THE PARISH CHURCH OF ST MARGARET’S ILKLEY

Minutes of a Meeting of the Parochial Church Council of St. Margaret’s, Ilkley, held at 7.30pm on Thursday 24th March 2022 in the Parish Hall  

Fr Alex in the Chair. He opened the meeting with prayer.

Present: C Beaumont, R Beeson, H Buswell, C Cheater, C Gibson, Fr A Crawford, B Harrison, J McGhee, J Smith, A Stretton, P Tooke, T Warnes, B Whittaker, S Williams, T Williams, A Wilson

Apologies: G Hartley, H Pilling, R Smeaton, V Smith, M Still

 

2.    Minutes of the Last Meeting

John informed everyone that in addition to the £2,000 grant detailed in section 7.i. Treasurer’s Report of the minutes, we had since been awarded a further £2,000 for loss of income through COVID which now brought our total to £4,000.  The minutes were adopted unanimously.  Proposed by C Cheater and seconded by J McGhee.

 

3.    Matters Arising

i) APCM 24th April - This year’s APCM will take place in the church hall immediately after the High Mass which will be at the earlier time of 10am. A request for reports had been sent out.  This year the elections are for 2 Churchwardens only.  There are currently no vacancies for PCC Members or Deanery Synod Representatives.

ii) Ukrainian Refugee Response – Fr Alex was keen to understand how the St Margaret’s church family should respond to the Ukrainian Refugee crisis.  From within the PCC there was enthusiasm to sponsor and support Ukrainian refugees mixed with a note of caution about what exactly would be involved in opening up homes to them.

      

4.    Safeguarding (a report and updated action plan were distributed prior to the meeting)

i) Report - It was noted that there were still a number of people with training outstanding.  Many are waiting for ‘in-person’ training as they don’t have access to the online training.  There were 8 PCC members who still needed to complete the training.  Catherine B would email those directly and it was agreed that all training should be completed by the APCM.

 ii) Action Plan – Catherine C agreed to be the named person for the safe use of social media and the plan was adopted unanimously.  Alison thanked Catherine B for all her hard work producing the plan and in her role as the Parish Safeguarding Officer.  Catherine B said the role was challenging as there was limited support within the Diocese.  Fr Alex said he would speak to the Archdeacon about this.

      

5.    Wardens’ Items

i) Head Sidesman – Alison was pleased to announce that Judith Smith had agreed to take on the role of Head Sidesman once Janet Kish steps down at the next APCM. Fr Alex thanked Judith. 

ii) Deputy Wardens – Helen Pilling; Jane Sheldon; Philip Tooke and Tom Williams had agreed to take on the role of Deputy Warden to provide additional support to the Wardens.  The Deputy Wardens would be in name only and would not be required to be elected into their role.  Helen Buswell had also agreed to continue to help out on an ad hoc basis once she retired from the role of Church Warden at the next APCM.  It was noted that Christine Butler had also agreed to provide support to the Wardens at the Family Service.

6.    Finance (the final accounts and the Treasurer’s Report had been circulated prior to the meeting)

i) 2021 Final Accounts – The final circulated accounts had some slight discrepancies.  On page 4 the Discretionary Fund should have read £35,106; the Hall FF & ER Fund £4,120 and the Christmas Appeal Fund £1,111.  The Total Net Assets as shown in the Balance Sheet should have stated £629,586.  These figures would be amended and the report recirculated as part of the APCM reports.  John asked the PCC to approve these accounts as full and final on the basis that the above numbers would be amended.  All approved unanimously.  As this was John’s final PCC Meeting as Treasurer before retiring at the next APCM, Fr Alex expressed his utmost thanks for his service and skill as Treasurer.  John was presented with a small thank you gift as a token of St Margaret’s appreciation.

ii) Independent Examiner – Joanne Lake would be stepping down from this role at this year’s APCM.  As John McGhee would no longer be Treasurer he agreed to take on the role of Independent Examiner with Philip Tooke taking on the role of Treasurer.

ii) Treasurer Report – The current year balances to the end of February 2022 showed that we had already paid £20,000 towards the Share.  This was in part due to a legacy we had received for £5,000 and the £4,000 COVID grant which John had already spoken about.

iii) Salary Increases – Philip proposed to increase salaried colleagues’ hourly rate by 5% which was in line with current inflation.  All members of the PCC were in favour.

iv) Parish Giving Scheme Update – Philip was pleased to announce that this was now in place and that a small number of people had signed up to ‘test’ the process.  So far it seemed to be working very well.  If anyone else wishes to sign up to the scheme they should go to the website www.parishgiving.org.uk , search for Ilkley and then click on St Margaret’s Church.  They should then follow the on screen instructions to set themselves up. 

7.    Church Fabric & Hall

John explained that the mastic on all of the hall windows needed replacing.  It had been very difficult to find quotes for this work but he had received a quote from Richard Thompson who knows the church very well and has undertaken much work for St Margaret’s in the past.  The quote was for £2,300 and John recommended that we accept this as the work needed to be done.  John was comfortable that the cost could be covered by a variety of different fund pots.  The PCC unanimously agreed.

8.    Church Communications

i) Photos for St Margaret’s Facebook Page – A request was made for photos from services to be used on the St Margaret’s Facebook page.  If anyone had any photos they were happy to be used they should send them to either Catherine C or Fr Alex.

ii) Live Streaming Services – Fr Alex was keen to explore the cost of Wi-Fi in church again so that live streaming could be pursued.  He was clear that it should not be an onerous task with lots of editing involved, although it was important that the quality of output was good to entice rather than put off.  It was felt that it should not be a continuous streaming feed.

iii)Posters/Flyers for Services – These do go up in various places around Ilkley town but if anyone had any suggestions for different places these could be put then they should speak to either Catherine C or Fr Alex.

iv) Website – This would be reviewed again in May to ensure it was fully up to date.           

9.    Outward Giving Group

Alison informed everyone that in 2021 the Mission Fund had raised £4,969 with £1,500 going to the Otley Christian Resources Hub and £1,302 to Leeds Autism Services from the Christmas Appeal.  In 2022 we had already raised £1,895 for the DEC response to the Ukraine Crisis.  Charities to be supported in 2022 included Christian Aid; JJ Community Transformation/Hand-in-Hand; Otley Christian Resources Hub; Shine (West Bowling) and, through them, Bradford Action for Refugees Children & Families Project and The Children’s Society.  The Harvest and Christmas Appeals were yet to be decided.

 

10.  AOB

i) Easter Sunday Evening Reception in the Hall – Judith requested food for the reception after the final Easter service, the 6.30pm Evensong on Easter Sunday.  A note would also be put in the news sheet.

ii) Choir Vestry – Catherine C asked for advice around the issue of damp and stagnant air in the choir vestry which made it unsafe and unusable for choir practice.   Fr Alex said this should be brought to the Fabric Committee’s attention and that potentially the church architect, Mike Overton, would become involved to look at safe airflow through the vestry.

iii) Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Service – Fr Alex was pleased to confirm that St Margaret’s would host the civic service at 6.30pm on Sunday 5th June.

The meeting closed with prayer at 8.45pm

 

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