ARC minutes 2021-11-02
Meeting on Thursday 2nd September 5-7pm.
Introductions and Apologies
Jane Carlin, Marnie Woodward, Adrian Beidas, Lucy Crompton-Reid, Davina Johnson, Natasha Iles, Katie Crampton (minuting).
Apologies: Julian Akodoye Manieson.
Declaration of interests
None.
Approval of minutes of the last meeting
Approved.
Update on actions arising at last meeting
On the risk register action, LCR covered the GovCom discussion of reviewing the risks in line within the strategic planning at the board away day. Action: LCR to coordinate any prep that needs to happen with JC and Lorna.
Banking item for DAJ to be marked as done.
Number 5 on insurance is ongoing as there’s an insurance issue, so will pick it up in a wider insurance discussion.
Review of QFMR for Q2 and commentary, including fundraising update
DAJ gave an overview of the commentary. Strong quarter in income and some underspend in expenses, so we’re 29k ahead of our Q2 budget, some of which is to do with payments not yet made but still to come. NLHF’s first tranche has come in, we’ve had little expenditure from it but have hired two new staff, and it will catch up in expenditure. Next time there will be a paper detailing the movement in the funds, as there is not yet enough movement to justify one.
We are in a good position to see us through the year.
NI gave an overview of the fundraising update. We’re just shy of 6k across budgeted income. Attrition has slowed. PayPal has been at its lowest in five years, but only by about £400. Not material but it’s still worth exploring why that is. The digital income e.g. Facebook and Amazon are still very strong. We’re still positive about moving through some donor journeys and exploring how we can use CiviCRM to do that. NI noted that the Foundation is the only chapter using CiviCRM; everyone else has moved away from it. Wikimedia Deutschland has offered to share information and practice from their own chapter, where they raise considerable funds. LCR pointed out that this was at least partly due to the fact that they run the fundraising banner in Germany - which led to a brief discussion on the history of this in the UK and other chapters. DAJ explained that WMD might have been able to keep the banner because of their banking system. It was noted that the C-level changes at WMF might provide an opportunity for revisiting this decision, although LCR is not optimistic that it will be changed.
Cashflow update
MW suggested that it would be helpful to get an overview of the budget phasing from DAJ for new members, but that we can wait until JAM is in attendance. Action: add an overview to the agenda of the next meeting.
Banking mandates and authorisation
DAJ explained that this was an update to a previous paper, detailing signatories on our bank accounts. MW proposed that Monisha be on the mandate as Chair and that she would propose this to her when they met the next day (action for MW to ask MS).
There was a lengthy discussion about the current situation, where only LCR from the staff is a full signatory on the bank mandates. As several staff have high levels of online authority this is only an issue when something can’t be done online - for example, large transfers from or between our accounts, or international payments. MW would like DAJ to be on all the mandates at the same level as her online authority (£13k). DAJ pointed out that not all of the banks allowed someone to be added to the full bank mandate with limited signing powers, and only Unity enabled this. She added that she doesn’t think the trustee board should allow two staff to have complete banking powers. JC agreed with DAJ. MW thought this wasn’t an issue as the deposit accounts only allowed transfers to Unity (our main current account). DAJ didn’t think this was the case but agreed that if it were, she could be added. Action for DAJ to be added to the Unity mandate with a signing authority of £13k; and for DAJ to find out whether the Shawbrook, Co-op and CAF accounts only allow transfers to Unity.
Cyber insurance renewal issue (oral update)
The cyber insurance policy came up for renewal in August and as advised by our broker our usual insurers (Hiscocks) no longer provide cyber insurance for charities. The broker has been unable to find an insurer so far, either because of the risk of some of our funds coming from the US, or because a number of insurers don’t cover charities. This means that we are currently not protected against cyber risks. JC asked whether we take a policy that doesn’t cover the US liability, what the risk of that would be. Also asked what we’re protected from. DAJ answered that one example would be losing a lot of financial data on donors, which we don’t actually hold. AB asked what the annual premium is, and whether we may have been over-insured previously. DAJ wasn’t sure but thought it was in the low thousands. Action for DAJ to check the cover and the premium.
Oral update from GovCom
LCR gave an overview of the GovCom meeting, minutes of which can be found here.
Plans for re-opening the office (oral update)
LCR gave an overview of the extensive preparations and consultation around the return to the office, when we move from remote to hybrid working this autumn.
Office Lease (oral update)
At the board meeting we will be starting the conversation about what our next office will look like. DAJ is preparing a paper for the board meeting which LCR is currently reviewing. She highlighted that an error on the part of Europoint’s solicitors meant that we don’t have to leave when our five year term is up next August, making the lease more valuable than it would otherwise have been. This puts us in a stronger negotiating position, for example around office reparations or a new lease.
Date of the next meeting and 2022 schedule
LCR notified ARC that we have to change the December board meeting date, which may impact the December ARC. It’s the time of year where we start looking at next year’s dates, and it would be useful to know whether similar dates and time slots work. JC proposed we keep it to two weeks before the board meeting, and continue to host it online. AB agreed with JC’s preference for having the meetings later in the day.
AOB
None.