Twenty-five people met at Fencourt Hall on Monday night in a bid to ensure the hall continues to be run by locals, for locals
Volunteers have stepped up to run Fencourt Hall, alleviating fears the popular facility would be turned over to council control.
“We were delighted to see the locals coming out to support the hall and we’re very pleased to now be passing it on to a new group
of enthusiastic fresh locals,” said Alan Grant, who has served as hall committee treasurer for nine years.
He said a story in The News on July 27 had “obviously got to people’s hearts and heads”.
The story outlined how the hall committee had found it difficult to attract new volunteers over recent years and was holding a meeting in a last-ditch attempt to solve the problem.
That meeting was held on Monday night after the committee ran an advertisement in The News, which was photocopied and
dropped into Fencourt letterboxes.
“People have obviously said, ‘we’ve got to do something about this’, and so they just kept on rolling through the door last night,” Alan
said on Tuesday morning.
He said 25 people had attended the meeting.
“The challenge of course was to turn that show of support into a viable, effective outcome… the key
was not to overburden anyone and to make it a light load to be shared,” he said.
The committee’s five existing positions – chairperson, secretary, treasurer, bookings officer and supply person – have been split into
8-9 new roles.
The new volunteers were co-opted onto the committee and would learn the ropes over the next few weeks until they could be elected as officers at the hall’s annual meeting on September 4, Alan said.
All five current committee members would be able to step down, including Don Heaslip, who has served as chair for 54 years,
and his wife Heather, who oversees cleaning and supplies.
“And that’s the goal,” Alan said.
“Three out of the five of us have left the area and, while Heather and Don are keen to help and support new members, they no longer need to take full responsibility for the roles they have had.
“We’ll all be involved over the next 12 months helping the new people, but the exciting bit is that they’ll bring new ideas and a fresh
approach, and probably try a lot harder to market the hall and use it for local community events and it will hopefully give it a fresh burst of life, which will be great.
“Hopefully that sends a vote of confidence to other hall committees around the area who might go through a similar refreshing process over the next few years.”
