Connecting communities: village halls conference

Andrew Aldous - DTAS (Development Trust Association Scotland)

Andrew is the Facilities Management Advisor at Development Trust Association Scotland and has been in post for just over a year. Prior to that Andrew was the Centre Manager of the Fordell Firs Outdoor Centre, a 50-acre, muti-use site which hosted thousands of visitors every year. Andrew will run the following roundtable:

Facilities management (in-person)
Learn more about the fundamentals of facilities management: the day-to-day operational requirements and all of the legal compliance involved in running a hall.

Anna Fowlie - SCVO

Anna joined SCVO as Chief Executive in April 2018. Before that, she was Chief Executive of the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) for nearly 9 years. The SSSC is the professional regulator for social workers and people working in adult and children's social care.

Anna was on the board of Who Cares? Scotland for 8 years, and joined the Oversight Board for The Promise. She is on the board of Dads Rock, and of Prosper (formerly Scottish Council for Development and Industry). She has a degree in History of Art from Edinburgh University, a postgraduate qualification in Human Resources and is a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

Chiara Fingland - SCVO

Chiara is an experienced Architect and artist with a broad background spanning the private, public, and third sectors. At SCVO, in her current role as a Climate Development Officer she supports the Growing Climate Confidence project, which helps the third sector take climate action and build resilience. Chiara, along with Danielle Dale from Small99, will run the following roundtable:

Climate confidence: small changes, big impact (online 11.10am; in-person 12.10pm, 1.45pm)

A taster session of the Growing Climate Confidence: Take Action workshop, introducing practical climate action ideas for your community space. 

Becca Nelson - Glenkens Community Spaces Network Facilitator

Becca has been supporting village halls across the Glenkens in rural Dumfries and Galloway since 2022 on behalf of the Glenkens Community and Arts Trust and in support of the Glenkens Community Action Plan. She has also coordinated the development of five Local Place Plans to ensure strategic alignment. Becca will run the following roundtable:

Recognising your impact: the role of village halls in repopulation (in-person 12.10pm, 1.45pm)

Exploring the multiple roles that community spaces play in building social networks, leading to people feeling better connected, culturally nourished, more active and educated.

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InspirAlba

Ailsa Clark, Founder and Exec Director | Megan Elliot, Household Resilience Coordinator | Ros McGhee, Household Resilience Advocate

InspirAlba's recent learning exchange brought together stories of community resilience in response to Storm Eowyn. This story gathering and learning exchange work highlighted the importance of village halls as a safe space from which to coordinate community resilience efforts to ensure those most vulnerable are not left in the cold and dark. Examples of village hall resilience were also shared, with solar energy and generator provision, alongside emergency packs, ensuring a safe warm space with resources for distribution for the wider community. InspirAlba will run the following roundtable:

Community resilience (in-person)

Village Halls - a sanctuary for community resilience in as communities face the impacts of climate change with weather emergencies.

Jane Mackinnon - Community Enterprise

Jane is a digital strategist with a decade of experience in technical projects across the public, private, and third sectors. She now leads Breeze Digital and specialises in helping organisations and groups implement systems that enhance their efficiency and support their operations. Jane will run the following roundtable:

Demystifying digital (in-person)

Are you seeking tools to manage room bookings, activities, events, membership or communications? Join this session to discover what's available for village and community halls at low or no cost. Gain valuable insights from digital experts who have collaborated with hundreds of community groups across Scotland. Have a specific question or digital challenge? Each session will include a Q&A segment and signposting to follow-up support.

Jill Keegan - Scottish Community Alliance

Jill is the partnerships Manager for the Scottish Community Alliance – a coalition of 28 community based national networks and intermediaries. She works across these organisations to develop more effective collaboration in support of the community sector in Scotland. Jill is motivated by the diversity and creativity in our sector, and believes the community sector - the part of the third sector that is led by communities - has a key role to play in shaping Scotland’s future. Jill will run the following roundtable:

Community Learning Exchange – peer learning and networks (in-person)
Why the community learning exchange fund is a useful mechanism to support peer learning networks and how to access it.

June Pennykid - Keegan & Pennykid

June is Managing Director of Keegan & Pennykid, an independent, second generation, family-owned insurance broker which specialises in providing insurance advice to the UK third sector. June is a Chartered Insurance Broker and a Former President of the Insurance Society of Edinburgh. June and her colleague Kimberley will run the following roundtable:

Leading the way: good governance (in-person)

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Kim Holmes - Community Enterprise

Kim leads the marketing and communications at Community Enterprise, Bold Studio and Breeze Digital, where she is driven to raise their profiles nationally so that more people can access the expert support of the three teams. Kim will run the following roundtable:

Spreading the word: increasing our reach (in-person 11.10am, 1.45pm)

Join us for ''Spreading the word: increasing our reach" to amplify your social media impact and connect with a broader audience!

Pamela Barnes - Democratic Finance

Pamela is a Development Officer with Democratic Finance Scotland, with a focus on community engagement to support financing goals. She has substantial experience supporting new groups across Scotland in their journey towards becoming thriving community-owned and led organisations. Pamela will run the following roundtable:

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Learn more about the Democratic Finance Scotland programme, and how it could support your village hall community enterprise to secure your long-term financial sustainability.

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Ruth Evans - DTAS

Ruth started her career as a Building Services Engineer working for public sector and private engineering companies for 12 years so has a good knowledge of the construction industry. For most of her career she has worked in grant management of various funds at Sport Scotland, Community Energy Scotland and Local Energy Scotland before joining DTAS 3 years ago as an asset transfer advisor supporting community groups take ownership if private and public assets. She has a particular interest and experience of renewable technologies which she has been involved in from her early days as an engineer. Ruth will run the following roundtable:

Facilities management (online 11.10am)

Learn more about the fundamentals of facilities management: the day-to-day operational requirements and all of the legal compliance involved in running a hall.