UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK
Standing Group Responsible for the Maintenance and Refurbishment of
Centrally Timetabled Rooms
Notes from the meeting of the Group on Wednesday 24 March 2015
Present:
Dr E Melia (Chair), Mr J Buckingham, Ms R Burdick, Ms L Holland, Mrs E Morrison,
Mr P Jones, Mr J Owen, Mr H Rowles.
Apologies:
Mrs V Hill, Mr D Mace, Mr C Singleton.
68/14-15
Minutes
RESOLVED
That the minutes of the meeting held on 25 February 2015 be approved subject to the
following amendment:
That the Flexi Grid is not booked through Warwick Conferences but through Isaac
Leigh at the Students’ Union in minute 62(d)/14-15.
69/14-15
Seating Modifications in H0.51/H0.52 (minute 56/14-15 referred)
REPORTED: (by the Interior Design, Furniture and Equipment Officer (Ms R Burdick))
That she was speaking to the seating contractor to ascertain the time required to
install the new seating.
RESOLVED:
That the Interior Design, Furniture and Equipment Officer (Ms R Burdick) would
arrange the booking of the room as soon as she had the necessary information.
70/14-15
New Teaching & Learning Building (minute 58/14-15 referred)
REPORTED: (by the Chair)
That there was no draft job description available as discussions regarding the role
were still ongoing and a decision regarding which department to locate the position in
had not yet been made.
71/14-15
Update on CTTR Refurbishment Plans (minute 59/14-15 referred)
REPORTED: (by the Estates Project Manager)
(a) That there were no elevations available for PLT;
(b) That there was nothing to present regarding PLT refurbishment for this summer;
(c) That the teaching wall in PLT would not be fully redecorated and therefore the
choice of the colour scheme was not relevant at this stage;
(d) That the acoustic wall at the back of PLT could be refurbished and decorated as
the accent wall for the chosen colour scheme;
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(by the Chair)
(e) That she, together with the Service Owner (AV Services), had met with the
Chemistry Teaching & Learning Committee and that the response had been
generally positive regarding a single full width writing surface;
(f)
That Dr Jim Robinson was arranging a meeting for Physics as there was no
meeting of the Teaching & Learning Committee due to take place in the near
future;
(g) That reducing the capacity in H0.58 would help to improve the student
experience;
(h) That given the previous costs for a minor replacement of a wooden floor provided
by the Estates Project Manager replacing the floor in the Music Centre would
prove too costly;
(i)
That major expenditure on Music Centre rooms from the main Refurb Group
Budget could not be justified as these rooms were not generally used for
teaching;
(by the Service Owner (AV Services))
(j)
That he needed decisions regarding AV for PLT to be made soon so that he
could provide details of requirements for the teaching wall to the Estates Project
Manager;
(k) That the weekend booking for PLT on 23 and 24 May should be kept;
(l)
That the cost for AV in S0.17 and S0.28 was estimated at £29,140.80 including
VAT noting that this included two lecterns at a reduced rate if the order was
placed promptly;
(m) That the laminate and accent colour would need to be chosen for PLT to ensure
that the teaching wall could be refurbished in keeping with the final colour
scheme;
(by the Conferences Senior Duty Manager)
(n) That S0.17 & S0.28 were not used at weekends by Conferences;
(by the Interior Design, Furniture and Equipment Manager)
(o) That she was looking at trialling some new furniture in S0.17 & S0.28;
(p) That harder wearing fabrics had been chosen for the lecture theatres to account
for the greater use of these rooms compared to smaller CTTRs;
(q) That every colour scheme had one dark colour to allow Estates to hold a store of
the furniture, noting that this would provide quick replacement of any damaged or
missing furniture;
CONSIDERED:
A presentation of the new colour schemes for CTTRs by the Interior Design, Furniture
and Equipment Manager.
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RESOLVED:
That the Chair would present the colour schemes for MS01 & MS02 to Professor
Lawrence Young
72/14-15
Arts Centre Cinema Seating (minute 60/14-15 referred)
REPORTED: (by the Chair)
(a) That she had looked into the original agreement with the Arts Centre and that
higher expenditure on refurbishment of the Arts Centre Cinema had been agreed
than had currently been spent;
(b) That a full refurbishment was not part of the agreement;
(by the Interior Design, Furniture and Equipment Manager)
(c) That she believed it would be better to do a full seating replacement as the fabric
had been discontinued which would result in any replacements not looking
exactly the same;
(d) That she had been told by Mr Howard Potts that he believed a spot
refurbishment would take place this year and a full refurbishment the following
year.
