Nottingham Narrow Boat Project Ltd
Strategy Board Meeting 6th April 2024
At Beeston Heritage Centre
Minutes:
Directors In Attendance
Amber Tipper (AT) – Chair & Lead on strategy
Susan Pynegar (SP) – Lead on Education
Gary Bramley (GB) – Lead on Operations
James Barron (JB) – Lead on IT
Carol Greaves (CG) – Co-chair & lead on Safeguarding
Paddy Emmerson (PE) – Lead on Finance
1) Announcement:
JB standing down June 30th, he will put together instructions on how we will operate
having him as only IT consultant
2) Apologies for Absence:
None
3) Directors Conflict of Interest
There were no Conflicts of Interest noted from those present.
4) Matters Arising
DBS verifier for Cat – Action PE to confirm by 19th April
Risk assessment for HTC – complete, Cat will communicate to everyone in the next week
Pontoon – GB complete
Handover documents – PE to update and upload to Teams, CG to complete and upload to
Teams. GB, SP, AT complete
Action PE to update email so no personal email accounts are used for any of the finance
activities – change to office@meganandtinks.org.uk
Communication – agreed to discuss this further at next board meeting. Action AT to add to
agenda
Centralised timeline for greater visibility for planning – Action AT
Terms and conditions –Action CG and JB by 19th April
Missed trip – complete
Ipads – to be completed by end of April – Action JB to send back to CG
Charity flyers – Jyoti sent off for sample, didn’t come and went with glossy
200 arrived glossy, they were not as expected – Jyoti wrote to them to complain and they
refunded us.
Action SP and Jyoti – get a quote from elsewhere for more flyers
50th celebration –
Offering booklets free, asking for donations
Sponsors for the event – ongoing SP
Parking space for Andy for the day – complete, Andy needs to give 48 hours notice
More responses needed from volunteers on stories and history. Meeting in 10 days –
Action SP
11am 14th April – volunteers to pick up new jackets and take a photo and have a drink
5) Video requirements from email from videographer
Potential price shared, all agreed to move ahead, however AT mentioned we need to
double check finances and spending for the year to make sure we are not overspending
Videographer requires outline of what we want:
Target audience – Funders (priority), users, volunteers
Messaging – who we are, what we do, our ethos – Volunteers, trustees, users speaking
Action: AT to share CRT video with videographer– GB to share link with AT – complete
Who we are – The history of the charity and how we got to where we are
What we offer and to whom – explanation of our activities
How the trips are run – volunteer led, volunteer community
The future of the charity – where we want to go and how we want to get there
If we have two core message flows – one would be for funders and the other for potential
users. Potentially just have a different ending.
6) Organisational review
AT has contacted Felicia Willows and has been given cost, AT shared with trustees. Action
AT to contact Kelly Hart and share outcome with Trustees
7) Volunteers/ staff
Skippers
– Training plan for transparency to volunteers on development opportunities
GB and Cat to put together full training plan from starting to volunteer up to skipper
training, along with expected commitment to the project. Action GB
– How do we keep skippers up to date?
Cat contacts them, reliant on Cat – link this to action for overview of the year. Cat will keep
it updated and it will be accessible to the board. Action AT and Cat
Trustees
Job description created by AT and shared with Trustees. All agreed with wording. Action AT
to send to Jyoti to upload to NCVS website and send out to Trustees in email.
Volunteers/staff
Looking to put a Skipper sub group together, action GB to lead with Cat
– Closed the ad more info needed?
Ad has been closed as there is a good number of new volunteers currently in the pipeline
for training.
– What is happening with the volunteer section on the website?
Cat has already received training on the volunteer section before Xmas, action GB to work
with Cat to share login details and instruction with volunteers.
We need to improve communication with volunteers so they know what the board is
doing. – action all, start uploading minutes to the volunteer section along with any other
non-confidential information.
Action all – invite Cat/Jyoti and skipper & crew to the board once a quarter for feedback –
a different skipper/crew each time if possible
– Next volunteer meeting –
Annual summer meeting replaced by 50th anniversary event
8) Strategy report
Looked over strategy document but agreed to wait until organisation review to see areas
we need to work on.
Strategy report:
Sustainability:
2023 goals
increase volunteer hours – Skipper hours are up year on year, number of volunteers has
increased.
Partnerships – we are working more collaboratively with Heritage centre and Boatyard
Builders, Colwick, GB has a meeting on 10th April.
Qualifying organisation – Up to Jyoti and Cat, any unsure need to be cleared by the Board
2024 goals
Pricing – Action AT/PE write a letter outlining price rises to be shared with users
Funding:
Need to source more but smaller funding streams – ongoing
Accredited training centre – GB Looking into it, provide info for next board meeting
Become DofE provider – CG to speak to Drew about possibility of picking trips back up
Potentially change this goal to run DofE trips rather than become provider as cost and
resource implications
Data:
2023 goals
Fully automated system to take bookings and payments: complete
All bookings and volunteer hours electronically recorded: complete
Ability to collect feedback and demographic data of users: in progress, action JB
2024 goals
Analyse 23 data, identify improvement opportunities – ongoing
Data to be used to target groups not accessing the project – ongoing
Education:
Provide opportunities for volunteers to increase knowledge: Action SP to pick up with
Roger
Partnerships with local wildlife groups – Green flag and water for CRT ongoing.
9) AOB
Date of next board meeting: dates put in until August.