Minutes of meeting of the Board of directors of The Autscape Organisation Meeting date: Tuesday 27 March 2018 Meeting time: 14:00 GMT Meeting Chair: Martijn Present: Elaine, Heta, James, Jenny, Jeremy, Peter, Martijn, Trish Apologies: Larry Meeting opened: 14:05 1. Approvals 1.1. Minutes of the January 2018 meeting posted to the list on 7th March (8 for) 1.2. Minutes of the February 2018 meeting posted to the list on 21st March 2018 (Subject to removal of the last sentence under 5.1) (8 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 25th March 2018. Following a brief discussion regarding the guidance contained in Appendix 2 & 3 the proposal was revised to: The Company Secretary proposes that the board approve the revised Complaints policy posted to the list on 25th March 2018, subject to the addition to the following sentence to Appendix 2 and Appendix 3: "This appendix does not form part of the policy and may be revised from time to time. (8 for) 3.2. Remaining fees questions 3.2.1. The Event Manager proposed that there is an opportunity provided during online booking for bookers to add a donation of any amount to be paid along with their fee (the default will be zero).* Unless the board would like to specify otherwise: a. The opportunity to add a donation will be available to all those who book to come to Autscape, simply because this is the easiest to implement. But the programmer could also exclude groups, such as those who have requested bursary help. b. The donations will go towards bursaries for next year. Following a discussion about excluding those who asked for a bursary from donating, the board considered whether this would offend people or make people feel stigmatised and whether a donation should be relevant to a bursary award. However, the general opinion was that those who need a bursary to come to Autscape should not be in a position to donate and to do so could prevent another participant from getting a bursary due to limited bursary funds. The board also considered whether all donations should go directly to a bursary fund. The Company secretary pointed out that we have a duty to be clear where donations are going so it would have to be made clear that they were not going to Autscapes general fund. It was acknowledged that people may want to donate to Autscape in general and may resent donating towards somebody’s fee. The proposal was reworded as follows: The Chair proposes that there is an opportunity provided during online booking for bookers who are not bursary recipients to add a donation of any amount to be paid along with their fee, with the default being zero, and including a choice between donations going to either general funds or towards bursaries. (8 for) 3.2.2. The Event Manager proposed that the £50 fee to make doors lockable is paid by the individuals who request it, not spread among all participants’ fees. Following a discussion it was established that this is a fee set by the venue with a maximum of 20 rooms being made available. As a result the board felt that spreading the cost amongst participants was not fair if only 20 people would benefit. The board also thought that the cost would deter all but those who really needed a lock from requesting one so demand would not outstrip availability. It was also noted that anybody who requires a lock but could not afford the extra cost could possibly apply for a bursary. (7 For, 1 Against) 3.2.3. The Event Manager proposed that rather than advertising a specific dependants’ fee that those who need help with fees for support workers or other dependants are dealt with on a case-by-case basis through the bursary scheme. (8 For) 4. Follow ups 4.1. Meeting with Autistic UK Heta said that four Autscape board members met on Skype with five Autistic UK board members. The meeting was chaired by Kat from Autistic UK and they took some time initially to get to know each other. They discussed our plans for the future on a very general level and Autistic UK said they did not have any concrete plans at the minute but were still discussing ideas and were keen to learn from Autscape. They are interested in long term cooperation with a view to not organising events at the same time and it was suggested that we nominate two people from each board to act as contacts to pass information between us. They are also considering submitting a proposal with a view to presenting at Autscape this year. All round it was a positive experience. The contacts should be decided on list in the near future. Action: Decide on the contacts for Autistic UK collaboration 5. Role reports 5.1. Chair (Martijn) Nothing to report. 5.2. Company Secretary (Elaine) Elaine said she would be presenting more policies to the board but her biggest concern at the minute was the Annual report. She reminded people to read the draft and put forward amendments particularly regarding the presentations last year and finances. 5.3. Honorary Secretary (Elaine) Nothing to report. 5.4. Treasurer (Jeremy) Jeremy said he had spent some of this month looking at the accounts. He had identified some issues to follow up on from last year, for example outstanding creditors. He didn’t have anything more specific to report to the board yet, though he had been looking at individual transactions in detail. 5.5. Event Manager Autscape 2018 (Kalen) No report received. 5.6. Membership Secretary (Jeremy) Nothing to report. 5.7. Fundraising coordinator (Jeremy) Jeremy said he had been looking at an Amazon service called Smile, which offers similar rates to Give as you Live but he had nothing to report on it yet. 5.8. Tech coordinator (Martijn) Nothing to report. 5.9. Lists coordinator (James) James said there have been some moderation issues on the list, but they seem to have been dealt with well. We are still learning what we all do, and how best to do it. In my opinion, it's going in the right direction. I have also had input from the Chair, which was useful. 5.10. Venue search coordinators (Peter and Debbie) Peter said that Debbie has found some possible venues, but we haven't approached them yet. 6. Any Other Business 6.1. Peter reminded the board regarding absences from meetings. The rule is that you're out if you're absent three times in a row *without reasonable excuse.* That rider is important. Being ill, for example, is a reasonable excuse. Being otherwise busy may be an excuse depending on how much effort was made to accommodate your schedule. 6.2. Jenny sent her apologies in advance of the next meeting. 6.3. Jenny asked if we could have a discussion on maybe changing our name. The Chair asked her to bring it up on the list. 6.4. Jeremy asked whether or not, and if so how, we address the suggestion from the feedback survey that Autscape use the internet to update conference goers about the programme. E.g. Twitter feed. The Chair said he would pass this on to the organising committee. 6.5. Trish pointed out that Ian Jordan who presented a few years ago has been in the news for being struck off. We should be aware in case it is mentioned. 6.6. Jeremy mentioned that following last Autscape we had agreed to send a message to members about the reserves but this was still outstanding. Meeting closed at 16:09