MINUTES OF EDAS BOARD MEETING, YOUNG ENTERPRISE SCOTLAND, 6 NOVEMBER 2015
PRESENT:Irene Bell, Ishabel Bremner, Vivienne Brown, Robert Crawford, Suzanne Hamilton,
Kerry Keane, Geoff Leask, Susan Love, Liz McEntee, Robert Pollock
APOLOGIES: Ian Davison Porter, Joe Pacitti, Taylor Stewart, Charlie Woods
ATTENDING:Elaine Bone, Yvonne Prager, Ewan Robertson
RP chaired the meeting until RC’s arrival. RP thanked GL for his hospitality.
MINUTES OF LAST MEETING
The minutes of the meeting held on 28 August were approved.
FINANCE UPDATE
KK reported a drop in income for Q2 2015-16 as compared to Q2 in 2014-15, however a high level of new events are planned over the coming months which will boost income. EDAS also made a significant contribution to the NESTA conference which had not been forecasted in the 2015-16budget.
Budgeted expenditure of £3k earmarked for marketing/website update will be deferred until income has improved, EB said we could possible apply for grant funding to help with the website.
KK had discussed the statutory accounts to 31 March 2015 with the accountant Linda Fleming. Reserves are reduced to £55k as compared to £71k for the previous year. This level is still high for a charity although OSCR does not prescribe a level of reserves, the English Charity suggests reserves of 3months is normal. This should be acceptable providing EDAS can demonstrate that we have a budget to spend and are working for our members. A level of £40k would be more reasonable. The 2016-17 budget is in planning stages. The Finance and Governance Group will develop a reserves policy. LMcE re-stated that in her experience EDAS is in a strong position; it is unusual for a charity to have even 3 months’ reserves.
(RC arrived)
MEMBERSHIP AND CPD GROUP
SH explainedthe difficulty in setting dates for meetings, the group had therefore agreed that dates for future meetings would be set as soon as the dates of 2016 board meetings have been agreed.
The membership group held a useful meeting. Income from events is improving with courses and seminars in the calendar until the Spring. It was agreed to form a sub group to work on the annual conference and AGM. It was agreed to make follow up calls to Universities and expand this exercise to include colleges. ER could help with this task. SRUC have recently become members and UWS will do so which will help when speaking to other universities and colleges.
LMcE was attending her first meeting of this group. She will work with ER to carry out a mapping exercise of existing publications and work on community regeneration with the possibility of holding an event to share this information. In relation to this subject area, SURF is keen to collaborate with EDAS again.
Following a very useful meeting with SLAED, it was agreed that EDAS should be targeting local authorities. It was recognised that we must be alert to upcoming budget cuts, although it was thought training will still be required. There had been a recent demand for in-house courses.
In response to RC, EB confirmed Scottish Government (SG)has a small departmental membership. SH said it should be possible to target non-members from SGand other organisations, involved in the route map groups. RP had met last year with John Mason, and we could also target Gary Gillespie’soffice following the recent events on Scotland’s Economy.
All agreed the theme Transformational Change would be a good topic for the annual conference, particularly in our work with SLAED.
RP reported on a recent meeting with Alan McGregor to discuss options for new courses at low cost with a high return for EDAS. Two ideas are being considered – evaluation and monitoring, and economics for non-economists.
In response to GL, EB confirmed that local authority membership remains fairly stable but varies in size of membership from area to area – 24 out of the 32 authorities are members. We must ensure they are well supported and grow their membership and involvement.
As per the group note, ER/EB will be carrying out a member profiling exercise.
In relation to RC’s suggestion to hold a fringe at a party conference, EB highlighted the high costs applicable and the need to attract a sponsor. EDAS would needto attend all the party conferences to be seen to be impartial which presents a challenge in attracting a sponsor/s willing to cover all of them. She suggested that holding a sponsored private dinner may be preferable.
FINANCE AND GOVERNANCE GROUP
Items discussed at the group’s recent meeting had already been covered earlier in this meeting by KK.
(EB, YP and ER were excused from the meeting)
The board discussed the Brightstar contract.
(EB, YP, ER returned to the meeting)
RC said there was overall appreciation for the work done. The Board agreed to have an off line conversation with EB to discuss the contract and report back to the next Board. If agreement reached to extend the contract on new terms, then it would be backdated to date of renewal. A tender process would be carried out in future years.
In response to SL, RC confirmed there are presently two vacancies on the board. RC would encourage the board to consider appointing Stuart Black of HighlandCouncil and Phil Prentice, Chief Officer with Scotland’s Towns Partnership. The Finance and Governance group had agreed it would be useful to consider someone with a financial background.
