Minutes of meeting of the Board of Directors of the Autscape Organisation
Minutes of the board meeting held on 11th May 2019
Meeting opened 17:03
Present: Elaine, Fergus, Heta, Jenny, Jeremy, Martijn, Trish
Present (invited): Debbie
Apologies: James, Larry, Heta (partial absence)
1. Approvals
1.1. Minutes of the April 2019 meeting posted to the list on 10th May 2019.
1.1 Minutes approved, 7 for.
2. Ratifications
None.
3. Proposals
3.1. The Company Secretary proposed that the Board approve the Accessibility Policy posted to the list on 11th May 2019.
After a short discussion this was amended to:
3.1. The Company Secretary proposed that the Board approve the Accessibility Policy posted to the list on 11th May 2019, with the following amendment: point 3.B. is replaced by: "That the assistance dog, in the opinion of Autscape, is trained to a sufficiently high standard that it will not interfere with other participants' enjoyment of the event."
3.1 Approved as amended, 7 for.
3.2. The Chair proposed that the board approve Mary and Kalen’s requests to conduct research at Autscape 2019. (Details of how the research may be conducted subject to agreement with the board)
3.2 Approved, 7 for.
Note: This should read Mary Doherty and Karen Leneh Buckle
4. Follow-ups
None.
5. Role reports
5.1. Chair (Martijn)
No report.
5.2. Company Secretary (Elaine)
The Company Secretary reported that she has almost finished the annual report and it is almost ready for approval. There will be some more policies coming up.
5.3. Honorary Secretary (Elaine)
Nothing to report.
5.4. Company Treasurer (Jeremy)
Nothing to report.
5.5. Fundraising Co-ordinator (Jeremy)
Nothing to report.
5.6. Membership Secretary (Jeremy)
Nothing to report.
5.7. Event Co-ordinator Autscape 2019 (Kalen)
Elaine reported that as far as the event is concerned it is all going to plan. We need to do the list of delegations though as we are working without them and technically, we should be working with them. Proposals are coming in and they look promising. Elaine and Kalen had a conversation about other things which will be brought up later.
Debbie reported that Registration going well. They are operating a small queue as the places from the non-deposit payers of the second pool are now re-offered.
196 booked (that's with the adjustment for child numbers) and 5 places held to the summer.
We need more single bedrooms. The demand for single bedrooms is very high. We have to keep some bedrooms as twins to meet the minimum numbers.
We should settle down to the quiet time soon until the final payments are due. That's when the next run of cancellations will be.
We can only get more single bedrooms by allowing our numbers to go under the minimum and maybe reducing the number of places held for the summer.
Whether going under the minimum is too expensive or not is a question for Jeremy. It's something we have to take into account when deciding venues.
Roughly speaking 2/3 want to be in a single. That percent may be higher as some have reluctantly moved into twins, so maybe as high as 75%.
5.8. Lists Co-ordinator (James)
The List Co-ordinator posted to the Board list:
Traffic on the Community List has been increasing, but it is, as of posting, still polite and convivial. The new moderator, David Singh, is learning the ropes and asking some good questions. He is hoping to have a more gender-balanced moderator team at some point in the future.
There was a short discussion over whether there was a requirement for gender balanced moderators but this will be discussed on list if necessary.
5.9. Venue Search Co-ordinator (Elaine)
The Venue Search Co-ordinator reported she is waiting to hear back from Giggleswick and has been looking at other places including a school in Scotland. However, she needs to bring something up on list about venues. We need to consider a lot of things and she has something she wants to run past everyone following her conversation with Kalen.
6. Any Other Business
6.1 Proposal: Jeremy queried the fact that few proposals have been received to date compared with last year and asked if it is considered that enough high-quality proposals are coming in this year, bearing in mind that people are paying a lot more for attending.
There was a short discussion in which it was mentioned that the deadline (24 May) can be extended if need be or we can invite presenters. Meanwhile more are due and often some come in quite late. The Twitter account was mentioned and Fergus offered to help with it.
6.2 Registration appreciation.
Martijn expressed his thanks and appreciation to Peter, who managed to get the online registration system up and running this year in spite of severe difficulties.
Jeremy commented that it is making the process of part-payments a lot easier this year.
6.3 Sensory Equipment Storage
Debbie reminded people about her email re storage and transport of the sensory equipment.
We need someone to organise it going back to Yo's after Autscape. Yo's care worker indicated they would a few months back but this may no longer be the case as the timing changed.
Meeting closed 18.20