Autscape meeting 22nd July 2023 4pm on IRC
Chair : James
Present: David, George, James, Kacey, Martijn, Richard, Trish.
Absent: Elaine (arrived 17:09), Heta (arrived 16:11)
No observers
Meeting opened 16:07
1. Approvals
1.1. Minutes of the Board meeting held on 24th June 2023.
Deferred to next meeting.
2. Ratifications
None
3. Proposals
None
4. Follow ups
4.1 2025 Event
Elaine reported she has provisionally booked for 2025 for the dates we said and will speak to them at Autscape re the contract
Provisional cost roughly the same as this year but price goes up usually around 2%
They set their fees annually. We only lock in when we pay a deposit. We don’t pay the deposit until the fees are known.
5. Reports
5.1. Chair
The Chair reported:
We've seen the impact of yet another late start for Autscape. I ask all Board members to be vigilant in the future about a) asking to see the target dates for tasks completed, and b) making sure that they are adhered to. The biggest thing we need is a document available to all that has target dates on.
I'm also concerned about the amount of action that is taken by one person, and I think we should look to see that the responsibility is more spread across the Board.
5.2. Company Secretary
The Company Secretary had nothing to report. The AGM will be in the Autumn and the annual report will be done.
NB if the EUCAP Zoom is required for the AGM they need to be made aware of this in good time as it is shared by others.
5.3. Treasurer
No report (need info from Elaine).
5.4. Lists Co-Ordinator
The List Co-Ordinator reported:
The lists have been persistently attacked by one person using many email addresses. This person also sent a mass email to everyone on at least one list including everyone's email address.
This looked alarming and possibly like a data breach or something. In fact the Tech Coordinator identified that it was from one of the lists which reveals email addresses to all of its members.
We are now in a situation where the Tech Coordinator has taken extensive steps to block this person, but they can never be fully blocked due to the nature of the internet.
Any new sign-up to any of the lists *could* be this person. And if they join any list which exposes its members email addresses to other members they could similarly alarm people. Note that one person was talking about reporting us to the ICO at first.
He is struggling to know what to do about new sign-ups.
Martijn reported he has now disabled the ability of members to get the list of members for the Experience list. This is now only allowed for subcommittee lists. (It already was disallowed for the community list.). If we're going to migrate the lists to groups.io after Autscape anyway, then the cleanup will happen without extra effort as we'll just migrate the active lists.
5.5 Event Manager
James reported:
The basics are in place. The programme is coming together. I'm not sure about the tech support arrangements, but it's not my area.
Martijn reported:
Leneh is trying to find some new people for tech support as the current volunteer has been ghosting her.
Elaine reported:
About 280 booked and 96 for extra day. I’m still working on bookings as in cancelations and late requests. Everything chaotic but on par so it should all go according to plan.
There was mention of Covid queries among attendees and it was felt nothing more needed to be done.
6. AOB
No other business.
7 CLOSED PART OF MEETING
7.1. (confidential item redacted)
7.2. (confidential item redacted)
8 AOB
8.1 Insurance.
David mentioned that the insurance is just about due for renewal (actually during Autscape). Elaine, Richard, and he have had opportunity to look at it. There are a couple of details to sort out which Elaine would handle soon. He was concerned that only Elaine usually looks at the insurance, and maybe even only Elaine knows who it is taken out with.
The insurance has to be approved by 3 board members. Usually somebody else looks it over.
Insurance expires during Autscape. Richard agreed to phone them Monday.
Meeting closed 18:09