PEASEDOWN ST JOHN PARISH COUNCIL
Minutes of a Magazine Committee meeting held on Monday 15th November 2004 at 7 p.m. in the Cricket Clubhouse
Present: Cllrs. J S Bolwell, Mrs. M A Button, F J Day, Mrs. E V Latchem and C Rich. The Internal Auditor, Mr. Peter Provest.
Apologies were received from Cllrs. Mrs. Lewis-Mason, Mrs. Lee and Mrs. Thomas (Chairman)
Public Session
Mr. Provest queried why Item 7 on the agenda did not mention "income". He thought that the Finance Committee had asked all committees to consider possible income when fixing their estimates.
Clerk said that he had left out "income" by mistake but he was sure that the meeting would consider possible income under Items 6 and 7.
Cllr. Mrs. E V Latchem was asked to chair the meeting.
These minutes, which had been previously circulated were taken as read, agreed a true record and signed by the Chairman.
a). Cllr. Rich asked if the letter of thanks was sent to the Scouts - the Clerk said yes.
b). Cllr. Day asked if anything more had been done re. welcome letters to new residents. Clerk said nothing yet until this committee agreed to proceed. It was agreed to put a blanket welcome letter in each Newsletter.
Other than one or two isolated misses, it was felt that the distribution was good.
Minutes were still a little behind.
Chairman said that this item could well overlap with the discussion on Item 7, as any decisions made under this item would effect the estimates later. The Clerk was asked if he always had more material than needed. He replied that most of the material left over was mainly publicity from other councils etc and usually did not directly interest this village.
The Clerk had produced figures from the printer, which showed that 4 extra pages would require another £1,000 per year and that was without the Clerk's time, which could add 64 hours per year to his workload and therefore the salary head.
It was noted that to extend the pages in the Newsletter would require more income, therefore the need to generate advertising. It was agreed to delay the decision until a report was composed by the Clerk which would hopefully show the comparison between advertising, possible extra income and definitely extra work by the Clerk and certainly extra printing costs. The report may show that, unless lots of advertising was booked the Newsletter would just generate extra work which would be paid for by the extra income but the Newsletter would still not be self-financing and still be 8 pages long. A 12-page Newsletter could cost, with Clerk's time, well over £6,000 per annum - would need a lot of advertising to cover that sum. If the Newsletter were kept to 8 pages, the advertising would take up 4 of the pages! Who would win?
Cllr. Day did some quick sums and pointed out that the present Newsletter costs each elector 10p a copy + Clerk's time. (Clerk's post meeting note - Clerk's time adds 2p per copy to that sum)
Following on from the previous item it was agreed to delay any decision on the extra pages until the report mention is published. After all it was noted that, if advertising was sought and found and VAT registration applied for, the pagination could be increased (funded by the advertising) any time during the year without extra funding being indented for at estimate time.
It was agreed to ask the Finance Committee to precept for £3,000 to cover the printing and distribution of the Newsletter in the year 2005/2006.
Clerk reported that he had already received the usual contributions from the Scouts, Churches etc. He proposed putting a picture of the builders working on the commercial site on the F/Cover.
Other ideas from the Clerk and from the floor were listed and it was decided that the 8 pages would be full.
Meeting closed at 8.20 p.m.