October Members’ Meeting

Our October Members’ Meeting was held on Tuesday 21st October at The Merse (the old Church Hall on Lochancroft Lane) from 7:30pm – 8:30pm.

Minutes

The Chair opened the meeting with a thank you for attending and that it had been a good time during the Book Festival and Wigtoberfest. A thank you for all the work that was done by everyone to make these events successful.

1. Management Committee / Office Bearer Update

Molly Hanson-Steel has offered her resignation to the management committee (MC) for personal reasons. This leaves the position of secretary vacant and at the next management committee meeting a solution will be found.

2. Wigtown Book Festival debrief

The kitchen opened two days before the start of the festival. This allowed a taster session for volunteers which gave good feedback to the kitchen staff. Our chef for just the festival, Fiona Downie was excellent and great feedback was given for the food and the staff who worked so hard during this time.

A new chef has been found (TJ) ex the Roadhouse Blues. He is only available for Friday and Sunday food. The MC continues to look for a lead chief, pop up, training or sponsorship are all under review as possible solutions. Additionally Toots & Co are a possibility for one day per month. There is a WhatsApp group for chiefs with the aim to fill gaps within the local area. The MC are trying to restore the lunch and evening menus as soon as practical.

Question: What interaction is there between local establishments?
Answer: There is a WhatsApp group for all food and drink providers who give weekly updates about opening hours and closures. Local cafes and restaurants are private business and open and close as their owners wish.

Making the flat available to the Book Festival for Authors and Tech Crews was a success and enquiries for next year have already been made. Support with bedding changes and housekeeping helped make the letting manageable. The flat booking will be made via Booking.com with the system going live soon. The aim is to take bookings for a week at a time.

Wigtoberfest

The festival went well with great support from lots of people. The use of additional land and for marquees support of local brewers and musicians made Saturday the best day. The additional land at the rear of the pub was used with permission. A party from Ayrshire CAMRA enjoyed the Saturday. The winds and weather overnight caused a lot of damage outside. So Sunday attendance was affected by this weather.

Just to show that not only beer matters to the pub and cheese and wine night is being planned before Christmas.

3. Kitchen Update

The budget of £10K was exceeded with the total cost of around £13K, because of illness. Therefore to keep the kitchen on time local contractors had to be employed. Certification costs had to be absorbed. There is scope for expansion in the future. One issue is the dishwasher which after installation was found to draw a large amount of electrical current. This exceeded the maximum current rating for the whole kitchen. Therefore as this was a risk to other equipment in the kitchen and so it remained unused. This caused extra workload on staff to maintain the flow of clean items during service.

The kitchen electrical issue is under investigation by SPEN, an engineer will be on site tomorrow 22nd.

4. Hotel Rooms strategy

The priority of focus on the kitchen and flat has caused delays to the progress on the hotel rooms. A source of funds for this part of the building is ongoing. Funding for revenue projects are hard to obtain against those of capital expenditure. The target date for the rooms to be available is the 14th February 2026 which will be the anniversary of the pub opening the first important part of the project. The project has produced 12 jobs for local people and expansion is planned when funds permit.

5. Future job opportunities

A building manager will become necessary as a paid position with the opening of the hotel rooms and the expansion of the flat bookings. Currently the funds are not available for that move just yet.

6. Volunteer roles / The Lounge development

The lounge continues to be a success supported by the dedicated volunteers. The feedback both in the visitor book and verbal has been very positive. A date of the evening of the 28th is proposed to meet and discuss the future and additional activities that could be considered to be undertaken. It is a credit to the volunteers that the resilience of the system that’s in place has meant that The Lounge has been a steady ship and been available to regular users of the building which has included a number of locals who attend with the aid of their carers.

7. AOB

A visit by South of Scotland Enterprise (SOSE) who supported the purchase of the pub will be in the pub from 15:00 on 23rd. MC staff and volunteers are invited to meet with them. There is more potential for the rest of the building and funds are needed to continue with the project.

Events for Wigtown are; the Christmas lights switch on is 29th November, the Christmas Market for 29th from 10:00 to 16:00, and an Ice Rink from 12-14 December. The pub is starting to plan twelve days of Christmas events from 12-24th December.

Question: The unused kitchen equipment, what is happening to it?
Answer: It is an asset on the books and we hope to sell it on ASAP but the operations of the kitchen flat have impacted on progress. Two steam ovens, a pizza oven plus some smaller items, should return around £3000. Some of the equipment purchased such as the main oven and all of the smaller items that were included in the original sale are currently being used.

Question: Sorry to hear about Molly, but who will the replacement be that will represent volunteers?
Answer: Craig is offering to act in this role and will potentially join the WhatsApp group, but there may be an opportunity for an existing volunteer to be co-opted onto the Management Committee.

Question: Would a newsletter be possible for the pub?
Answer: A great idea, however currently we don’t have the resources to produce one. However, we should look at improving the flow of news between us all.

Question: Will the rooms and flat be open next year?
Answer: The flat website will be open soon for bookings. This will need to be supported by housekeeping which is being discussed with the same provider who worked exceedingly well during the book festival. Target date for the rooms is 14th February 2026.

Question: Will you be appointing a building manager?
Answer: Currently we are unable to fund a Building Manager, it is a future aspiration. A funding stream is being looked at to aid this appointment.

Question: Could there be a channel to update on financial data to shareholders?
Answer: Yes this will be looked at. The seed is planted.

Question: What is the impact of the Dumfries and Galloway Council visitor tax?
Answer: A D&G representative may visit. The South of Scotland Alliance which is aimed at high end tourism is undertaking consultations

Date of the next Members Meeting proposed for Tuesday 2nd December. Meeting concluded at 8:30pm and Members were thanked for their attendance.