Minutes of meeting of the Board of directors of The Autscape Organisation Meeting date: Tuesday 28th November 2017 Meeting time: 14.00 GMT Meeting Chair: Martijn Present: Elaine, Heta, James, Jenny, Jeremy, Larry, Martijn, Peter, Trish Observers: 1 Meeting opened: 14.06 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 October 2017 meeting posted to the list on 27th November 2017 (9 For) 2. Ratifications No ratifications. 3. Proposals 3.1. The Company Secretary proposed that the board approve the revised Complaints Policy posted to the list on 30th October 2017. James requested that we consider amending the section of the policy which refers to the type of complaint we won't consider to something along the lines of ‘We take all complaints seriously, however please respect the Trustees and Organisers. If you are unsure whether you have an appropriate complaint, please take time to discuss it with us first’. He believed people could be put off making a complaint by misunderstanding the list particularly around joke complaints. Several alternative sentences were put forward and these along with the merits of removing the section altogether or adding a list of what we will consider also came under discussion. It was decided to defer to the list to continue the discussion with a deadline of 12th December. Action: Discuss and conclude any amendments to the proposed Complaints Policy by 12th December. 3.2. Heta proposed that we initiate a discussion with Autistic UK, to find out about potential opportunities for coordination and cooperation. Following a discussion the general consensus was that it could do no harm and it could be mutually beneficial to initiate a discussion. It was decided that a minimum of two people led by Heta should arrange an on-line meeting. Martijn, James and Jenny volunteered to be included. (7 For) Action: Heta to arrange a meeting with Autistic UK. 3.3. James proposed that we consider training for moderators/organisers to be on hand in the rooms during presentations to assist with audience problems e.g. shouting out. Following a discussion about the merits of moderators and who would provide training it was decided this should be dealt with by the organising committee who should let the board know if they have any difficulties. The proposal was amended to: That the board ask the organising committee to ensure that moderators are on hand in the rooms during all the main programme presentations. (9 For) Action: Chair to ensure the organising committee are aware of this. 3.4. Delegation for running Autscape events This was deferred to list as it needed more input to the final draft. Peter encouraged the board to comment on list. 4. Follow ups 4.1. Report on extending Autscape James said that the main issues arising so far are cost, energy (of organisers and members) and admin but there are other issues and he would like to get more comments from everyone in general before doing the complete report. He asked if the board could send any further comments directly to him ASAP. 5. Role reports 5.1. Chair (Martijn) Martijn had nothing to report except that he was finding his feet again. 5.2. Company Secretary (Elaine) Elaine said that she hoped the Complaints Policy would be finished soon. She had a few more policies to send to the board soon but she will mainly be working on the annual report which she would like approved at the January meeting. Action: Complaints Policy and Annual Report 5.3. Honorary Secretary (Elaine) Elaine said the main thing was that Martijn has added the meeting dates to the calendar and she will be adding some more things soon. She also hoped that everyone was benefitting from the monthly roundup. Some members did agree they were helpful. 5.4. Treasurer (Jeremy) Jeremy said that the deposit for Tonbridge School had been paid this month. 5.5. Event Manager Autscape 2018 (Kalen) Kalen sent in a report stating that there was no progress as yet towards Autscape 2018 other than generating some theme ideas. She will put a shortlist to the board to decide in the next two weeks. She would like to know whether organiser positions such as Programme Coordinator are ongoing or need to be renewed each year. Elaine confirmed that the current position is that people remain in post and that stands unless we make changes in the future. 5.6. Membership Secretary (Jeremy) Nothing to report. 5.7. Fundraising coordinator (Jeremy) Jeremy said he was just waiting for a clear decision to be made regarding his suggested fundraising message for the members list. The chair said we would deal with this under AOB. 5.8. Tech coordinator (Martijn) Nothing to report. 5.9. Lists coordinator (James) James reported the following: Kelvin had resigned as moderator (as of 27.11.17), which puts us in a somewhat precarious position. The Community List, on the whole, is going very well, although we do have an outstanding complaint still to be dealt with. A new moderator would help (or even two.) His main aim, besides the smooth running of the lists, is to shield the board from too many complaints/issues. However, he was not overly concerned as up until now, nothing has gone that far. Elaine suggested he discuss possible moderators on the list. 5.10. Venue search coordinators (Peter and Debbie) Nothing to report. 5.11. Event Manager Autscape 2017 (Kalen) No report submitted. Any Other Business 6.1. Elaine said she had prepared a members bulletin which just needed Jeremy's fundraising report adding. 6.2. Peter said he had been finding it very difficult to read the board list because there is a variety of quoting styles, some of which render it impossible to see who wrote what, especially on his black and white display. When quoting is done well, it is very little work for the writer and reader. When it is done badly, it saves almost no time for the writer but all readers have to work harder, so there is a good economic reason to put effort into quoting well. He wanted to encourage everyone to stick to methods that are tried and tested since the 1990s, and which are documented in: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Quoted_line_prefix It was noted that some people have problems with this because of their system or service provider. 6.3. Martijn proposed that we let Jeremy's fundraising message go through now. (9 For). 6.4. Jenny said that her first aid course had been cancelled but she was likely to be offered another one around March. Larry suggested we ask our participants to see if any were already first aid trained. Elaine said she would see that this was included in the organising committee responsibilities. Meeting closed at 16:23.