Friends of Leith Hall
Minutes of Meeting held on Tuesday 7th September 2010 at Leith Hall, 7pm

 

Present: Jim Grant (JG), Eileen Law (EL), Grainne Patton (GP), Linda Durward (LD), Catharine Coursey (CC), Tina Low (TL)
Apologies: Stephen Reeves, Dinah Rennie

  1. Minutes of the Last Meeting

The minutes were accepted. Proposed by Linda, seconded by Catherine.
No matters arising.

  1. Report on the Sunday Openings

EL gave a summary of the openings which have been a great success. 1,100 visitors over the 8 weeks (best day was 170). Income: Tearoom raised £713.70 in donations (after expenses). Quiz Donations £87.55. Donations to go into Leith Hall NTS account.
Entertainment went very well, and was heavily concentrated on local entertainment. There was a tremendous amount of goodwill from the entertainers and all those who visited the property during the summer. Special thanks to all the guides, stewards and friends who helped/provided flowers and gave support.
EL expenses – To be reimbursed by donations made by Banff & Moray Members Centre, NE Aberdeenshire Members Centre and Hoddles Playbarn. TL agreed that EL will be reimbursed from the Leith Hall NTS account.
TL said that they money raised from the three ‘Bel Canto’ concerts will be given to the Friends of Leith Hall once the concerts have come to an end in September.

  1. Treasurers Report

The Friends of Leith Hall Bank Account is now fully up and running and there is currently £443.48 in the account. Talisman Energy has donated £250, for employees who work with community groups.
GP has been looking into the Friends gaining charity status, which is written in the Constitution. It will be easier for the group to gain charity status once we have a full year’s worth of accounts. GP provided leaflets on charitable status to all those committee members present.

  1. Secretary Report

TL informed that committee that a new email account for all the secretary business has been set up. This is for ease and clarity. All letterheads have been updated with the new address and an email alert has been sent to all Friends members with email addresses. JG will organise for all enquiries submitted via the Friends website to be forwarded to this address. All Membership is up to date – we now have 81 Members.

  1. Photo Competition

July winner was Martin Waterhouse, who lives in Kennethmont. Rod Munro, who has organised the ‘Bel Canto’ concerts, has agreed to judge the August entries. GP has been looking into turning the images into a calendar, which Martin Waterhouse has kindly agreed to help put together. Touched by Scotland have offered to help sell the calendars and the group discussed the possibility of having some kind of exhibition of all the images that have been submitted towards the end of October.

  1. Missing Items

The guides have put together a list over the summer, of items that they have noticed are no longer on display. TL explained to the rest of the group that the NTS Curatorial team have pencilled in a visit in November this year to discuss the inventory, with a view to updating it and locating any items that may have been moved or are missing from the original inventory. There are photographs that were taken when the last inventory was carried out which will help identify possible missing items. TL explained to the committee that there were a great number of items not on display that were wrapped up and elsewhere in the House in storage.

  1. AGM Date

Will be in the Spring of 2011 – date and time to be set at a later meeting.

  1. Future Meetings

It was generally felt by the committee that meetings should still be held on a monthly basis.

  1. Future Plans

It was suggested that we should have an evening for the Friends at the beginning of November where the plans for the future of Leith Hall are displayed and Ian/Steve available to give talks/answer questions. A display of the photo competition and sales of the calendar could also be there. Proposed date is the 14th of November – TL to check with Steve/Ian. Also have the guides available for tours.
Setting up of the destination management organisation – along with Touched by Scotland, Distillery etc. Possibly holding a networking evening with all those interested. Organise a date as soon as possible.
Christmas Weekend – discussed the potential to have another Christmas weekend. Tina to check with anti-clash with other properties and then propose a date.

  1. EGM Minutes 

Proposed by Grainne, seconded by Catharine.

  1. AOCB

 List of committee members to Jim to put onto the website.

  1. Date and Time of Next Meeting

5th October, 7pm Leith Hall

Meeting closed at 8.40pm

 

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