Friends of Oban Community Play Park Committee (FoOCP)
Annual General Meeting
11-12 noon, Friday 6thFebruary, 2015
Venue – Function room, Atlantis Leisure
Present
Lyndsay Elliot, Chair FoOCP
Liz Cottier, Vice Chair, FoOCP – arrived later
Adrian Beard, ex Treasurer, FoOCP
Nick Wesley, General Manager, Atlantis Leisure
Sally Weaser, Committee member, FoOCP
Laura MacDonald, Argyll & Bute Council (ABC)
Iain Angus MacDonald, Councillor, ABC
Kathleen Lafferty, Treasurer, FoOCP
Iain Stewart Maclean, Councillor, ABC
Sidonia Brunold, member FoOCP
Eleanor Mackinnon, member FoOCP
Emma D’Arcy, member FoOCP
Louise Lee, Oban Times
Susannah Hughes, member FoOCP
Fiona Sharples, Secretary, FoOCP
- Welcome, Introduction and apologies
Tina McGillivray, Elaine Robertson, Neil MacIntyre, Mary Jean Devon, Neil Matheson, Jim Edge, Maeve Kelly.
- Minutes of last AGM
Lyndsayproposed that they were accurate, Fiona seconded.
- Update on Committee members and appointments
- Chair - Lyndsay proposed Lyndsay, seconded by Sally, Lyndsay accepted
- Vice Chair - Lyndsay proposed Liz, Adrian seconded, Lyndsay accepted on behalf of Liz
- Treasurer – Lyndsay proposed Kathleen, seconded by Fiona, Kathleen accepted
- Secretary - Lyndsayproposed Fiona, Sally seconded, Fiona accepted
Lyndsay asked if anyone wanted to join the Committee and said that people can be co-opted at any point if they would like to be, and others help a lot such as Eleanor MacKinnon. Sally continues as a member of the Committee. Lyndsay updated that Adrian Beard had recently stepped down as Treasurer and thanked him for his work and support.
- Chair’s Report - covering item 5. Vice Chair’s Report
Lyndsay went through the Chair’s Report, see report for full details. A few highlights:
- Park closed due to not being fit for purpose in February 2014, at about the same time and coincidentally a letter was sent to lots of local businesses this helped kick-start a huge amount of fundraising by the community, there are too many examples to mention and the support has been amazing. There are also now 40 collection tubs in places around the town tubs around.
- Argyll & Bute Council now working in partnership with the Playpark and Atlantis. They will look after the park, this includes insurance and maintenance, and they will lease the playpark to the Committee. We will not need to pay VAT that saves a lot of money and we will have access to the Council’s Procurement team to help and facilitate the tendering process.
- The consultation on the design – involved over 100 children.
- Facebook~ there are nearly 800 likes now
- Gift Aid was set up during the year and this has helped raise more money.
- Thanks to Iain Campbell, Architect and Angus Mackintosh from Wicksteed for their input on the design process during the year to gain planning permission including a revision to enable a higher climbing frame. Recently we have heard from the Environmental Health Dept who now not keen on the potential noise from the instrumentsproposed in the sensory garden. To avoid delay the garden will not be done at the same time as Phase 1 whilst this situation is resolved.
- Thanks to Karen McAllister of DM MacKinnon for her support and input into the legal requirements for the partnership agreement with ABC.
- Two companiesoffered to do the drainage work for free, Cowal Engineers gifted the work so thank you
- Thank you to The Oban Times for their ongoing press coverage, over the year we have been in various press articles from other newspapers as well
- £15,000 from the Bailey Thomas Charitable Fund for the garden, they were delighted by the grassroots project.
- We had another successful intergenerational sponsored walk with lots more children and support from Argyll Voluntary Action’s (AVA)Building Community Bridges project, age ranged from 1 week to nearly 80 years!
- Plantars for the garden are being built by the Men’s Shed.
- We will have some swings back in the old condemned playpark soon
- Spec savers organised a fashion show and raised with top up from them £1,000
- Tesco’s donated £5,000
- St Columba’s school - during the run up to the Referendum, the teacher asked the children for fund raising ideas, the young children voted on this, the whole school was involved in voting. The outcome was a Disney day and they raised over £400.
- The recent consultation on the design/equipment. Fiona updated on this, she and Lyndsay visited various groups including the Caring Parent’s group to understand their needs, Beavers, Guides, Young Carers, Freestyle Friday, Schools Out, Youth forum. There were emails out to the members, information on Facebook and flyers left around events/places in Oban. Thank you to all those who gave their input. The list of equipment developed based on earlier consultations and the latest is as follows:
Zip wire slide (25 m)
Balance piece (e.g. buddy or wobble board)
High Climbing tower – there was some debate by the children lower or higher
A Fireman’s pole of at least 2 metres
A high slide – this was a big thumbs up
Monkey bars or cargo netting connecting from the ship to a natural rockscape/shape for climbing on. Also a somersault/gymnastic bar as part of this.
