British Parachute Association
5 Wharf Way Tel: 0116 278 5271
Glen Parva Fax: 0116 247 7662
Leicester e-mail:
LE2 9TF www.bpa.org.uk
Communications Committee
Minutes of the meeting held on
Tuesday 22 February 2011 at 1208
at the BPA Office, 5 Wharf Way, Glen Parva, Leicester
Present: Adrian Bond - Communications Chairman
Paul Applegate
Kieran Brady
Alex Busby
Craig Poxon
In attendance: Tony Butler - Technical Officer
John Hitchen - NCSO
Kirsty Kelly - Archant Dialogue
John Page
Phil Sumner - Archant Dialogue
Martin Shuttleworth - Secretary-General
Apology for Liz Ashley Editor, Skydive Magazine
absence
Item Minute
01/11 Composition and terms of reference
Adrian Bond, who had been voted to the Office of Communications Chairman at the inaugural Council meeting on Saturday 222 January 20118 (Council minute 1.51.3), welcomed those present to this first formal meeting of the Communications Committee 20118.
The voting members of the Communications Committee for 2011 were: Paul Applegate, Adrian Bond (Chair), Kieran Brady, Alex Busby and Craig Poxon.
The Committee’s terms of reference (BPA Form 191, circulated with the agenda) were noted. As was customary, the Editor of Skydive the Mag would continue to be co-opted ex-officio as a non-voting member.
02/11 Minutes
The Committee noted that the minutes (circulated) of the meeting held on Tuesday 7 December 2010 had already been approved by the Committee, ratified electronically by the Council and published on the BPA website http://www.bpa.org.uk/minutes
03/11 Matters arising
3.1 Unauthorised use of the BPA logo (minute 62.1)
The Committee noted that Edward Carroll BPA 116942 had, to date, not removed the BPA logo from his website www.vegasextremeskydiving.com where it was being used without authorisation. Per minute 89.1 of the Council meeting held on 7 December 2010, a letter had been sent on 29 December 2010 asking him to remove the logo in order that he would be eligible to renew of his membership from 1 April 2011.
3.2 Online Mag subscription sales (minute 62.2)
Martin Shuttleworth (Secretary-General) reported that the Office was concerned at declining non-member magazine subscriptions which they believed was because the former facility for online
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subscription through the Mag website had not been available since the BPA’s former web consultants ZCT had hosted that website some three or four years ago. The staff therefore saw it as a priority to seek to reinstate this facility on the current Mag website. They further believed it might present a good opportunity to trial the new online BPA database with a small data set. Phil Sumner (Web Developer, Archant Dialogue) said that the online subscription facility for the Mag would follow introduction of the new BPA membership database. The Mag subscription function would have a separate look-up table and data silo. It was not therefore an appropriate data set with which to start an online trial.
Noted
3.3 Sale of advertising on Mag website (minute 62.3)
Kirsty Kelly (Assistant Editor, Archant Dialogue) reported that contact had been made with potential advertisers but no sales had yet resulted. The Chairman suggested a ‘Your ad here’ banner might be put on the site to attract potential advertisers. Another idea, if it had not already been tried, was to ‘piggy-back’ an advertisement on the Mag website with one in the Mag.
Action: Archant Dialogue
3.4 New BPA website and database (minute 62.4)
Phil Sumner reported that the new BPA website they were building would soon be ready for internal testing of its online database facility. The membership services staff at the BPA Office had provided initial feedback, but they were now busy with renewals and would not themselves be able to resume trialling and validation until later in the year. Phil Sumner hoped this would be during July and August, with the smaller number of late renewals that needed to be processed at that time.
Ongoing
Phil Sumner tabled a mock-up of the front page of the new BPA website and received feedback from the Committee. He was continuing to build the new website. He said that the new BPA database was now functional, and would soon be available for internal trial by Council and Committee members to whom he would supply a link through the BPA Office.
Action: Archant Dialogue (Phil Sumner)
Craig Poxon asked if the new BPA website was being designed with access from mobile devices in mind. Phil Sumner said this had not been a specific design criterion, but access from mobile devices would be monitored when the site went live, and this data might yield information as to the cost effectiveness of adapting the site to optimise mobile access.
