Freegle Board Minutes 4 November
Meeting of Directors of Freegle Limited held on 4th November 2015 at 8pm by Skype Chat
MEMBERSHIP OF FREEGLE LTD
All Freegle Volunteers are entitled to be Members of Freegle Ltd Registered in England as an Industrial and Provident Society for the Benefit of the Community. http://freegle.it/JoinFreegleLtd
CURRENT BOARD
Andrew Ludlow (Andy), Andrew Trusty (Trusty), Cat Fletcher, Edward Hibbert, John Carroll, Ollie Clark, Christian Brenninkmeijer
BOARD VACANCIES
There are currently 2 vacancies. The Board would welcome applications from interested Members.
APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
Christian, Cat.
Chairman: Edward
The meeting started at 8pm.
DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
This is now at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1M5J1pKrHfqwqdgPJufwZMmDKSZuOdinPVRuZGxvSYNA/edit?usp=sharing
All Board members should review and update.
RISK REGISTER
No changes. See https://docs.google.com/a/ehibbert.org.uk/spreadsheets/d/1RQ3Uzgt7Lf_RTRRH8vdySOYXzqnHI-JxG1SVBeykctI/edit#gid=0
MATTERS ARISING
- Cat to action newsletter. £250 income when done, rewards possible.
- Cat to do media report for Central, including update on CRD status.
- Cat to hand over business cards to Sally
- Edward to automate requesting business cards for community events. This is awaiting the decision on a new platform.
- Cat/Edward to consider fundraising event Waste House in early 2016.
- Edward to work with Paul Varags for fundraising ideas. This is on hold pending business plan/case for support.
- Cat was going to report on progress of taking over Selsey (recently disaffiliated as abandoned) and use as a trial new volunteer approach.
Cat’s actions are carried forward to the next meeting.
REPORTS
Platform
We have received 12 Expressions of Interest, and have shortlisted 3 (Edward plus 2). Next Steps
- Complete a high level scope document to discuss with companies shortlisted to see if they wish to continue to tender, given the large scope and low budget (in commercial terms). Add “Regular Updates for Volunteers” to scope document
- Ask Board (minus Edward) to decide on next steps which John suggests would be
- Go to fuller request for tender,
or
- Straight to award of contract
Action: John
Platform Jobs To Do
- Ask Jacky to inform the unsuccessful applicants.
- Complete the high level scope document and contact the other two shortlisted companies
- Have discussion with shortlisted companies on if they wish to proceed
- Report back to Platform group on shortlisted conversations and agree the way forward, either to further work to get a final tender
or award.
- Sort out a contract ready for successful award
Action: John to lead
Further decisions will need to be made on payments for work done to integrate the mobile apps with the new platform and for the long term management of the new platform.
Fundraising
We won the Microsoft funding. Cat is liaising with Microsoft; we expect payment reasonably soon and a face to face meet in
London (Cat, John, Edward potential attendees). We should consider what we would like from them; so far key asks are Hotmail
deliverability, image recognition and publicity help.
Sainsbury’s Card
We have asked volunteers to try the Sainsbury’s payment card.
The Board agreed unanimously to promote the Sainsbury’s Card to group members via the newsletter.
Action: Edward
We continue to get some donations via FD.
Chris Cant has been working on a business plan via working groups, with useful input from Dominic. We still need a case for
support (which is separate) which Edward will run past Paul Varags. Cat has ideas for who to send this to once we have it.
Finance
1.Current FY Position for Freegle UK
a.Income - £3,429
b.Expenditure - £1,420
2.Current FY Summary for Freegle Ltd
a.Income - £1,209
b.Expenditure - £3,196
3.Status of Funds
a.Freegle UK Bank account currently stands at £4,144
b.Freegle Ltd Bank account currently stands at £13,878
4.Issues to resolve
a.What should we do about the Tech/media/Volunteer budgets
Finance Jobs still left to do
1.Sort out new authorisers for the Ltd account
2.Finalise the switch over tasks that are only half finished
3.Confirm with Jane the need to close the Uk account – In progress
4.As the Unity Bank sort code change doesn’t stop the old code from working then the need to change can wait until the UK account closure, although the new sort code should be given for all new uses.
