Minutes of meeting of the Board of directors of The Autscape Organisation Meeting date: Sunday 18th January 2015 Meeting time: 3.00pm GMT Meeting Chair: Martijn Present: Stephen, Martijn, Trish, Peter, Alastair, Elaine, Liz, Kalen (late) Apologies: Debbie Meeting opened 3:09pm. 1. The Honorary Secretary requested the board waive right to formal notice of this meeting. Approved (7 for). 2. Proposals 2.1. Stephen proposed we discontinue the Research Subcommittee. This was discussed at the previous meeting due to lack of use of the subcommitee. The Research subcommittee was disbanded, 7 for. 3. Follow-ups 3.1. Annual Report (Debbie) Debbie sent in a report that this is in progress and she is now awaiting minutes to be uploaded so she can continue. The Board were reminded that Debbie is expecting reports from individuals by Christmas and that it might be helpful to let Debbie know how much longer outstanding ones will take. 3.2. Outstanding Minutes (Martijn). Martijn reported some progress and that some minutes are now awaiting approval by Trish and Peter. 3.3. Personal Data Retention Policy (Martijn). Martijn reported having just posted a first draft to the board list, based on the preliminary draft Stephen and Trish worked out last year. He welcomes comments. 3.4. Guidance for splitting conference organisation from governance (Elaine). Elaine reported she has posted a draft one for comments on the board list. She would appreciate people's input as she doesn't know everything about how Autscape runs so is relying on others knowledge. She can then put together a second draft. She is also working through our current policies and job descriptions to make them a bit more user friendly. Peter requested that before we get much further with this, we have a clear statement of what we are actually trying to achieve by making this split to enable us to evaluate whether the guidance will achieve the stated objective. [Kalen joined the meeting at this point.] 3.5. Newsletter (Alastair/Laura). Alastair reported that Laura has had two submissions for this so far. Alastair agreed to write something about Autscape 2015 but is aware that this means publication should wait until the details can be announced. There followed a discussion about where requests for submissions should be posted as it is for members only. This was deferred to list. 3.6. Updating the files section of the website (Martijn). Martijn reported no progress and uncertainty as to how to move this on. Peter is looking into possibilities of a modern web editing UI which would mean we could dispense with the files area. To be deferred to discussion on Tech WG list. 4. Role reports 4.1. Chair (Martijn). Martijn thanked Trish and Peter for chairing, meeting scheduling etc in his absence. Trish (vice chair) reported that she has been getting on top of the meeting schedules and these should start to improve. She has also been putting out reminders to the Board. Elaine expressed appreciation for the reminders. 4.2. Treasurer (Peter). Nothing to report. 4.3. Company Secretary (Debbie). Nothing to report. 4.4. Web systems (Martijn). Martijn reported he has made the website ready for Autscape 2015, creating placeholders for everything we don't have yet, and moving everything from 2014 under "Previous Autscapes". His earlier file hierarchy/menu redesign has been really helpful with this, as it's not been necessary to move any actual files, all he had to do was shuffle the navigation menu around and make some minor adaptations. We haven't made any progress with updating the system to a newer operating system release, though Peter and Martijn have both been monitoring the security of essential system components (OpenSSL and bash, mainly) and applying security fixes manually as they came out. Kalen reminded that she is going to need updates to the proposal submission form very soon. 4.5. Honorary Secretary (Stephen). Stephen reported he has an outstanding email to be worked on which he will do soon. 4.6. Programme Coordinator (Kalen). Kalen reported she was hoping to do the call for proposals by now, but haven't, so it's now on her agenda for Tuesday or Wednesday. She will probably set a deadline beyond which it can't wait for the venue contract. There was a discussion as to how to handle publicising the venue whilst awaiting completion of the contract but this remained unresolved. The Honorary Secretary confirmed that the Programme Coordinator has the delegated powers to do everything apart from setting the theme and choosing presentations (see 2.9.2, Oct. 2011 board meeting minutes). 4.7. Venue Co-ordinator (Elaine). Handled out of turn. Elaine reported that she has been trying to make contact with the venue since the beginning of term but is unable to get an answer. If there is no response by Friday she will call an emergency meeting to discuss. 5. Subcommittee and working group chairs 5.1. Publicity and Publications (Alastair). Alastair reported that the dates have been released via the announce list, the Autscape site and the Facebook page. The Facebook page also has an 'event' for Autscape 2015. We are getting many more likes (Martijn invited people from the secret group) but we also seem to be attracting a few completely new people, so the Facebook page is hopefully working for us. 5.2. Purchasing WG (Stephen). Nothing to report. 6. Any Other Business 6.1. Next meeting Trish confirmed the next meeting as Sunday 15th February at 1pm. 6.2. Merger of Formal and Alternative programme subcommittee lists Stephen reported that Elaine queried by e-mail if we wanted to keep having both alt and main programme subcommittee lists since we've merged the roles (this is assuming they haven't been merged already) Martijn said he would deal with this tonight. 6.3. Childcare Trish asked if someone was looking into childcare in case we are trying to get the same people as before. Stephen was asked to include this on the next agenda however there was considered to be a need for some urgent decisions. Elaine proposed that we contact Box of Frogs Creche to see if they are available for Autscape 2015 before we look elsewhere. Elaine's proposal was approved, 8 for.
Closed part of the meeting 7. Subcommittee and Working Group chairs. 7.1. Fundraising SC (Last year: Liz; Candidates: ) There was a discussion as to suitability and availability of different people. Liz was elected as Fundraising SC chair, 6 for. 7.2. Research SC This item was skipped as this subcommittee was disbanded in 2.1 above. 7.3. Childcare coordinator Due to lack of time, Stephen agreed to initiate a vote on the Board list. Meeting closed 5:16pm.