Devon Communities Together (DCT) attended the Hallshare meeting on Tuesday 17th October. Hallshare is a support network for village halls in the North of the County. It was founded 12 years ago and the six founded members are still active today. The network has now grown to include 23 village halls. Halls meet three times a year to discuss topics of common interests, for presentations and demonstrations, and to view and learn from each other’s halls. This month Hallshare was ‘crossing the border’ and met in Mid Devon at Lapford Victory Hall.
The meeting included a demonstration of the Hallmaster booking and invoicing system and showcased the benefits of using this system. Hallmaster is offering a 90 days free trial and if a hall is affiliated with any ACRE Network member, DCT in Devon, the hall is entitled to a discount of £12 to the annual Hallmaster licence. For more information please see the links below.
North Devon and Torridge halls have been encouraged to support their Hallshare support network. They would like to help Mid Devon halls set up a similar organisation and this meeting was an opportunity to come along and see what goes on. Topics discussed were alcohol licencing, communication between halls in the local proximity to ensure events are not booked at the same date, insurance, employment of care takers and cleaners, food hygiene queries and energy advice for the winter.
Martin Rich from Devon Communities Together handed out framed certificates to halls who had completed the Enterprise Village Hall programme, an Enterprise Coaching Project part of New Start Devon https://www.devoncommunities.org.uk/projects/enterprise-coaching-new-start-devon
The following halls were awarded certificates: Ashreigney Village Hall, Hartland Recreation Ground, Morchard Bishop Memorial Hall, Sheepwash Village Hall and Witheridge Village Hall. Participants on the evening said the following about the programme; "It was brilliant, very useful." and "Excellent course, really helpful". If you are interested in the next Enterprising Village Halls programme please register your interest by emailing Hannah.Reynolds@devoncommunities.org.uk
27 attendees represented 15 village halls and community buildings including West Down Village Hall, Filleigh Village Hall, Sheepwash Village Hall, Chittlehamholt Village Hall, Witheridge Village Hall, Kings Nympton Parish Hall, West Buckland, Wembworthy Village Hall, Ashreigney Village Hall, Umberleigh Village Hall, Chittlehampton Village Hall, Zeal Monachorum Village Hall, Burrington Village Hall, Hartland Recreation Ground, Morchard Bishop Memorial Hall and Lapford Village Hall.
For DCT membership https://www.devoncommunities.org.uk/about/membership/join-devon-communities-together and the interactive map https://www.devoncommunities.org.uk/community-buildings
Village Hall Week 2024 from the 18 to 24 March: https://acre.org.uk/campaign-save-the-date-village-halls-week-2024/
Hallmaster: https://www.hallmaster.co.uk/, https://www.hallmaster.co.uk/acre/, https://www.hallmaster.co.uk/village-hall-booking-system/