Noted
3.5 Mailsort program (minute 63.10)
The Mailsort program used by the Office to provide names and addresses for Mag mailings had not worked properly for some months. This was now causing significant extra work for staff in seeking to compensate for failure of the program. Notwithstanding this, a few members were not receiving magazines and a few others were getting two copies. As Archant Dialogue could themselves process the address data in order to benefit from the most economical postal rates, Craig Poxon believed that all that was needed was a program to export relevant data fields from the BPA database. He had already provided such a program for the lapsed members survey last year, and said he would be pleased to help with a name and address export program for Mag mailings. The Chairman and staff were grateful to Craig Poxon for his offer of help, which was accepted with thanks.
Action: Craig Poxon / BPA Office
3.5 Mag paper specification (minute 63.10)
Kirsty Kelly reported that the paper used for the December 2010 issue of the Magazine had been of the usual weight. However, it may have felt different because of a coating. To more closely resemble the feel of the paper in earlier issues, Archant Dialogue had changed to a different coating for the February 2010 issue. Kirsty Kelly said that if the Committee wished to move from 90 to 100 gsm paper, Zoë Francis-Cox (Editorial Director, Archant Dialogue) had indicated that this would be possible at no additional cost. The Committee noted there had been no adverse comment from members about the paper used in the February 2010 issue and was therefore content with the new coating of the 90gsm paper. The Chairman thanked Kirsty Kelly for kindly resolving this issue.
Completed
04/11 Editorial Report
Kirsty Kelly had circulated the Editorial Report before the meeting, and tabled additional copies.
The Chairman thanked Archant Dialogue for kindly arranging to send a professional photographer to the AGM. There followed a discussion on using the excellent photographs of the AGM that Archant Dialogue had kindly sourced, to drive more traffic to the Mag website. Also discussed was the value of this image gallery to the BPA on Facebook, as this had now grown into quite a popular site. Craig Poxon said that the facility to tag photographs on Facebook offered the potential for BPA members to draw in their non-skydiver friends and colleagues, generating awareness and interest for more people to try skydiving. Kirsty Kelly agreed, but said that posting photographs on Facebook did not by itself help to drive more traffic to the Mag site, which was what potential advertisers were seeking.
The Committee asked that the copyright credit on the Mag website should read the same as in the Mag – © British Parachute Association Ltd, and that the copyright on the AGM photographs should be the same.
Action: Archant Dialogue
05/11 Starter Mag 2011
Kirsty Kelly reported that the 2011 edition of the Skydive Starter Mag was due to go to press during the third week in March. She had brought to the table a mock up for inspection. The print run would be 30,000 copies, pagination 56pp + 4pp cover, cost £8437. On publication, Archant Dialogue would send a box as a buffer stock to each participating Drop Zone.
Craig Poxon proposed, and Alex Busby seconded, a motion that references to ‘FAI Licences’ in the Mag, the Starter Mag and all other BPA publications, should read ‘FAI Certificates’, because, as a matter of policy, as the BPA should use the correct terminology in all of its publications. This carried unanimously.
Action: Editor
06/11 BPA 50
The Committee discussed ideas to help to celebrate the BPA’s 50th anniversary this year. Ideas included adopting a 50th anniversary logo for use on the web and on letterheads, etc, commissioning articles for the Mag from members who had been active during the early years, a series of articles by a ‘name’ in the sport from each of the five decades, reprinting the first ever (1964) issue of the Mag and/or articles from it, publishing a history of the BPA and the sport over the last 50 years, appointing an honorary archivist or archivists, installing an honours board (listing the Chairmen of Council by date) in the BPA board room, publishing a feature on the top 50 moments over the last five decades, publishing a 50th anniversary celebration issue of the Mag in December 2011, perhaps using the anniversary theme for the BPA FilmFest 2011, issuing a commemorative car sticker in the Mag, theming the AGM 2012 to celebrate BPA 50, and holding a 50th anniversary prize draw at the AGM 2012.
