Hallmark was developed by the Community Council for Somerset ran successfully in that county for four years before ACRE, the national association of community councils, decided to take up the challenge to promote the scheme to other community councils and help it to gain national recognition.

 

The Hallmark scheme now operates in twenty seven counties. It promotes the delivery of effective and well-managed village halls through a quality standards scheme which is backed up by a system of peer visitors. The trained peer visitors use a system of checklists to identify performance and provide an external validation of achievement.

 

There are three parts to the scheme:

 

Hallmark 1 assesses whether the hall is complying with the requirements of its charitable status,

 

Hallmark 2 assesses compliance with legislative issues,

 

Hallmark 3 examines the role of the hall in the community and how it interacts with its users and the wider community.

 

The two main benefits of the scheme are that it:

 

• provides funders and other organisations with a benchmark for a well managed hall,

 

• gives village hall volunteers confidence that they are running the hall in the correct way.

 

For further information on the Hallmark standards or to enrol your hall, please contact Cathy Russell on 01785 242525.

 

 

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

 

The Community Council would like to recruit two  volunteer visitors for the Hallmark scheme to cover the north of the county.  Anyone who is interested should contact Cathy Russell on 01785 242525.

Please note that volunteer visitors need to have appropriate experience; they should either be a current or former member of village hall committee or have other relevant experience. Training will be provided and expenses paid.