Tees River Users Trust Limited
(Registration number 04179273) (The “Company”)
Timetable
· Papers for next Board meeting to RP by 1st November
· Papers and agenda to be circulated to Board on 2nd November
· Next Board meeting on Monday 9th November at 5.30 pm.
MINUTES
Minutes of a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company held at River Tees Watersports’ Centre on 12th October 2015
Present: / Alan Kallagher Tees Wheelyboats ClubTony Campbell Tees Barrage Upstream Sailing Association
John Reeve Inland Waterways Association
Dilwyn Jones British Rowing
Dick Marlow Observer, Tees Rowing Club
Mark Hawkings Teesside University
Ralph Pickles Tees Rowing Club
Reuben Kench Stockton Borough Council
Alan Pearce Centre Manager
1 / Apologies:
Apologies received from:
None received / Action
2 / Declarations of Interest: None New
3 / Minutes of previous meeting
The minutes previously issued were accepted as a correct record.
4 / Matters arising from the last meeting - Actions
(i) To Review Progress on Staffing.
· Alan has now qualified and has applied for a Personal Licence. Once in place we will apply to change the DPS. / RP/AP
(ii) Trailer and dragonboats in the car park
· The purple boat will be scrapped/given away. AP to advise we will dispose of it. / AP/GB
(iii) Boathouse extension
· An additional £30K is being sought to fully fund the project. Veolia have asked for further information. Mondegreen have rejected an application in behalf of Octagon and Niramax.
· The owner of Octagon expressed interest to Tony earlier and so Tony will check back with him.
· Sport England have approved the payment for the work by Gleeds. / RP
TC
(iv) To receive a report from the Centre Manager
· AP has negotiated improved terms for bar supplies with two suppliers. The Board supported his paper and plans.
· There have been four call outs for the security alarm, which have been charged for. There is an intermittent fault in the Bar which hasn’t yet been found by Petch.
· Safe combination is to be changed.
· Bookings by members which are cancelled close to the date prevent those dates being used by paying customers. Procedure to be considered.
· A function has requested to pre-pay for drinks using a card, but we have no machine to accept the payment. Having one may increase bar takings during some functions, if customers do not have enough cash.
· The bar staff manual and training is being reviewed. A training program will be put together to ensure consistent standard for customers. Uniforms will be considered.
· AP is looking for material (eg photos) to put on noticeboards to improve the interest of the Centre.
· The Boathouse audit is due. All storage expected to be same as before, except for a new trolley being used by Powerhouse for O1 storage. Awaiting response from them on whether this is long term. / AP
AP
AP
AP
AP
AP
ALL
AP/DJ
(v) To receive a report from the Asset Manager
· Paving repair needed once work on the promenade, and clearance of Thirteen site is finished.
· Muse Developments are installing new lighting on the Barrage Straight.
· Glass in function room fire exit door is broken – Cleveland Glazing will fix this week. / TC
TC
TC
(vi) To review Membership Payments & Fob Access
· Tees Tigers membership fees have still not been paid other than one or two individuals. The situation has been ongoing now for 2 years and TRUT has to take the view that Tees Tigers has relinquished its membership. There has been no representation of TT at TRUT meetings for a long time, despite invitations to persons in addition to the registered director.
All the TT key fobs will be deactivated now, with the exception of the one or two who have paid, and a letter will be written to all TT members for whom we have an e-mail address requesting that they remove boats from the RTWC by end November, failing which TRUT will begin proceedings to dispose of them.
· The general situation in regard to key fobs, is that we now have a list of names with associated fob numbers that are correct. There are also very large numbers of fobs, with no name associated with them. Many of these are old and relate to former members.
Notices will be posted in the RTWC to alert people to a plan to deactivate all fobs not associated with a member’s name and to give a time when any genuine members whose fobs have been deactivated can get their fobs registered and reactivated. / AP/AK
AP
(vii) 2015/6 Capital Budget Phasing
· Function room heating – October
(viii) Monthly accounts and Function Performance
· DJ reported that a CSV file report from Sage could be used to produce profit and loss accounts, but debit/credit information is lost so the movements in the current assets cannot be shown. It was suggested that the bookkeeper could produce the monthly spreadsheet when set up. There are productivity issues currently with Open Office in contrast to Microsoft Office. TC will review with AP / AP/TC
(ix) Any other business
· New Member Induction Procedure needed – to be based on RTWC membership application form. AP will update, then discuss with Ben Rowe and ensure the induction for the premises is consistent with gym induction carried out by Ben and that we have a record of what he is covering in his induction.
When new members approach Alan for a key fob, he will arrange that they sign the RTWC membership form and receive and induction into the premises
· Finance Director S V Bye will revert once the 2014/5 accounts are complete.
· Manager to review and report on the need for regular and unannounced stock checks and reconciliations and a spillage book GB has not yet provided possible providers.
· Review advertising RTWC again once redecoration done. Should promote wedding functions through the Registrars’ office. Medium term.
