Kumeu Community Centre Management Committee report
By Gary Moss
In many ways the past year has seen significant and positive changes to the management of the centre.
In September we were fortunate to secure the services of Melissa Lee as our Finance Officer and she is doing an outstanding job paying our bills and keeping the committee informed of our financial position.
The committee is also indebted to Sarah McIllroy, our accountant, for her support and advice and for preparing the Financial Report for this annual meeting.
In April we were fortunate to secure the assistance of Yvette Roodt as our Administrator/Booking Officer and she has done an outstanding job with respect to streamlining our hall booking system, liaising with hall users and generating greater use of our facilities.
The work done by Melissa and Yvette has been significant and much appreciated, especially as we have faced the downturn in income from hall hire during the COVID period.
Yvette, along with Guy Wishart, has liaised with our website provider Patrick Bourne of Impact Websites to improve our booking system, our contact with clients and our web page and we are now better able to have a view of booking trends and income.
Marketing and generating interest in the facilities the centre has to offer, something Yvette is working on, is showing results.
The financial report shows we have maintained a healthy investment account of just under $100,000 which is in line with reserve funds the centre has had for several years.
The centre was built 42 years ago as cheaply as possible with significant donations from the community of both money and materials.
Maintenance is becoming an issue for the Management Committee. This past year we spent $6000 on leaks to the small hall roof and $600 for repairs to rusting water pipes under the small kitchen floor. About $400 was spent on a new switch system for the small hall heaters and $1775 was the cost of repairs to the main electric control box, the malfunction most likely caused by stress on the main hall blow heater.
Earlier in the year we did get a quote of $64,087 for an alternative heating system for the main hall.
Quite remarkably, up until November of last year the cost of insuring the hall had been paid by the Auckland Council under its group community amenities insurance scheme, even though it was well-known that our centre has never come under the ownership of Rodney (previously) or Auckland councils.
The centre has been valued at $5.69 million and the committee has had to adjust to paying an annual premium of $13,969 which we pay in average monthly instalments of $1262.23.
A word of thanks here to Guy Wishart, a member of the Management Committee, for working on setting up our building insurance.
This new annual cost was part of the motivation for reviewing and increasing our hall hire hourly rates by $10 for the large hall and $5 for the small hall and at weekends $20 and $10 respectively.
Currently, Line Dancing is the most regular user of the hall with Netball and children’s dancing, Bowls, Shake, Rattle and Roll. a Scrapbook group and various clubs also regular users.
Gymnastics is another group which started at the beginning of the year.
That hall bookings are sometimes difficult to secure shows that the centre is a popular community venue serving a variety of local interests.
It also attracts many non-local organisations and people who find availability and hireage costs of other halls limiting. The NZ Blood Bank service is one of these non-local valued hirers and for 13 days the Electoral Commission Office will be hiring our facilities.
The management of the Pomona Hall was passed over to the KCC by Rodney and now Auckland Council and we pay a non-demanded $1 lease plus a $250 maintenance contribution for it.
Huapai-Kumeu Lions pay a hireage fee to operate their Vintage Shop at the hall and as the hall has no amenities such as water, and is not suitable for public hire, this is proving to be an excellent utilisation of the building with Vintage Shop profit being returned to the local community. The recent exterior refurbishment of the building was a charge to the Auckland Council Heritage Building fund.
For the centre itself, a non-demanded $1 lease agreement for the land on which the centre sits was renegotiated with the Auckland Council. In my view it is important that we keep a close eye on these $1 leases at time of renewal as the Auckland Council looks for new revenue sources.
In August we received a visit from officials from Beca involved in the development of Access Road as a main connecting thoroughfare with the plan showing a significant portion of the front carpark incorporated into the design – none of us may need to worry about this.
I thank members of the Management Committee for their volunteer service and contributions in the management of the district’s biggest community asset – if the community wishes to retain control of it we need local people, especially some of our recent residents, to step forward and get involved.
The Annual General Meeting of the Kumeu Community Centre was held on August 29, attended by 14 members of the local community.
The meeting commenced with wine and cheese where a brief history of the centre was given by Gary Moss.
A number of regular users of the facilities attended.
Election of Officers: Chairperson Gary Moss, Secretary Yvonne O’Leary, Financial Officer Melissa Lee, Booking Officer Yvette Roodt, Indoor Bowls Murray Blackwell, Line Dancing Graeme Wellesly-Davis,
Yvonne O’Leary is also representing the Kumeu A&H Society and Gary Moss Huapai-Kumeu Lions, Joanne and Raymond Pichon Shake, Rattle and Roll, Lee-Ann Clark and Sue Shield Netball, and Susan Shearer Scrapbooking.
