TRUSTEES BITESIZE EVENT - 25th May 2010
SAFE AND HEALTHY HALLS
Frampton Village Hall - 12.00 for 1.00pm start. Finish 4.30pm
The management committees of village and community halls are responsible for health and safety in their halls. No longer will fire officers and local government inspectors come along and give you advice for free, now it is a do-it yourself issue. Whilst much of this is based on common sense some help and guidance from people in the know never goes a miss. Come along to our BiteSize event SAFE AND HEALTHY HALLS to find out more:
Session 1: Safety in Numbers! Calculating how many people you can safely have in your hall and comply with fire regulations and good practice
Session 3: Great Escape! Understanding how the risk of fire can be reduced and how chances of survival in a fire can be increased
Session 4: Risky Business! Carrying out a basic health and safety risk assessment
For more information on the aims, objectives and content of this event and to book please CLICK HERE!
BiteSize events include a buffet lunch; three or four short participative sessions on relevant topics; tea, toilet and talk breaks between each session. We aim to make the most of your valuable time.
ADVANCE NOTICE: In July the BiteSize event will be entitled COUNTING THE COST where we will be launching a financial benchmarking scheme, introducing you to a bulk purchasing opportunity and reviewing the insurance market. Put the 20th July 2010 in your diary now (or tell your treasurer!)
FUNDING NEWS:
The Capital Grants Programme is now closed for the time being and so no more applications are being taken until further notice, possibly opening again in January 2011. However:
AWARDS FOR ALL: The BIG Lottery Fund is looking for good applications from rural Dorset. If you have a project under £25,000 in total then you can ask for up to £10,000. You get an answer within six weeks. Let us know if you need any help or further information.
GRASSROOTS: The Grassroots fund is open for applications for projects ready to go NOW. Grants up to £5,000 available. More information here:
www.dorsethalls.net/content/5th-may-2010-grassroots-looking-projects-fund-now
HALLMARK:
We recently floated the idea of bringing the Hallmark Quality standard to Dorset. Interest has by far exceeded our expectations and we could possibly have over 100 halls wanting to take this up! We are currently working on a pilot project with a hall and if this passes along smoothly and we get the go ahead from ACRE to proceed we will launch later in the year, possibly July so more information will follow soon.
AFFILIATION:
Affiliations to the Village and Community Halls Advisory Service expired on the 31st March 2010. Renewal forms and information packs were sent out with out last Community News magazine in March but it seems some halls have not received the renewal information. If that is your hall please accept our apologies, you can find the affiliation form and other information here:
www.dorsethalls.net/content/support-services
Do not worry - we will not be cutting off those who have not renewed (yet!).
WEBSITE:
Those of you who have visited the website (www.dorsethalls.net) recently will have noticed a big improvement in performance. If you visited in the early days and got frustrated with the delays then please accept our apologies and give it another go.
We are now in a stabilisation period where no development is taking place, we are letting things settle down and seeing what facilities people are using and what they want in future. There will be some more features to come but not for a little while. If you have any wishes, ideas or comments then please let me know.
The Venue Finder is proving popular and we now have thirty halls registered and some more wishing to do so but have not been able to do so yet. I am looking at running a series of training events on how to use the website, probably in June, so if you are struggling to get to grips with it so far then watch out for further announcements.
The site is currently attracting over fifteen visitors a day, of which three or four are halls so that means over ten a day are looking for information about halls - can you afford not to be represented on the Finder facilities?
We are currently surveying the major concerns our hall committees have - please go to the website www.dorsethalls.net and vote on our poll. Thank you.
If, for whatever reason, you need to know you user name and password for the site please email me and I will be pleased let you know.
The Dorset Halls Network newsletter is produced by Peter Orchard, the Village and Community Halls Adviser as part of the Dorset Village and Community Halls Advisory Service.