Minutes of Fort Augustus and Glenmoriston Community Company
Business Meeting
Held on Tuesday 23rd February 2015
In the Meeting Room, Fort Augustus Village Hall
Board Directors Present:
Guest:
Apologies:
Minute taker:
Chair - Harry Whiteside (HW), Johnny McDonald (JM), Mike
Anderson (MA), David Campbell (DC), Phil Di-Duca (PD) &
Fiona McColl (FM)
Ramazan Islerdemir
Stuart Findlay, Christina Muddit, Duncan McIntosh &
Reay MacKay
Sharon Ferguson (Admin)
Item
Minute
1
Welcome
The chair opened the meeting welcoming directors and thanking them for
attending and welcomed Ramazan Islerdemir as a guest with a view to being
co-opted as a Director. Apologies from Stuart Findlay, Christina Muddit,
Duncan McIntosh & Reay MacKay.
Previous Minutes - 15/12/14
The minutes of the 15th Dec were proposed by FM and seconded by DC.
Matters Arising
CKD had reported two fallen trees in the convent woods but no other progress
with the land. Both funders had been asked about the potential grant
application from the Church of Scotland Congregational Board and both
agreed in principal. As there has still been no response from West
Glenmoriston, admin to write a letter to find out whether they are still Admin
progressing with the grant application. No invoice received to date from the
CC for the slide.
Community Challenge – Lease Vehicle/Budget
New company lease vehicle has arrived & employees very happy with it. HW
still working on the budget but hope to be able to give 3rd employee 35hrs
next year. HW has met with Directors from the Glengarry Trust who are also
keen to run a similar service. They have asked what we would charge if our
employees went there for 5hrs per week as a trial for them. Costings &
feasibility still to be looked into.
DC spoke about a meeting with Highland Council, which he attended with HW.
Costings have changed & we are getting less for grass cutting. Board will have
to decide whether we just do the bare minimum or put more FAGCC money
into the budget to keep up the high standards. Community Council have not
had any complaints about the cemeteries since FAGCC took over the
maintenance. Budget to be circulated before next meeting.
JM said that he had been approached by the Glengarry Shinty team to see if
they could hire the grass cutter – idea to be looked into & Shinty club to
request in writing.
2
3
4
Action
5
6
7
8
Company Communication & Promotion
MA has been looking into this & spoke of his findings. Picked up that there are
some community members that don’t know what the Company is about.
Suggested that we have an open night to promote & explain what the
Company is & what we do. MA & Admin are working on the membership list
to update email addresses but we could have another list of people who just
want to be on a mailing list. HW asked about Data protection, this will have to
be looked in to.
MA also felt that we lacked any promotional material & suggested that we
purchase 6 large banners with the different headings of what we do, a large
advertising banner & a brochure with an estimated cost of £1,100. Also
promote in Lochaber Life. No decision made on purchasing promotional
products.
Community Consultation – Update
Discussion had about draft Community Consultation document that had been
circulated. PD felt that we should be promoting more the work we are doing
with the apprenticeship scheme & the Village Officers. HW to add this into her
intro & into the priorities. Discussed ideas for the back page that admin is
doing for development & promotion. Admin to finish page & send to HW.
Review of Grant Headings for Group/Individuals
HW & Admin to work on this & report back.
HW
Admin
HW &
Admin
AOCB
Admin has received an email from the Cadets asking if they can get a secure
line to the MOD put in to the hall at their cost – all agreed.
Nicolson Joinery have offered to take down the badly deteriorating welcome
signs at either end of Fort Augustus, fix them with help of donation of paint
from Girvan’s hardware store & put them back up – all agreed.
£30k investment that was made into Investec has kicked out as doing so well.
Total of £2,400 made in two years. HW suggested that we increase the
investment to £50k & look for a medium risk long term investment. Financial
advisor has been contacted & will report back.
New Member applications ~
Alyson Byron - approved
Mathew Byron - approved
Ramazan Islerdemir (associate member) – approved
Discussion had with Ramazan about becoming a Director, Ramazan was
happy to be co-opted. HW proposed co-opting Ramazan Islerdemir, MA
seconded.
FM has now left the village & HW thanked her for all her work & wished her
well in her new job. HW proposed PD as new vice-Chair, seconded by JM.
JM brought up HW expenses, discussed before & approved but nothing was
ever done about the increase in HW phone bill. All agreed to pay half the bill,
backdated to April 2014. Also agreed that the Company would buy a new
printer & computer for HW use that would be owned by the company as
computer at capacity & printer has done over 12,000 copies. HW to look into
costs.
HW
Meeting closed 9.30pm