Our latest committee meeting

We don’t know how many of you are aware, but the members of the management team meet monthly to review the running and progress of ES&M both as a business and in terms of what we offer to our community. The first item on last night’s agenda was to elect officers for the year as all were required by the regulations to step down at last month’s AMM. Nicky stated her intention to make this the last year that she will act in the role of Chair, and Sue (Savery) and Iain (Grafton) were happy to continue as Treasurer and Secretary respectively.  Other committee members share in the numerous roles that are essential to the smooth running of ES&M and in future posts we’ll outline these roles in more detail so that you can see what is involved.

The Treasurer reported that shop sales over the last month were steady, whilst café and Hub takings have improved slightly. We attribute this to customers and patrons returning after the summer break and warmly welcome all users both regular and occasional, whether to the shop or for a coffee or a bite to eat, or to one of the activities and workshops in the Hub. Our financial situation, as reported in our last blog and newsletter remains somewhat precarious so we are very hopeful that the improvements we have seen this month continue. In an effort to do everything we can think of to facilitate this, one of our key plans for the Autumn is to improve the signage to the shop in order to attract more customers as at the moment, and according to the survey recently conducted, there are significant numbers who seem unaware of our presence in the village.

Our poor Secretary reported back on some of the (extensive) work he has been doing in order to ensure our compliance with Data Protection regulations; exciting stuff it is not, but it is vital and, like so many of the unsung heroes in our midst, we send our gratitude for undertaking these often tedious tasks.

In future posts, we will shine a spotlight on the roles and work of the other committee members and volunteers so that you can build a picture of how a community venture like ours is run. We’ll also report back on the results of the survey recently carried out and thank those of you who contributed with helpful thoughts and suggestions.