HARA - The Future?

At the 2023 HARA AGM it was confirmed that two of the previous committee members had left the village. As both were the only HARA committee council tenants, future Aberdeenshire Council grant funding would be dependent on replacing at least one of them with another council tenant. Although one person came forward it was made clear that this was only to attract the grant funding and that this person did not want a committee role.
Also stated at the AGM was the intention for three other committee members to retire from HARA although they would remain to ‘mentor’ new members should anyone come forward. As no new members came forward at the meeting, this note is to inform the village that HARA has no choice other than cease to continue unless there are individuals within Hatton willing to form a new committee under the existing constitution. This requires an elected Chairperson, Vice-Chair, Treasurer and Secretary as a minimum. This with a view to continuing the work that has aimed to enhance village amenities since HARA’s inception more than 20 years ago.
There is a tight schedule in that any individual should indicate interest no later than Friday 20th October. This can be via email at hara@haraonline.org.uk or by text message to 07765 640829.
A meeting will be arranged for the following week to either welcome a new committee or close the existing HARA bank accounts. The accounts will be audited by Aberdeenshire Council prior to monies in the business account being returned to the Council. It is intended that the balance of the fundraising account will be divided between existing commitments and other groups within Hatton.
Without HARA the tool library will no longer be available. (Incidentally, there has been no tool library this summer as it was not felt reasonable to have equipment serviced and/or PAT tested given that the costs for this would come from the business account despite there potentially being no one available to ‘man’ the tool library given committee retirements.)
There will no longer be twice annual litter picks, seasonal social events or funds to cover the Hall’s hire cost for the Repair Café or to replace the defibrillator pads either at the use-by date or should they have been required by the emergency services in the interim. Fundraising for small grants such as those that helped the school when its grounds were vandalised, sponsorship to individuals raising funds for cancer charities and much larger grants for items as the previous playpark equipment and installation, the intended Hatton footpath or any other village enhancement will also be extremely difficult or impossible to continue without a constituted group.
To close, HARA would like to thank all previous committee members and other unsung village residents for volunteering their time and energies over the past years and are hopeful that there are others that would like to continue to make Hatton a great place to live.

1 October 2023