MINUTE OF EDAS BOARD MEETING, 6 FEBRUARY 2014, SOCIETYM, GLASGOW
PRESENT:Robert Pollock (Chairing), Vivienne Brown, Ian Davison Porter, Suzanne Hamilton,
Geoff Leask, Susan Love, Liz McEntee, Joe Pacitti, Brian Patterson, Taylor Stewart,
Kirk Torrance
APOLOGIES:Irene Bell, Jillian Moffat
ATTENDING:Elaine Bone, Yvonne Prager
MINUTES OF LAST MEETING AND MATTERS ARISING
The Minutes of the last meeting were approved.
The note of the Strategic Planning session with Alister Wilson has been circulated. There are several issues tobe discussed and should be completed once the new Chair is in post.
FINANCE UPDATE AND OTHER FINANCE MATTERS
RP asked that we minute the fact that we were charged a penalty for late filing of annual accounts. This was due to unforeseen circumstances and YP said that she has discussed with the accountant to ensure there is not a repeat this year.
(IDP joined the meeting.)
YP summarised the budget which shows a surplus for the year to 31 December of £1028 and a projected surplus at 31 March of £5025. This is dependent on securing continuing partnership from SDS - EB is liaising with Pat Watt on this.
GOVERNANCE
New Chair
RP updated the Board on the selection of a new Chair, referring to EB’s Board paper, summarising actions to date. In summary, the nominations committee selected three candidates from the advert, RP spoke to one whowas initially very interested but is currently working in the US and has been forced to withdraw. The other two candidates have been put on hold until further candidates are identified. The Nominations Committee agreed not to re-advertise and EB has now met with Ian Todd of People Scotland to discuss how he can help with the selection process.
Following a discussion on the merits of broadening our pool of candidates, the Board agreed to appoint the services of People Scotland. It was also agreed to provide Ian Todd with a composite list of all Board ideas for consideration.
Treasurer
RP, EB and YP met with one candidate for the post of Treasurer, with the other candidate to be interview later in the month. RP said he is confident we will find someone suitable.
(SL joined the meeting.)
Risk Register
The Board discussed the risk register, which is due to be updated.
It was agreed to revise the risk of losing SE and SDS as members from High to Medium. The proposals presented to each organisation will be circulated to the Board. To ensure there is as much reach as possible within each partner organisation, give thought to the relationship with each and arrange for the new Chair to meet withbothmember organisations to reinforce our commitment.
It was agreed to add a mitigation column, membership section and rating score. The Board are invited to comment further on any other suggestions they may have.
LMcE said she liked the layout and will compare that that of GCVS to identify any areas we should include, such as membership.
Once we review the strategy session and potential rethink the sub groups, we can adapt the risk register again but it should, in any case, become a permanent feature on the agenda.
Insurance
YP gave a brief overview of existing insurance cover which is Public Liability for events only. Further advice on other areas of insurance and liability to carry out risk assessments prior to events will be sought through our insurance adviser.
PROGRESSS UPDATE
Membership Services and CPD
The EU funding event was held in January, RP and EB attended and were very impressed with the session and with Scotland Europa. EB will circulate the presentation from the session and RP agreed to provide a short summary for the bulletin – which may encourage higher attendance if a repeat session takes place.
EB has met again with SDS to discuss a joint skills investment plan event, which they are still keen to hold, hopefully before the summer. The session would also inform on regional skills asssessments consultation and review process.
A two day introduction to economic development course is taking place in February and a one day Refresher course in March.
EB met with HIE to discuss the course evaluations. Contrary to the evaluations received, HIE’s HR manager, said their feedback had been positive and she offered to speak to personal contacts to explore further. Further calls to a selection of course attendees for all three of our course types are to be carried out. EB will then speak to Alan McGregor about the tutors on the courses and will mention the need for better handouts.
The Board would like to explore feedback to Iain Scott ‘s events before deciding whether or not to hold more. It may be that they involve more contributors if it is felt that it is an area we want to focus on in future.
EBraised a concern for concentration on courses and would like to ensure we are catering to other broader interests in our event programme. It was agreed that this would be part of considerations when reviewing our wider strategy.
Annual Conference and AGM
EB had a good meeting with Colin Pyle yesterday, who likes our programme and the idea of Douglas Fraser as Chair. Following on from the approach made via Colin, he asked that EB write a more formal approach to the First Minister.
The outline for the day will be the AGMbusiness first, followedby the address from the First Minister. The conference host would then take over, for the morning session on Our National Economy - Beyond the Referendum. RP made sometentative approaches to potential keynote speakers and had received some good feedback to the concept. There would be a networking opportunity over lunch and soap box style speeches from yes:no campaigns which will respond to morning contributions and then the afternoon would be a facilitated panel discussion. It was agreed thatwe should be very clear that that First Minister is speaking as part of the AGM and to keep that separate from the rest of the day.
Keith Aitken was put forward as another possibility for host.
It was suggested that we obtain a copy of Tom Hunter’spaper.
A conference task group will convene next Friday – combining CPD and policy group members who would like to volunteer.
Other
KT had suggested an idea for a more corporate event, possibly over a weekend and RP said that Hugh Aitkenhad highlighted a similar idea which would be discussed again at a future date.
Digital Strategy
KT gave an overview of Nation Builder and what we could achieve, he also introduced the Board to Henry McIntoshin the US, who gave a demonstration of how the systemworks.
KT confirmed that it would be a simple process to migrate existing data onto NB and it is possible to move again if we didn’t like it. RP said that as we review our strategy it is important to re-think our products and services. KT said NationBuilder is a global cloud product used by many key organisations in the UK and it symbolises a modern membership and would differentiate us from other
organisations. LMcE raised the question of staff time and expertise required, EB suggested using an AAI intern to support social media comms.
KT will prepare a one page summary for the Board.
SH will give herpresentation on membership at another meeting.
IDP wants to encourage BIDs to get involved in economic development which he believes will help with their CPD and improve their qualifications. He will prepare a paper for the Board.
Policy & International
IB is making a presentation on leadership and its impact on sustainable economic development,at the next CPG on Skills. Building on this, the group had discussed the possibility of holding three focus groups representing public, private, third sectors, to compare and contrast leadership from these perspectives. VBandEB met with the Scottish Futures Forum who are keen on idea of a joint event on leadership skills and had suggested holding before end of June or in October.
It was suggested the group should investigate what is already out there and what appetite there is for this topic. The idea is to be put on hold for now. IB is to speak at the CPG as arranged and use this as a tester. LMcE and SL will speak to IB ahead of her presentation.
BOARD UPDATE
RP confirmed that Alan McGregor and Carron Garmory have resigned from the Board and Brian Patterson indicated this will be his last meeting. RP said that Brian was involved in the set up of EDAS and gave his profound thanks from thecurrent Board to Alan, Carron and Brian for their input over the years.
RP proposed Ishabel Bremner, Economic Development Manager at Argyll and Bute Council, to become a boardmember. The Board were in agreement.
AOB
SHand EB willmeet to discuss the membership survey and SH will prepare adraft for comment. She will incorporate areas from the planning session and bring up to date. JP said it was important to do pre AGM so we can go to members and report back on findings from the survey.
The next Board meeting will be held on Friday,21 March at Society M. YP will circulate details and papers.