Minutes of Meeting of Maxton 21 of 4th December 2006

Minutes of Maxton 21 Meeting
Held on Monday 4th December 2006 in the village Hall at 7:30pm

Persons Present
Vera, Charlie, Elvira, Ron, Tom, Thomson, Anne, Jimmy, Douglas, Paul & Rosemary.

Apologies
Apologies were received from Priscilla, Joe and Isobel Veitch.

Previous minutes
No amendments were required to the previous month’s minutes.

Treasurer’s Report
As of today, the accounts stand as follows:
Hall A/c - Ł 753.25
Savings A/c - Ł1,138.81
Maxton 21 A/c - Ł2,469.76

It has been noted that the last Maxton Meets drew in less money for the number that attended. This may be due to latecomers not paying on the door and forgetting to pay afterwards. The group agreed that this was something to keep an eye on for future talks and perhaps even have someone on the door before the talk.

Past Events

Shona Mooney Trio: Unfortunately this event made a loss of just over Ł70. Possible causes of the loss were the fact that Shona was playing the previous night in Ednam and was playing the following week in the Wynd at Melrose. There were many other events on as well due to St. Andrew’s day which we were competing against.
For future events we will look at the possibility of artists taking a share of door money rather than a fixed fee, having a cancellation clause if ticket sales are not met, and finding out if the artist has any other bookings in the area. These and any other ideas will be looked at by the group for future events.
The loss aside, the evening went very well and was very much enjoyed. With tea/coffee donations and the raffle we raised Ł49 for the Borders Talking Newspaper.

Future Events

Mulled Wine and Mince Pies: This will be held in the village hall on Sunday 10th December from 3pm onwards. Priscilla has offered to provide the mulled wine. Elvira will be making shortbread and Rosi & Anne will provide the mince pies.

Hogmanay: All the tickets have now been sold for Hogmanay. The hall set up will on Saturday 30th December at 12:00 noon. Charlie will confirm the day and time for the charity cheque to be handed over to Borders Talking Newspaper. Douglas is organising the Christmas tree. We will hold a raffle which Paul will run on the night. Elvira will ask the Butcher in St Boswells if he would be prepared to offer a prize. Tom asked whether it would acceptable to donate Ł100 from the Maxton 21 account to the charity to bolster this year’s collection. This was agreed.
On the food front, it was decided to try and keep the supper simple this year as we tend to throw away a lot of food at the end of the evening. Priscilla has offered to provide French bread with various toppings, Anne, Jimmy and Tom will be providing soup and Rosi will provide sausage rolls. Charlie will be buying 2 bottles of champagne to go with the other bottles we already have for the bells at midnight. Paul will tune in the radio for midnight.

Carlen Jig/ Fiddlers Leap Concert: Tom has had a tentative enquiry about a concert in late February/early March for the above group. They are happy to perform for door money. Tom will find out more details and report back.

Burns Supper: The details of the Burns supper will be sorted out at the January meeting.

Maxton 21 AGM: The AGM will be held in late March / early April in order to prepare the accounts. Date to be confirmed at next meeting. Jimmy will ask his Sister-in-law if she would be able to audit our accounts for us this year.

Hall Report
Douglas has had an acknowledgement from ‘Awards for All’ for our application for hall renovations. The process of approval can take up to two months so we may not here anything until the New Year.

Web Site
Charlie is adding a separate section on the web site for the Community Council.

Neighbourhood Watch
Charlie has found out that St. Boswells have had a Community Police Officer assigned to them. He will make enquiries to see if we are included in this patch.

HMS Maxton
We had a visit from our HMS Maxton contacts Dave, Joe and their wives. They are still trying to keep the interest up with other members of the Ton Class association and they are keen to keep in contact with us. Joe has researched the names of the fallen from the memorial in the church and has found information for almost all of the names there. He has given the information to Charlie to see if any loose ends can be tied up. This information may be very useful in the forthcoming Maxton Meets talk in February.

Any Other Business

· Thanks were passed to Ron for providing and fitting the lock to one of the sliding doors outside the kitchen.
· Paul has heard from Graham Pittman regarding the light faders. The cost of repairing the unit will be Ł125.00. The general consensus was to go ahead with the repair on this occasion, but bear in the mind the cost in future if we do not use it all that much.
· The "Maxton 2000" book has now sold out. We have five copies left for overseas visitors and there are five copies left in the book shop in Kelso.
· Paul has spoken to the organiser of ‘Village halls Unite’. The bands that are available to play would be looking for around Ł400 plus accommodation, plus meal which will obviously be out of our league. Paul will see if and when dates become available whether they would accept just door money. It is unlikely, but he will ask.
· Vera asked if anyone would be interested in a theatre evening in Edinburgh. It would have to be planned well in advance. Elvira mentioned that there was a group in Kelso that goes up on a monthly basis and she would ask about the possibilities of others outside Kelso going along.

Date of Next Meeting

Due to the New Year falling on a Monday and, on the first available Monday after that there’s a Maxton Meets talk, the next meeting of Maxton 21 will be on Tuesday 9th January 2007 at 7:30pm in the Village Hall to which everyone is welcome.