Minutes of meeting of the Board of Directors of the Autscape Organisation
Minutes of the board meeting held on 13th April 2019
Meeting opened 17:09
Present: Elaine, Heta, James, Jenny, Jeremy, Larry, Martijn, Trish
Present (invited): Debbie, Kalen
Apologies: Fergus
Observers:1
1. Approvals
1.1. Minutes of the March 2019 meeting posted to the list on 12th March 2019.
1.1 Minutes approved, 7 for.
2. Ratifications
2.1. The decision taken on the Board list, in response to a request to provide a BSL interpreter for a Deaf person wishing to attend Autscape. See Appendix I.
Option B. We do not provide an interpreter but we try to provide help through a screen with notes and suggest that the participant applies for a bursary to cover the cost of bringing one of their own.
2.1 BSL option B Ratified, 8 for.
3. Proposals
None.
4. Follow-ups
None.
5. Role reports
5.1. Chair (Martijn)
No report.
5.2. Company Secretary (Elaine)
The Company Secretary reported that her priority is getting the Annual Report out.
5.3. Honorary Secretary (Elaine)
No report.
5.4. Treasurer (Jeremy)
The Treasurer reported that he had that day been contacting those who have booked and want to pay in instalments. So far there are about 15 payment plans to sort out, some in co-ordination with the bursary committee.
5.5. Event Manager Autscape 2019 (Kalen)
The Event Manager reported that organisation is on the late side this year, but it's not time to panic as yet. The Call for Proposals is underway and will be ready to publicise by Monday. Registration is underway and the online registration system is live.
The call for proposals will most likely close on 24 May unless we really don't have a good response and want to extend it.
Decisions should be made in time to be signed off at the June board meeting.
5.6. Membership Secretary (Jeremy)
No report
5.7. Fundraising coordinator (Jeremy)
The Fundraising Coordinator reported that the Autism Arts Festival has developed its advert for Autscape, which can be viewed online in a link from the programme page for its Sparklies in the Dark event. (https://autismartsfestival.org/portfolio/sparklies-in-the-dark/
https://autismartsfestival.org/autscape/)
The advert will also be included as a printout at the event.
He will be sending a receipt for the £100 donation from the event next week.
5.8. Tech coordinator (Martijn)
The Tech Coordinator reported no progress.
5.9. Lists coordinator (James)
The List Coordinator reported that the list is functioning well, with membership steadily increasing. There have been a couple of requests from researchers to use the list for recruitment, one of which has been approved, the other is being discussed. He intends to expand the moderation team to improve our function and to prepare for the future.
5.10. Venue search coordinator (Elaine)
The Venue Coordinator had nothing to report but is hoping to have something sorted out before this Autscape.
6. Any Other Business
6.1 Registration
James requested clarity on the registration plan in order to plan the bursaries.
Following a discussion it was decided that registrations received by 3pm on April 19th would go in a second pool and be processed in random order, with all bursary applications processed shortly after. After this time both registrations and bursaries would be processed on a first come, first served basis. An email would be sent to Announce including an apology for the lack of general notification of registration opening, and reassuring people that they should still have the same chance of getting a place if they register by 19 April.
Trish agreed to proofread the email as written by Heta before Martijn sent it to the Announce list.
James agreed to email those who have already shown an interest in a bursary to let them know of the delay to the bursary decisions that night.
Actions 6.1: James to email people re bursaries, Heta to forward email to Trish and then to Martijn for sending out.
6.2 info@ emails
Trish queried the situation with info@ emails and whether Heta is set up and using it. It was confirmed she is.
6.3 Guide Dogs
Debbie stated that we definitely have one guide dog coming and another is
a possibility. She assumes most know how to behave round guide dogs.
There was a discussion about different types of dogs. Difficulties with phobias and allergies were mentioned. Kalen confirmed she would be doing a handbook and it was suggested this be included.
Action 6.3 – Kalen to include Guide Dogs etc in handbook.
Closed portion of meeting
7. Role elections
7.1. The List Coordinator proposes that we invite [REDACTED] to become a moderator for the Community List.
7.1 New Moderator Approved, 6 for
Meeting closed 19.53
Appendix I
The board discussed the legal position in that a deaf person had a right to ask for a BSL interpreter as a reasonable adjustment and considered it against our accessibility policy. It was noted that as a small organisation we could justify not having the funds to meet the cost and that even carers have to pay to come to Autscape. The board also considered other options including the bursary fund. They then voted on the following options: (see below)
Options:
A. We do not provide an interpreter and do not take any other action
B. We do not provide an interpreter but we try to provide help through a screen with notes and suggest that the participant applies for a bursary to cover the cost of bringing one of their own.
C. We provide an interpreter at our cost