Hall lettings update March 2022

I was thinking that some of you might be interested to hear how hall lettings are going.

Of course there have been fun and games over the past couple of years.  During lockdown of course, all activities ceased but since then, first one, then another hirer has returned and Wendy, as treasurer, has had to have her wits about her, plus bags of patience, to keep up with precisely who was doing what and more importantly, when and for how long!

We have throughout given all hirers 15 minutes at each end of their sessions, free of charge, to enable the extra cleaning that Covid has demanded.

At the beginning we had eleven organisations hiring the hall plus our Toddler group doing sterling work every Wednesday morning; this is now in full swing again with bookings being taken to keep numbers manageable.

The hall has always been kept free on Tuesday afternoons and evenings for church activities; most of these continue to be on Zoom but Alison has resumed “Rejoice!” which sounds to be doing really well and yes that pun was intentional!

During Covid, we have lost two exercise classes and one Brownie group, though 1st Little Sandhurst Brownies continue to meet here and also Rainbows.  Sadly but quite understandably, the Sandhurst Singers had to move to larger premises – it’s impossible to socially distance eighty people in our hall!  Yateley and Hawley Bridge Club did take the Wednesday evening slot for several meetings though Omicron brought their sessions to a halt, planned to be resumed next month.  We still have two dance groups, one for children and one for adults, Pilates has also returned to the hall – I attend this class – it is great to be back in the hall though I did discover it’s not as easy to cheat as when on Zoom!  So next month we should be up to nine organisations hiring the hall with another in the offing. (You won’t be surprised to hear I have had very few enquiries during this time.)

The Sandhurst Stroke and Disabled Club meet fortnightly and as their outings have been curtailed, they have had most of their meetings in the hall.  The AA have been keen throughout to meet as soon as restrictions allowed and this was borne home to me when the week before Christmas, a girl came staggering up our drive with a sackful of goodies; she explained the  AA had just had a whip round to buy goodies for the church and the result was enough to buy 6 large boxes/ tins of assorted biscuits – if you are on the coffee rota, do not bring any biscuits as we have enough for a good few weeks yet! – and 6 equally large boxes of sweets and chocolates – yet to be properly distributed though I must do it before my grandsons visit next week!

It is so lovely to know how people appreciate using our hall and I wanted to share that with all of you.

Joan