What legal obligations do our committee members have?

ACRE produces a comprehensive Information Sheet giving full details of the roles and responsibilities of committee members. 

How does the Disability Discrimination Act affect community halls?

Village Halls are classified as service providers and as such should comply with the requirements of the Act. There is also a duty to be as fully accessible as possible. For up-to-date practical advice contact the Community Buildings Officer.

We have new committee members, what advice could we give them?

The Charity Commission has a number of very good publications specifically to guide committee members/trustees, listed below:

• CC3   The Essential Trustee: what you need to know
• CC3A The Essential Trustee: an introduction leaflet
• CC8    Internal Financial Controls for Charities
• CC11  Payment of Charity Trustees
• CC14  Investment of Charitable Funds : Basic Principals: 
• CC15  Charity Reporting and Accounting: the essentials
• CC16  Receipts and Payments Account Book
• CC17  Accruals Accounts Pack
• CC19  Charities Reserves
• CC20  Charities and Fundraising
• CC48  Charities and meetings
• CC49  Charities and Insurance
• CC63  Independent Examination of Charity Accounts: Direction and Guidance Notes

Available free of charge from The Charity Commission, contact 0845 300 0218 or download from their website www.charity-commission.gov.uk

We want to use our church as a community building - where do we start?

Hereford Diocese recently produced a very useful toolkit which is a good starting point to help any group develop their church into a revitalised community building.

Can you help with financial management and accounting?

Cash-online.org.uk is a great resource for queries in connection with financial management. They have a jargon-buster to help you understand financial terms, an online copy of Managing Community Money (guide to financial management and accounting for small charities and community organisations, with special emphasis on running community buildings and employment issues) and a sample Financial Control Policy.

Our old hall is cold and difficult to heat, any suggestions?

Why not conduct your own Energy Efficient Audit. Download a very useful, and free, document from National Energy Action entitled 'Energy Efficiency in Community Buildings'.  Also look at the English Heritage brochure 'Energy Conservation in Traditional Buildings' which gives many useful hints and tips.

We have been offered free solar PV panels, is this a good idea?

The Energy Saving Trust has a Fact Sheet explaining how the offer works and key questions to be considered before accepting such an offer.

Our community wants to refurbish our hall but it's very old, where do we begin?

Have a look at the Funds for Historic Building website for details of funding sources which specialise in historic buildings.

We need to do a Risk Assessment for our community building - where should we begin?

The Health & Safety Executive website has a very good section on village hall risk assessments which you will find useful.

How do we work out how many people our hall can safely hold?

Harry Paviour, a retired senior fire officer working with the RCC in Dorset, has produced a very useful factsheet, although you may also be able to get assistance from your insurance company.

We want to install energy saving lightbulbs - can we get funding to help with this project?  

The B&Q One Plant Living Grant Scheme may be able to help.

We are thinking about employing a cleaner. Where can we get advice? 

An Information Sheet about employing staff is available from ACRE.  HRBird provides a huge amount of HR guidance for the voluntary sector.

We need some funding to assist with our hall's project.

Details of various funders are listed on the Funding page on this website. 

We are thinking about trading to raise income. Where do we start & what do we need to consider? 

Trustees need to be aware of the implications of this type of income stream. A very useful article appeared in the Guardian newspaper.

We are short of new volunteers to sit on our committee, what can we do?

The committee could make a list of what type of help is required (ie legal, accountancy, fundraising) and start targetting people in the local community with those specific skills. Consider volunteers to help the committee with specific projects rather than the committee feeling they have to do everything themselves. Grantfinder produced an interesting article about 'Engaging Volunteers' which you may find useful.

We would like to improve useage of the village hall - do you have a sample survey?

You could use this survey as a basis for creating your own to suit the individual needs of your community.  

We want to run a Bingo Night for fundraising but is this type of gambling allowed?

There are two types of non-commercial gaming; prize gaming and equal chance gaming. Bingo can be played under either but the relevant conditions must be adhered to.  The ACRE Information Sheet on bingo in village halls gives more details. 

Do we need to test our electrical equipment and, if so, how frequently?

The Health & Safety Executive have a very good guide to the maintenance of portable electrical equipment in low risk environments, which should answer all your queries.

Do you have example hiring documents?

ACRE can provide model documents for hiring out your hall, together with advice for committee members on issues such as Health & Safety, Insurance etc.