5 December 2024 that was not quorate, were circulated to Trustees prior to the meeting. The minutes of the former were approved by the Trustees as a true record and the latter were accepted.
5 Matters Arising Not on the Agenda – The telephone system had been referred to previously and the handover notes confirmed that there were no issues during the last week thereof.
6 Financial Approval
BR had circulated the details of the January 2025 financial transactions prior to the meeting and reported that income banked for January was £196.10 for room hire and that the January petty cash transactions will be shown with the February details.
£781.52 was spent in January on various repairs and cleaning. No cheques were issued as all payments were by bank transfer from the new account.
7 Financial Report
7.1 Monthly Management Accounts
BR had circulated the monthly management accounts for October, November and December 2024 to all Trustees prior to the meeting. These showed that for there was a net aggregate unrestricted fund deficit of £934 for Q4 2024, giving a 9-month cumulative unrestricted deficit of £8,213. This resulted in unrestricted reserves of £53,966 against the reserve policy requirement of £34,000.
As far as restricted funds are concerned, there was a net aggregate restricted fund deficit of £557 for Q4 2024, giving a 9-month cumulative deficit of £5,795, leaving a total of unspent restricted funds of £1,163
7.2 Insurance
BR had provided a paper to Trustees in advance of the meeting showing quotes from two brokers and reported that SJ had provided good feedback on the alternate/new broker. BD expressed thanks for following up on the renewal noting that there had been broker changes on occasions in the past. SN was also happy to move to a new broker. BR was asked to request annual cover from 6 February 2025 at a cost of £3,292 that was £565 cheaper than the comparative quote.
Action – BR
8 Vacancy – Centre Administrator/Manager
VR referred to proposals sent to the December meeting and proposed working with BD, SJ and BR to discuss the issues including hours and funding, noting that certain assumptions in the proposals were incorrect e,g, the proposal to increase fees three times in the next year cannot be implemented and so DW asked for details on the financing of the post. BR suggested that we needed to agree what we wanted from the role and VR noted that this was an administrator and not a manager and BD confirmed the administrative focus without responsibility for staff, where the cleaner was managed by the Chair. It was suggested that matters had perhaps been taken on recently that were not needed. DW felt that a manager was needed but BD disagreed. JM asked if the role and demand had changed, and if a review was needed to determine the job description and hours whilst DW said that we needed to be conscious of anti-social behaviour. BD proposed that a group consider the issues including differentiating between administration and management, along with whether the role could be shared with another organisation. VR agreed to arrange a meeting with BD, SJ and BR to discuss
Action – VR
9 Proposals for Other Roles
It was agreed to postpone discussion hereon until the role of a Centre Administrator / Manager had been determined.
10 Trustee Recruitment
VR reported that she was to meet one person shortly, would revert to another she had met last year who had been referred by the former vice-chair and had a third person that she was due to speak to.
Action – VR
11 Facility Users
VR reported that there had been concern that Family Action may vacate the East Wing following a change in the way FA was to be run. Following a meeting yesterday, it had been established that the DCA space would still be used and a copy of the 2022 contract had been provided to them and they would revert to discuss a higher income going forward.
12 Maintenance of the Building
- Air Sanitation Units – £94 per bulb
IM had found that these were not switched on and so there was no need for replacement. A key promised from DDC Dolphin had not been received and so it was agreed to postpone any replacement. In response to BD believing that we had a spare, IM confirmed that there were in fact three spares and the matter was agreed to be shelved for now.
- Lights
VR reported that Forester had attended recently to lights in the hall and a cable for the fire alarm system but that various lights needed attention including in the east wing. Scaffolding may be required and in response to BD asking if our own could be used, IM indicated that the height required was more than our equipment.
Action –IM
- Roof
IM reported a damp patch on a section of the flat roof and in response to VR asking SN to check if the gutters were blocked, he kindly agreed to look at it on Monday afternoon.
Action – SN
- Baywinds
BD reported that Baywinds had responded to correspondence from him and he had passed details on that they had thanked him for, as well as for his patience awaiting their reply.
13 Funding Applications
- Billincoat Foundation – VR noted that following an application in November for funding to address anti-social behaviour, feedback requested more information that will be considered at a meeting on 28/2/25.
- Northern’s Small Grants Fund – VR confirmed that following being alerted to this fund by SN, an application had been submitted but sadly, an email received indicated a high demand and so we had unfortunately been unsuccessful.
14 Anti-Social Behaviour
VR reported that this problem continued with a group of boys causing trouble at about 08h40 and so it had been decided to open at 09h00 and continue with the recent decision to close a 16h00.
15 Governance
There was nothing to report though VR noted that the annual evacuation practice was needed that she planned to be performed before the next meeting.
Action – VR
16 Any Other Business
17.1 A proposal had been received from Nichola Baker for Bernados, where she now worked, to use the IT room for 3 days a week at no charge as she could deal with enquiries and problems on site. It was noted that the IT room was currently not open and it would be better to generate income from it. It was agreed that any use would not be free.
17.2 IM enquired after routine checks and VR confirmed that she performed these for legionella, defibrillator and emergency lighting but could do with some assistance. BD suggested asking persons offering to volunteer to perform these jobs.
17.3 IM reported roof lighting in the East Wing needing attention and he agreed to refer this to Forester.
Action – IM
17.4 JM noted that he would unfortunately not be able to assist with any physical work in the coming weeks due to ill health.
17.5 BD noted that posters would appear soon for a fundraising chorister concert on 24 May 2025 in Barrow.
17.6 VR would liaise with IM after he enquired about items stored in the roof of the building.
Action – VR/IM
17 Date and Time of Next Meeting
The next meeting will be held on Thursday 27 February 2025 at 5.30pm at the Centre.
Meeting ended at 18h12