HOTV Management Committee
A Community Benefit Society like Heart of the Village is run by a Management Committee. Normally this committee is elected by all the Members at an Annual Members’ Meeting, but while the Society is in the process of being set up, the rules state that the initial Management Committee should be appointed by the first Members of the Society, namely those who signed the application for registration. In our case these are Graham Gleed, Chris Reah, Nick Sloan and Sara Sollis.
According to the rules, our first Members’ Meeting should take place on June 1st, at which point the current management committee would resign and a new committee (which may or may not consist of the same people) would be elected by all the Members present. The coronavirus pandemic having prevented all public meetings we have had to think again, and we are now running an election via email and post for the first elected Management Committee. We have eight nominations for seven places. Voting papers are going out during the week beginning 25 May, for return by 5 June. The results will be announced soon afterwards, and this page updated.
Management committee members
These are the names of the current members of the preliminary management committee, together with a short sentence of introduction from each. This list corresponds to that published in the Business Plan and Share Prospectus, with six additions and one subtraction.
Graham Gleed (Chair, factotum and founding signatory)
A former senior executive with a major Swiss company, Graham and his wife moved to the village when they returned to the UK in 2012. Graham hopes to bring his skills and experiences to the successful delivery of this project.
Sara Sollis (Company Secretary, Social Media and founding signatory)
Sara has extensive experience in community and customer engagement working closely with both to deliver positive outcomes in social housing.
Chris Reah (Personnel & Recruitment, and founding signatory)
Chris and his wife Louise moved to Stoke last year having found their “forever home” in the village. Chris is a medical engineer who has renovated a number of houses in his spare time. He hopes to bring some of that experience to the project.
Nick Sloan (Publicity and founding signatory)
Nick has lived in the village for about 20 years and has no intention of moving. He is a letter-cutter and graphic designer by trade, as well as being a member of the Parish Council which helped to set this project in motion
David Crabbe (Treasurer)
After many years of corporate life, primarily involved with international energy and UK retail, David and his wife moved to Stoke St Gregory in April 2012 to live in a converted cowshed. Keen to see the village remain vibrant, they now enjoy their smallholding and finding new and exotic names for the chickens, sheep and geese.
David House
David is born and bred in Stoke St Gregory. With his son he has farmed Dykes Farm since 1956. A parish councillor and ex-district councillor, David feels strongly that this project is needed to keep the village viable.
Hannah Puddy (Committee Secretary)
Hannah lived in the village for 7 years. “With grown up children it has taken me a while to find my feet within the community, but what a welcome I have received! I am glad to be a part of this project.”
Heather Venn
Heather is passionate about retaining essential services in the Village in which she has lived and worked for many years.
John Davison (Fundraiser)
John has live in Stoke with his family for over 40 years, and until recently employed 50 people at Airtech (now National Ventilation, in Stathe Road). He also has a stake in a local brewery, which could be useful.
Mike Blair (Shop Liaison)
Mike is a retired data architect. Having consulted with various businesses in sectors such as banking, local and central government, retail and hospitality, he hopes that his experience of evaluating and influencing business projects will benefit HOTV.
Sophie Harris (Financial officer)
Sophie is a relatively new resident of the village but has very quickly made a home in Stoke having built a house, got married in our beautiful church and become a mum. She is a qualified accountant working part-time at a practice in Taunton.
Tim Slattery (Press officer)
Tim has lived in Stoke for 40 years, being a Liberal District Councillor for many of those, and even Mayor of Taunton at one point. He has built up connections with the local press which will stand us in good stead.
