Minutes of the FONS AGM

Held on 12 December 2016, at 8.00 pm

At The Cock Inn, North Crawley

Those Present: Jenny, Nikki, Karin, Claire and Carly

Apologies for Absence were received from: Gemma, Tracey, Penny and Katherine

Jenny also took notes at the Meeting and forwarded them to be included in the Minutes. Unfortunately, due to lack of time, I have only been able to copy and paste her notes into the correct section rather than re-write the Minutes incorporating Jenny’s notes. Jenny’s notes are in blue.

Item / Notes
1 / Strategy for Spending
Karin went through the draft Strategy, which we all agreed was excellent. Once completed everyone will be able to see a copy.
It was agreed that we need to retrieve the books and records from Gary Higson as soon as possible and open a FONS Bank Account. Karin is working on the FONS Bank Account and Claire agreed to email Gary and try and meet him in his lunch hour.
Karin & Claire to present the agreed strategy to Mrs Crompton and populate according to the 3-year school plan of topics and diarise events accordingly. For example, if there's always a school trip, this will be diarised. It would appear that there is a pattern of events as well and so planning these in should make us more organised and also help with outside communication (to both the school and the wider community). And it would also allow us to know how much help is required to run each event.
Karin & Claire to distribute the presentation to all of FONS members (we were conscious that many active members weren't able to attend the meeting).
Agreed every event should be for fundraising - for example the Halloween Party should all be chargeable; even if it's just a couple of pounds.
Coupled with this Claire said that some money could be claimed as a charitable donation. We need to establish what we claim in this way and produce forms to claim back the tax (for tax payers). In effect, this would help grow our funds. / Karin
Claire
2 / Logo – Katherine
Katherine was praised by everyone in her absence!
Katherine has also produced various file types of the logo - so that it can be used on presentation or even produced in an extra large format. Jenny to distribute. / Jenny
3 / Quiz and Auction of Promises
It was decided to split the Quiz and the Auction of Promises as we really need more time to organise the Auction of Promises and collect good prizes. As there is a quiz at the Institute the week before the date we originally planned, it was decided to postpone the Quiz until 24th April 2016. The Quiz will be held at the Cock Inn Pub and Gary, the Landlord, has kindly agreed to set the questions and run the quiz. Food will also be provided and tickets will be sold for £10 each. 60 Tickets will be available. Teams need to be no larger than 8 people but can be as small as 1 person. Nikki agreed to ask Mrs Crompton if it would be possible for her to mention the Quiz in the School section of the SCAN.
Action for Tracey to discuss the planned April date with her contact with Michael Graham - who wanted as much notice as possible. They will help pay for all advertising of the quiz. This may include an advert in the Scan, the Village Magazine - which has a deadline of the 18th January for the next issue. Tracey also to pursue the issue of the food with Michael Graham's MD. A finger style buffet had already been agreed and the Cock will provide this at cost.
[The food would be approximately £3 per head so if we only charge £10 per head/ticket and Michael Graham don't pay for the food, then we'll only make £7] - tickets £10-15 per ticket.
Jenny now has two Center Parcs Day Passes - one is to be sold to help raise funds immediately. The last voucher sold for £82 and it is hoped to raise a similar amount and for relatively little effort. Jenny to sell this and other vouchers that would have been entered into the Christmas Raffle if it had not been limited to luxury food and drink items.
The second pass will be retained to go into the Auction of Promises as will the Abel & Cole Voucher. We need other similar "experiences" - rather than a gift voucher that can only be sold for a set amount (hence the reason for selling these).
Nikki said that she could source some VIP tickets for the Ideal Home but that the next Show wouldn't be until much later on in the year as we'd miss the March one. This would be an excellent prize.
Carly said that Sherington had run an Auction and we could run it as they have with a silent auction as well as bids on the night. She said that a flight had sold very well - in the region of £200 - and that other promises included a holiday. We will need to engage businesses to help get some really good prizes that are appealing to a wide community. Gary at the Cock has already offered to include a meal. Katharine to produce a poster to drum up support (and place in the Scan). Gary suggested asking at the Quiz if anyone could donate any prizes. / Nikki
Tracey
Jenny
4 / Easyfundraising
More parents appear to be joining Easyfundraising, which is great. Jenny said that perhaps, this term, we should offer a prize as Mrs Crompton had previously suggested. Nikki explained that we can’t see who has raised the most in a month or a term as we don’t have access to that information. You can only see what the top 5 supporter’s totals are and your own details on the Web Site. Claire suggested that we contact the school office and ask if the office can provide that information for us or give us the necessary codes to access it ourselves. Nikki agreed to contact Mrs Crompton. / Nikki
5 / Any Other Business
A total of £609.19 has been raised so far this year, which is excellent. The Christmas Raffle raised £518.86. Jenny has all the figures on a spreadsheet ready to complete the Small Lotteries Licence Return. The figure excludes some expenses (for the Bazaar) but these will be inputted and issued at the next meeting; in time for the return. The returns are just for the raffle and excludes other fundraising efforts.
The next event will be the Easter Chocolate Raffle, which will be drawn after the Easter Bonnet Parade at the School on the last day of Term. A Mufti Day for the children in return for some chocolate will be used to obtain the prizes along with donations from shops. As part of the Christmas Raffle’s success was down to the large number of prizes, it was agreed to have lots of prizes rather that 4 large ones like we had last year.
6 / Linked to Auction of Promises.
(a) Events that involve the (older) community such as a Tea and Cake with the children singing were suggested and this could raise funds. As was a Sponsored Silence.
(b) Fundraising with Waitrose. Tracey has filled out the form. Carry forward to next meeting.
(c) Meeting dates - a suggestion was made in the strategy that the meetings are tabled for a regular time but the attendees cannot commit to this and so we would need to keep to the current method of scheduling meetings. Going forward and with growing members, it is hoped that roles can be deputised (which in turn will help with the hand-over at the end of the year too).
(d) Storage Boxes - establish the requirements from the school and suggested contacting Wilkinsons or alternative retailer to see if they would fund rather than using account.
7 / Date of Next Meeting
TBA

As there was no further business, the meeting was closed.