Summary Report of the Appleton Community Shop AGM

Held in the Appleton Village Hall on Thursday 14th January 2010 

Present: Directors of the Appleton Community Shop and about 30 members of the public.

Thanks for snow efforts: Jerry Uren, Chairman, introduced the meeting and welcomed all to the AGM. In his introductory remarks he said the Community Shop had shown its great value to the community during the challenges of the recent snow. He thanked, in particular, Carol Bateman for the hours she had spent over the past ten days ensuring the shop was well stocked with essentials. He also thanked all the volunteers and those who had been so generous in offering their four-wheel drive vehicles to collect products from various sources.

Thanks to Juliet Carter and Sarah Williams: Juliet Carter was thanked for her work in the role of the village postmistress and Sarah Williams for making such a huge difference in managing the business: sadly Sarah Williams will be leaving to pursue other ventures, but she has said she will not depart until someone else is in post. The volunteers are still a major feature of the running of the shop and there are currently about 90 volunteers. Particular thanks were voiced for Margaret Reading, Felicity Dick, Michael Mittell and Claire Salmon for their work over the past twelve months.

Appleton "highly commended" by ORCC: The winner of the ORCC Village Shop of the Year 2009 was Ewelme Village Shop: Appleton Community Shop was considered, and had been visited by an ORCC mystery shopper, but the result was we were “highly commended”!

Community Shop "most valued": The conclusion reached from the evaluation of the recently completed “Appleton with Eaton Community Plan” was the Appleton Community Shop is “most valued” as an asset.

Distribution of profits into the community: As a result of the previous year’s profits, and an agreement part of the profit should be distributed amongst non-profit making organisations in the Parish, £5,200 had been distributed to various groups. It was agreed a similar sum (£5,000) could be distributed in 2010, if there were sufficient funds available. The Chairman did emphasised that the costs of replacing electronic equipment, for example, chillers, was high and much of the equipment is of the same vintage! Thus the shop needed to maintain sufficient money in reserve to cover such eventualities.

Plough play area grant agreed: The Plough’s landlord and landlady had asked the Village Shop, as part of the distribution of the profits, for a grant of £250: as the rules had specified “not-for-profit” organisations, the grant committee could not grant it. However, the committee felt their application had merit and asked the Chairman to raise it at the AGM. The grant was requested for some items for the Plough children’s Play area in order that it could be used as a ‘stop gap’ until the development of the village playground. The meeting debated the issue and it was agreed that £250 should be granted to the Plough with the caveat they advertise that they welcome children (with parents) to use the facility even if they were not using the pub itself and the applicable hours.

Shop finances: The Shop is on a sound financial footing with a pre tax profit of £8,941 on a turnover of the £224,049 09 for the year ending 30th April 2009 and it currently has a current bank balance of about £30,000. The reduction in the overall profit from the previous year was discussed and it was highlighted that this was due to the continued pricing policy of ensuring that the basic essentials such as bread and milk attract minimal margins and also issues associated with an increase in the Cost of Sales and some specific Administrative Expenses.

Directors re-elected: Jerry Uren and Felicity Dick, who were up for re-election, were unanimously re elected as directors and Jerry asked if there were any others who might be interested in serving as directors. No one came forward at the meeting and Jerry suggested that if at any time someone wanted to become a director they should contact him or any of the directors. Whilst it was agreed the shop required some improvements, these would be minimal and reflect the fact the shop is a general purpose facility. Any suggestions about improvements should be made to the directors.

Ten year celebrations: On 1st May 2010 we will be celebrating 10 years since the opening and formation of the Appleton Community Shop and suggestions and ideas as to how we should celebrate this event should be made by the end of February 2010. One suggestion was that we hold a street party and this will be considered.

Thanks to directors: In response to a question about the relationship with the Co-operative Society, the Chairman responded the relationship was good and healthy. Graham Rose thanked the directors and volunteers for their fantastic work throughout the year and remarked when we started on this journey, few would have believed ten years would have been celebrated.