Author: Graham Thomas

The Annual General Meeting of Exeter Street Community Hall Limited (the community benefit society that is the legal owner of the Hall) will take place on Wednesday, 14th June, at the Hall, starting at 7:30pm.

Are you a shareholder? If so, please come along for the presentation of the annual reoprt and the Hall’s accounts. Vote on these and other items and elect Directors for the coming period.

This year the AGM will also include a special presentation by one of the Hall’s main hirers, the Migrant English Project. The MEP’s Maude Casey will discuss how the project welcomes and helps local migrants and what are the issues they face.

The bar will be open for refreshments before the meeting starts and after the formal business is finished we’ll move to a social gathering where shareholders can exchange their voting card for a free drink.

Documents relating to the AGM, including the agenda, Directors’ Report and the accounts can be viewed on and downloaded from the AGM’s web page.

If you can’t get to the meeting, please fill in a proxy voting form which can be downloaded from this page. You can either nominate another shareholder to vote for you or you can vote on the form itself and your vote will be added to the other votes by the Chair of the meeting. Proxy votes allow more people to have their say and also help to ensure that we have enough votes to make AGM decisions valid.

Shareholders – are you on our shareholder email list? It’s not the same as our Community Bulletin that lists events and other things going on at the Hall. If you are (or think you might be) a shareholder and you didn’t get a shareholder newsletter on Wednesday 24th May then you’re not on the list. Please send a message to [email protected] if you’d like us to check and (ideally) put you on the list so you’re kept informed about things that are relevant to shareholders.

The Kites are kicking off their 10-year anniversary tour at Exeter Street Hall with a fundraising gig in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support – and they’re bringing along a couple of special guests:

“This year marks the 10^th year The Kites have been charming and soothing audiences with their close harmony acoustic loveliness. Original, unpretentious, honest and moving songs with imaginative and surprising instrumentation. Rooted in folk with a touch of the Eagles and topped off by glorious  three part vocal harmonies. Genre defying and immensely entertaining. For this anniversary show, Jack Cryer, Mark Allen and Matt Hodgson will be joined on stage by Steve Noyce on electric guitar and Tom Arnold on accordion. Come and join the celebration! Proceeds to go to MacMillan Cancer Support.”

You can check them out on their YouTube channel, their Bandcamp Page and their Facebook page.

Tickets for The Kites can be bought on our tickets page.

Web: https://exeterstreethall.org

Facebook: @ExeterStreetHall Twitter: @ExeterStHall

Email: (Community activities) [email protected]
Email: (Enquiries about Hall closure) [email protected]

Tel: 01273 561149

Post: 16-17 Exeter Street, Brighton, BN1 5PG

In the light of the latest government advice and the probability that restrictions will soon be tightened we have very reluctantly come to the decision that we need to close Exeter Street Hall for the time being. The Hall will be closed after the evening of Sunday, 22^nd March. Hirers who would normally use the Hall between now and the closure may choose to go ahead or cancel.

We will review the situation in the week after Easter and at regular intervals afterwards.

Hirers who have paid for future use of the Hall have the choice of:

1. leaving their money with us, to be put towards future sessions once activity can be resumed (with a guarantee that existing time slots can be kept), or
2. receiving a refund for unused sessions/events (including deposits)

Please contact the Hall Manager ([email protected] or 01273 561149) if you want to discuss your options or the arrangements you have with the Hall.

The Hall is financially solvent at present, and we should be able to keep paying our costs during the coming months. We will need to economise on energy use and scale back building and restoration plans. We will continue to pay our two employees during the shutdown.

Volunteers will be helping with community-wide initiatives such as a scheme to ensure people who are in isolation get essential supplies and support. We will update the Hall website with details of this scheme when we have them. Also, we ask everyone to remember that food banks still need both provisions and money. Please bring any provisions you can donate (especially long-life milk and toiletries) to the Hall’s FareShare repository this week. We are looking into the possibility of an outdoor collection point.

Obviously, the national situation is constantly changing. For the latest advice, see the NHS Coronavirus Advice and the UK Government Response.

Other news

We are very pleased to welcome Susan Corlett as our new Hall Manager. Many of you will already know Susan as she has been a volunteer from the very beginning, was a Director and Chair of the Management Committee for a while and has even had a previous spell as Hall Manager. Susan will be taking up her post shortly and there will be an extended handover period. The Hall Manager can be contacted at [email protected] and via the normal Hall phone number 01273 561149.

Our retiring manager, Amanda Nichols, has done a truly excellent job over the past two years. She has significantly helped to increase awareness and use of the Hall and she has been a friendly and helpful contact for both new and existing Hall users.  Happily, we are not losing her completely as she will still be volunteering with the building team and helping with events when we reopen. Many thanks, Amanda.

Eagle-eyed passers-by may recently have noticed mysterious small circles indenting the concrete in front of the Hall. These are not a sign of alien contact but markers for the placement of bicycle racks which will soon be installed.

The transition from The Hall Get Involved Ltd to our new community benefit society, Exeter Street Community Hall Ltd, is carrying on, bit by bit and mostly invisibly to Hall users. We have a new ‘registered office’ sign on the front door and, more importantly, our application to transfer the property title is now being processed by the Land Registry. In the course of preparing for the transfer we (rather belatedly) changed the official name of the property from St. Luke’s Church Hall to Exeter Street Community Hall – although it will continue to be called Exeter Street Hall everywhere except in legal documents.