Minutes of Meeting held on Tuesday 22nd Oct 2013 Stonehaven Town Hall (Upper Room)

REMEMBER MEMBERSHIP FEES DUE END OF OCTOBER TO TREASURER

Meeting started at the new time of 19:00hrs ( seven o clock)

Apologies rec’d: Ken & Carolyn Venters, Louisa Greenwell & Robert Thain

Present: Mikey Smith, Chris Holden, Stewart Campbell, Ian Hunter, Kirsty Duncan, Steve Holt, Graham Christieson, Emily Esson, Gavin Harper, Peter Greig

At this point we, the Board would like to send to Ken & Carolyn Venters that our thoughts are with you and all your family at this time.

We would also like to wish Tony Langton and Bill Barclay both continued speedy recoveries.

Normally the minutes from the previous meeting in Sept would be looked at and amended if required but owing to the Secretary not being able to make this meeting and confirm that anybody had been in touch with any amendments, it was decided to leave them until the next meeting for acceptance as agreed by the board.

Meeting opened by PG asking everyone around the table to thank all their friends and families for their support at the recently run MFM Quiz night in aid of funds for the Station.

Pleased to say that we managed to raise £652-65p so huge thanks to Ken for organizing the night and all the helpers who contributed to making it a great night. That would be Mikey & Emily (bar) Steve (adjudicator) Chris Ann & Kirsty (Raffles) and all the people who helped set up and tidy up after.

A special mention must go to the winners of the Quiz on the night “MilloTeam” who very kindly donated their winnings back to MFM so thank you for that.

It is to be recorded on these minutes that Ken Venters was co-opted on as continuing Board member looking after HR as agreed at the September meeting and again was agreed by the board.

STUFF GOING ON

We talked about various methods of funding opportunities and advertising but the key message was getting the name of MFM out there as it was pointed out that someone who lived in Ann Street had never heard of MFM so what do we need to do to change that?

Funding from the Wind farm companies was mentioned and we are attempting to get applications in to see if we can fund a portable Studio which could be utilized to take to the different groups around the Mearns and either work out how to maybe broadcast back live to the Studio or record and put out as a show.

These tie in with Emily’s report around looking into Funding and the difficulty of filling in the various forms in order to submit them for perusal. Emily also mentioned possible funding opportunities with the forthcoming Commonwealth Games to promote them so these are all ongoing projects.

Wind Farm Funding is also being considered to help with paying for the Streaming, Internet, electricity and maintenance at the Collardo site and Sillyflats.

Regarding the Internet connection, Gavin raised the issue around the Internet dropping out and he has been tasked to talk to the provider and see what is going on and take it forward so if you are aware of this happening can you please log it in the diary and we can build up a history to help us when Gavin talks to the provider team.

REPORTS

Mikey fed back that the new Schedule has been sent out and that the Technical team have managed to get the Sky News back on the AutoPlay but again until they can change out the Sky Box for another, if you are on air and you suddenly find you are listening to a cookery programme at the top of the hour then just hit the yellow square button with the blue arrow at the bottom of screen and your next track will play. Apologize if you wish and please log it in the diary or let Gavin know and he or Mikey will fix it.

Chris reported that the Round Table Fireworks display will take place on the 3d November in Mineralwell and will be looking for assistance to help with the gear transporting it to there and back. If you can help then let us know at or

Ian gave some feedback on “Men’s Shed” project which Jason Schroeder has been asked to come on MFM to talk about it.

Ian also mentioned about Lathallan School being interested in setting up a Studio similar to the one in Mackie Academy. The funding for the Lathallan School studio will be provided by Lathallan. I do not envisage it being a funding issue for us Ian stated and is looking at equipment required with Staff from School.

Kirsty brought us up to date with the Social Media and the need to re-read the policy on Social Media about what is put on the MFM Face book and Twitter pages and the need to be very careful in what is reported. She is still looking at getting an evening to promote the use of social media websites to those which are not up to speed with them and explain their workings.

Steve spoke about the Multicore cable which we still have to install in the Studio and it looks like the New Year before anything will happen now.

He also raised the subject around who will and will not be doing shows over the Xmas & New Year periods so it was suggested that presenters all look at dates and let the MFM Scheduler know what you can and can’t do to allow him some space to manipulate programmes if need be.

It was also mentioned about doing a show on New Years Eve and who would be interested in doing it. ???????

Graham took us through the newly printed version in various format sizes of the Local and Sponsorship packages and their contents for us all to peruse and use but remembering to keep Graham in the loop if you do manage to get or sell any deals.

Gavin has intimated that the new MFM website is good to go so the board agreed it would go live on the 1st November 2013 and it will be the same web address but the site will be brighter and better.

AOB

Mikey raised the issue around having hot food in the Studio and I must emphasise that no food is allowed in the Studio (You can eat it out in the corridor if you wish)

If you didn’t or don’t know the reason for this then check out the possibility of crumbs getting into the sound desk or keyboards and that is why we also state that no drinks are allowed on the table so please adhere to that rule too.

To summarise NO HOT OR COLD FOOD IN THE STUDIO, Drinks are allowed but keep them off the desktop and sweets are okay. It will benefit us all and thank you for you help in this matter.

Show promos were raised and members were asked to give their comments at the next meeting

Ian suggested that members also checked out a web tool called “Audio Boo” which allows you to upload or just play points of interest to possibly play on your shows. Check it out.

Emily brought to everybody’s attention that on her show she had chosen a track from the vast database and it had naughty words in it…….. she apologised to the listeners (correct thing to do) and brought it to the attention of Mikey who removed the track.

It is important that if you bring music to the Station and upload it then you ARE responsible for ensuring that it is okay for Radio play.

Finally

Due to security reasons can I ask if anybody has keys for the outside door and no longer anything to do with the Studio please return them to MearnsFM at the address above or give them to some member of the board. We have had some people leave and keys have not been recovered so we leave ourselves open to a risk which we have no control over currently.

Meeting finished at 21:20 (nine twenty)

Company Registration No. 328252 (Scotland)

Mearns Community Radio Ltd is a Registration Charity No. SC038508

Mearns Community Radio Limited. 11 Allardice Street Stonehaven. Kincardineshire AB39 2BS