Autscape Management Committee Meeting Minutes Meeting Sunday, March 22nd 2009 from 15:25 to 18:07. Present: Debbie, Larry, Martijn, Peter, Robin, Selina, Trish and Yo. Observing: Kalen, Kitt. 1.0 There were no ratifications 2.0 There were no proposals 3.0 Approvals/Decisions 3.1 The committee agreed to print the catchall info email address to the Autscape letterhead. 3.2 The committee agreed in principle to provide picture signs as well as written signs this year. While there may be additional expense in providing these, they can be reused in future years. The use of a widely recognised symbol system such as Makaton or PECS was suggested. ACTION: Martijn and Trish to produce and draw the signs once the committee have decided which system to use. 3.3 The February minutes were approved. 4.0 Progress Reports 4.1 Registration Progress Report 4.1.1 Peter will work on the registration and survey systems during his block of time off in April. 4.1.2 We will be accepting Paypal again this year. 4.1.3 The question of subsidising fees again this year was postponed until we have more idea of how much money we can commit to this. 4.1.4 Larry will look into the actual conference fees later in the week. 4.1.5 Debbie needs to write the room preferences survey taking into account the allocation and location of the bedrooms with wireless signals. A 15 minute break occurred here. 4.1.6 The venue subcommittee will discuss the special diet survey. Peter will liaise with the venue to find out what they can provide and show them menus from previous years, Yo will use her expertise to draw up a special diet survey and Trish will assist with the wording. Thus ACTION: Peter, Trish and Yo. 4.1.7 The committee agreed to ask participants for payment within two weeks of booking but have a final deadline that loosely coincides with the deadline for informing the venue. 4.2 Subcommittee Reports 4.2.1 Publicity Larry has not being able to contact the relevant NAS person regarding a discount to advertise Autscape in the Communication magazine. The question is, discount or no discount, what is a reasonable amount we can afford for how much space? 4.2.6 Fundraising Yo reports that Debbie has collated where the subcommittee are up to. 4.2.7 Constitution Yo has emailed our solicitor regarding drafting the objects, but has not heard back yet. She will chase this up. 4.2.2 Childcare Trish reports that the childcare subcommittee has contacted a few places, received some quotes and sent some questions back. The subcommittee is considering training for the chosen childcare provider. 4.2.3 Venue Peter reports that as usual we will be leaving the venue immediately after lunch on the Friday. If presenters only come for one day we will only be charged for that one day, not the full three days. Regarding the 2010 venue; the new conference liaision person at Giggleswick will not be taking bookings until the Autumn. We are waiting for a response from Ammerdown regarding bursaries for low-income/disabled people. 4.2.4 IT Debbie reported that the spam filters are not yet in place. Peter has made no progress on the Data Protection Policy. The Acceptable Use Policy for access to the new server will be started soon. The next major task for the IT subcommittee is testing the registration and survey systems. 4.2.5 Programme Martijn had previously reported that so far two proposals had been received, but most proposals tend to turn up at the last minute. 4.2.5.1 Luminarium Trish and Larry discussed the luminarium. Larry feels that a presentation about a luminarium was no real substitute for having a luminarium, but that is not to say he would disapprove if that was all that was possible. Larry wondered whether it would be possible to get external funding for the luminarium. Trish explained that to assist with the funding for the luminarium the structure may be made available to the public, though not at the same time as Autscape participants were using it. Larry commented that we may need to make an announcement about this idea or discuss it on the chat list. 4.3: Other Reports 4.3.3 Treasurer Robin reported that he has received the refund from Eukhost for 2009-2010. 4.3.1 Devising of Complaints Procedure Larry will find it easier to make progress on this as the task becomes more urgent. 4.3.2 Chair report Larry is not sure whether he intends to run as chair next year. He is keen to have a vice-chair as a backup. However, if he is not returned to the NAS council he may feel differently about this and have more time. 4.3.4 Secretary Report: Debbie is concerned that the minutes are not being passed to our membership in good time because the committee is not voting on the draft minutes. She would like to know the reasons that are preventing members from reading and voting on the draft minutes before deciding what to do. The rest of Debbie's report was sent to the committee list prior to the meeting. 5.0 AOB There was no further business. The meeting closed at 18:07