Monthly Meeting 20 th May 2003

Minutes of Bristol Wireless meeting - 20 May 2003

Where & when:

The Chelsea Inn, Easton Tue 20 May 2003 7:30pm - 10:00pm

Those present (in alphabetical order):

• Andy Laurence
• Ian Costello, UWE
• Jason Armitage
• Peter Ferne, Bristol Interactive Cluster
• Richard Higgs, Mediamonger
• Robert Bailey (bails), Bristol IT Co-Op
• Sean Kenny, Bristol IT Co-Op
• And one other who arrived a little later whose name I didn't get, sorry.

Apologies:

• Mike Harris, Psand
• Iain Kennedy, Psand

1 Incorporation

It was agreed that the project would incorporate as:

• a company limited by guarantee;
• not-for-profit;
• a co-op (using ICOM model rules).

It was agreed to use the name 'Bristol Wireless' for the registration but also to keep the name CLAN for informal or semi-formal use.

ACTION	Arrange a meeting with the Avon CDA.
WHO	Pete & Rich
BY WHEN	Next meeting

2 Geographical scope

It was agreed that in order to be a voting member of the legally incorporated body potential members must live or work in Bristol.

It was also agreed to choose a set of rules which would allow for some kind of associate or affilate (non-voting) class or classes of membership to accommodate individuals not meeting the criteria for voting membership (Iain? Mike?) and organisations (such as the ECC) wishing to express their support.

In this way it is envisaged that it will be possible for those who don't live or work in Bristol to still play an active role in the project where this is appropriate, including attending and speaking at meetings.

We discussed and rejected the possibility of restricting membership to those operating active nodes.

3 Officers of the company

For the purposes of incorporation it is necessary to have a set of 'founding members' and officers. It was agreed that these will be (in alphabetical order):

• Andy Laurence - Company Secreteary
• Iain Kennedy (*)
• Ian Costello
• Jason Armitage - Treasurer
• Mike Harris (*)
• Peter Ferne - Chairman
• Richard Higgs
• Robert Bailey

(*) Assuming this is possible in the light of point 2.

Once the organisation is up and running there will be regular elections to all posts from amongst the membership. Exact details will depend on the set of model rules chosen for incorporation.

4 Bankers and accountants

Three possible bankers were suggested:

• Unity Trust (as used by Bristol IT Co-Op & the TUC)
• Triodos (a Bristol based, ethical bank)
• Co-operative Bank (which Rich wasn't keen on for personal reasons)

ACTION	Investigate the accounts & services on offer from each.
WHO	Jason
BY WHEN	Next meeting

Three possible accountants were suggested:

• Geoff Baker, Tyrells (recommended by Rich)
• Cooperatunity, Easton Business Park
• Dick Maule (recommended by Pete)

ACTION	Investigate the services on offer from each and likely charges.
WHO	Jason
BY WHEN	Next meeting

It was agreed not to appoint solicitors at this stage.

5 Committees

It was agreed to structure the work of the project initially around three committees:

• Management Committee - funding, media liaison etc.
• Technical Committee - network architecture etc.
• Content Committee - content creation and acquisition.

The activities of the committees will be open to all members.

6 CLAN Office

It was agreed to take on office space next to the Queens Head on Easton Road. The space is approx. 4m x 6m and will cost £15pw. There is no minimum commitment on our part.

7 News

We have about £7.5k on deposit with ECC. Vernon at ECC will sign cheques for us until we have a bank account up and running into which we can pay the money. £1.5k of this is general funds and £6k is Neighbourhood Renewal money for connecting a number of local community projects to the ECC, wirelessly of course.

It was agreed that some of the general funds should be spent on:

• rent, heat/light/power, phone & paint for the office space;
• setting up a node in the Chelsea;
• building a small pool of nodes to sell on at cost;
• a banner/backdrop etc. for the Tech SW stand.

We may also be able to raise up to £15k from the Greater Bristol Foundation, a charity which supports social economy projects in the Bristol area and which is administered by Ted Fowler.

The redesigned website will go live very soon. Once it has we will issue a press release and approach the BBC to reschedule the recently postponed interviews.

ACTION	Make sure the website goes live ASAP.
WHO	Richard
BY WHEN	Next meeting

8 Date and time of next meeting

To Be Confirmed.