Minutes of meeting of the Board of directors of The Autscape Organisation Meeting date: Tuesday 23rd January 2018 Meeting time: 14:00 GMT Meeting Chair: Martijn Present: Elaine, James, Jenny, Jeremy, Martijn, Peter, Trish (Heta late) Observers: None Meeting opened: 14:10 1. Approvals 1.1. Final Minutes of the July 2017 meeting posted to the list on 18th January 2018 (6 for) 1.2. Final Minutes of the November 2017 meeting posted to the list on 21st January 2018 (7 for) 2. Ratifications 2.1. On 5th July 2017, the treasurer proposed, in the event of a non-residential adult cancelling their booking, (A) to refund the fee (minus the minuses given above) (B) to allow full refunds of the non residential fees up until the point the venue asks for the numbers for the invoice for the non residential people Votes: 1 for A, 8 for B. The board agreed to fully refunding a non residential adult cancelling their booking providing it was before the venue asked for the number of non residential participants they needed to invoice for. 2.2. On 9th July 2017, the treasurer proposed, in the event of a teenager cancelling their booking, (A) to refund the teenager their Autscape fee (minus cancellation fee and cost of returning the fee) (B) The cancellation policy, as agreed on in May’s meeting, still holds for residential adults. For all others, the cancellation policy will be: refund of their booking fee less the administration charge and any incurred costs, up until we give the venue the numbers for invoicing after we give the venue the numbers for invoicing, the policy will revert to being the same as for residential adults. [note (B) includes (A)] Votes: 0 for A, 5 for B. The board agreed that if a teenager cancelled then they would be refunded their Autscape fee (minus cancellation fee and cost of returning the fee) though the cancellation policy as agreed in Mays meeting still holds for residential adults. They further agreed that the cancellation policy for all others would be to refund their booking fee (minus administration charge and any costs incurred), but only up to the point that the venue requests numbers for invoicing after which the cancellation policy will revert to the one agreed in Mays meeting for residential adults. 2.3. On 9th July 2017, the treasurer proposed, in the event of a non-residential adult cancelling their booking, (A) to refund this person their Autscape fee (minus cancellation fee and cost of returning the fee) should they cancel. (B) The cancellation policy, as agreed on in May’s meeting, still holds for residential adults For all others, the cancellation policy will be: refund of their booking fee less the administration charge and any incurred costs, up until we give the venue the numbers for invoicing after we give the venue the numbers for invoicing, the policy will revert to being the same as for residential adults. [note (B) includes (A)] Votes: 0 for A, 8 for B The board agreed that if a non residential adult cancelled then they would be refunded their Autscape fee (minus cancellation fee and cost of returning the fee) though the cancellation policy as agreed in Mays meeting still holds for residential adults. They further agreed that the cancellation policy for all others would be to refund their booking fee (minus administration charge and any costs incurred), but only up to the point that the venue requests numbers for invoicing after which the cancellation policy will revert to the one agreed in Mays meeting for residential adults. The board ratified 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 together (6 for). [Heta arrived in the meeting] 3. Proposals 3.1. James proposed that the board amend Section 4 of the Revised Complaints policy as follows: (See agenda, Appendix A for full policy) All complaints will be treated seriously but we will not process complaints which: - Are unrelated to our work, - Are jokes or pranks, - Are abusive, prejudiced or offensive in their manner, - Are harassing of Trustees, - Are incoherent or illegible (and attempts to work with the complainant to make the complaint coherent or legible fail), - Are part of a bulk complaint i.e. the same complaint has been sent to other organisations, - Are made anonymously unless they relate to a serious issue on which there is reasonable initial evidence to allow us to investigate the complaint. The board approved the amendment (8 for). 3.2. The Company Secretary proposed that the board approve the revised Complaints policy posted to the list on 30th October with the above amendment. It was mentioned that other amendments have yet to be incorporated in the policy at Appendix A so this was deferred to enable a complete amended version to be put forward for approval. Action: Elaine to prepare a full amended document for approval at the next board meeting 3.3. Peter proposed that we approve the following documents: A. The delegation for running Autscape events as posted to the list on 23 October 2017 B. The delegation for running Autscape events Part II as posted to the list on 19 January 2018 Following a short discussion it was decided that Childcare should be added to Part I. Therefore a revised proposal was put forward. Peter proposed that we approve the following documents: A. The delegation for running Autscape events as posted to the list on 23 October 2017 subject to childcare being added B. The delegation for running Autscape events Part II as posted to the list on 19 January 2018 The board carried the revised proposal (8 for). 