Behind the Scenes 19/03/2009 8pm

Working group and other such Forest meeting minutes
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stephengoodall
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Behind the Scenes 19/03/2009 8pm

Post by stephengoodall » Tue Mar 17, 2009 12:07 pm

Behind the Scenes Working Group:
This group keeps us in business, does the bulk of administrative tasks, doles out the monthly grants, plans projects, helps local artists sell things in our shop and maintains the madness of our website. People with great organisational skill who want to learn more about the business of running a thriving community arts project and flagship non-profit social enterprise are strongly encouraged to attend.


Anything for the agenda?
First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there is.

Emma
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Re: Behind the Scenes 19/03/2009 8pm

Post by Emma » Tue Mar 17, 2009 3:41 pm

Points from me:

Forest finances
Charity accounts & AGM

ChaoticReality
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Re: Behind the Scenes 19/03/2009 8pm

Post by ChaoticReality » Wed Mar 18, 2009 11:18 am

I'd like to discuss some stuff from previous meetings. It'll only take 5 minutes and I have to be away to work at 8:30 anyway.
Mike

Dawnsio 'mlaen i'r gwres prynhawn a rwy'n addo erbyn yfori byddai wedi mynd, hwyl fawr i pawb, hwyl fawr i pawb...

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stephengoodall
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Re: Behind the Scenes 19/03/2009 8pm

Post by stephengoodall » Thu Mar 19, 2009 9:33 pm

Behind the Scenes 19/03/2009

Present:
Neil, Duncan, Taskin, Emma, Stephen, Ida, Mike, Ilaria, Tove


Agenda:

Charity
Finances
Accounts
Shop
Grants

charity


Accountant has completed charity accounts- setting up charity bank account and seperating accounts- reckons it will be a lot of work without benefit we don't have to do it. Sandy has been able to pull out all the relvant info for charity accounts- emma to post to charity forum

records certain stuff as charity related, means we can claim certain things through charity status- no surplus of benefit.

Current financial situation is proving difficult in regards charity status.
Music lisenses are due and can be affected by charity status


We need to send accounts to charity regulator and also publish information and promote to interested parties.
Get info together to produce a brochure together showing what we have done in terms of grants etc.

AGM – formal meeting about charity status-- open to public and promoted - use EUS as template- specific agenda points needed and opportunity to ask questions etc.

Meeting and brochure in May to promote charity status.
AP: Stephen to get list of grants awarded, get in contact with parties awarded grants. Look into AGM format.

Finances

Accounts- Accounts for last year- quite interesting- tricky cash flow recently , has been tricky for a while- we made a loss for last year.
Trading costs have risen - some to do with food prices rising but could also include stuff bought and wastage.
Kms have been reviewing what is being ordered. Also going to look into suppliers and alternatives taking into account ethical guidelines. Kms struggle for time to find out about that stuff- getting quotes, would be good to have somebody who can look into it.

Kms coming up with list of essential items look at different suppliers- we have figures, the comparison is needed.

Green City prices have gone up- has this had an effect?

Turnover has been roughly the same for a couple of years but outgoings have increased.

Cash flow for month ahead- The months ahead aree very tight even though there is EVS money coming in.

The Kitchen needs to make a lot of money to support the forest- people need to realise that supporting the cafe is key in keeping the forest going.
Although small effect , portion size can have a long term impact

Electricity bills- generally constant, printer costs causing a problem.-- New password in place- change password regularly? People should be paying but aren't difficult to monitor...

Colour printer somewhere else? FWG person to be there when colour printing done...

.Make it needs to be more clear that personal printing needs to be payed for. Box with coin slot for monies with clear sign?

Monthly crisis meetings

No budgets- make it explicit that only essential stuff can be purchased.
Outgoings are now more strictly controlled.

Grants- would be good to looking into other funding opportunities. There are trust funds for this kind of thing.


Forest fundraiser 23/04/2009 £10 entry


AP- Mike investigating looking into energy saving, Feels he has received resistance from techie folk regards getting stuff sorted for previous action points.

Duncan- action point technically already covered...


Shop


Last shop meeting new shop manager was appointed- new decisions abouthow the shop will be run, decided that because the shop is not making lots of money. Shop was previously able to spend money seperately but now needs to consult BTS to spend money.

Shop has a calander project - pictures are already taken templates are ready and everything but the printing costs could be sizeable-- sensible option would be to print it on the forest printer and getting the spiral binding done elsewhere- quotes for elsewhere would be £300- £350 For Forest printer maximum £150 for 50 copies 15 copies given away, rest sold for approx £7 upwards – should make money back on this.

Any ideas how to arrange to get this done- 15 volunteers have been working hard on this and would be a dissapointment to not to mak
e it.

Very likely to sell many copies very fast.

£100 up front and then another £50 later.

Selling 20 copies for approx £9 would make a profit- Taskin reckons he can sell 20 in the first week.

Preselling is the best option, gauge initial interest then produce to demand.

AP: promote and make folk aware of the project to generate pre sales.

Grants


Giving away a money to grants- system is not necessarily to the best.

Some projects may not be the best-
grants process should make sure that the grants are awarded to deserving projects.

Set a maximum amount per quarter-
We should get info back from the grant applicants but only award it to stuff that is very good.
Should be something inventive and interesting.
need to change website details.

Maybe worth seeing if grants will be coming back and when before doing this.
First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there is.

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neil
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Re: Behind the Scenes 19/03/2009 8pm

Post by neil » Sat Mar 21, 2009 9:47 am

I've taken down the grants posters from the cafe. They're next to the till.

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neil
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Re: Behind the Scenes 19/03/2009 8pm

Post by neil » Wed Apr 08, 2009 1:06 pm

I'm afraid my freecycle request for red paint has yielded nothing.

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