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

Venue: Scout Hall. Meeting started at 8.05 pm

Present
Oliver, Gillian, Bob, Terry, Rex, David, Erina, Denise, John

Apologies:
Michael, Chris, Jo, Alevtina

Minutes of previous meeting
The minutes were accepted. Actions were update as below.

Correspondence
•	Request for accounts from last financial year from Scouts NZ. Had been done but had been lost. Have resent.
•	Email from parent re fudge fundraising – various concerns expressed. Response was sent. 
•	$8000 grant received from Infinity. We need to let Infinity know what we intend to spend – will be a mix and match of what we got quoted.

Fundraising – need to remind parents that it’s not just for jamboree but that it’s for running costs as well. Good fun

H&S discussion
Denise advised scout leaders have been doing some Health and Safety training with youth leaders – using a standard risk framework to help youth to complete the RAMS form. She suggested we adopt the system as a standard and a resolution was passed that agreed this.

Treasurer
Oliver presented the Treasurer’s report on behalf of Alevtina. He also took the group through an analysis of the funds available to the group.
With upcoming spending commitments, we have less funding available than this time last year. We need $12K net balance at end of Sept to tide us through fee payments and insurance but if we potentially have a shortfall of around $4K. 
Discussions included:
•	The assumption is costs will go out the door at Sept with inflows in April as normal. 
•	Figures don’t include a commitment to Hall Phase 2. ($7.5K). We won’t be able to spend on this at the moment. 
•	The figures do include estimates of upcoming Stadium payments (approximately $4K) and the remaining $1K owing in subs.
•	With other jamboree fundraising to come in (pea straw, movie and quiz) the jamboree fund will go up to $19K. This is around $4K less than the stretch target.
•	That in the jamboree information pack Info sheet we said we were aiming for parents to pay no more than $250 (provided they reached fundraising hours). We made this clear it was an aim. We could notify parents that we will need the next $150 payment (most have already paid the $100 deposit) by October, and alert them that we are roughly in line with the original fundraising goal, but that we may need to ask for an additional $50 per child to cover the shortfall. This communication (to be sent by David) will remind parents that if they’ve made all their fundraising hours that will be all the parents need to pay. This also provides an opportunity to remind parents many of the youth haven’t completed all their fundraising hours. We could also ask if parents have any other easy fundraising ideas.
•	That given the potential group funds shortfall, we need to reallocate our most significant fundraising efforts (stadium) back to group funding. A unanimous resolution was passed to this effect. An important point is that if parents are volunteering for the stadium in order to ‘earn’ jamboree hours they will still earn them – it’s just money that will no longer be allocated.
•	We discussed whether we should apply for a grant to cover jamboree attendance. Erina’s view has always been that if grant money is sought, it should be used for equipment that can be used again later by the group. She noted that in the past many scouts leave after jamboree. Denise noted another way to think about grant monies is that we use them to replace money we would have spent otherwise. After considering that we could ask for the money signalled to parents, we decided we don’t need to apply for an attendance grant.
•	At the current level of fundraising hours, it does look like we will have an under-claim on the available jamboree subsidy. While we have previously carried over un-used funding for the next jamboree, Denise noted that it would not be unreasonable as the governance group to decide to put it back into group funding to use it for the good of the group. 

Fundraising:
Erina noted that the accounts showed laser force was a big success. John has nearly sold all the pea straw as well – this will raise us $900 – another great effort. Upcoming is the movie night (booked for 11 September), and the quiz night (date still to be confirmed but tentative 2 Oct with Hewitt Humphrey as MC).

We need to remind parents that our fundraising efforts help us keep subs down. We are lucky to have the stadium fundraiser which to date has raised around $16.4K. 

General Business

We have an opportunity to apply for additional grant. We need a number of items for jamboree and discussed:
•	Water heating unit. $1500. Rationale is H&S. Enables us to avoid boiling large pots of water for dishes on camps. And avoiding risk of norovirus
•	Light weight fit for purpose trolley $291
•	Gazebo – bigger ones are better $4500
•	$2709 – electrical and lighting – gas powered fridge and solar powered lighting. 
We discussed that it seems that the last item seemed too expensive for lighting. A fridge is not required – we have a grant already for high quality chilly bins. Other items are important and would be a good spend of any grant money achieved. We resolved to apply for another $8,000 grant.
Acoustic ceiling / ceiling insulation
John raised the idea of applying ceiling tiles to the ceiling to baffle the noise. This is something that has been on our hall development plan and the group agreed it would be an important improvement, particularly given the potential health and safety risk around noise in the hall. Insulation could be added to the ceiling at the same time, since the hall is still relatively cold.
John volunteered to investigate some pricing so that we could consider applying for a smaller grant. We would like to target doing this before next winter. (But toilets are the first priority).
Rex noted another options could be gym type mats on the floor.
Newsletter
Ideas discussed included:
-	Old photos – jamboree etc (off scout resources)  (Bob can supply some)
-	Gilwell woggles – awarded to David and Denise. Certificates to be awarded. 
-	Project survey
-	Quiz night
-	Movie night
-	Joti / Oct
-	Cosgrove gold. Nov 11-13
-	Ski trip 
-	Sandford
-	Compost, financial management, role of supporting and coaching. Denise providing info on Youth leading

