Meeting House Management Committee Notes 2025-08-21
Thursday 21 August, 7:30 p.m., online via Zoom

* Attendance

Henry S Thompson (Convenor); JP Ascher, Rachel Fitzgerald, Katrina McCrea,
Jacqueline Noltingk, Laragh Quinney; Sammi Searle and
Andy Tucker (Meeting House Managers)

Prevented: Duncan Wallace

* Finance

JN presented the figures for 7VT.  June and July numbers are
encouraging, particularly the net surplus of I over E in July.  £3000
each month was from CVenues, but even w/o that we would still have
shown a (smaller) surplus.  £5200 from 3F2 4 Upper Bow for the first
half of the year means the combined total will show us close to, if not
actually better than, our budgetted deficit.

Staffing is still over budget, there's no obvious route to reducing
this, so we need to look at how that budget line is calculated in the
future.

* New budget approach

Trustees plan to propose a new approach to how and when AM budgets are
set, switching to a 3-year rolling horizon, see attached email from
the Clerk to Trustees.

The key bit for us is Purpose.2:

 "to agree with Edinburgh MH Management Committee and managers a
  financial framework for investments to make the building
  environmentally and financially sustainable over time"

The Managers have been working with Jacqui Nolting, Majk Stokes and
Ellie Giles to pull together a set of recommendations, bearing in mind
input from the recent building walkthroughs, the Affordability Group
report and the Quinquennial Review.

Bow Room [from JN notes] First in line, MS is chasing quotes

Library: Add it to the inventory for booking, with a two-hour midday
gap so that kitchen access for lunches is available.  Storage needs
for times when kitchen is _not_ accessible.

Creche: Self-contained small let might be possible, with a modest need
for investment.  Internet access will require some careful planning.
May need to restrict to 11-month contracts to allow for Fringe use.

Foyer: Quoting going ahead for insulation.

Wrt heat and ventilation, we agree with "fabric-first".  Looking
forward to the more ambitious possibilities, MHMC would obviously need
to be involved as regards closures of (parts of) the Meeting House.

Cafe not at the front of our list at this time, but making the Foyer
a more welcoming and restful space is.

Cleaning contract is under review, with new quotes coming in, all
quotes received do require real living wage.

Third tier of pricing for long-term small local groups?

We need to prepare to think about Fringe 2026, AM on 10 September at
our meeting on Monday.

Date of next meeting: 1 September at 1500, 7 VT

We agreed the following minute

*New budget approach*

Trustees plan to propose a new approach to how and when AM budgets are
set, switching to a 3-year rolling horizon, in which section Purpose.2
reads:

 "to agree with Edinburgh MH Management Committee and managers a
  financial framework for investments to make the building
  environmentally and financially sustainable over time"

We welcome the opportunity to participate in this process, with the
specific goal quoted above.

In preparation for this, the Managers have been working with Jacqui
Nolting, Majk Stokes and Ellie Giles to pull together a set of
recommendations, bearing in mind input from the recent building
walkthroughs, the Affordability Group report and the Quinquennial
Review.

Some details of this have been shared already, and more will be
forthcoming, but at this point we want to set out the following
points:

  * We endorse the "fabric-first" approach to insulation, heating
    and ventilation put forward by John Renshaw, it's entirely
    consistent with our own priorities;

  * We are actively exploring improvements to the Bow Room to create a
    more attractive letting space;

  * We expect to propose some small changes to space usage elsewhere
    to enable new letting possibilities for the Library;

  * Subject to the outcome of John Renshaw's exploration of some
    aspects of the relevant walls and doors, we propose to make the
    Creche a self-contained long-term let.

In each of the latter three cases, starting from the material already
shared with Martin Ward in an email on 19 August, we aim to provide
specific plans and costings as they become available.