Autscape Management Committee Meeting Minutes Meeting date: Thursday 15th April 2010 Meeting time: 12.30pm Present: Martijn, Kalen, Yo, Peter, Debbie. Apologies: Dave, Trish. 1 Minutes of March Meeting 1.1. Approved. 2 Acknowledgements 2.1. The committee noted with regret the resignation of Kabie from the Autscape Management committee. 3 Proposals 3.1. Governance Policy The committee approved (4 in favour, 2 abstentions) a proposal from Sc-cons that Autscape adopt a policy (to be drafted by sc-cons) to cover the following issues: (a) The quorum for directors' meetings (i.e. Committee meetings) (b) The quorum for members' meetings (i.e. AGM and other General Meetings) (c) The maximum number of directors (d) Mandating the named posts of Chair, Secretary and Treasurer (e) Restrictions on the holding of those posts (e.g. that they can't all be held by one person) The committee noted that this would mean these issues could be varied more easily than if they were specified in the governing documents. The committee also noted that sc-cons intends to bring the draft policy back to the committee for final approval. 3.2. 2010 Fees 3.2.1 The committee voted (4 in favour, 2 abstentions) to set a childcare budget of £1000 with the understanding that we may need some flexibility on this later if possible 3.2.2 The committee voted (5 in favour, 1 abstention) to set fees at the level needed (given a childcare Budget up to 1300 pounds): Low Income: £180 Normal Income: £200 With details of fees for children, carers, single days, days only, etc. to be worked out relative to those 3.3. Company form admin 3.3.1. The committee voted to change the registered address to Yo's address until we obtain a stable one. [Noting that this is for convenience as most of the post coming to that address will be for the attention of the company secretary i.e. Yo] 3.3.2. The committee voted (5 for, 1 against) to make only Yo, Peter and Kalen members of the company initially for the purposes of executing the incorporation with the intention that all other committee members will become members of the company as soon as possible thereafter. [Noting that this is intended to have no effect whatsoever on decision making or distribution of powers and is simply a means of getting the form done more efficiently. The difficulty is that, unlike the directors, *all members* of the company have to sign on the same sheet of paper.]. During the discussion Debbie commented that she would like to see committee members without major roles involved in this way. Yo pointed out that what is needed is a very small number of people who can reliably post and are unlikely to resign. Martijn wondered whether it might be possible to include a larger number if the signatures were gathered at Autscape. Kalen explained that the intention is to complete this form in the next few weeks, in order to have a chance of completing the charitable registration before Autscape. 3.4. Transport Options 3.4.1. Following a lively discussion the committee voted (4 for, 1 against and who preferred option (a) - coach hire) to use Bath Community Transport (multiple trips, 11-33 passengers, £35-£82). The issues considered in the discussion included: cost to participants, number of trips and the effects (positive and negative) of this on participants, the organisational demands on Autscape, the requirements and rules of Bath Community Transport. 3.4.2. After a discussion of the implications of the above decision for this proposal, the committee voted for a revised proposal to book the mini-bus for the time it would take for 3 trips between Bath and Ammerdown, but only use the trips necessary to transport the users as we are charged by distance. 4 Delegations 4.1. The committee voted to delegate setting up a system to record members' names and addresses for new members to sc-tech to be in place by the opening of registration. 4.2. After a brief discussion about the necessity (or otherwise) of collecting names and addresses of existing members, this proposal was dropped. A revised proposal will be brought to the next meeting if necessary. 4.3. Pens for participants this year will be provided by an anonymous donor. 5 Reports and follow-ups 5.1. Bank form: Peter reported that he has split the bank form changes into two - change of address and change of signatories. The address change was submitted on Saturday so it should be complete at the end of this week. Following that he will send round the signatories change form. 5.2. Transport options for Ammerdown: resolved in 3.4 above 5.3. Legal advice on ISA. Yo reported that she has been referred by our usual solicitor to an expert in this field (also from Interchange). She spoke to him on Tuesday but unfortunately he can't give her a quote over the phone. She needs to send him all the details of what we want to know and what advice we've so far received from whom by email. She will do so as soon as possible and then he will be able to quote for this advice. Yo noted that their normal fees are £115 per hour + VAT and commented that she hopes this advice would not take long but can't yet estimate. She hopes to bring back a definite proposal next month. 