Agenda for February 2019 board meeting Meeting to be held at 5pm GMT on Saturday 9 February 2019 at irc.starlink-irc.org #autscape Apologies: 1. Approvals 1.1. Minutes of the December 2018 meeting posted to the list on 9th February 2019 2. Ratifications None. 3. Proposals 3.1. The Company Secretary proposes that the board approve the contract for High Leigh posted to the list on 28th January 2019. 3.2. The Company Secretary proposes that the board approve the Event Proposal and Management Policy (see appendix A). 3.3. The Honorary Secretary proposes that the board asks the Publications and Publicity subcommittee to produce a generic Autscape brochure for publicity purposes. (Note: printing would be costed and determined following approval of the final document.) 3.4. The Treasurer proposes that we top up the bursary fund by £1664.65 to bring the total bursary fund for 2019 to £3000.00. 3.5. The Treasurer proposes that Autscape uses its reserves to cover any shortfall charges incurred by an event held at High Leigh, rather than adjusting the conference fees to take the shortfall charges into account. 4. Follow-ups None. 5. Role reports 5.1. Chair (Martijn) 5.2. Company Secretary (Elaine) 5.3. Honorary Secretary (Elaine) 5.4. Company Treasurer (Jeremy) 5.5. Fundraising co-ordinator (Jeremy) 5.6. Membership secretary (Jeremy) 5.7. Event co-ordinator Autscape 2019 (Kalen) 5.8. Lists co-ordinator (James) 5.9. Venue search coordinator (Elaine) 6. Any Other Business
Closed part of the meeting The full confidential part of the agenda is in the board list archives. 7. Follow up [REDACTED]
Appendix A
Event Proposal and Management Policy
Autscape holds events with a difference in that they are specifically managed by and for autistic people. Some of them aren't even about autism at all and non-autistic people are also welcome, but the environment and content of the events are centred around autistic people’s needs, interests and sensitivities.
To this end, the Autscape board may instigate an event or consider proposals for events.
- Our policy is:
- 1. To consider all proposals for events
- 2. To approve the business case for agreed events
- This policy includes:
- 3. Event Management
- 4. Publicising the existence of this policy
- 5. Responsibility
- 6. Monitoring and learning
1. Proposing an event - Stage 1
Anybody may make a proposal to run an event in the name of Autscape.
A preliminary proposal should be passed to the Honorary secretary at secretary@autscape.org for forwarding to the board.
Preliminary proposals should include an outline of the intended event and who will organise it and who will be the overall Event Manager.
The organising team must comprise at least three distinct people, at least one of whom must be a member of the board. (The purpose of this member is two-fold - they should inform the board early if the progress is too far off track, and their presence ensures that the proposal is somehow connected with Autscape). Where an organising team does not include a board member the board will appoint one if the proposal is accepted.
The organising team must, in the board's opinion, have a sufficient variety of skills that all the tasks required can be accomplished. In addition, the board must be satisfied that the team understand, and can follow, Autscape's philosophy.
The board will consider the proposal and if accepted they will agree in principle to the event taking place.
The proposer will then be invited to put forward the business case to the board.
Where the board instigate an event they will appoint an Event Manager who will be responsible for putting together an organising team including a board member, and forwarding the business case to the board.
The organising team board member will then present the business case to the board.
All events will be expected to make some profit to contribute towards board running costs and the board will give the proposer or Event Manager some guidance which they should take into account when preparing the financial plan or setting fees.
The board will also advise whether it will:
- Be seeking to lower reserves
- Contribute in any other way financially
2. Proposing an event - Stage 2 (The business case)
To establish the delegated authority, the board member serving on the organising team should present the business case to the board. A template is available for this purpose if required (see Appendix A). This case should include at a minimum:
- who the Event Manager will be
- who in the team has responsibility for each of the areas: venue, programme, finance, registration, compliance
- which tasks are irrelevant and needn't be done (eg. because they are already accomplished or aren't necessary)
- which tasks will be done by the organising team (including a list of tasks that will be delegated further by the organising team)
- which tasks will remain tasks for the board
- a financial plan, showing the expected costs and financial risks
- a schedule of work to be done by the organisers, including optimistic and pessimistic timescales for that work
- a description of the procedure for decision making within the organising team
- a reporting schedule so that the board can confirm that progress is on track
The board may choose to accept the proposal as is, or to make modifications (eg. to not delegate some tasks that have been requested by the organising team).
The structure of fees and final approval of the presentations are reserved to the board, however, the organising team may propose the fee structure and presentations.
If the organising team select presenters to be approved by the board, they should include a summary of the presentations that were not selected when seeking approval for the selected presentations.
The board may impose other limits, such as restrictions on how much variation there may be in the fees, limits on expenditure etc.
If the board change the proposal in any way, the organising team may decline to accept the modified version. They may then resubmit their own modified proposal to the board.
The board must approve the whole business case to grant permission for the event to go ahead.
The board will retain the right to revoke some or all of the delegation at any time, but it should not do so without just cause, such as failure by the organising team to:
- issue progress reports
- carry out actions within the agreed timescale
3. Event management
The Event manager will be responsible for the organising team and the management of the event in line with the agreed proposal.
The Event manager will also be responsible for ensuring the board are kept up to date as agreed in the proposal.
The organising team may co-opt people onto the team without reference to the board.
The organising team may establish an Autscape mailing list to help them with their work.
4. Publicise the existence of the policy
The policy will be published and made available to anybody wishing to propose an event.
5. Responsibility
Overall responsibility for this policy and its implementation lies with the board of trustees.
6. Monitoring and Learning
Events will be monitored and reviewed to identify any trends which may indicate a need to take further action.
Review
This policy is reviewed regularly and updated as required.
Adopted on