Minutes of Annual General Meeting of New Milton Memorial Centre

Charity no. 1200325

Held in the Memorial Hall of the New Milton Hub on 14th January 2026 starting at 19.00

Present: Peter Parslow (PP) – Trustee

Neil Stevenson (NS) – Trustee

Tony Almeida (TA) – Trustee

40 members of the public, including 27 existing members of the CIO and 11 new members.

Note: numbered items in these minutes correspond to the numbered voting items in the agenda.

Welcome and introduction

NS welcomed attendees, and apologised for the lack of projected information – key slides were available printed out.

The presentation can be seen at Presentation for AGM Jan 2026.pptx

NS provided an overview of activities during 2025.

1. Those present accepted NS as chair for this meeting

Report

PP gave more detail on recent activities, including:

  • that the Festival Room is now rented by Fast Falls Response Ltd.

  • On an average week

    • 65-70 hours are booked

    • the centre is open about 50 hours

    • some 700 members of the public

    • 10 different businesses run sessions

    • Plus two different parts of the NHS

  • Monthly meetings of Royal British Legion, New Milton Arts Society, MUSK, two music circles

  • NMRA meetings, RNLI fund raising

  • Private parties

  • All run by four part time staff and about ten volunteers

PP gave an update on governance and recruitment: we have three trustees at present. Note: four by the end of the meeting.

Having advertised the vacant Centre Manager role, we had eight applications and have invited four people for interview.

The Centre Manager should be assisted by a team of volunteers; PP thanks NMRA for their assistance in finding new volunteers.

Mr Goff Beck, Vice chair, New Milton branch of the Royal British Legion spoke, outlining RBL involvement in the centre in the past and at present. He highlighted the RBL exhibit now on the south wall of the Memorial Hall, including both of their standards, one of which is new. Goff called for the centre never to lose site of its purpose as a War Memorial.

The Trustees gave assurance that the centre will always maintain its function as a war memorial.

There was some discussion about the re-branding and the name of the facility. Some still used New Milton War Memorial Hall, in spite of the re-branding to New Milton Memorial Centre prior to 2015.

The trustees mentioned that the re-branding had lost momentum with the departure of our full time in Centre Manager in spring 2025. The current position is:

  • The charity is New Milton Memorial Centre.

  • It trades as New Milton Hub, to broaden its appeal and help assist its financial viability, but some physical branding has not yet been changed.

  • The Hub contains four hireable rooms, including the Memorial Hall.

2. Financial reports

Hand outs of the financial summary were available.

PP presented a summary of the externally assessed accounts for April 2024 to March 2025. Expenditure exceeded income. The year had closed with only about £7,000 available reserve.

PP presented a summary of the finances for April 2025 to December 2025. Income now exceeds expenditure and at the end of December, we had about £20,000 with £4,500 set aside for electrical repairs / necessary upgrades that are happening this month.

The 2024-25 financial report is available at https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/en/charity-search/-/charity-details/5201994/accounts-and-annual-returns

Correction: the report can be viewed online at [completed] Final Accounts – New Milton Memorial Centre Year Ended 31 March 2025.pdf

3. Election of trustees

Trustees are elected for a three year term and can stand for re-election.

  • Peter Parslow was re-elected as a trustee.

  • John Lay-Flurrie introduced himself and was elected as a trustee.

  • Gary Byfiled introduced himself and was elected as a trustee.

Any other business: there was no other business raised.

Farewells and thanks

NS thanked Mrs Carole West who had retired as Centre Manager just before Christmas. Carole had stepped into the role on several occasions during the past five years: during COVID and twice when other Centre Managers had left.

NS thanked Tony Almeida for his work as a trustee in the last two years. Tony had submitted his resignation as a trustee.

The trustees thanked staff, volunteers, members and other members of the public for their attendance.