· Removal of the red post on the pontoon. – to go ahead after the holiday season. / AP
AP
RP
AP
AP
WRECKs
(x) Anti-social behaviour
· Getting out of the water at the pontoon Dick Marlow has two rope ladders which will be installed on the pontoon to allow people to climb out. Once in place Clubs will be advised.
Public Space Protection Order to be sought to prevent alcohol being consumed on the North Shore. Communication from SBC after meeting:
Following on from the TRUT Board meeting last night Reuben asked me to check on the outstanding action from the last Anti-Social Behaviour meeting you had back in May this year.
Having spoken to Chris Dunwell he has advised me at present there is a Designated Public Place Order (DPPO) in place, which could be extended should evidence of alcohol misuse be provided to warrant an application to extend the current order. The area has been monitored closely over the summer months and reported incidents of alcohol related ASB in the immediate area are low therefore it doesn’t warrant an application at this stage. The area continues to receive regular foot and cycle patrols.
There is a new piece of legislation under the ASB Crime and Policing Act 2014 called Public Space Protection Orders (PSPO). Currently Chris and his colleagues are gathering evidence to support a potential future application for one of these orders which will tackle issues such as street drinking, begging, busking and other nuisance behaviours that affect those living in, working in and visiting the area. This would replace the DPPO which is currently in place until 2017.
Should a new order come into place they will ensure the North Shore is included. There is around a 3 month consultation period for this order – our legal team here at the Council have been contacted and a meeting is planned to begin to look at this.
Chris has said he would be more than happy to attend a board meeting to update members personally with their findings over the summer months if you think this would be useful/beneficial. Chris thinks it would be good to just touch base on how things are going given he has been in post almost 6 months.
/ Dick Marlow
5 / Annual Report of the TRUT Sports Activator
· The Sports Activator has been trained to level 2 in rowing and is close to level 2 in dragon boating. Her employment with Tees Active has also been highly complementary. Targets agreed with Sport England for the number of new Participants and the number of periods of activity (Throughput) have been well exceeded in year 1. The situation has been reported to Ian Thirlbeck the SE contact officer, who has advised that we draw down the year 2 funds even though there is an underspend in year 1. This has been initiated with SE and SBC who also support with funding.
The challenge for year 2 is that not as many of the year one participants as planned have joined TRUT clubs. New members were counted in the target Throughput for year 2 on the basis that they would continue as Centre users. The Throughput targets in year 2 will therefore be difficult to achieve.
Linda has activities in hand to increase advertising and paid coaching to build activity, including a new Recreational Group for TRC; workplace challenges and leagues. Relationships are also being developed with Fusion Hive and Thirteen.
The Board suggested that we get a group together including reps from SBC, Tees Active, the Manager, Clubs and others to look forward with additional ideas to support Linda.
· There is a proposal for additional posters / advertising on site drawing attention to the accessibility of the RTWC and our sports to attract additional recruits. Adverts with appropriate photographs should be placed in the balcony, but also on the roadway now that there are companies established here. Planning and landlord approval will be needed. / RP/LR
TC/RP/LR
6 / Anti-social behaviour
· No new reports.
· The river patrols have now finished for the winter. It was noted that there has been significant vandalism at the Preston Park and Yarm jetties.
7 / Report from Centre Manager
· Discussion about Kitchen cleanliness and storage of equipment. AP to review. Also noted that the kitchen is approved for serving food but is not a food preparation kitchen.
· Analysis of Function Performance and Diary planning is being picked up.
· The filing system and e-mail filing is being upgraded. / AP
AP
AP
8 / Report from Asset Manager
· The brown tourist sign for the RTWC is in the wrong place and will be moved.
· A review of gas suppliers and costs is in hand.
· TC is looking into fibre optic web connections on the estate to see if our connection can be improved. It is believed that Fusion Hive and Thirteen must be connected to fibre. / TC
AP/TC
TC
9 / Monthly Accounts and Functions Performance
· The cash imbalance has now been reduced to a fraction of the original and the filing system for invoices and receipts brought up to date.
Annual Accounts
· The Board approved the draft Annual Accounts subject to a final check with James about the results of the April stocktake figure. AK will check with James if he has it. If so it will be sent to Liz. If not then we will go forward with the number now in the accounts.
· The AGM will be called at the November meeting
· A new stocktake will be undertaken this month
Budget 2016/17
· AP will prepare a budget for next year for submission to the Board. DJ will help. / AK
RP
AP/DJ
AP/DJ
10 / Statutory Timetable and monthly activities
· Intruder and CCTV systems are due for annual maintenance / TC
11 / Any other business
· Community Work Placements – The Board approved a paper by AP to engage someone at no cost to TRUT who will work at the RTWC and thereby gain experience which will help the incumbent to gain employment elsewhere. The scheme is managed by APM with formal training programs agreed. / AP
12 / Date of Next Meeting
The next meeting will take place on Monday 9th November at 5.30pm
Date ______
Chairman of the meeting