Minutes of the Board of Trustees Meeting held on Thursday, 17 th March 2016 at 12.30pm in the Greenbank Building, Room 359.

Transcription

1 Minutes of the Board of Trustees Meeting held on Thursday, 17 th March 2016 at 12.30pm in the Greenbank Building, Room 359. Present: Josie Linsel (President) (Chair) Jane Riley (External Trustee) (Deputy Chair) Lucy Haigh (Campaigns Officer) Hannah Mason (Media Officer) Tasmia Salim (Education Officer) Tom Daly (Activities & Participation Officer) Marie Wilson (External Trustee) Jo Scott (External Trustee) In Attendance: Pete Shilton Godwin (Chief Executive) Jon Russ (Commercial Manager) (part) Gareth Pye (Membership Services Manager) (part) Jo Dunnagan (Communications & Brand Manager) (part) Georgie Newstead (Design & Marketing Assistant) (part) Doreen Jackson (PA) (minute taker) BT.0707 BT.0708 BT.0709 Apologies for Absence Apologies for absence were received from Jade Ellis and Edd Graham- Hyde. Minutes of the Previous Meetings The minutes of meeting held on the 15 th December 2015 were approved as a true and accurate record. Matters Arising Staff Resignations JL asked how the recent loss of various staff will impact the Union temporarily, specifically in terms of digital and campaign activity, officer support for meetings, committees and general support, and when vacancies are likely to be filled. said that the plan will be as per what he reported at the recent HR Committee. The departments will be CEO, Engagement & Support, Opportunities & Finance per a thematic responsibility. The Comms team will be supported by the designer and web/digital, second team will be activities, the third team will be opportunities and the fourth will be support and advice. He reported to the Board that proposals regarding student engagement and new roles for Jo Dunnagan and Nicci Procter has now been agreed. said that over the next few weeks he or managers will be speaking to employees who will be affected by changes proposed and then be a staff briefing. Action Page 1

2 Leadership Academy TD reported that there had been no progress on the Leadership Academy because there was more work to be done in adjusting the content from Stand Up Stand Out. BT.0710 Declaration of Conflict of Interests reported that he has been appointed as a Trustee of the Glyndwr Students Union Board. Other than this there were no other conflicts of interest. BT.0711 January Management Accounts & Draft February Management Accounts reported on the management accounts in the absence of Lynda Stott who was on a training course as follows:- OVERALL RESULTS The Month of January is well above budget by 22k at a 33.9k surplus. The school president support funding has been included at 18k which was in the budget much earlier. There is also additional funding for Green Ladder and SAC of 7k. Trading is 10k down due to Essentials, Source and Atrium have performed well. YTD January reports a surplus of 102k, 23k better than budget. Income from membership is 72.8k down which is mainly due to the fall in Bridge and Get in 2 Income. However, costs will be monitored to offset this. Trading at a surplus of 31k is 10k down on budget. This includes all areas with the exception of Atrium & 53 Degrees. The graph shows January Sales rise, joining the budget line and the 18k president support has helped to achieve this. YTD sales are 26k lower than budget which is due to the Bridge, Essentials and Source. Atrium with high sales and no budget for 53 Degrees have off set this. FORECAST January includes forecasts for the July 2016 year end. The forecast is made up of 6 months actual figures and 6 months new projections to give a new revised yearend surplus of 94k, 32k better than budget. The SU has won bids for Voting registration and Chlamydia Testing and various projects funded by the university increasing income. This has been reduced by the fall in Bridge Income. Membership Services expenditure is 48k under spent due to the Bridge and many other departments. Although Trading has fallen below budget by 18.4k at a 53.8k surplus this is down to unbudgeted income from 53 Degrees and Atrium. The latter is forecast to achieve a 40.7k surplus from a breakeven which may need to be watched. Page 2