3.4. Martijn proposed that the board select one of the following as the theme for Autscape 2018: A. Achieving inclusion B. Dimensions of inclusion C. Exploring inclusion D. Inclusion James commented that the choice was limited and Martijn explained that the theme had already been widely discussed on the Plan list with inclusion coming out as the favourite theme. He therefore created the short list from that. The board used the ranking system to vote and ranked their preference as follows: ABCD ACBD BCDA CBDA DCAB CBDA CD C won on Round 2 over A 6:2. The chosen theme is therefore 'Exploring Inclusion.' 4. Follow ups 4.1. Report on extending Autscape, sent to the board list on 6 January 2018: James said he was now waiting for comments so this could be discussed on list. Heta asked if the organising team should be involved in this. Most people agreed that this was a good idea. Elaine said the decision would have to be made by the board but they could seek opinions from the organising committee. 4.2. Discussion with Autistic UK: Heta said she had contacted three of them, but it was still inconclusive. She noted that was probably a bad time, too close to holidays, and AUK is about to have a big re-launch meeting in 5 days from now. She didn’t want to pressure them, but she would continue with this. 5. Role reports 5.1. Chair (Martijn) Martijn said he had emailed the US Association for Autistic Community about the similarity of their Autspace conference's name with our name. He had received a reply on 7th Jan that the message has been received and that their board is discussing it. Nothing since. 5.2. Company Secretary (Elaine) Elaine said the annual report was the biggest thing she needs to complete which was almost ready. 5.3. Honorary Secretary (Elaine) Nothing to report 5.4. Treasurer (Jeremy) Nothing to report 5.5. Event Manager Autscape 2018 (Kalen) No report received 5.6. Membership Secretary (Jeremy) Jeremy said that the fundraising message sent to the members attracted 5 new registrants to Give As You Live. 5.7. Fundraising coordinator (Jeremy) Report sent to list as follows. During the month of December, in the run-up to Christmas, Autscape raised approximately £50 via Give As You Live. I think this is a very encouraging total, and would like to publicise it to the members/those who were involved in the GayL campaign. Digging deeper into the breakdown of the £50, it appears that some supporters would have raised relatively small amounts (I, for example, raised 50p), as a common percentage donated is 1.5%* Because of this, I am concerned that some supporters may lose interest in using Give as you Live, so any future publicity could address the issue of supporter retention *Many of the most popular stores run promotions where purchases on specific product lines, eg. skincare products, yield higher donations of around 5%. Elaine asked if the December figure included all money raised by Christmas spending or whether some more was due in January. Jeremy said there was more money pending. 5.8. Tech coordinator (Martijn) Nothing to report 5.9. Lists coordinator (James) James I said there have been many varied discussions on the Community List recently which have been mostly respectful and useful. I hope the issue with moderators can be resolved in today's meeting. 5.10. Venue search coordinators (Peter and Debbie) Nothing to report 5.11. Event Manager Autscape 2017 (Kalen) No report received 6. Any Other Business 6.1. Jenny asked when will a board member be in place to monitor and report back progress being made by the management team? And would it be possible to have a Help Desk at Autscape (actually clearly marked as a Help Desk)? Elaine said the board member would have to be voted on. James put himself forward for the role. It was decided to leave this decision until the next meeting. Elaine said the organising team are responsible for the Help Desk so this would be up to them. 6.2. Peter referred to Elaine's raised point in 4.1 that the board should be making decisions independently from the organisers. Peter disagreed stating “The board ultimately have final say, but to reach an informed decision, the board should use all resources at its disposal. The organisers are so fundamentally affected by the decisions regarding the length of the event that I feel they should be involved in the decision making process; they should not wait passively for the board to ask questions that happen to occur to the board”. Elaine said she agreed that the organisers should be asked for opinions but not be involved in the decision itself. Peter thought that Elaine had missed the point that if the only questions come from the board, that comes from that perspective. Elaine said that opinions didn’t have to just be questions though and she was thinking broader than that.
Closed portion of meeting 7. List moderators 7.1. The lists co-ordinator proposed that we agree to Kelvin being reinstated as a moderator. (Note: Kelvin resigned but would like to be a moderator again. The board carried the proposal (8 for). [Jeremy left the meeting] 7.2. The lists co-ordinator proposed that we agree to David Benito becoming a moderator. It was asked if he had been approached yet and asked and James said no but he wanted to know if the board would approve him if he did say yes so it didn’t delay him starting. On that basis the board voted (6 for). Meeting closed at 16.15