The PACT Centre - Pewsey Area Community Trust

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PEWSEY AREA COMMUNITY TRUST (PACT)

Minutes of the 5th Annual General Meeting held on Wednesday 20th May 2008 at 7.00pm in The PACT Centre, Pewsey

Present:
Colin Lampard (Chairman), Mike Asbury (Vice-Chair), John Toole (Company Secretary), John Brewin, Lee Grafton, Terry Kemp, Alison Perry (PACT Directors)

Attending:
A list of those attending is available in PACT registered office.

1. Apologies
A list of those sending apologies is available in PACT registered office.

2. Minutes of 23rd May 2007 AGM
Minutes of the last AGM held on 23rd May 2007 were unanimously approved.

3. Matters Arising from Minutes
There were no matters arising from the minutes.

4. Chairman’s Report
A full report is held on file in PACT registered office, with the minutes.

The Chairman thanked Diana Hughes of Charlton Baker for her meticulous work in compiling the Accounts and read out Elizabeth Keighley’s apologies for absence and message to the meeting, that all at PACT, “are doing a most impressive job”. He also thanked Mike Asbury for the superb job he has done on the report, in Colin’s absence.

Mike Asbury pointed out that PACE is now included in the Report. PACE is not obliged to hold its own AGM because its directors are approved by PACT and it has therefore opted not to. Because of this opt-out, part of the PACE report is included in the Chairman’s Report.

He was pleased to welcome Alison Perry to the board of PACT.

Apart from DVD rental, all aspects of the Centre are successful and increasing in terms of revenue.

Other aspects of the Chairman’s Report MA wished to emphasise were:

MA wished to thank those who worked hard to get the event up and running. The experience has resulted in there being a contingency plan for bad weather in future.

It was asked why adults are restricted to half an hour free time on the computers and the reply was given that the Centre needs to raise funds in order to help pay the running costs and this is helped by charging for time used over the half hour. It has been found that most people expect to pay.

When the Centre moves to its new location across the road, adults will be able to access the internet via the library service. The Centre will no longer have to pay rent following the move and will be able to offer free internet access too.

It was asked why DVD rentals had not been a success. The cost of buying new titles was not covered by rental charges and people were not renting because of competition from other technologies, such as Virgin’s Video-on-Demand and BT Vision as well as postal rental services. The Centre will ultimately be located close to Wiltshire Library and they rent out DVDs.

5. Treasurer’s Report
A full report is held on file in PACT registered office, with the minutes.

MA explained that the Report includes the accounts of PACT and those of PACE. He reminded the meeting that PACE is the trading company. The difference between the activity in PACT’s accounts for this financial year and for the last year is that last year PACE was being set up and this entailed a lot of financial activity within PACT’s accounts. PACT now deals with big initiatives and all the PACT Centre’s commercial activities take place through PACE’s accounts. All assets previously owned by PACT were either written off or became the property of PACE, eg fixtures and fittings and computer equipment. The value will be written down over three years.

Nothing like the amount of £211,640 for grants and donations is likely to be received in the future, although the board remains hopeful that some grant opportunities may arise.
MA drew the meeting’s attention to the information given in the list of outgoing cheques paid and income received over the year, thanks to the efforts of PACT Treasurer, Linda Fishlock. He asked that the information be considered confidential and not passed to anyone other than the attendees at the meeting.

6. Approval of Charlton & Baker as auditors
The Chairman formally proposed that Charlton Baker continue as auditors for the following year. The proposal was carried unanimously.

7. Adoption of Accounts 2007/08
The accounts for the financial year ending 31st March 2008 were presented by the Chairman for adoption. The proposal was seconded by Terry Kemp and unanimously accepted.

8. Changes to Insurance (Company Secretary)
Recent changes in legislation mean that PACT will need to appoint a designated person who will accept responsibility for the safety of the public and members at any PACT event. This would mean the designated person taking responsibility for any death or injury that occurred. It was feared that such legislation could have an adverse effect on community organisations and their activities.