3 KPI Reports YTD Sales to mid-february are down on budget by 42k (5%). The good news is Atrium is 27k up on budget with a high GP% of 70.7% (Budget 67%) a star child. Essentials and Source continue to fall short of budget by 38k and 22k respectively although Source only reports up to first week in February. YTD Actual Wages are high against KPIs being 20k overspent. In the month most departments have stayed within their Wages KPI with the exception of Source already 0.5k over spent in their first week. The KPI % is too low and has been addressed in the Forecast 2016 and budget packs for CAPITAL EXPENDITURE Capital Expenditure of 60k. CASH FLOW The Bank Balance at 219k on 8th February 2016 is 13k higher than last year. The graph shows actual cash levels closely follow last year and end a little lower at 146k due to higher investments. Costs will be adjusted if income is not achieved. MEMBERSHIP SERVICES INCOME YTD MEMBERSHIP INCOME of 239k is 73k below budget. The Bridge income has dropped considerably at 146k being 59k below which is due to the fall in University recruitment. The Gross Profit % at 8% is just shy of the budget at 11%. Give it a go at 14.7k is 7k better than budget. Get in 2 funds are still outstanding, 21.8k Adverse. Commercial Development (Intro & Marketing reconfigured) at 99k have matched budget with a good result this month for NUS Extra. Stall hire, Intro and other income are performing under budget. MEMBERSHIP SERVICES COSTS The YTD spend of 531k is 84.6k underspent to budget and most departments have contributed. The Bridge having less income have less wage costs and are 52k under spent at 157k. In total the Bridge is 6.5k down on budget due to low sales and GP%. Student engagement are overspent by 8k due to total labour costs and Give it a go costs. Commercial Dev & Marketing are 3k under spent due to Maternity leave and a salary savings. The Green Ladder is now funded by additional grant. CENTRAL SERVICES Total YTD spend of 113k is underspent to budget by 8.7k as most lines are well in budget. COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT Page 3

4 The YTD for Trading reports a surplus of 31k, 10k down on budget which is due to this month's results and Essential being 13.7k short. 53 Degrees at a surplus of 16.5k includes unbudgeted events. Atrium at 20k is 17k better than budget and 35k better than last year, a great result. Source at a break-even is 9k below budget due to a poor winter survival. The print shop losses of 11k are 4.5k away from budget and Essentials at a 3k deficit is 25.6k down due to low GP% for the second month of 14% (27.2%) budget. Investigations are in progress. The Board asked if the Management accounts could be printed in colour in the future. DJ to arrange. DJ BT.0712 Management Team Focus Reports Gareth Pye and Jon Russ attended the meeting to present their reports. Membership Services Focus Report GP said that much of the period since the last report has been spent planning the Elections and considering the implications of three staff resignations. Elections went well with a record number of candidates for SAC and Council positions and also clubs and societies and voting records on the first two days of voting. There was also a record breaking number of votes for Council and SAC at positions at The Campaigns Academy worked really well and GP thanked Tom Hicks for his excellent work on this. In terms of staffing the short term implications will present a challenge and we have made short term extensions to two current fixed term staff and one part time member of staff to ensure that we have as much covered as possible. We are reviewing the needs of the new department and the goals of the new Union Plan before making longer term appointments. He said they have recently secured money from the University for Academic Societies. Digital numbers continue to grow impressively. Twitter impressions and website visits will exceed last year s totals in March with Facebook reach following them in April. GP has conducted a review of the training for all our volunteers, consulting all volunteer managers and key officers along the way. The proposal to move away from a generic programme to more targeted events with some level of core curriculum was agreed a couple of weeks ago and teams are planning to deliver this post Easter. We are also working with APO to deliver their desire to have a Leadership Academy for 30 key Clubs and Society officers. These plans may not deliver the targets in full but they will ensure progress and that key volunteers receive the training they need for their roles. The Board thanked GP and his team for a brilliant election and for all their hard work in making it a success. Page 4

