Minutes of August 2017 meeting

Minutes of meeting of the Board of directors of The Autscape Organisation

Meeting date: Friday 25th August 2017

Meeting time: 20.00 BST

Meeting Chair: Trish

Present: Elaine, James, Jeremy, Larry, Martijn, Trish, Kalen, Peter

Apologies: None

Observers: 1

Meeting opened: 20.00


1. Approvals

1.1  Minutes of the June 2017 meeting posted to the list on 25th June 2017,
     subject to an amendment to point 3.4 adding 21st June 2017 as the date
     the annual report was posted to the board list.

1.2  Minutes of the July 2017 meeting posted to the list on 31st July 2017

Both deferred pending a final draft being posted to the list

Action: Final drafts to be posted to list asap


2. Ratifications

2.1  The decision taken on 20th August to co-opt Peter as a Director of
     Autscape.  (Note: Debbie stood down on the same day with the sole
     purpose of creating a vacancy so the board could co-opt Peter whose
     combined treasury and technical knowledge would benefit the board and
     help them make better progress in meeting the demands of going over 25K
     in the coming year.  7 For.  (7 For)


3. Proposals

3.1.1  To close the "Autscape 2016" designated fund and transfer remaining
       money in that fund to general reserves.  (8 For)

3.1.2  To create a designated fund, "Autscape 2018", and to transfer £2,500
       from general reserves into the new fund.

       Martijn questioned why the treasurer needed board approval.  Peter
       explained that the CaSE accountant had pointed out that the treasurer
       does not designate funds themselves.  The treasurer can however
       rearrange things under the general unrestricted funds as much as they
       like (8 For)

3.2  The chair proposed that someone should investigate and report on the
     benefits, risks, and work required to make Autscape longer.  (6 For, 1
     Against)

     Action: Follow up to find who will carry out this task

3.3  The Company Secretary requested that the board approve the Organising
     committee remit as posted to the board on 23rd August 2017.  (7 For, 1
     Against).

     Due to the vote taking place without a proper discussion Peter was only
     able to point out once the vote had finished that there was a
     significant error in the remit.  As a result the Chair proposed that
     the vote on 3.3.  regarding the organising committee remit be:

     a) kept  
     b) discarded and deferred to list for a discussion and vote or 
     c) kept and the section on fees be discussed further and rewritten as
        required on list.
     (6 b, 2 a). 

     Action:  Organising committee remit to be discussed on list

3.4 The Company Secretary requested that the board approve the Job
     description and person specification for the Event Manager as posted to
     the board on 23rd August 2017.

     Deferred to list for further discussion

     Action: Event Manager Job description to be discussed on list


4. Follow Ups

4.1  Survey
     Jeremy reported that he had revised the survey based upon the opinions
     of each board member who commented.  He has also written a message for
     the booked2017 list, which is waiting approval by a fellow moderator. 
     Peter reminded him to send it to the days17 list.  Kalen also said she
     hadn't had a chance to look at it and if it was possible to wait until
     she could comment.  Jeremy said he wanted to send it tomorrow and it
     was already waiting approval.

4.2  Training Day (Quaker Meeting house, 2 Cooper St, Stockport SK1 3QL -
     18th Sept 10am-6pm)

     The chair said this has been arranged with Yo who has details of what
     we would like included.  The venue has been booked and James is
     organising lunch.  The chair asked for a volunteer to take over
     responsibility for the arrangements.  e.g.  an agenda, putting in a
     proposal for expenses, inviting people etc.  Elaine volunteered.

     Action: Elaine to continue with arrangements for training day.


5. Role Reports

5.1  Chair (Trish)
     The chair said she didn't have a lot to report but said that she felt
     the organising of the AGM was good this year, the time seemed to work
     and being able to defer things to the feedback session was excellent. 
     The biggest problem was not having instant access to things on the
     internet for the meeting.  She also said she had responded with thanks
     to two people who had made donations (£30 from one, the other offering
     up to £100 specifically requesting this helps a family rather than an
     adult who is able to attend on their own)

5.2  Company Secretary (Elaine)
     Elaine said she had nothing new to report

5.3  Honorary Secretary (Jeremy)
     Jeremy said he had nothing to report

5.4  Treasurer (Debbie)
     Debbie had not been asked for a report.  Peter requested that people
     send their expense claims in ASAP.  He reminded the board that as we
     need to give time for an independent examination and that the deadlines
     for finalising the accounts will be *much* earlier than the previous
     year.  He also said he hadn't processed refunds under the cancellation
     policy yet.

5.5  Event Manager Autscape 2017 (Kalen)
     Kalen said she had reported on a couple of separate things on list so
     they are known about for future decision making but she will try to
     write up a general report for future reference.

5.6  Membership Secretary (Jeremy)
     Jeremy said he didn't have anything to report for this month.

5.7  Fundraising coordinator (Jeremy)
     Jeremy said he had familiarised himself with the various reporting
     functions provided by Give as You Live.  He also hoped hoped to fulfil
     the suggestion made for the Fundraising Co-ordinator role description,
     of providing yearly summaries at the first meeting where new directors
     will be in attendance.  He also asked if the board would consider
     whether or not it would be useful for the Fundraising Co-ordinator to
     have administrator access to the Autscape Facebook account, for the
     purpose of using social media for fundraising awareness.  The chair
     asked if he could raise this on the list.

5.8  Tech coordinator (Martijn)
     Martijn said he had nothing to report, all systems were operating
     normally.

5.9  Lists coordinator (James)
     James said things have been very busy before and after Autscape on the
     community list.  The usual stress seems to have been avoided, with no
     complaints or issues coming to the moderators.  However, there have
     been some minor issues which the moderators and I have voluntarily
     taken on, one of which is still ongoing.  Mostly very positive/fruitful
     exchanges.


Any Other Business

6.1  James said he intended to draft a document regarding protocol for these
     meetings, and list discussion, which he will post before the live
     meeting in September for people to comment on.

6.2  The Chair said she would like to thank Debbie on behalf of the Board. 
     She acknowledged that Debbie had put in a huge amount of work over the
     years and will continue to do so whilst she is not on the board.  She
     also hoped she would return to the board before long.



Closed part of the meeting

Roles

7.1  Treasurer (Nominated: Jeremy)

     Jeremy elected as Treasurer (7 For)

7.2  Honorary Secretary (Nominated: Elaine)

     Elaine elected as Honorary Secretary (7 For)

7.3  Venue search coordinator (Nominated: Peter and Debbie)

     Peter and Debbie elected as Venue search coordinators (7 For)

7.4  Event Manager for Autscape 2018 (Nominated: Kalen)

     Kalen asked for it to be noted that she would like to work with Debbie
     if the final Organising committee remit declares other committee
     members will be decided by the board.

     Kalen elected Event Manager for Autscape 2018 (7 For)


Meeting closed 22.19


Actions

1.1 and 1.2 - Final drafts to be posted to list ASAP
3.2. - Follow up to find who will carry out this task
3.3. - Organising committee remit to be discussed on list
3.4. - Event Manager Job description to be discussed on list
4.2. - Elaine to continue with arrangements for training day