Autscape Management Committee Meeting Minutes Meeting date: Thursday 18th February 2010 Meeting time: 12.30pm Present: Martijn, Peter, Dave, Kalen, Kabie (joined meeting during 4.3), Trish (joined meeting after 6.1) Apologies received from: Yo, Debbie, Kabie (absent for part of meeting) and Trish (absent for most of the meeting) 1 Minutes of January Meeting 1.1. Approved unanimously. 2 Ratifications 2.1. The committee ratified its decision to approve 'Autscape - an autistic conference' (note /xxx/ means italics) as Autscape's official slogan for general use. 2.2. The committee acknowledged Robin May's resignation due to other commitments and wished to thank him for his service on the Autscape committee (mainly as treasurer) over several years. 3 Proposals and delegations 3.1. The committee decided in principle (subject to cost) to seek independent legal advice regarding our ISA obligations and to delegate Yo to request a quote from our current solicitor for this. 4 Reports and follow-ups 4.1. Draft budget and fee levels. Kabie (via the chair) posted apologies for not having the draft budget and fee levels for 2010 ready yet. 4.2. Bank form. There was some discussion on the progress of the bank form and the committee agreed to ask Kabie to send it on to Yo or Debbie. 4.3. Autscape phone number. There was some discussion on the pros and cons of using Kalen's telephone number versus Peter and Debbie's. Peter had investigated an 0300 number but concluded it was too expensive at present. The committee agreed to use Kalen's number for this year. 4.4. Transport options for Ammerdown. Debbie reported (via the chair) that she has drafted a letter and plans to send that and/or phone the three community schemes identified as possibilities. 5 Subcommittee progress reports 5.1. Venue. Peter reported that Debbie has looked at some possible future venues. The overall situation is that while there seem to be alternatives of a similar size to Ammerdown/Emmaus, we haven't be able to identify any venues which are slightly bigger, only some which are significantly larger. There was some discussion around the future size of Autscape. The committee concluded that until Autscape has to turn people away we should not be looking for a significantly larger venue. 5.2. Tech. Peter reported that he has written a script to do a committee meeting reminder but needs another to prompt putting the agenda on-line. He mentioned the need to make decisions about what to do about late registrations and plans to bring that issue to the committee list. 5.3. Pub. Yo reported (via the chair) that this month sc-pub has placed an ad in Asperger United (particular thanks to Debbie for her work on that). The FAQs are now on the website. We have discussed designs for the business card (thanks to Ruth for initial work and Peter for producing drafts) and hope to make further progress on that soon. We are in the very early stages of updating the brochure. However we are generally struggling with a lack of volunteers willing to commit to tasks which require significant time, meaning that the same few people are having to see most tasks through to completion. So progress is rather slow at the moment. 5.4. Constitution. Yo reported (via the chair) that the list of proposed directors has now been sent to our solicitor and the sections of the company registration form that require physical signatures will be sent round to main committee members soon. Constitution SC have been discussing and voting on sections of the governing documents and some proposed amendments. We are making steady progress and expect to have a final draft of the governing documents ready for approval by the main committee in March or April. 5.5. Fundraising. Still without chair. No progress. No volunteers to chair as those committee members present cannot take on more. 5.6. Childcare. Kalen noted the need to start working on this in the near future. 5.7. Programme. Martijn expressed concern about the lack of proposals received so far and proposed sending out Dutch and Interlingua translations of the CfP in the interests of internationalisation. The committee favoured this but concluded it was too early to get too worried about the lack of proposals. 6 Key position progress reports 6.1. Treasurer. Kabie reported that she has seen an accountant. It will cost around £500 to compile and do independent examination of accounts. We cannot arrange a registered address through these accountants as they no longer offer that service, Kalen enquired whether they could help us set up accounting systems that will make it easier. Kabie stated that she hadn't asked. Kalen reminded the committee of the concerns raised during the Lottery audit about our lack of systematic accounting procedures and asked Kabie to ensure that she gets a copy from Yo of the correspondence with the lottery and ensures that whatever systems we set up would allow Autscape to fulfil such requirements in the future. 6.2. Secretary. Yo reported (via the chair) that she has worked with Peter to make some progress on updating those sections of the website in most urgent need, including a new 'donations' page. Otherwise, jobs are largely waiting til March when she expects to have more time. 6.3. Chair. Kalen noted that things seem to be progressing as required. She made the committee aware that she will have more flexible time now that she has her first semester work in. 7 Any other business There was no other business.