Boardmeeting 11. juli 2016

Present

Mr

Johan Vanden Bergh

(JVB)

Chairman

Mr

Ian Hick

(IH)

Deputy Chairman

Mr

Allan Fogg

(AF)

Member of the Board

Mr

Lindsay Robotham

(LR)

Member of the Board

Mr

Gerwald Anderlé

(GA)

Member of the Board (via GTM)

Mr

Allan Rosetzsky

(AR)

Member of the Board (via GTM)

Mr

Antony Channing

(AC)

Member of the Board

Mr

Martin Carnell

(MC)

Member of the Board

Mr

Richard Fenner

(RF)

Member of the Board

In Attendance

Miss

Lisa Alderson

(LA)

Minuting Secretary

Mr

Barry Gallafent

(BG)

Business Development Manager

ITEM

1. Apologies

Steve Lovatt

2. Minutes of the meeting held on 6 June

The Minutes of the meeting held on 6 June were approved without amendment and signed by the Chairman.

3. Matters Arising from Minutes of the Meeting held on 6 June

4ii) Status on advertising the position of Archivist

IH confirmed that 7 applications have now been received in respect of the above position.

5ii) Acceptance of Rolls-Royce chassis cards by DVLA
AF has not yet managed to contact Barbara Westlake due to her holiday.

It was agreed that by the end of Q1.2017 the Club will have sent a letter inviting officials to visit THH.

ACTION: BG to source a DVLA contact name and address for this

correspondence.
9viii) Archives & SHRMF

AF believes there are good reasons for the lack of Foundation news in the last two Bulletins.

4. Identified discussion

topics

a) Validation of plan emanating from Strategy Discussion (JVB)

Having been distributed in advance to the Board, JVB walked through the various topics in his summary of ideas and plan emanating from the Strategy Discussion.

ACTION: Every director to present a timed action plan for his area with costings.

b) Continued exclusivity with RH Specialist Insurance – Financial Proposal (JVB)

After a brief discussion on the options available, the Board agreed to a commission based arrangement with RH Specialist insurance effective 1st April 2016 and will monitor claims settlement experiences of members.

ACTION: JVB to finalise contract with Hiscox. c) Annual Rally (JVB/AR/BG)

Based on input from the Annual Rally Chairman, options for dealing with the increased and often highly specialised workload were discussed and a decision reached on how to provide the best support.

ACTION: JVB to feed back to AR Chairman for final decision.

d) Appointment of new SA for legal issues, HR and Corporate Governance following the sudden death of CF & identification of hot potatoes such as Revision of Articles

Names of potential candidates were discussed. ACTION: JVB to make contact.
e) Continental Rally – budget update (AR)

The initial budget for the Continental Rally based on 100 participants was approved by the Board in November 2015 based on rather limited information which was not delivered in a normal budgetary format. As of July 7th 125 participants were registered and had paid a preliminary registration fee of 100 GBP. 12 participants had withdrawn from participation at the date for payment of the outstanding fees and the Board had become involved as a discussion had arisen whether the 12 who withdrew should be reimbursed for the 100 GBP paid although it was clearly stated in the registration form that this amount was NOT reimbursable. The organisers had expressed a firm stance to the effect of not reimbursing as the finances despite the oversubscription as compared to budget was suffering from the depreciation of the GBP versus EURO (in which currency

the bills in Normandy must be paid) raising doubt whether the Rally would be self-financing or would need subsidy from the Club.

The opinion expressed by the Board was that if at all possible, the refunds should be released based on both legal considerations and on Club ethos, but it was also decided that the Board Director responsible for finances, AC, should have a closer look into the financial situation of the Continental Rally and Board Director, RF, would assist in retrieving the legal basis for a possible liability of the Club in not doing so.

f) Bulletin Development – phase 2 (LR)

LR asked the Board for consent to the development route for phase 2 set out in a previously submitted paper.

ACTION: LR to detail and quantify the respective targets involved for Board sign-off prior to implementation.

5. Chairman’s Report

JVB referred to his written report which outlined the various ongoing projects as well as meetings and events already attended, complemented by future appointments.

It was discussed and unanimously agreed to invite Roger Cockfield to attend the next Board meeting to listen to his Silver Ghost workshop proposal. Any decision made thereafter by the Board will be in the best interest of the members.

Board attendance at The Hunt House open day will be MC, IH & LR. AF and RF’s attendance is also possible.

6. Deputy Chairman’s Report

In his report, IH highlighted the urgent need to organise the staffing at The Hunt House to ensure that members’ needs are satisfied in a realistic timescale and the requirements of running a limited company are adequately met.

IH also aims to review and, if necessary, update JVB’s Corporate Governance document.

7. Business Development Manager’s Report

Observations and updates on accounts, archiving and security were outlined. A list of electrical work requiring attention has been provided to the Club’s Facilities Provider but no timescale or cost estimates are yet available.

In his report, BG updated the Board on figures relating to the Annual Rally Shop Sales and Members Spares. Shop sales were down this year and this will be investigated to ascertain the reasons. The reconciliation of shop sales v cash and cards taken has been vastly streamlined, enabling this to be concluded the very next day following the rally.

