Minutes of the Meeting of the Directors of Alyth Development Trust
5th October 2016, 6.30pm at Chambers, Alyth Town Hall
- Apologies
Simon Montador, Marian Bruce, Mike Walsh, Malcolm Handoll.
2. Minutes of the meeting of the 7th Sept
Amanda Blakeman proposed, AlisonBowman seconded.
3. Action points from 7th Sept minutes
3.1 The following continued to be outstanding items from August minutes:
- Online banking (Simon)
- Drumderg funding (Simon although this had now been overtaken by a the planned application for the Town Square Regeneration (see matters arising below).)
- Membership form (Simon)
The following were actions arising from the September minutes:
3.2 Pilot Projects. Clare said that the minutes in relation to this issue were erroneous. The pilot project topic was not her responsibility alone and it was not correct to say that she had not had any time to take action. Clare reminded the Directors that the discussion about pilot projects emerged form the special meeting with John Swinney where ADT Directors present had told John Swinney that they would like to undertake some pilot projects in order to resolve some of the persistent issues that were facing Alyth such as the lack of grounds maintenance by Perth & Kinross Council. The Directors had yet to discuss whether and if so how such ideas for pilot projects could be advanced, what skills the Directors would need to have in order to lead such pilots and what executive capacity would be required to deliver them. Until these very important issues were discussed and decisions made, the idea of pilot projects could not be taken forward
3.3 The September Table sale had raised £249.43. This is before any expenses for hall booking and teas/coffees.In the absence of any executive support Barbara and Paul agreed to organize the December 4th Table Sale. It was agreed that a review of further table sales would be conducted after the December date.
3.4 Website update. Simon was not present to update the group. The weblink had yet to be shared for Director feedback.
3.5 OSCR Charity Status. Marian was not present to update the group.
3.6 RBS building. Malcolm was not present to update the group.
4. Matters Arising
In the light of the increased ask from Perth & Kinross Council for the level of fundraising that the Community undertook for the Town Centre Regeneration, it was agreed that Drumderg should no longer be targeted for the Feasibility Study for the Community Hub. Instead, Amanda agreed to lead on the submission of an application for specific costs related to the Town Centre Regeneration.
Clare reminded Directors that good fund raising practice always identified core costs for the running of the organisation in all applications and that whilst it was understandable in the melee and confusion over the Town Centre Regeneration budgets that Development Trust core costs had been omitted, this should not be allowed to happen again, otherwise there would never be enough money for appropriate levels of executive support and the Development Trust Directors would simply burn out and leave.
5. Report on SE workshop and agreement of next steps. Clare asked for feedback on the Scottish Enterprise Report that had been circulated for discussion. It was agreed that the Development Trust would organise one further meeting to bring interested tourism related businesses in the town together to see how they might like to advance the recommendations. All further action thereafter would need to be taken by the businesses themselves as there was no executive capacity from the Development Trust to support anything further at this time. Clare would be circuiting the report to all attendees. Directors were encouraged to forward it to others who they thought would be interested to read it.
6. Town Centre Regeneration
5.1 LEADER application. Clare, Marian, Simon and Amanda had been leading on the final draft of this which now needed to be submitted three weeks earlier than originally planned as a result of new advice from the Scottish Government on the uncertainty of future funding for LEADER.Understanding the budget from Perth & Kinross Council – when it finally arrived - was nothing short of a nightmare and Marian and Amanda had spent some hours trying to make sense of it and present it in such a way as to support the LEADER application.
5.2 Approach to future phases. Clare reminded Director’s of the approach to future phases of fundraising for the Town Centre Regeneration which had been outlined in the Fundraising sub-group notes from July which had been circulated with the Agenda. Whilst it was agreed that this remained a useful framework, currently there was no executive function to support future fundraising beyond the LEADER and Drumderg applications.
It was agreed that there was huge learning to be had from the experience of working with Perth & Kinross Council over the fundraising for the Town Centre Regeneration and that lessons needed to be taken forward into future regeneration phases.
7. Standing items
7.1 Communications: There was no further update as the membership form and website were outstanding. Addressing immediate communication needs in the absence of any executive support are listed in 9.00 below.
7.2 Fundraising: covered above
7.3 Wind farms: There was no further news from Tullymurdoch on the timing of the disruption payment and no news form Greenburn on how their development plans were going.
7.4 Updates from Director’s on Strategic Objectives they are taking a lead on:
Clare Cooper:
-a Destination Town. Clare had reported on the next steps resulting form the Scottish Enterprise Workshop. She also reported on:
-early steps toward a trans-national collaboration project through LEADER which would bring together arts/crafts/heritage businesses and projects in Eastern Perthshire, Orkney, the Carse of Stirling and Southern Denmark which she was pursuing with her Cateran’s Common Wealth hat on
-early steps toward a major HLF Landscape Partnership bid for the Cateran Trail Locality which she was pursuing with her Cateran’s Common Wealth hat on
-the opportunity to discuss the development of a place based creative industries strategy for Alyth and its environs with Creative Scotland which she was pursuing with her Cateran’ Common Wealth hat on
Al the above were slow burns but, intertwined with the Scottish Enterprise project, could be of benefit to realising Alyth’s potential as a destination town. Clare asked if Director’s would be interested in hearing more from the Countryside Trust Manger, Morag Watson about the Landscape Partnership bid. It was agreed to invite Morag to a future meeting.
Alison Bowman: A Vibrant Town: Director’s discussed the possibility of getting a ‘blether’ group for local businesses going in the town. Alison agreed to begin working on this.
Marian Bruce: An Accessible Town: Marian was not present to give and update.
8.00 Governance Training/Capacity Building/Annual Review
Clare asked that Director’s consider how they would be reviewing their performance and developing their skills in the light of the Strategic Objectives the Trust had set itself. There were many sources of advice on good governance and she suggested that an outside facilitator should be brought in early in the New Year to conduct a review. It was agreed that Trust should be prepared to pay for developing its capacity in this way and ideas were sought of potential facilitators for a session in January 2017.
9.00 Project Manager post
9.1 In the light of the small amount of funding left form the Drumderg grant for a project manager post it was agreed that the resource was spent on hiring someone who could develop relationships with local businesses and members. These were areas that were paid insufficient attention in the previous contract and had the potential to yield significant benefit to the Trust in terms of more engaged people more willing to shoulder some of the work that needed to be done which was currently falling mostly on a few Directors. Amanda and Clare had approached Alison Hall who had expressed an interested in delivering a brief with this focus over a short time frame. Directors agreed that Amanda should talk further with Alison, come to an agreement on the brief and a price and that the brief should be circulated to Directors at the next meeting.
9.2 It was also agreed that future executive needs should be reviewed once further funding was available and that there could be a useful split between local relationship management and high level fundraising.
9.3 Whilst the Trust was without consistent executive support, general administrative duties would be shared out as follows:
Monthly Alyth Voice article: Marian Bruce
Facebook posts: Malcolm Handoll
December Table sale: Paul and Barbara Prettyman
Preparation for and management of Directors meetings: Clare Cooper
10. AOB
Alison reported on the East Perthshire Low Carbon Transport initiative. Directors agreed that it would be good for the Trust to be involved.
11. Date of next meeting
November 2nd 6.30pm Lesser Town Hall