MINUTES of the Brooklyn Scouts Joint Parent Leaders Committee 
Wednesday 10 February 2016

Venue: Scout Hall. Meeting started at 7.05 pm

Present
Oliver, Gillian, Michael, Bob, Terry, Rex, Denise, Erina
 
Apologies
Jo, Josh, Alevtina, Annaleah, David

The meeting began with a vote of thanks for the organisation of the jamboree meeting on 9 February. 

Building project update

Rex tabled a report outlining the status of the building works, in particular the build of the deck.

Erina and Oliver asked about why we had previously had assurances from Council that the plans were acceptable. Rex noted it may have been insufficiently formal and that personnel are regularly changing. A learning for future dealings is to document every discussion.

Rex also noted he will remind Council that we are a community organisation with no funding other than what we raise ourselves. He will take our new contact through the significant work that we have undertaken to upgrade the hall. Denise noted that at a future stage we may need to take a ‘campaign’ to senior council leaders to talk them through what they could do to work with us and create a hall suitable for 21st century. 

Bob asked about the size we can go with for the deck. Rex outlined the interim solution is to build a smaller deck (approximately 1/3rd of the original size). This would be a temporary structure until such a time as we have full Council agreement and permissions. 

Gillian asked whether it would make more sense to wait for those permissions. Rex noted the ‘deck’ project includes extension of storage (our temporary storage facility at Vogelmorn bowling club is no longer available). There are also safety issues - door opening out from venture den is not safe; plus we need safe access to the outdoor storage. The Committee agreed these imperatives meant we should proceed and passed a resolution for Rex to drive the project forward. 

Rex outlined the issues with poor working bee turnout causing the engineer to have to come three times (with subsequent tripling of cost). Since engineer signoffs were needed to future proof building works rather than to complete the deck, the Committee resolved to re-allocate these costs to a future development costs budget. Rex will follow-up to ensure we have the signoffs documented appropriately.

The Committee also agreed to additional funding to complete the temporary deck structures, should grant applications be unsuccessful. The Committee noted the need for prudent expenditure and will spend additional monies on an absolutely necessary basis only. The Committee noted decisions on additional expenditure (if required) are subject to the Chair confirming with the Treasurer there is sufficient money. 

Jamboree paper

Denise presented a comprehensive paper on jamboree. She drew attention to key decision points. Discussions included:

•	The paper’s ‘manpower’ Manpower calculations suggest $10 - $11K attainable (assumes $4K for events other than stadium). Even with the existing $10K saved, this would leave us short against our assumed aspirational target of around $24K to raise (80% of costs based on an assumption of 20 youth and $1500 per person).
•	While Erina noted her preference money should be raised through fund-raising, not grants, to ensure everyone had ‘skin in the game’ the wider Committee were comfortable with some grant allocation. Our preference is that any grant funding during the year is given to building works, but that if we fall short of our target (and we judge that we have exhausted our fundraising efforts) we allocate some grant funding to jamboree.
•	The paper identifies that some younger scouts will only be able to do ‘lower value’ fundraising and accounts for that in its calculations
•	The 60 hour target is per family regardless of how many Scouts that family has attending. In reality, the families with more than one Scout have already previously stepped up.
•	If youth work well in excess of 60 hours, some form of recognition of high service should be provided. Eg special gear, piece of camping equipment. This wouldn’t be advertised – would be a surprise. 
•	Aim to put up an A3 sheet in the hall to record hours so people can see where they are up to. 
•	We should also look at how we can attribute some of this work to community service badges.
•	Fundraising ‘how-to’s will help parents step up and organise events. Bob suggested our how-to guidelines could include tips like how many kids can help with an activity.
•	Venturers going on jamboree also eligible for fundraising monies. Noting they get 10% of stadium fundraising – if they want to use money from their own account to top up to 100% they can do that. See associated action to set up process to ensure 10% stadium allocation happens.

General business

Group harmony – Terry suggested a BBQ for the Group. Last weekend of Feb. 

Denise suggested some Zealandia nights – minimum is 15 people. The Committee agreed to book for 8 and 15 April.

Meeting closed: 8.47 pm

Next meeting
==============
24 Feb. Denise apologised

Record of actions and resolutions. Note since this was a special meeting, a full list of actions will be included in the next minutes.

Actions

No.	Action	Who	By when	Status	
16/214	Set up a fund-raising meeting to be run on the night of Nicky's Chief Scout Award presentation. Erina to organise catering	Erina	15/03/2016	Open	
16/213	Set up a process to ensure the 10% venturer allocation from stadium fundraising is always paid	Oliver/Alevtina	29/02/2016	Open	
16/212	Check other architectural draftspeople's availability for design work (Bob's son, Oliver's contact)	Bob/Oliver	29/02/2016	Open	
16/211	Follow-up with engineer for the deck and ensure we have signoffs properly documented for future work	Rex	31/03/2016	Open	

Resolutions
No.	Resolution	Moved	Seconded	Vote	
16/167	THAT, the Chairperson and Group Leader should have discretion to apply the agreed welfare policy (on recommendation of leaders) for the purposes of enabling scouts in hardship circumstances to attend Jamboree if those Scouts face a significant gap between fundraising and total costs.	Denise	Oliver	CARRIED U	
16/166	THAT, we will seek grants, but these are only to supplement fundraising efforts 	Denise	Oliver	CARRIED U	
16/165	THAT, proceeds of fundraising should be allocated on the proportional basis set out in the jamboree paper tabled at the meeting.	Denise	Oliver	CARRIED U	
16/164	THAT, each youth attending and their family should be expected to personally contribute to the Group fundraising effort; or do equivalent approved service	Denise	Oliver	CARRIED U	
16/163	THAT, we agree an overall 2016 fundraising target of $14,000 based on the rough order of costs and attendance numbers set out in this paper; this is in addition to the (approximately $10,000) already raised	Denise	Oliver	CARRIED U	
16/162	THAT we agree that our aim should be to get every eligible Scout to Jamboree with Group fundraising covering 80% of Scout costs and leader costs (noting that youth will at minimum pay an estimated $150 in deposits).	Denise	Oliver	CARRIED U	
16/161	That we apply to (xx) for grant funding of $10,000, or the cost of professional estimates, whichever is larger, for the cost of the deck and associated costs as well commissioning the first stage of the professional work on the major project design.	Denise	Michael	CARRIED U	
16/160	THAT, we increase the budget for the deck from $3000 to $5000 if grant money can’t be sought	Denise	Oliver	CARRIED U	
16/159	THAT, we agree to invest approximately $1,300 in engineer fees as part of future stage project (Stage 1a). Engineers fees expended should be allocated to that budget.	Denise	Bob	CARRIED U	
16/158	THAT, Rex be given authority to drive completion of the deck to make it fit for purpose and within the maximum square meterage available within Code.	Rex	Denise	CARRIED U	
16/157	THAT, a vote of thanks be given to the leaders and youth for their very polished jamboree presentation	Erina	Oliver	CARRIED U