John Toole has put in place insurance to cover PACT and its designated representative for any legal costs and damages up to £5,000,000 incurred as a result of such an unfortunate eventuality.
Terry Kemp volunteered to be the designated person for PACT and PACE. He acknowledged the huge responsibility involved in the role and pointed out the two-pronged challenge:

  1. To keep up to date with changing legislative requirements, and
  2. To make youngsters understand that PACT/PACE has a duty of care and for them to accept what that entails.

JT pointed out that the PACE board have to approve formally the appointment of a Safety Officer and the appointment has to be approved by the PACT board.

Currently, whenever an event is planned, the organisation carries out a risk assessment which is written up beforehand. This provides the evidence that all risks have been noted and all reasonable precautions have been taken. In order for a prosecution to be successful, negligence would have to be proved.

The Chairman thanked JT for his efforts in keeping the organisation up-to-date with legislation.

9. PACE Report
TK thanked the directors, manager and staff of the PACT Centre for the quality of their work. The staff deliver all the board’s policies and decisions day after day in a professional manner.
MA told the meeting about a Canadian couple he had spoken to who used the services of the PACT Centre and sang the praises of the excellent services and the helpful and friendly staff. He too thanked the Centre staff for their support for other foreign nationals using the Centre.

10. Pattern of meetings
The Chairman referred the meeting to item 5 of his Report. There were no objections and the structure of meetings suggested was accepted unanimously.
It was asked how the minutes of the meetings were circulated and agreed that, in the interests of maximum visibility, all PACE board minutes would be posted on a public notice board in Pewsey, to be decided.
It was asked if any member of the public could attend board meetings. It was agreed that anyone would be welcome to attend PACE board meetings and that all efforts would be made to make the process more visible and accountable.

11. Any Other Business

11.1. Wiltshire County Council’s Community Boards
The Chairman welcomed the news that Caroline Brailey would, in future, be working solely for Pewsey’s benefit. Caroline announced that she had been seconded to Wiltshire County Council to develop the new Community Board which will have elected members and will be a formally constituted arm of the new Council for Wiltshire. She handed out downloads from www.wiltshire.gov.uk explaining Community Boards and how Community Area Partnerships feed into the Boards so that decisions are more locally based.

Twelve pilot Partnerships will run, one of which will be in Pewsey. Between now and April 2009 the pilots will test some functions of the Partnerships and Boards. The Partnership will set up a steering group to develop a 'pretend' board to see how it will work in practice.

Caroline discussed the role of development trusts in the new unitary authority arrangements and that PACT might want to get involved in the delivery of some services. Parish Councils will be asked about what responsibilities they want to take on.

There was concern voiced about the working of the new unitary authority and CB suggested contacting the Assistant Director of Procurement and IT who is a first class speaker and who would be able to give an informative talk about the unitary authority.

11.2. PWZSK8
There was a discussion on the suggested plans for the Pewsey skateboard park, PWZSK8. When asked about the proposed plans for the location of a combined skateboard park and amphitheatre on land belonging to Pewsey Vale School, Lee Grafton and Jacqui Devine - representing the Governors of Pewsey Vale School - answered questions. LG handed out information sheets covering details of the proposal and pointed out that there appeared to be no other suitable location available for the skateboard park.

They discussed the unsuitability of the present arrangements, where young people are using car parks as skateboard parks and detailed the extent of the support for the building of a dedicated facility. PACT was asked to look into the issue and LG did a lot of the initial work, consulting widely with stakeholders and interested parties, then he created a website and a handout to bring the information into the public arena. PACT's aim is to create a great skateboard park, close to the youth club.

The amphitheatre was considered as visionary and considerable support was expressed for it. It would considerably increase Pewsey’s status as a place for acting and other artistic activities and also where people can meet together.

Although PACT does not consider the matter to be particularly controversial, there has been some resistance from the school staff and concerns will be discussed at a Governors' meeting to be held in early June 2008. If the school agrees that the proposal should go ahead, there will need to be a formal consultation with the village. Following this, grant applications will be made and planning permission sought. If no agreement is reached with the school, the matter will be handed to the Parish to deal with.

12. Date of Next Meeting
To be notified in due course