Final Minutes for the Autscape Board Meeting 2 May 2026
Meeting opened 16.05
Chair: Martijn
Present: Chen, Heta, Martha, Martijn, Richard, Trish
Apologies: Elaine (late)
One observer.
1. Approvals
1.1. Approval of the minutes of the March 2026 board meeting as posted to the list on 27th April 2026
Carried, 6 for
2. Ratifications
2.1 The Treasurer proposed that we pay the invoice for 2026 membership of EUCAP, costing 210 EUR, and that the board approves £200 to be safe (although the conversion is likely to be much closer to £185). Decision on list 7 for, 03/04/26
Ratified, 6 for
3. Proposals
3.1. The chair of the bursary committee proposed that bursaries for Autscape 2026 will be awarded in accordance with the Bursary policy as follows:
• 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. You will also have to justify why you would like a bursary. However, we will not expect you to list all your income and outgoings. We have made this as simple as possible on the application form.
In most cases bursaries will be set amounts and we anticipate awarding 10 bursaries of between £50 and £100. However, we may be able to increase this if funds become available.
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.
A bursary will not usually be awarded if you have had a bursary in the last two Autscapes
To apply for a bursary either fill in the bursary application form or contact the chair of the bursary committee for help.
The bursary application form is available to download here
To contact the chair of the bursary committee email xxxxxxxxxxxxx or you can write to our address
Applications should be made by 30th June 2026
The bursary committee will consider all applications at the same time and allocate funds.
The chair of the bursary committee will inform you if you have been successful in your application for a bursary and the amount of the award. They will also inform you how to register so the registrar can adjust your fee accordingly.
Funds are limited and to enable as many people as possible to benefit from a bursary please only apply for the amount you would ‘need’ to enable you to go to Autscape.
Please note the above amounts are not restricted and the committee may vary the amount given.
The proposal was amended to include a £500 cap for the bursary fund.
Carried, 6 for
3.2. The Event manager proposed the board approve the following fees for Autscape 2026
Adult full price £520
Adult zero requirements £480
Adult sharing £480
Children 2-17 (and infants in crèche) £320
Infant under 24 months (unless in crèche) 0
Personal support worker (no prog) £400
Professional rate for whole event £795
Extra day adult £140
Extra day child £70
Day fees (from 9am to 10pm including lunch, dinner and 2 breaks)
Professional day fee £200 per day
One day adult fee £130
One day child fee £60
Two days adult fee £240
Two days child fee £100
Whole event days only adult £320
Whole event days only child £150
The treasurer noted that this is very risky as we don't know how many will go for reduced rate rooms and we have little reserves to absorb risk.
It was pointed out that the reduced rate would only apply to the lower quality or noisy rooms which were limited
Carried, 6 for
4. Follow ups
None
5. Role Reports
5.1. Chair
Nothing to report
Elaine joined the meeting at this point
5.2. Company Secretary
The company secretary said they needed to start putting together the annual report. They asked if somebody could backtrack the minutes for the reporting period and give me a summary of proposals as this would help a lot. Martijn offered to do this.
5.3. Treasurer
No report
5.4. Event Manager 2026
The Event Manager reported that event organising is well under way. Martha visited the venue this week and we now have a better idea on where things are going to go. The call for proposals has now closed so we will be picking the presentations in the next few weeks. They were slow to come in but we now have a good enough number and variety of topics so we will hopefully have a good programme. When the fees are approved we can open registration in the next couple of weeks. The website will need updating and publicity can go out shortly. I am working on getting the volunteers we need for the event and things are coming together nicely.
Martijn (who has been helping the programme manager with the proposals) added we have a good number of proposals after all. We have a total of 31 proposals. Not our highest number ever, but more than enough, and we'll have to be pretty ruthless in selecting them again. The programme subcommittee is going to need another while to discuss all the proposals (they haven't all been let through to the sc-prog list yet to avoid overwhelming the list). Then we'll do the usual collating of the programme subcommittee comments and the board, organising team and programme subcommittee will jointly rate the proposals. These ratings will then inform the organising committee as it makes a final proposal for a main programme for the board to approve.
5.5. Chair of fundraising sub committee
Nothing to report
5.6. Chair of publicity sub committee
No report
5.7. Tech coordinator
The Tech Coordinator reported they are keeping regular backups of the system now. Nothing else to report
5.8. Membership secretary
Nothing to report
6. AOB
6.1 Publicity
Heta reported that she has done a little bit of publicity, creating the images for CfP and reminders, starting work on the Canva account.
She feels we need to bring the publicity sc together to have at least a rudimentary strategy, so this does not happen randomly. She is not comfortable making decisions about visual image without some discussion and feedback. If Leneh could coordinate either by running meetings or by discussing on the mailing list, that would help.
Elaine requested that Heta bring a copy of the trademark to the list so we can do that. The rest needs to get moving on the sc list to set the parameters.
Meeting closed 17.06