POLICY GROUP
IBe reported on the meeting held immediately after the last board meeting.
The group agreed to defer the Skills Cross Party Group presentation on the Route Map skills outcomes to the meeting scheduled for 4 February 2016 or if outcomes not ready, then defer again until May.
A discussion around responses to consultations concluded that each would be dealt with on a case by case basis and also referred to specific policy sub groups where relevant.
Monthly Parliamentary briefings are ongoing and well received.
The group will consider the timing and focus of a parliamentary reception at the next meeting.
John Potter of the OECD would be happy to speak at an EDAS event.
RISK REGISTER
A copy of the register was not presented at this meeting.
In reference to reserves, we should be conscious of levels and that a policy is required to be developed; the over-reliance on local authority membership is to be flagged; and contractual arrangements with Brightstar are to be dealt with.
It was agreed to retain the Risk Register on the Agenda and an updated versionwould be circulated for the next meeting to include these additionalkey points raised.
ROUTE MAP GROUPS
SKILLS:
We are holding a Skills Seminar on Underemployment at City of Glasgow College this afternoon with 28 attending. IBrwill lead the session, with Professor Ewart Keep and Ed Monaghan of MactaggartMickel speaking. Four key themes to be covered are workforce planning, underemployment, parity of esteem and talent pipeline.
GL spoke recently atthe Business in Parliamentevent; this topic is oneveryone’s agenda and mandatory training on skills is not enough. RC highlighted the importance of the link between training and productivity.
INTERNATIONLISATION:
Thought pieces from Fabian Zuleeg, David Scrimgeour, Keith Aitken, Anne Glover, Sue Bruce, Paul Bishop, Liz Locheadand two business people (to be confirmed), will be combined into a report or journal to be introduced as a collection of contributions about Scotland’s internationalisation culture and outlook. An event featuring key messages and some of the authors will take the form of an evening ‘socialiser’. It is hoped to have the next meeting of the group in January when the outcomes will be pulled together and then presented to the Board.
An event with CLES was held on 30 October - ’Building a New Economy, Lessons from the US’; this had gone well and it was hoped to work with CLES again, perhapsin a workshop format.
EB reported that we had secured funding from the Voluntary Action Fund for the Skills and CLES events.
The next internationalisation event is on 17 December, supported by SDI – ‘Global Opportunities for Scottish Business: Inside Perspectives from Scottish Development International’. It features SDI’s global directors.
INNOVATION GROUP:
At the last meeting, Mark Bell spoke about the innovation sat nav. ERhad prepared a paper on innovation which had been well received. It was agreed that SH, MB, EB and ER get together to tighten up and pull together a first draft of the sat nav, with the aim of holding a launch event on ‘Innovation in Action’ in February, possibly to be held in an innovationspace. Donald Jarvie, Scotland’s Futures Forum, hosted the last meeting of the Innovation group and is keen to remain involved.
EDAS CHAIR
As announced at the last meeting, RC will stand down as Chair after this meeting. Options are, toeither, start therecruitment and selection process, or toconsider RP for the role fulfilling theremaining18 months of RC’s tenure. The latter wouldensure continuity, avoid a potential 3 – 6 month delay, as well as advertising and recruitment costs. RP had indicated he was happy with the latter suggestion unless anyone else was interested in putting their name forward.
RC proposed and SH seconded and all agreed to RP taking on the role ofChair.
ANY OTHER BUSINESS
RP reported on a useful meeting with the SLAED Executive (RP, RC, CW, IBr and EB attended) who are very interested in the route map and collaboration more generally. They agreed to developa work-plan and plan next steps. EDAS has a speaking slot at the SLAED conference on 26/27 November (RP will speak). RC agreed it was a very useful meeting, our work overlaps in many areas.
The Board welcomed GL’s offer to invite Bob Keiller the new Chair of SE, to meet the Board and potentiallyspeak at the annual conference.
EB highlighted that the Action Plan was discussed at the Membership and CPD Group - it will be updated and circulated forthe next Board meeting.
RCis meeting with the University of Stirling; it is hopedthey will become members of EDAS.
RC agreed to represent EDAS at the event in Inverness on 30 November – this is a repeat of the session featuring Gary Gillespie, Chief Economic Adviser and will also feature Stuart Robertson, Digital Director of HIE. It is supported by Highland Council.
RP thanked RC for his contribution in his role as EDAS Chair.
DATE OF NEXT MEETING
It was agreed that the next Board meeting would be held on 19 February 2016. A schedule of meeting and sub group meeting dates will be circulated.