Minutes of meeting of the Board of directors of The Autscape Organisation Meeting date: Tuesday 24th October 2017 Meeting time: 14.00 BST Meeting Chair: Martijn Present: Elaine, Heta, Jenny, Jeremy, Larry, Martijn, Peter, Trish Apologies: James Observers: 1 Meeting opened: 14.16 The directors agreed to waive notice of this meeting. 1. Approvals 1.1 Minutes of the July 2017 meeting posted to the list on 31st July 2017. Deferred awaiting amendments. 1.2 The board approved the final Minutes of the August 2017 meeting posted to the list on 22nd October 2017 (5 For) 1.3 The board approved the final minutes of the September 2017 meeting posted to the list on 22 October 2017 (7 For) 2. Ratifications No ratifications. 3. Proposals 3.1 The board considered the following two proposals relating to Autscape 2017 3.1.1 That Autscape should pay the venue charge for the families of organisers to arrive early at the 2017 event, rather than passing this cost on to the organisers concerned. (7 For) 3.1.2 That Autscape pay the venue charge for people who turned up early on site for Autscape 2017 without the agreement of the organising committee, rather than passing the venue charge to the individuals concerned. (8 For) Elaine declared a conflict of interest re 3.1.1. There was some discussion around how this had happened without approval in advance and it was thought to be due to a communication problem. There was also concern that it shouldn't happen again and the consensus was that this should be met by Autscape this time but some rules should be written into policy for the future. This should be covered by the new organisation committee/events policy which is currently undergoing discussion. 4. Follow ups 4.1 Survey Jeremy presented a report (see Appendix A). Since the board hadn't had time to read this any follow ups will be on the list later. 4.2 Report on extending Autscape. James was not at the meeting and he is still looking into this. 5. Role reports 5.1 Chair (Martijn) Nothing to report. 5.2 Company Secretary (Elaine) Elaine said she would soon be starting work on the annual report. Also the Complaints policy is ready to go to the board list for comments. 5.3 Honorary Secretary (Elaine) Elaine said the main thing was that we now have meeting dates for the year but some people still need to vote on whether we have a Dec meeting and an August meeting. Action: Martijn to add the dates to the calendar. 5.4 Treasurer (Jeremy) Jeremy said that travel expense claims submitted prior to the training day on 18th September have been processed, and the total comes to £344.70, minus a refund. There are still expenses to be reclaimed for the cost of food for the day. 5.5 Event Manager Autscape 2017 (Kalen) The Honorary Secretary had asked about a report but it was not ready. 5.6 Membership Secretary (Jeremy) Nothing to report. 5.7 Fundraising coordinator (Jeremy) Jeremy said that we had recently received a payment from Give as You Live and he wanted to try and increase the number of registered subscribers. He said he would draft a message to be sent to the Members List, the Community List, and perhaps to Facebook. Action: Jeremy to draft emails for the board re Give as You Live. 5.8 Tech coordinator (Martijn) Nothing to report except the old/current system, it is operating normally and maintained as needed. 5.9 Lists coordinator (James) No report due to James being absent. However, it was mentioned that the Community list had discussed inviting a speaker to Autscape and there was a concern that the speaker may think this had come from the organisers. After a brief discussion it was decided there was nothing substantive to suggest there might be a problem and if one occurred it would be dealt with then. 5.10 Venue search coordinators (Peter and Debbie) Peter provided a report in advance saying he had collected together all the points raised by the board and had written to Tonbridge. Their main contact was away when he emailed but he indicated that he would prefer to wait for her than get a quick reply. He didn't see any of the points raised as being major stumbling blocks, however, even minor points need to be addressed if they are in the contract. The most important area that we need to improve is first aid training. Some of our regulars already have first aid training. As well as improving our own standards, we should also make use of this existing expertise if they agree. At the meeting he added that he had talked to them today and they had pointed out that since they use an intermediary company for lettings, the contract between us and the school does not qualify for the VAT exemption. Any Other Business 6.1 Jenny said she thought we should give more discussion about having an Autscape-type event in Holland. Martijn said a European network of autistic-led organisations is in the process of being created (see Heta's report on list) and suggested that we wait to see if that goes anywhere first. If it does, it will give us some very useful contacts and resources on the continent. Meeting closed at 15:25.
Appendix A Summary of 2017 survey results Hearing about Autscape Approximately a quarter of respondents stated only that they were returning to the event. Approximately a quarter of respondents had heard about the event from friends. There was then an even mixture of people who had discovered Autscape via Asperger United, social media, search engines, local support groups, or a conversation with an Autscape organiser in a different setting. Action for any future survey- It would be more useful to separate returning attendants and first-time attendants, with hope to identifying whether trends are changing over time. Overall feelings Expectedly, there is a lot of information in the comments in response to the question of " Are you pleased that you came to Autscape? Yes/No. Could you describe what you particularly enjoyed about Autscape, or alternatively why you regret coming. This makes it difficult to summarise. Three people raised the issue of harassment, which followed on from a complaint received after the conference in 2016. One person requested feedback which the board will look into. Paying by Installments 80% of survey respondents did not pay by installments. Feedback from people who paid by installments was mixed- comments were left expressing frustration with the communication and information included on the website about the procedure. Room features In ranking the importance of 3 features of a room (a room for 1 person, an en-suite room, a shared room with discount), a room for 1 person was significantly important for many people. Many comments were to the effect that "I couldn't come to Autscape if I had to share a room." Presentations As was the case in 2016, there was a notably higher attendance and reception for "established" Autscape presenters (in particular Yo, and also as Martijn). There were no drastically poorly received presentations this year. The only problem to have been identified was that one presenter spoke too quietly and used unreadable slides. It was suggested that inexperienced speakers could have guidelines for making their slides. Action for any future survey- One participant stated that they could not adequately rate the presentations using a basic numerical grading system, as their responses were more "nuanced". I will consider whether to make amendments. Organised Leisure Activities The most highly attended and received activities were performances (the Entertainment Evening and the Piano Recital), and the Retro Computer Museum. Several comments suggested that the Retro Computer Museum event was misleadingly titled, that it would have been better to advertise it as the Retro Games-Console Museum (despite the company using the term "computer") as there were no examples of what old computers could do besides gaming. Despite this, the exhibit turned out to be of interest. There were 2 poorly received activities- the disco and the Speed Meeting/Dating. However, feedback was provided to suggest that had the Speed Meeting/Dating event been organised so that attendants could provide information in advance of the event, to assist with matching to other attendants, then it could be a lot better. Home Groups Home Groups were well received this year. Extending the main event 60% of respondents would like the main event to increase in length by an extra day, 24% would prefer that it stayed at its current length, and 16% were undecided. Several comments were made suggesting that it could be made optional for attendants to stay for either 3 nights or 4 nights. Several comments expressed concern about the cost being unaffordable, or the experience being exhausting. A second event 90% of respondents said "yes" to the idea of a second annual event.