8. Status report per Team

a) Finance (AC)

AC outlined his principle concern being the replacement of JSm and the responsibility of the daily control of finances; his preference being to employ a

separate independent person to deal with the book-keeping. AC, LR, MC and IH will remain the four signatories.

AC proposed to prepare a cash flow forecast to operate against which actual results can be compared and variances explained which will be an additional tool to the already very useful budget forecast.

To minimise exchange differences and deduction of charges by transferring banks, it was proposed to set the membership subscription for Euro zone members as a Euro amount.

b) G&A (LR)

The Barons sale at the Annual Rally was satisfactory with several of their lots achieving a very good hammer price. LR proposed approaching several other auction houses in view of hosting at the 2017 AR.

Memorabilia sales did well and prompted the discussion as to whether the Club needs a car auction at all. JVB was of the opinion that if the auction ceases, another attraction should replace it.

ACTION: LR to investigate possibilities for the 2017 AR allowing the Board to make an informed decision at the next meeting.

The Hunt House has now been surveyed and a recommended rental figure has been suggested by a specialist appointed by the SHRMF. Consideration was given to this amount by the Board.

c) Sales & Marketing (GA)

GA announced he was waiting for confirmation of points brought up from ‘the way forward’ paper. This has now been done by means of the Summary of Ideas and Plan emanating from the Strategy Meeting.

Laura Arnold is in receipt of the first membership data and is continuing with the first part of the website.

d) Membership (LR)

The membership promotion at the Annual Rally resulted in a record number of new members joining; 83 new members plus 10 more taking up the joint membership offer thanks to the dedicated work of Lisa. It is intended to have a similar promotion at next year’s Annual Rally and LR will investigate a similar promotion at both the NOE and SOE rallies.

ACTION: LR to draft a suitable membership promotion plan.
e) PR & Events (AR)
No subjects to report that are not already covered elsewhere in the agenda.

f) Publications (LR)

The Publications marquee at the Annual Rally was very popular and lots of positive feedback has been received. The Armoured Car book signing was a success and subsequently 48 copies were sold via the Club Shop.

The Cloud Restoration Series has come to an end in the Bulletin, however three new features are planned; who’s who, Volunteers page and Tool Section. Discussions with the SHRMF are afoot for their input also.

The Yearbook is on schedule with 9 authors and titles already agreed and started. One article is already complete.

g) Sections (RF)

The matter of the North Eastern Section and Event Eligibility has been discussed extensively with Rod MacLeod following the last Board meeting.

RF raised the idea of making some Club material available in both German and French after liaising with the German and Swiss Sections before and during the Rally. This was extremely well received, but requires the goodwill of roughly one article author per Bulletin.

A recommendation has been received for the East Midlands Section to be considered for the Section Trophy due to their increasingly successful Silver Ghost workshops and small hp workshops.

A request has been received from a new member asking that he and his cars never be photographed at events. RF will write and explain that many members take event photos and upload them to public sites so the Club cannot ensure that this will not happen.

RF sought Board approval to approach Malcolm Tucker in connection with updating the Club’s history. His proposal was to produce a 12 page glossy leaflet to be used as a marketing tool.

ACTION: RF contact Malcolm Tucker and begin enquiries.

Since the last Board meeting, contact had also been made with the Spanish and Romande Section officials.

h) International Liaison (AR)
No news for the Board at this point. i) Registers (MC)

Doug Ryder is planning a Rally to Spain for 2017. The Board agreed the proposal was sound and approval to proceed was given. Doug will produce an estimated budget forthwith.

A query about Register funding has been received from Eric Healey and clarification has since been made in person at the Annual Rally.

The organisation of the Round Britain tour organised by the Silver Ghost Register is well in hand.

ACTION: MC to liaise with Andy Courtney and Ailsa Plain regarding participant packages and a commemorative gift in line with the Diamond jubilee celebrations.

j) Archives & SHRMF (AF)

AF has made enquiries to the relevant people about attending the Archive Committee meeting and the Trustee Board meetings as an observer in order to fully understand present issues/directives which will then enable him to move forward.

k) Technical Support (SL)

Arrangements have been made to attend THH (July 19th) to remove all vehicles and various chassis from the workshop, clean the workshop out and reposition the layout of the vehicles in order to comply with health and safety e.g. fire exits, disability access. It is intended to complete the risk assessment at the same time prior to the commencement of the two remaining Seminars in the 2016 calendar.

The Annual Rally Seminars went well and some very positive comments have been received. Personal thanks have been extended to those who took part.

The technical advice email is working well and members appear to be very pleased with this service being given.

l) Tool hire (MC)

The organisation and cataloguing of tools is still to be completed; some tools however continue to be loaned out and in the cases where the Club is not able to help immediately, those members have been referred to a Specialist.

9. List of Board decisions by email

a) Nothing to report

10. A.O.B

MC suggested having a Section Badge display at THH.
ACTION: RF to contact each Section and obtain a badge to display in THH.

11. Date of next meeting

Monday 19 September 2016