Cultural Café
Inaugural Annual General Meeting
5.30pm, Monday 24th October 2011
Cultural Café, Nancy Astor Building, Plymouth
Present: Anne Munro; Jekaterina Kockina; Khwam Hussein; Sarah Bird; Mark
Lawrence; Sarah Griffiths; Paola Simoneschi; Zoe Wate; Marcey Fisher; Jana
Rajnohova; Nawzad Kadir; Husam Aljwaid; Vaishali Phippen; Jasim Al-Attwani;
Lingxi Yang; Carolyn Gentle; Eleanor Butland.
Visitors: Rene Phippen; Ranjanben Mody
Apologies: Amanda Pleven; Nigel Larcombe-Williams; Dana Mohammed; Matt Chan;
Helen Bowstead; Janie Pace
Chair: Eleanor Butland
Minutes: Carolyn Gentle
Welcome, apologies and introduction to the original Steering Group: Eleanor Butland,
Paola Simoneschi, Nawzad Kadir, Carolyn Gentle and Lee Fordham.
Summary report on the progress of the Cultural Cafe Project since its start in May
2010 (attached).
Confirmation of the Cultural Café Constitution was moved as an item to the first
meeting of the inaugural committee (7 November 2011).
Election of the Executive Committee.
Some nominations were received in advance of the meeting whilst others were made
during the meeting. It was judged that some of the committee roles could be carried
out by subgroups – specifically Entertainment and Activities; Publicity and
Fundraising and Web Updating.
Marcey Fisher suggested that the duties of each role be summarised before the
election of officers was made and Eleanor Butland provided verbal summaries:
Chair: chairing meetings, leading the project, managing key stakeholders
Secretary: minuting meetings, formal correspondence, compiling annual report,
notifying members of AGM, communications
Treasurer: financial management, financial reporting, cheque-writing, guiding
strategic financial decisions, financial projections/scenarios
Volunteer co-ordinator: promoting volunteering with the Cafe, maintaining the Cafe
hosting schedule (in a Google calendar)
Liaison with Catering Services: maintaining communications and positive relations
with Sarah Griffiths, Andrzej Dobosz and the team, inputting ideas for menus, snacks
and other food oriented matters
Entertainment and activities subgroup: planning for and organising musical, cultural
and other events, liaiasing with Peninsula Arts where appropriate
Publicity and fundraising: promotion of the cafe generally and specific events through
a range of channels. Seeking out funding sources and writing bids as appropriate
Web updating: adding and removing event information, contributing to web editing
when appropriate
The elections resulted in the following:
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Chair: Carolyn Gentle (seconded by Paola Simonesci)
Secretary: failed to appoint
Treasurer: failed to appoint
Volunteer coordinator: Vaishali Phippen (seconded by Anne Munro)
Liaison with Catering Services: Sarah Bird (seconded by Sarah Griffiths)
Entertainment and activities subgroup: Zoe Wate; Marcey Fisher;
Jekaterina Kockina; Vaishali Phippen; Sarah Bird; Jana Rajnotlova. The
subgroup agreed to select a group leader
Publicity and fundraising: Paola Simoneschi; Mark Lawrence (SIFE);
Jekaterina Kockina; Lingxi Yang
Web updating: Eleanor Butland; Lingxi Yang
The failure to appoint either a secretary or treasurer is to be addressed in the first
instance by enquiries to those who sent their apologies to the meeting. It will be
revisited as a matter of priority at the first committee meeting.
The first committee meeting will be held on Monday 7 November 2011 at 17.15 in
the Cultural Cafe.
Any other business
It was reported that Ricky Lowes is keen to locate the Languages Cafe in the
Cultural Cafe and is going to speak to Danielle Bishop about funding for hot drinks
for participants by PBS. There was also a suggestion that the Languages Cafe
would be interested in seeking sponsorship funding for this. (JK)
Could learners of British Sign Language (BSL) also participate in the Languages
Cafe venture? (SB)
Those present were asked to take publicity posters to put up in their parts of the
university. (EB)
Diwali is being celebrated this week VP gave a brief introduction to this festival. The
plans for marking Diwali in the Cultural Cafe on Wednesday 26 October were
summarised and everyone was warmly welcomed to help out or join in, details of
how to do this would be discussed after the close of the Inaugural AGM. (CG)
Eleanor Butland was thanked for her work on the Cafe during its first 17 months. (CG)
The meeting closed at 6.45pm