Front end of the ship should be natural looking and be an imaginative play area to look like the front of a ship with a steering wheel, binoculars, compass, seating/cargo areas, etc. An imaginative vehicle was popular.
A Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) compliant wide slide
Swings – DDA compliant special seat, 1 swing basket – a big thumbs up, and ideally 2, regular seats
A “Super Rope-End Swinger”
Solar roundabout that rocks and spins
Space for 3 benches (do not want benches included in the tender, these will be purchased locally)
Shelter with sail like cover as big as possible
- Lyndsay highlighted there are lots of deadlines involved in the Sport Scotland grant and it could possibly be autumn now until work starts.
- Thanks to the Playpark team: Planning and bid success led by Liz, walk and consultation led by Fiona, Kathleen has stepped into Treasurer role, Sally bringing Scottish National Heritage experience and is leading on the garden.
- We need people to run some local fundraising events if anyone is interested.
- Suzie Wolf, Formula 1 racing car driver has agreed to be our Patron.
- One of the big challenges for this year is to fundraise for the area for preschool children
- Hot off the press news – we received news yesterday that we received £15,000 from the Robertson’s Trust
- Treasurers’ Report
Kathleen went through the Treasurer’s Report, see report for full details. A few highlights:
Income £42,121.70. This figure is a combination of Community Fundraising, Donations and Events ran by Friendsof Oban Community Play park
Total Donations Received: £31,264.51. We received many donations from local businesses, Guest Houses, Shops, The Public, Local Charities and Just Giving Donations.
Money Spinner & Donation Tubs: £563.56. These tubs are situated in various establishments in the town. (Public Houses, Cafes & local Shops). These tubs were donated by a local business.
Total Grants Received: £715.00. This grant was received from Argyll & Bute Council in March 2014.
Total Fundraising Received: £7989.65. A huge amount of Fundraising Events took place from Climbing Ben Nevis, Chocolate Bingo, Ceilidh’s, Cake Bakes, Lemonade Selling, Mega Raffle ran by Play park Committee and many, many more events.
Total Sponsorship: £1553.45. Once again the Community and The Play park Committee came together and organised a Toddle & Intergenerational Walk in conjuction with all localSchools, Nurseries and Argyll Voluntary Action.
Total Interest: £35.00
Expenditure £3528.98
Eg. Expenses for Fundraising Activities: £430.39, Total Administration Fees: £505.19. Total Accountant Fees: £136.00, completion of Annual Accounts by AVA.
Balance at Bank as at 4th February 2015 : £64,170.70
Lyndsay talked through the financial summary including grants and pledges not yet received as of November 2014, approximately £175,000, now £190,000 with Robertson Trust. This includes for example:Sport Scotland £85,725, The Baily Thomas Charitable Fund £15,000, MacQueen Bros Charitable Trust £5,000, Argyll Beats Cardiovascular Disease £5,000, Tesco £5,000.
Lyndsay talked through the amount of spend required by Sport Scotland. The garden is costed at about £23,000, we have £15,000 so far, the preschool areas will cost about £150,000.
Liz highlighted she was about to submit an application to the Crerar HotelsTrust for £21,500, we have submitted before unsuccessfully and they suggested to do so again. The next deadline is then 27th Feb for the Weir Trust and we will request £10-15,000. Scottish Sea Farms gave us £500, Plockton playpark were given £15,000 - any ideas/suggestions for how we could get more from them or others please let us know.
- Amendment to constitution
Fiona read through the changes to clause 5 and 8 of the Committee’s constitution to better reflect commitment to equality and diversity of membership, and is a requirement of Sports Scotland:
Current - Clause 5
5.Membership shall be open to any person;
- whose main residence is within the Oban and Lorne area of Argyll and Bute to include Port Appin, Dalmally and Arduaine, or whose place of business is in the aforesaid area.
- Membership may be open to any individual interested in supporting and furthering the work of the association
- Membership of the association, in a non voting capacity, may also be open to community organisations and/or affiliated agencies
- Withdrawal from Membership shall be by notation in the minutes of any Committee meeting
Proposal to amend Clause 5 as noted below
Qualifications for membership
5.Membership
- Membership shall be open to any individual over age of18 , interested in supporting and furthering the work of the association objects.
- Membership of the association, in a non voting capacity, may also be open to community organisations and/or affiliated agencies.
- Withdrawal from Membership shall be by notation in the minutes of any Committee meeting.
Current Clause 8
8.The management committee may, at its discretion, refuse to admit any person to membership.
Proposal to amend Clause 8 as noted below
8.No application will be refused other than on reasonable grounds. There will be no discrimination on grounds of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex , sexual orientation , political or other opinion
Lyndsay proposed the changes and Sally seconded them.
- AOCB
None raised
- Vote of thanks and Close of meeting
Lyndsay thanked everyone for coming.
Nick will be replacing the whole tennis area; part of this will be a garden and tarmac courts for tennis, baseball, etc.
Angus - Well done and thank you for doing such an amazing job
The meeting was closed.