Venturers – access to jamboree fundraising

A concern was expressed about the interpretation of the February minutes on how Jamboree fundraising could be accessed by Venturers.

We agreed to put this first on the agenda at the next meeting. This would give all parties time to research and consider viewpoints. David offered to review fundraising efforts by Venturers. Oliver /Erina to provide some questions to ask the Venturers. Denise to provide some research from Scouts NZ. And Terry to talk to Venturers re pulling together paper to provide the views of Venturers. 

Meeting closed: 9.50 pm 

Next meeting
==============
7 September 2016  (Apologies in advance from Erina, Gillian)

Record of actions discussed and closed at or since last meeting (see comments), and still open or new as at 10/8/2016. 
Red = overdue actions Grey = closed at meeting.

No	Action	Who	Due date	Status	Notes	
16/243	Investigate pricing to add acoustic ceiling tiles and insulation to the hall	John	30/11/2016	Open		
16/242	Notify jamboree parents about the upcoming remaining payment and other points noted in the minutes of 10 August	David	10/09/2016	Open		
16/241	Send a copy of the risk management framework tool to David	Denise	31/08/2016	Open		
16/240	Analyse what the shortfall would be with running costs if we didn’t have fundraising so we can discuss and determine the impact on subs recommendations at the pre-AGM meeting.	Oliver	10/10/2016	Open		
16/239	Get parent names to put on thank you wall and make a sign acknowledging contribution	Gillian	31/07/2016	Open		
16/237	Price up civil defence buckets and provide recommendation to committee	Julia	10/09/2016	Open		
16/236	Consider who else could be a celebrity MC for a quiz night	All	23/07/2016	Closed	Hewitt Humphrey - thanks Denise!	
16/235	Follow-up letters and speaker (potentially Grant Robertson) for quiz night	Oliver	30/08/2016	Open		
16/232	Talk to James about draughting volunteering	Oliver	23/07/2016	Closed	James helping with draughting	
16/226	Reconcile Zealandia attendees and payments	Denise / Sonia	06/07/2016	Open	Underway - Denise has requested list for reconciliation	
16/224	Oliver and Erina to update Group on how we will work with Wellington College / Wellington East respectively on joint Scouting / Duke of Edinburgh activities	Oliver/Erina	31/05/2016	Open		
16/218	Follow-up who at Zone is dealing with the common lease and pass on our significant concerns that this has still not been resolved	Oliver	31/03/2016	Open	Talked to Renaldo who was surprised it has been going on as long as three years. 10/8 Discussions are scheduled to take place with WCC in the enxt few weeks. Zone declined Michael's offer of assistance.	
15/210	Discuss with Jason how Scouts could help with the community emergency work	Oliver	30/04/2016	Ongoing	Had an initial chat. Awaiting response	
15/198	Fix smoke alarms in basement	Terry	30/04/2016	Open	Deadline extended. Rex has followed up with the suppliers a number of times. Terry is also now following up. 11/5 Erina suggested we install battery operated smoke alarms in the meantime. 10/8 Terry advised he has a new quote underway and this should be resolved soon	

Record of resolutions from 10 August 2016
No	Date	Resolution	Moved	Seconded	Vote	
16/191	10/08/2016	THAT we apply to Infinity for a grant up to $8,000 to cover equipment for jamboree	Erina	Gillian	CARRIED U	
16/190	10/08/2016	THAT we re-allocate stadium fundraising so 90% goes to general scout running costs and 10% to venturers from 1 Sept 2016	Oliver	Bob	CARRIED U	
16/189	10/08/2016	THAT we use a standard risk framework to help us complete RAMS forms. 	Denise	Rex	CARRIED U	
16/188	10/08/2016	THAT, the minutes of the previous meeting be accepted	Erina	Bob	CARRIED U