Freegle Board Minutes 29 April

Meeting of Directors of Freegle Limited held on 29 April 2015 at 7.15 by Skype Chat

Chairman

Edward Hibbert

Directors Present

Jacky Barrett, John Carroll, Ollie Clark, Cat Fletcher, Edward Hibbert, Andy Ludlow, Alison Redway.

Apologies for Absence

Tina Willcox

Declarations of Interest

Edward is a Director of Recycling Lives. There are no conflicts at present. Edward has a financial interest in Careicon, a charitable fundraising venture from which Freegle benefits. He will not receive any financial benefit from donations made via this route to Freegle.

Risk Register

A volunteer raised the question on Central of our dependence upon Edward and whether we should consider insurance.

We discussed this and decided that we don't think it's worth proceeding but if any volunteers who have contacts in the insurance world wanted to discuss it informally with them we would be happy for this to go ahead.

The launch of Freegle Direct v2 has somewhat increased our dependence upon Edward in the short term, though longer term it means our code is more suitable for other people to work on than previously.

Reports

Fundraising

Edward reported:

• Careicon

We continue to attract a steady trickle of donations from the banner on FD.

• GAYL

A new image from them for FD v2 - not used it yet.

Edward has raised with GAYL the question of whether they could filter out the services, so that we’re not advocating buying ‘stuff’. He will feed back on what they say.

Action: Edward (GAYL)

Finance

John reported:

We are now in a position to transfer assets and liabilities from Freegle UK to Freegle Ltd. The Freegle UK bank account will be closed. John will check with Chris regarding CAFS before this is done.

We unanimously agreed:

• John will provide a summary of the assets and liabilities with details of any restrictions on how these are spent. We will then review and poll.
• The restricted Media budget is put into the Media budget plans as a start before the revenue from the Newsletter comes in.
• We will ask Members to disapply the requirement for an audit at the first AGM.
• The accounts will be independently examined if possible or John will present a summary to the AGM.

Action: John (Finance),Alison (AGM),Cat (Newsletter)

On 22 April 2015 the Board agreed that we should spend up to £350 from the IT budget on a replacement laptop to be loaned to the head of Media (currently Cat).

The meeting agreed that an initial sum of money would be transferred from the Freegle UK bank account to Freegle Ltd so that Edward can be reimbursed for purchase of a laptop. Cat can arrange reuse of the old laptop. She will let the Board know the details and provide a certificate to confirm that it has been data wiped and an assessment of reuse. This will be noted in the accounts.

Action: John (Finance), Cat (Media)

Financial Update for Freegle IPS Board

1.Draft Actuals for Full FY 14/15 – for Freegle UK

a.Income - £12,145

b.Expenditure - £7,681

2.Current Forecast Summary for Freegle Ltd (since 24th Nov 2014)

a.Income YTD - £1,015

b.Share Capital £98

c.Expenditure YTD - £1,000 ( approved payment to Chris for Mobile work from funds donated for this project)

3.Status of Funds

a.Freegle UK Bank account currently (18/03/15) stands at - £17,989

b.Freegle Ltd Bank account currently stands at £113

Board Secretary

• AGM

The AGM date is from Monday 8 June 2015 (0001hrs) to Tuesday 16 June 2015 (2359hrs) inclusive on Freegle UK Central.

We are somewhat concerned that we have not received any definite commitment from the ROs on Director elections. Rule 55 states that all Directors must stand down at the first AGM.

• Annual Report

This is being drafted.

• Succession Planning

Alison is drafting a Director appointment and resignation procedure and a Director Induction document to help a new Board settle in as quickly as possible. Alison is also collating important dates.

Company Secretary

Andy reported:

There are 20 new Members since last month bringing the total to 98. Andy presented the Board with applications for Membership.

We unanimously agreed to admit these Members.

Chief Technology Officer

• FD v2 is live. Edward reported a bumpy ride in the first few days and there is still lots to do on this.
• Edward will discuss with John initially a plan for a single website and what needs to be done to make this happen. The aim is to speed up the time it takes from accessing the website to posting a message on the most appropriate group.

A vote of thanks was passed to:

Edward for the work in producing FDv2 with so few problems.

Support, Info and Group Mods for handling the surge in questions and queries

Chris for his ongoing work on the mobile app.

Action: Edward (Website and FD),John (IT budget holder)

Media

• Nimber

Cat and Edward are liaising over a request received from this company.

• Reusie

Cat is contacting this organisation.

• Instagram

Cat has attended a webinar. Jacky has produced a Wiki page. There have been no responses on Central to help with Instagram. Cat will try to involve others to help produce photos and stories.

Action: Cat (Media),Edward (Media/IT)

Cat reported:

Freegle Brighton have obtained a lottery grant for £10,000 and £20,000 plus from WRAP to enable Cat to organise Garage Sale Trail events in Brighton. She did not get funding for a Brighton reuse depot but has sponsors for this.

Health and Safety

Ollie reported:

There has been a minor change to the remit.

http://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/Health_and_Safety_Officer

Policy

• Roles and remits for Working Groups

Jacky reported:

The Working Groups structure has been revised and reduced to 3 Working Groups - Development, Tech and Funding - which all volunteers are welcome to join. The new Development Group can be found at

http://freegle.in/Development.

She has added communication with volunteers/Freespout to the task list.

• The review of documents for Freegle Ltd has now been completed, with the last adjustments having been made to the remits for Director roles as agreed by the Board.

Volunteer Welfare

Edward will write to David regarding a specification for a job description for a paid Volunteer Welfare position.

• Request to discuss reliance on Yahoo Groups

As requested we will add this item to the AGM agenda. We briefly discussed the risks and what might need to be done to minimise/remove them.

Action: John (IT budget holder),Edward (FD)

Any Other Business

• Freestock

John is kindly arranging this, to be held Friday the 17th July from 4.30pm until Sunday the 19th, at Hertford campsite.

Date of Next Meeting

Wednesday 27 May 2015 at 7.15pm

CONSENT AGENDA

We agreed by unanimous vote on the Yahoo group:

• Minutes of previous meeting http://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/Freegle_Board_Minutes_25_March
• Adoption of the following:

http://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/Tech_Working_Group_Remit

http://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/Photos_and_Stories

http://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/Unused_and_Redundant_National_Groups_Procedure

http://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/Freegle_Funding_Group

http://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/Development_Working_Group

http://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/Freegle_Central_Mods_Team_Remit

http://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/Freegle_Website_Editing_Procedure

Links

• Freegle Board

• Board Meeting Procedure

• Board Role and Remit

• Board Meeting Timetable

• Board Standing Agenda

• Freegle Board Minutes 2014

• Email the Board