RESOLVED:
That the Interior Design, Furniture and Equipment Manager should complete the
refurbishments which had been requested by the Arts Centre rather than a full
refurbishment.
73/14-15
Emergency Contact Information in CTTRs (minute 63/14-15 referred)
REPORTED: (by the Service Owner (AV Services))
(a) That this would be a significant task and that he did not believe any action had
been taken yet;
(b) That all the branding on the help screens and signs would need to be changed to
the new branding scheme and that the emergency contact information could be
done at the same time as this;
(c) That rooms which had a touch panel for the AV equipment did not have signs on
the wall as all information was accessed through the panel;
(d) That a single sign which covered everything would be better than multiple signs;
(by the Conferences Senior Duty Manager)
(e) That he believed there were too many signs on the wall which made the rooms
look unprofessional noting that signs on lecterns worked better for Conferences;
(by the Interior Design, Furniture and Equipment Manager)
(f)
That framed signs had only been installed in CTTRs which had a boardroom
layout for furniture;
(g) That she had a number of frames in storage which could be used for the
combined sign;
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(h) That the new logo would not be launched until May noting that the new signs
should not use the current logo;
(by the Chair)
(i)
That the combined sign would need to include room layout details, AV contact
information, emergency contact information and a reference to the terms and
conditions of booking a room.
RESOLVED:
(a) That the Service Owner (AV Services) would produce a mock-up of the new
combined signage;
(b) That a new combined sign would be introduced which would be placed on
lecterns where possible and framed on the wall or door for those rooms without a
lectern.
74/14-15
AV Issues in CTTRs (minute 65/14-15 referred)
REPORTED: (by the Service Owner (AV Services))
That the costs for AV in R2.41 & R3.41 would be similar to S0.17 & S0.28;
RESOLVED:
That the Chair would confirm budget priorities before approving this expenditure.
75/14-15
Asbestos survey for PLT
REPORTED:
That the Chair had taken action on behalf of the Group to approve spend of £256 plus
VAT from the Refurb Group budget on an asbestos survey for PLT to allow works to
commence.
76/14-15
Minor Works in Humanities CTTRs (minute 59/14-15 referred)
REPORTED: (by the Estates Project Manager)
(a) That he had begun a survey of rooms in the Humanities building noting that there
were still 11 rooms outstanding;
(b) That he estimated it would require around £60k to complete the works he had
identified noting that he believed some of this could be achieved before the end
of the financial year;
(c) That items which needed correcting included the following; vinyl skirting to be
replaced with timber; curtain rails to be removed; notice boards to be removed;
substandard carpet in some rooms; blackout blinds to be removed; extractor
vents to be removed from windows;
(d) That all work he had identified would only require work on the walls and the
carpets would be unaffected;
(by the Conferences Senior Duty Manager)
(e) That the CTTRs in Humanities had been booked for 3 weeks in July for the Open
University;
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(by the Chair)
(f)
That the refurbishment of the Humanities building had become a priority because
a new Humanities building would still be several years from completion and the
current space must be maintained;
(g) That she was confident that people would notice that the minor works had taken
place as she often received complaints about the rooms.
RESOLVED:
That as much of the work would be carried out before the end of the financial year as
possible noting that some works would have to take place in the summer due to time
constraints.
