Minutes of meeting of the Board of Directors of the Autscape Organisation
Minutes of the Autscape meeting 23rd April 2022
Meeting opened 16.07
Present: James, Martijn, Richard, Trish, Kalen and Heta
Absent: Peter
Elaine (running late, arrived 16.53)
Chair: James
1. Approvals
1.1. Minutes of the 26th March meeting, posted to the list on 29th March
Carried, 6 for
2. Ratifications
No ratifications
3. Proposals
3.1 The Company Secretary proposed the Board accept the amended booking policy sent to list on 13th April. (Deferred until arrival of Elaine)
There was discussion over the sentence "Due to the costs of subsiding Personal support workers places, it is in everybody's interests if we keep these places to a minimum " and it was agreed to remove this sentence.
Carried (with amendment), 7 for
3.2 The Treasurer proposed that we allocate a budget of £15 per month for a new accounting system and commit to up to a year (£180) if required or is cheaper.
Rationale: The current system is not fit for purpose.
The Treasurer explained that the current system either needs some fixing or replacement. Peter Benie (who designed it) has recommended replacing it as there are better (and cheap) options nowadays that should also link well with the other Finance platforms we use. It's likely either to be QuickBooks, or something cheaper. He knows of some cheaper alternatives but hasn't yet got far enough in determining their suitability.
Carried, 6 for
3.3 In accordance with the Bursary policy, the chair of the bursary committee proposed that the board approve the terms below for the allocation of bursaries for Autscape 2022 (Deferred until arrival of Elaine):
"Bursaries for Autscape 2022 will be:
• Available for all room types.
• Not be available to cover the extra night, apart from in very exceptional circumstances.
• Available for personal support workers without the need to justify this by financial hardship.A bursary will not cover the full amount of the fee.
In most cases bursaries will be set amounts for approx 20 applicants of between £50 and £100
The bursary committee will also consider travel expenses as a reason for needing a fee bursary but it will not be able to provide travel expenses as a separate award.
Bursary applications must be made to the bursary committee before 12th June 2022 and before booking a place. All applications will be considered by the bursary committee on the same day and following the decision of the bursary committee people will be able to book."
After some discussion the final paragraph and date were altered to:
Bursary applications must be made to the bursary committee before 24th May 2022 and before booking a place. All applications will be considered together by the bursary committee. Following the decision of the bursary committee applicants will be able to book.
Carried (with amendment), 7 for
3.4 Kalen proposed that when someone resigns, the person who is elected or co-opted to take their place has a shorter term to make up however long the other person has left.
Rationale: This way we don't have half the board up for re-election in some years and no one in other years.
There was a short discussion and it was confirmed the membership would still be able to approve the co-opted person in the AGM after they were co-opted and that it may need some tweaking at first to make it work.
Carried, 6 for
Action: The relevant parts of the bye-laws need to be reviewed to make sure they are consistent or amended as needed (bye-laws, 2.4)
Action: James to ask Yo if this needs to go to the membership as most can be amended by the board.
4. Follow-ups
No follow-ups
5. Role reports
5.1 The Tech Coordinator reported he has been asked to make an equity@autscape.org address and www.autscape.org/equity page by George Watts, who is one of the three people running the project to make Autscape more accessible to people of colour. He is waiting for the text to put on that page, they don't have it ready yet. They want an application form done that is similar to the bursary form. He lacks the time/energy to do one. The bursary form was hosted off-site so he thinks they'd be better off similarly creating their own. He is just waiting for the text and then will create the page and the address. It would be nice if this got done before registration opens.
5.2 The Event Organiser reported that the registration system for residential places is all ready to go. A separate system for day places is virtually ready but will be opened slightly later to encourage residential bookings. We will take up to 80% of each room type and put the others (if we go over that) in a 'waiting list' which will be drawn from randomly as and when places become available.
She has mostly set up a volunteers application form so that as people register they can be encouraged to volunteer.She will also invite specific people for the most responsible positions (e.g. information desk).
6. Any Other Business
No other business
Meeting closed 17.12