5 Commercial Focus Report JRuss told the Board that catering sales in Source have been slow since December. He commented that Roper Hall have rebranded and reopened which could have a factor in the decline in sales in Source. Source bar has had a slow start to the year but has picked up since Christmas. Average weekly sales for the period since Christmas at 10k are in line with budget and ahead of the average 8.5k for the same period last year. YTD sales variance of 22.5k represents a 7.5k shortfall generally and a 15k shortfall directly attributable to the poor performance of the Winter Survival event in December. It wasn t as good as expected so back to the drawing board for next year. Factory sales remain ahead of budget by 17.5k still forecasting positive sales on clothing. General sales to February month end are 52.4k adverse to budget and are showing no signs of improvement. Coffee sales continue to fall behind budget at 12.3k adverse. Coffee sales were budgeted like for like on last years coffee cart sales, it is likely that some of the growth in the Atrium sales are driven by customers trading up. Atrium has performed extremely well and there has been an increase on food sales too. JRuss thanked Lisa Davies for all her hard work in achieving the year-end budgeted sales reached. 53 Degrees has been performing well year to date on the back of Freshers. Outside of Freshers external companies want to hire it. We have also had enquiries from Live Nation. The Board thanked JRuss for his report and he left the room. BT.0713 Draft Comms Strategy Jo Dunnagan and Georgie Newstead attended the meeting to discuss the draft Comms Strategy that had previously been circulated. JD explained that by the year 2020 we want to ensure we achieve our objectives set out by the Union Plan. She said they have highlighted six main objectives and want to get these right and asked the Board for their thoughts on these. She said that we need to look at how media fits into the Comms Strategy. JR asked about involving alumni. JD said that we already involve them a little but not as much as we possibly could but it is something we could look at. TD asked if the website strategy will be more user friendly for mobiles. JD said yes. JD expressed that this strategy was the first draft and for the Board to let her know of anything they wish to add, amend or delete. Page 5

6 JD and GN brought some suggestions/ideas on how we can identify the Union and how the Union brand could develop. They said that at present the Union building is not looking good and is looking very tired and old. They said the Board needs to look at what the Union are trying to achieve and how it wants to be seen by its members. JR suggested that a sub-committee be put together to take the strategy forward. said that JD and her team will be responsible for this and will bring it back to the next Board meeting in June. JD and GN will look further into branding and provide the Board with visual options regarding strongly endorsed branding and monolithic branding. JD said she would send out a link to Cardiff and Manchester Unions to all the Board as examples so they can see how they have branded themselves. JD to also send to the Board her presentation and give a deadline date for responses on their thoughts/ideas. JL asked that JD send her the information for the Board and JL would collect feedback. JL asked to look at the cost implications of each option monolithic/strongly endorsed. JD/GN JD ALL The JL thanked GP, JD and GN for their reports and they left the room. BT.0714 SAC Focus Reports The SAC apologised for the lack of written reports which were based on the effects of the election period but did brief verbal reports as follows:- TD said that varsity is coming together with two teams involved. The handover café is happening which will help all those elected in the recent club and society elections to fulfil their roles. HM 3 more additions of Pluto. Frequency helped with the elections debate and there were lots of media volunteers that ran for Council and SAC. The move of media is happening and will hopefully be in May. The Media Awards will be held on the 25 th April and the trophies have been ordered. Pluto has been nominated for the Best Sports Coverage award with the Student Publication Association and the results are in April. TS Question of the Month had 1056 responses so far and 72% of the feedback was positive. The first years were 100% fine but the second and third years had a few issues. Sustainability and curriculum making headway. Secured opening for all papers around academic staff and mental health. LH involved in mental health first aid training for staff. Working with the University to adhere to UK response on mental health to ensure correct measures are taken to support students and staff. Love, Hate, Page 6