6 Subcommittee progress reports 6.1. Venue: 2010 - Peter reported that he needs to ask Ammerdown about the details of what rooms they have - the number of people they say they can accommodate doesn't match the number of twins, doubles and singles they have on the plan. He also needs to get rates for children. He will try to do that asap. Venue: 2011 - Debbie reported that she has done another search around the internet and concluded that Ammerdown and Emmaus are still our best bet unless we want to expand. She noted that she hasn't search Scotland yet and that there are a couple of colleges that looked hopeful if we expand, the trouble is the lack of family rooms. Kalen commented that she hopes there are still good dates available. A discussion about venue size was delayed to 8.2 below. 6.2. Tech - Peter reported that there was a consensus that Kalen's idea of automatically subscribing people to the announce list when they register was sensible and should be done. Other than that, nothing to report. 6.3. Pub - Yo reported that there is a vote in progress on business cards and that the decision is virtually made. Sc-pub hopes to get on to getting them printed asap. The brochure is almost complete. Debbie has kindly offered to finish it (having already done most of the work on it). 6.4. Cons - Yo reported that sc-cons is working steadily through the governing documents and is on course to be able to bring final draft of governing documents to the May meeting (if no delays). The company form in progress. Yo warned committee members to expect to receive things to sign and please return them asap. 6.5. Fundraising - the chair requested volunteers to chair this subcommittee. There were no volunteers. 6.6. Childcare - Yo reported that Trish has contacted Bath community people - they can't do dates. Hoping to get other quotes soon but badly need volunteers to carry out enquires. 6.7. Programme - Martijn reported that he hasn't get managed to catch up with everything (having recently returned from holiday). There is some decision making to do about whether to accept later proposals and he hopes to catch up with everything in the coming week. In response to a query, Martijn clarified that decision making about proposals will be done on the committee list due to the time constraints. 7 Key position progress reports 7.1. Treasurer - Nothing to report 7.2. Secretary - Yo has been looking into training options. Unfortunately we don't qualify for the government 'train to gain' money (because organisations must have a least one employee) and, at the same time, Interchange have stopped running the £98 courses for company sec which we were originally interested in. They can offer us training but at fairly high cost. The only option which looks worth considering might be to have one of their trainers come to Autscape on the Monday and offer a variety of training to different people over a half day or whole day but this is likely to be quite expensive. The only alternative is to go back to looking for other company sec courses but most are fairly unsuitable because they are aimed at profit-making businesses not charities. 7.3. Chair - Kalen reported that before she got back from holiday, she had received a lot of messages on the phone asking for more information, mainly fees. She hasn't yet replied, but now that we know the basic fees she can do that. Kalen apologised for not being able to keep up better while away and stated that she is back now, but needs to get re-started on university work. She hopes to have enough time to do what I need to do for Autscape. 8 Any Other Business 8.1. Accountants - Yo raised a concern about being very close to incorporation without having appointed accountants and without having secured a permanent registered address. Peter agreed that the address is essential but queried whether we actually need an accountant at the point at which we incorporate. Yo agreed this wasn't mandatory but stressed that Autscape does need to be confident that we have internal systems in place which will allow us to fulfil the requirements and pointed out that we were planning to consult an accountant to ensure that. Peter concurred that it would be sensible to get an accountant asap, but felt that it should not delay incorporation. Yo agreed that she was happy to go ahead so long as she knows this is in hand and we will be consulting an accountant shortly. Kalen asked Peter when he would be able to start looking for an accountant. Peter replied that he can start making enquiries next week. 8.2. There was a discussion about whether Autscape is happy to reuse a previous venue (i.e. Ammerdown or Emmaus) in 2011 or whether we want to continue searching for alternatives. This lead to some discussion in which concerns were expressed about poor likelihood of finding further suitable venues of a similar size versus the possibility of being in a situation in which the committee faces a choice between one venue which may be too expensive (i.e. Ammerdown) and the only alternative venue which has significant flaws including catering and excluding particular individuals (i.e. Emmaus). Following a tied vote, the chair declined to use her casting vote and deferred the issue to the committee list for further discussion. Meeting closed.