There has been discussion on the Reps group about transferring the responsibility for the Freegle UK bank account to the Board
and Reps being wound up.
John will ask Jane to request those who donate to move to Virgin Money Giving.
Board Secretary
Edward is acting as Board Secretary with support from Alison
Company Secretary
The Freegle official address has now changed to Edward’s. Alison will post papers, though we should also set up a Google docs folder with scans of everything. Andy reported no new membership payments received. The Board agreed that volunteers who apply for membership but do not provide payment should be reminded twice. If payment is not received then the application will be cancelled.
It was noted that the Membership Register needs to be kept up to date with changes resulting from elections, resignations, standing down etc.
Action: Andy
Chief Technology Officer
There is no movement on the issue of Yahoo losing some messages. We should assume that this will not get fixed, and Edward
no longer has useable contacts within Yahoo. The Board have approved a payment of £1K to Edward to move to Bytemark’s new improved hosting; this is a prerequisite for any future platform.
Edward is continuing a revamp of ModTools. The Board discussed the pros and cons of hosting ModTools on the Freegle servers. It was felt that long term decisions on ModTools depend upon the new platform. but regardless of the decision it will be beneficial
to host on the Freegle servers. The Board agreed to host ModTools on Freegle servers.
For: 5 Abstain: 1
Kwame cancelled the next meeting, but Edward has rescheduled for the 6th, when he is in London anyway so no additional travel cost.
Edward met with Wellspring about a food-sharing project. They are a small newish charity who work on poverty alleviation (with a wide definition of poverty), who want to set up a peer to peer food scheme. Edward has have talking to them for a while but this is the first time they had met. The Board discussed how this would work in practice, what they would provide and what would be expected from Freegle. A poll on the Board Yahoo group has been set up to decide if Freegle should provide a foodsharing service to Wellspring.
Media
We continue to have funds which are payable if there are regular media reports to Central, or for other media spend which is approved by Edward as the representative of the donor. Edward thinks we should place a time limit of end-January on these, after which we should return them to the donor. Either we spend this or we stop having to track it.
enewsletter
Still outstanding - Cat has not had capacity to do this but will do it as soon as she can.
FRN
FRN may be able to provide product weight information; Cat is applying to them and will try to arrange a meeting.
Friday-Ad
Cat/Edward are still trying to coordinate a meeting.
City Reuse Depot
Cat has indicated that she has secured a new location and should be able to move the containers to a site in the city in the coming
weeks, subject to agreement with the local council.
Thrift Festival
A report will be done on this event.
Possible Patrons
The Board are considering possible patrons and making enquiries.
Volunteer Support
We need to find someone to lead on this task. This is a possible candidate for Microsoft funds; we could ask Chris to do a job
spec as he has been talking about something similar.
Action: Edward
Health and Safety
Nothing to report.
Development
The Board thanked Jacky for sending a report on the topics covered on the Development Working Group and updating the Wiki. Edward will liaise with Jacky over the topics that need to be discussed in the future. The Board thanked Liz, Liverpool for agreeing to produce summaries of Central discussions. They agreed that these would be a welcome and suitable replacement for FreeSpout.
ANY OTHER BUSINESS
Board Vacancies
A reminder that there are vacancies on the Board will be added to future Minutes
Action: Alison
Returning Officers
The Board need to consider appointment of Returning Officers.
Group Affiliation Team
Christian has been liaising with them regarding the disaffiliation process. This will be discussed further on the Development Working Group. Edward will ask Jacky to add discussion of amendments that may be required as a result of a new platform to the Task List.
Action: Edward, Christian
Finance Procedures
The Board think that £100 limit is too restrictive and will take this to Development for discussion.
Action: Edward
Board Biographies
It was agreed unanimously that there should be biographies of Directors on the Freegle website.
Action: Edward
DATE OF NEXT MEETING
To be decided.
CONSENT AGENDA
The Minutes of previous meeting held on 30th September were approved as a true record.
Freegle_Board_Minutes_30_September
Payment of £1k to Edward for server migration.
Links