7 Rate accommodation awards will be held on the 25 th April. #Say No 10 teams on board and is going well. JL working on student relationship management new software Starfish a better way to support students looking at how to get advice, etc. Gender neutral toilets are finally getting implemented and the Union are arranging for the University to change the signs so the toilets can be used by people of any gender JL and LH collaboration. Both she and LH have been working on officer induction. JL said that the Union also needs to work on partnership with the University and she will pass this over to Sana Iqbal, the President elect, in her handover process. JL BT.0715 Chief Executive s Report The CEO s report was received and noted. The following was noted:- Student Engagement changes to the Comms and Marketing department have now been done. Miss Matilda space the University have got a contractor to use for minor works in the Union and this is one space we need to look at. said that the SODA (Statement of Delegated Responsibility) will go to the next Board meeting, however it will also go the next HR and Audit & Risk Committees before the Board. The Board will clarify responsibility for its management. Implementation of the Union Plan has been discussed with Management Team and will share their thoughts with the Board via an . Funding told the Board that the University applications are rumoured to be down by as much as 19% and he is not hopeful that we will receive the additional funding again. JR asked if the University knows why it is down. said he wasn t privy to that information, could possibly be due to lower recruitment rates. suggested that he and JL submit the bid to go to the University which will be reported to a future Audit & Risk Committee meeting. /JL BT.0716 Union Board Development Consultants Report A discussion took place regarding the cycle of future Board meetings and building relationships with external Trustees. It was suggested that at the start of the new officer cycle there could be a social event for everyone to get together and also invite external and student Trustees to be part of the training for new elected officers at their meeting in June. Suggestions were made to possibly have fewer meetings during the year, training, get togethers, etc and to implement and link the Union Plan with the Board cycle. Also try to align the Union s internal Page 7

8 processes, appraisals for staff and budgets into this cycle. TD said he didn t think there should be fewer Board meetings because he thought the balance was right. JL suggested that fewer, better co-ordinated and more effective Board meetings would be better than four in the current set-up. HM said more training for the officers that sit on the Audit & Risk and HR Committee meetings would be good. MW commented that the Board should check the Memorandum & Articles to see how many meetings it is legally required to have as this would have an impact. It was suggested that some of the agenda items, ie., the ratification of minutes of various meetings could be approved electronically to cut down on time/paper. Timings of meetings to also be looked at whether to have them in the mornings or afternoons rather than mid-morning. suggested that both he and JL look at all of these thoughts and action. /JL BT.0717 Safeguarding Policy The Safeguarding Policy had previously been circulated. MW raised concerns about point 6.5 and commented that it is not great practice to have a closed policy. to go back to his team and raise this. It was decided that the HR Committee review this policy regularly. Whistleblowing Policy to come to the next meeting. BT.0718 Risk Register The Risk Register red risks had previously been circulated. Point 24 Freedom of Speech had been highlighted. said that it is the University s legal duty to promote freedom of speech but it is also their legal duty to protect staff, students, etc from harm as a result of that freedom of speech. JR commented that it was a working document and if the SAC think of anything in their roles that should go in this policy then they should raise it. BT.0719 Union Plan presented the draft Union Plan for After a brief discussion JL said she would like the Board to get together and agree further changes to be made to the Union Plan and for these to be forwarded to for implementation or to her for discussion. It was suggested that the Union could possibly have a tailored Union Plan for students and staff and another for external companies. TS said she would like to see an on-line accessible version that can be flicked through. BT.0720 Board of Trustees Draft Business Plan 2015/16 The Business Plan was slightly amended to include the Comms Strategy, Union Plan Implementation and Business Cycle. Delete inviting the Auditors as they don t attend this meeting. DJ Page 8

9 BT.0721 Ratification of the minutes of the HR Committee meeting held on the 23 rd February 2016 The minutes of the HR Committee meeting held on the 23 rd February 2016 were ratified. BT.0722 Ratification of the minutes of the Audit & Risk Committee meeting held on the 23 rd February 2016 The minutes of the A&R Committee meeting held on the 23 rd February 2016 were ratified. BT.0723 Ratification of the minutes of the Health & Safety meeting held on the 29 th February 2016 The minutes of the Health & Safety meeting held on the 29 th February 2016 were ratified. BT.0724 Minutes of the Employee Consultative Committee meeting held on the 10 th February 2016 The Board noted the minutes of the meetings of the ECC held on the 10 th February BT.0725 Any Other Business There was no other business. BT.0726 Date of Next Meeting Tuesday, 28 th June 2016 at 11.30am in Brook Building, Room 143. Page 9