Freegle Board Minutes July 2016

Meeting of Directors of Freegle Limited held on 27 July 2016 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

NEW MEMBERS

There are no new Members this month.

CURRENT BOARD

Andrew Ludlow, Trusty, Cat Fletcher, Christian Brenninkmeijer, Edward Hibbert, Ollie Clark, John Carroll

BOARD VACANCIES

There are currently 2 vacancies. The Board would welcome applications from interested Members. board@ilovefreegle.org

DIRECTORS PRESENT

Andrew Ludlow, Trusty, Cat Fletcher, Edward Hibbert, Ollie Clark

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Christian Chairman: Edward';; Minutes: Alison via text transcript

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

This is now here

RISK REGISTER

See here

MATTERS ARISING

• Business Cards:

Action on Edward to automate request for cards via ModTools. Edward confirmed that he intends to do this when possible. He reported that prompts on ModTools for moderators to take action seem to work well.

• Patrons

The Board is working on finding someone suitable.

• Business plan

The Board is not actively using this document. The current focus is on the volunteer support role, but we should return to it.

• Freestock

The Board members that attended were very pleased to meet up with volunteers. It was agreed that social meet ups is something that the Board would like the new Volunteer Support person to consider and try to find ways of making it easier for more volunteers to meet with each other.

REPORTS

Platform (John)

Risk mitigation Outstanding Action - mechanism for feedback / guidance for the development from the board/users

In John’s absence, Edward reported that feedback was being given now on Tech.

Edward reported that Chris is working on what needs to be done to ensure that FDv3 works well on FDv3. Action: John to check with Chris about this work.

Edward is considering other means of testing. Cat will sell Freegle her old Iphone for use by Edward. Action: Edward/Cat

Edward and Cat are working on obtaining advice for graphic design. Cat has met with a designer in Brighton. Action: Edward/Cat

Finance (John)

John will report on Yahoo group and next month.

• Paypal

Edward reported that he and John are still continuing to try to sort out the problems with Paypal.

Board Secretary (Edward)

Edward is doing agendas; Alison is doing minutes.

The timing and procedure for the next AGM are being considered.

Action: Edward to ask Alison/Ray

Company Secretary (AndyL)

There are 0 new Members this month.

Legislative changes to the IPS need to be documented on the Wiki. Action: John

Volunteer Support (Edward)

It was agreed unanimously to shortlist 4 candidates for the paid position and to go back to each of them to check they are still available.

It was agreed to arrange a pre-interview. Votes: 4 For, 1 Against.

Partnerships (Edward)

• NextDoor

There has been a limited take-up of this. Action: Edward to encourage further. Cat to try to find someone to start a group in Brighton.

The following are stalled pending new platform work.

• Nimber. Useful meeting. The response from Central to a delivery option was not enthusiastic.
• Friday Ad. We’d discussed cross-publishing.
• Olio. They are no longer suitable as a partner as they have expanded their service.

CTO (Edward)

Hosting

Stable, and disk space issues are much reduced.

ModTools

Stable. Some new features (e.g. settings) being added in preparation for FD v3.

FD v3 aka new platform aka Iznik

• Beta out on Tech - some good feedback, especially on how to handle Yahoo-only groups.
• Working on peripheral stuff that needs doing before switchover, e.g. bulk mailer. I’ve underestimated how much of this needed doing before rather than after, so I’m a bit behind.
• Aim to have a beta usable for real freegling in a week or two, with switchover a couple of weeks after that.

FD v1-2:

• A couple of bug fixes.

Trash Nothing

Released an update to the Android app recently that should fix the photo upload problems some people were having.

Media

• Contact with DEFRA

The Board needs to respond to email from DEFRA about priority setting. Action: Cat

• Brighton City Reuse Depot

The containers have been moved to a permanent site.The official launch will be in September.

• Microsoft

Cat still continuing to liaise with them over how we have spent the money they donated to us. Action: Cat

• Garage Sale Trail Brighton

Cat ran a pilot of this in Brighton last year via Freegle Brighton and http://garagesaletrail.co.uk/ with lottery funding. She has been approached this year about scaling this up. She will report back to the Board after a meeting in August on how Freegle Ltd could be involved.

• E-newsletter

This is due out soon. My Green Pod are paying £500 for inclusion.

Fundraising

The Board need to consider active action for fundraising. John will lead on this. Action: John

Health and Safety (Ollie)

Nothing to report.

Development(from Jacky)

Since last report of 27th June 2016:

1. A discussion arising from the lengthy Best Practice review resulted in the proposal for a new document which was voted upon in the group. Discussion continued whilst the poll was running so the document - Freegke Volunteer Agreement - was recommended to the Board with alternative wording highlighted so the Board can make decision on how to progress.
2. Chris continues to lead the task for t&cs for the new platform.# As noted in the last report, conversation on Development is slow with decreasing numbers of people participating. It is also problematic to continue tackling our task list as many tasks relate to publicity and possible remit areas of a Volunteer Support appointment. Any guidance from the Board on which tasks to address next would be appreciated.

http://freegle.in/development tasks

The Board will agree with Jacky priorities to be discussed on the Working Group.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

Format of Board Meetings

The Board discussed whether or not to change to voice meetings with Skype as a record for decisions. Vote 3 For, 2 Against, 1 Abstain. They will discuss further on the Yahoo group before making a firm decision.

Director Resignation

Ollie has advised the Board that he will not be standing for re-election.

DATE OF NEXT MEETING

31st August 2016

CONSENT AGENDA

The Board unanimously agreed hat funds can be transferred to a savings account to gain further interest, to be transferred back into the current account when required.

The meeting ended at 21.42.

Links

• Freegle Board

• Board Meeting Procedure

• Board Role and Remit

• Board Standing Agenda

• Email the Board

________________