77/14-15
Furniture Issues in Humanities CTTRs (minute 59/14-15 referred)
REPORTED: (by the Interior Design, Furniture and Equipment Officer (Ms R Burdick))
(a) That she was receiving emails almost every day regarding issues with CTTRs in
the Humanities building;
(b) That the member of portering staff assigned to Humanities was very pro-active
which meant that issues were being picked up early but that this was too much
work for the furniture team;
(c) That issues included things such as broken tablet chairs; tables with unstable
legs; non-CTTR furniture in rooms; tables in rooms which did not require them;
(d) That she had suggested providing the porters with a checklist which they could
use in the morning when they unlock the rooms but that she had been told this
was not feasible due to the time required to unlock and reset the furniture in all
the rooms;
(e) That she had been told that there may be a porter who has spare capacity on a
Sunday or that they could be paid overtime to start their morning checks earlier;
(f)
That she had already created a checklist to be trialled with Miss Bonnie Wang
noting that the trial would only be for Humanities CTTRs;
(g) That these issues generally only occurred in Humanities noting that Social
Sciences did not suffer with the same problems;
(by the Chair)
(h) That there was an ongoing review of the portering service and careful
consideration should be given to the solution;
(i)
That if these issues could be corrected sooner it would reduce complaints noting
that these were often received through NSS by which time more severe action
was required to rectify issues;
(j)
That a trial would be very beneficial and could be used as evidence to support
the argument of improved student experience;
(k) That CTTRs were booked until 10pm but that this was dependent on the time
that security conducted their rounds and locked the doors;
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(by the Conferences Senior Duty Manager)
(l)
That he believed a better way forward would be to employ someone who had the
specific task of checking the CTTRs;
(by the Interior Design, Furniture and Equipment Manager)
(m) That the standardised furniture which had been introduced was very helpful in
dealing with these issues;
(n) That she has not received any reports from the room stewards in Ramphal for a
considerable length of time;
(by the Service Owner (AV Services)
(o) That AV Services spent £20k per year on the room stewards which performed a
similar role in checking CTTRs;
(p) That the room stewards were currently reporting to AV Services noting that this
was to be reviewed in the summer;
(q) That the room stewards could potentially trial the checklist in Ramphal.
RESOLVED:
That the Interior Design, Furniture and Equipment Officer (Ms R Burdick) would
conduct a trial of the checklist system.
78/14-15
AV replacement in Humanities CTTRs (minute 59/14-15 referred)
REPORTED: (by the Service Owner (AV Services)
That he had not looked at AV for H0.58 & H0.60 noting that this was more of a priority
than R2.41 & R3.41.
RESOLVED:
(a) That the Service Owner (AV Services) would investigate the costs of refurbishing
AV in H0.58 & H0.60;
(b) That the Estates Project Manager would review the condition of H0.58 & H0.60
with a view to refurbishing them to a higher standard.
79/14-15
Installation of Clocks in Humanities CTTRs
REPORTED: (by the Interior Design, Furniture and Equipment Manager)
(a) That clocks had previously been installed in all Humanities CTTRs but that these
had mostly gone missing;
(b) That asbestos checks were conducted at the time she had the frames for notices
installed so further checks should not be required;
(c) That is was difficult to get work done in Humanities because of the amount of
teaching taking place in the rooms;
(d) That she currently had a store of clocks noting that she would need to confirm
how many were available;
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(by the Interior Design, Furniture and Equipment Officer (Ms R Burdick))
(e) That the survey information from previous asbestos checks was not always
complete and further checks may be required;
(by the Chair)
(f)
That the clocks needed to be installed in a position which allowed the lecturer to
easily view it noting that the side wall was preferable as this also allowed
students to view it.
RESOLVED:
That further consideration would be given to the issue of installing clocks in
Humanities.
80/14-15
2014-15 Refurb Group Budget
REPORTED: (by the Chair)
(a) That the expenditure on AV for PLT this summer would be £75k;
(b) That the money which would not be spent on PLT this financial year amounted to
£105k and that there was an additional £60k to spend;
(by the Estates Project Manager)
(c) That £180k had been allocated for Phase 1 of the PLT refurbishment which
included AV.
CONSIDERED:
A summary of the current budget position for the present academic year, as set out in
CTTR.2/14-15(revised4).
RESOLVED:
(a) That the Chair would distribute a spreadsheet detailing the agreed expenditure
and any outstanding funds;
(b) That the Chair would present a plan to the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Academic
Planning and Resources) detailing where the funds which were previously
allocated to PLT would now be spent.
81/14-15
Additional Furniture in CTTRs
REPORTED: (by the Conferences Senior Duty Manager)
(a) That there were currently lockers in B205 which had been there for
approximately a year;
RESOLVED:
That the Interior Design, Furniture and Equipment Manager would arrange for the
lockers in B205 to be removed.
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82/14-15
Dates of the Future Meetings
RESOLVED:
That the next meeting of the Group was on Wednesday 29 April 2015.
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