Knoydart Foundation Directors Meeting – Monday 18th December 2023

by | Jan 16, 2024 | Minutes of Previous Meetings | 0 comments

Knoydart Foundation Meeting Minutes

Attending: Davie Newton, Danny Gorman, Tom Harris, Corinna Calder, Helen Evemy, Trish Birch, Richard Williams, Tom Dalziel, Liz Tibbets, Sara Donald, Reagan Nunn

Apologies: Andrew Baldrey

Declarations of Interest: None

Minutes of Previous Meetings inc. single item agenda meetings:

November Board Meeting minutes- Approved.

Matters arising and actions from last meeting:

  • John Leyshon- see later.
  • Budgets- ongoing.
  • Designated Funds- Meeting with accounts- Date still to be confirmed.
  • Community Council Plans- ongoing.
  • Climate Action Group- Will be more active in 2024.
  • Membership Qualification- DN still to review mem & arts.
  • Workers Accommodation- Sara has made a cost plan with John Strachan- Just received this back.
  • DETAS Presentation- DN received- still to send to SD
  • Transfer Money from Triodos- Money being sent from 31st Dec.
  • Finance- See Later
  • National Park- Meeting arranged for January.
  • JNT Position Statement- Not seen- Link has been sent.
  • Microphone- DN+ JP discussed but nothing more yet- ongoing.

Updates

  1. Knoydart Climate Action Group Update- Still exists but no update.
  2. Deer Management Update (black hills report only)- Report Available.
  3. Ranger Service Update- No Update.
  4. Knoydart Trading Update- Liz Tibbets Delivered:
  5. Shop- planning to keep winter hours as long as possible. Closing over Christmas and New Year. Thanks to locals for support. Would like to have a get together for locals. Elf on the shelf has been popular.
  6. Venison- Weekly posting on social media in run up to Christmas with paid promotion. Competition box gone out. Looking at subscription boxes in the future. Surge in sales in run up to Christmas. No new deliveries now until after New Year. Welcoming Ness Porter on the dispatch team. Looking for someone to help with the skinning- if interested please contact Liz or Kristy to discuss.
  7. Accommodation- Bunkhouse beds total down in October- suspect due to bad weather and cancellations. Some new shelves in bunkhouse office. Ben will be resigning in March so advertising for new assistant for 2024. Looking at budgets and funding for renovations of bunkhouse.
  8. KRL update- Delivered by Tom Dalziel.
  9. No operations report this month. Not had an operations meeting- will be held Wednesday this week (20.12.23)
  10. In the process of agreeing service level agreement with the office regarding quarterly invoicing instead of Interco. Qn over foundation director approval for this new agreement. Also need to discuss with Amber (see later).
  11. Formally sent a letter to current accountant, Clements, to move to EQ for upcoming 2023 accounts.
  12. There have been a couple of outages in the village trying to fix a circuit breaker- this has not been resolved and will need another outage in the new year.
  13. Contract with Gilkes for a new turbine runner to be fitted 2024 as part of the network enhancement project.
  14. Discussions with Hannah with rationalisation of cost centre is ongoing.
  15. KRL website text has been updated and going to Finlay for inclusion on the Foundation website.
  16. Full board meeting 20.12.23 @6pm @ Knoydart Community Hall.
  17. Foundation Office update- Written Report Available.
  18. IT update- Written Report Available.

Items for decision

None at present.

Reports

  • Accommodation Project Officer report- Written Report Available.
  • Qn DN- To clarify regarding Milburn Costs: £560K- grant funding. The mortgage takes us to £680K, John’s quote comes in at £730K therefore we are £50K short of the required funds for the project.
  • HIE suggest funding application for Bunkhouse renovations should come from KF as the owner of the building.
  • Sara to get a work phone number. Needs some steering or budget from the board on what would work long term.

AP- SD to arrange with office staff.

  • Board taking Saras workload issues onboard regarding the housing maintenance.
  • Richard Williamson- QN would it make sense for a meeting between board and Sara to plan for 2024 with the idea that Saras contract funding with HIE ends August 2024. And to think about the next stages of Millburn. Suggests outside board meeting and bring a proposal back to a board meeting.

AP- board and sara to agree meeting date for January.

Items for discussion

  • Financial Position/report- Standing Item on the agenda. Plan early in New Year to update community on the financial position. Presently we expect a £79K deficit in the year, effectively expect £50K deficit plus £30K donation to renewables. Made some advances but still difficult and ongoing position that results in a need to transfer funds from Triodos to cover ongoing costs from 31st December. Held back on cashflow issue to do with Blackhills. Expect position to remain this way in the next year and reserves to reduce. Reserves approx. £250K in Triodos and expect that to reduce going forward. KT profit £40K but may reduce due to corporation tax. Transfer KT – KF up to KT board to decide. DN hoping to meet accountants in Dundee this week.
  • Recruitment – finance position filled. – Had five applications for the job. Jacqui Wallace has been recruited. She has a lot of experience in Xero. Interviews- Davie Newton, Liz Tibbets, and Tom Dalziel. Start date still to be arranged.
  • Staff accounts meeting feedback- went well, awaiting feedback. Decent start to working out what is going on and a plan going forward.
  • Recruitment – identify operations role required. – Standing Item on agenda. Nothing to report yet. Now that filled two posts in the office, the next thing is to identify what operations role needs to be done and then advertise that in the future.
  • Legal representation- At some point very soon we need to discuss wither we continue with John Leyson or not. It was on last month’s agenda. DN emailed him. John said he would provide a list of the legal obligations he has to the foundation, and he has still not provided this. Next stop is a more formal letter.

AP- board directors to arrange next steps.

  1. A-frame – allocation process to start. Pink A-Frame is now available (needs a bed), but Sams will not be until the end of January.

AP- Board Allocation of this needs to be worked out. – AP- Board. Need to advertise and the allocate and be prepared for quick turnaround.

Already received one letter (Dave smith) of interest in it and qn if needs to be reserved for the new operations manager?

 AOB

  1. New directors. New directors would fill the role for the remainder of this year and then need to stand again in September. Discussion around needs for 2 community directors and potential need for another director with specific skills in finance, over and above this.

AP- Appointment of new board directors

Qn- Richard Williams- Are you looking for another external director?

DN if fill the community directors it might be useful to get another skilled director (coopted) especially around skills need (financial). There has been a huge turnover of directors recently, personally the stress levels are too high at the moment DN but hopefully as we get on top of stuff it will reduce.

Richard Williams- thanks to DN on behalf of the board for everything that you are doing at the moment- it feels like you really have a handle on things.

Date of Next Meeting

Monday 15th January at 6pm @ Knoydart Community Hall