Alex Busby said he would be pleased to seek sponsors of prizes for a 50th anniversary prize draw.
Action: Alex Busby
These ideas would be reported to tonight’s meeting of the full Council, which also had this item on its agenda.
Action: Report to Council
07/11 Media Co-ordinators
The Chairman reported that Rich Rust (who had been one of the BPA’s Joint Media Co-ordinators until the end of last year) had kindly offered to continue to assist if required. The Chairman asked that the arrangements for media co-ordination should be returned to at the next meeting when the Action Plan 2011-2 was due to be formulated (see minute 9.4 below).
Action: Next meeting
08/11 Communications Action Plan: 1 July 2010 to 30 June 2011
8.1 Develop a communications plan
8.1.1 Communicate regularly with members by e-mail
Following the well-received launch of the BPA e-newsletter in November 2010, a second e-newsletter had been issued shortly before the AGM in January 2011. Unfortunately transmission problems had meant that some members had not received it and it had to be re-transmitted to those members after the AGM.
Craig Poxon said that we had received quite a bit of spontaneous positive feedback in response to the first newsletter, and little feedback about the second. However, there had been very few unsubscribe requests, so the e-newsletters appeared to be being well received by the membership.
The next e-newsletter, following the established pattern of being issued in the months between Mags, was due to go out in March 2011.
Action: Chairman
8.1.2 Run more regular shorter membership surveys each focusing on a specific theme
The Chairman was progressing this target. The next survey, in the spring, would comprise two themed sections, (i) competitions funding and (ii) the AGM. He had invited Steve Saunders (Competitions Chair) kindly to provide the survey questions on competitions.
Action: Chairman
8.1.3 Publish campaign posters to send to DZs on (i) BPA information; (ii) safety
Already completed
8.2 Contact stakeholders on developing a marketing and retention strategy for the sport
Martin Soulsby was continuing to progress this in his new capacity as Chairman of Council.
Action: Chairman of Council
8.3 Publish a BPA Skydiving calendar 2011
The BPA skydiving calendar 2011 had been issued free of charge to members as an insert to the December 2010 issue of Skydive the Mag. Copies were on sale from the BPA Shop.
Already completed
8.4 Re-apply for a Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) grant to create an historical image archive of parachuting in the UK
Martin Soulsby was progressing this with contacts in education. There was no update for today’s meeting.
Action: Chairman of Council
09/11 Communications Action Plan: 1 July 2011 to 30 June 2012
The Committee discussed ideas for possible inclusion in the Communications Action Plan 2011/2, which the Committee would put forward to the April meeting of the Council. The Chairman believed that the annual BPA calendar had now become such a regular ‘core’ activity that it was no longer appropriate to refer to it as an item in the Action Plan, and the Committee agreed.
Agreed
9.1 Broadcasting BPA meetings
Alex Busby suggested re-visiting the decision not to broadcast BPA meetings over the web. He believed the way the BPA was run needed to be more transparent to the membership. He said that the trial broadcasts last year had not attracted many members to view them because, frankly, the Communications Committee was not of most interest to members. It was Council and STC meetings he believed members wanted to see. John Page said he had spoken with jumpers at his DZ, and they had confirmed it was STC meetings they would like to see.
Craig Poxon said he was in favour of broadcasting meetings so the Association was transparent to its members. He believed in the ‘field of dreams’ approach - do it, and members will come to view.
Tony Butler said that any proposal to broadcast STC meetings would need the agreement of all CCIs present, and he had serious doubts as to whether they would agree.
Kieran Brady said he supported transparency, but had reservations about the practicalities of broadcasting meetings - for example, the need to cut or mute the broadcast during in-camera sessions - and the effect on humour and informal banter that were typically a part of any meeting if every word was to be broadcast. He believed that the quality and spontaneity of meetings might suffer.
Tony Butler voiced concern that if some CCIs were not in favour of attending a broadcasting STC meetings but a broadcast went ahead, they might decline to attend as a result. Suggestions of time delays and editing were made, but concern was expressed at the amount of management that streaming an STC meeting might entail.