07 March 2019 Bi-Termly Meeting

Note: This meeting was scheduled to take place in Bishop Foxe Room, but when members of the Committee arrived, the door into the building was locked. Instead the Committee met in Room 34 and the meeting finished before the Kick Boxing classes finished (therefore the meeting didn't detain a member of Estates Staff)

Present

SG, AG, TH, JP (Secretary), KS (Chair), MS, VS (Gold Card Administrator), MT, AV (Treasurer)

Agenda item 1: Apologies and resignations

MC (Non-Committee member) (apologies) Simon Pickett (Head) (apologies)

Agenda item 2: Matters arising from the Minutes of the Committee Meeting held Thursday 6 December 2018 not covered elsewhere on the Agenda

AOB 9.2.1 It was unanimously agreed to accept the following amendment to the Constitution:

• Section 5: Committee
• Change: A quorum shall consist of 8 members.
• To: A quorum shall consist of half the number of the Committee plus one person.

AOB 9.2.2 1 It was unanimously agreed to accept the following amendment to the Constitution:

• Section 5: Committee
• After the first sentence, add the following sentence:
• The Head Master is an ex-officio member of the committee and has the right to vote.

Action: JP will amend the Constitution and email a copy to each member of the Committee. (Done: 9 March 2019)

AOB 9.3 Should PTFA Minutes be 'available on request'? The Committee decided that:

• It would be a lot of work to prepare abbreviated Minutes, so Minutes will be available in full, but third party names will be redacted.
  • the actual Minutes wn't be available on the School website, but within the PTFA sections of the website it will say 'If you would like to see Minutes please apply to the Secretary. You are also welcome to attend Committee meetings'.
• dates of Committee meetings are published in the School Calendar, but they should also be included in the PTFA's news in the Head's Newsletter

AOB 9.4 Changing the time and date of the 2019 AGM Simon emailed JP and made the following suggestion:

...in answer to the minutes item 9.4, I could suggest 25 September (+-1 day) is the meet the tutor informal evening for parents starting at 18:30. If you held an AGM for 1 hour before you may get a larger audience?

The Committee thought this was a good suggestion but preferred having the AGM after the event, as any time before 18:30 would probably be too early for some parents.

The AGM is a relatively short meeting, so 30 minutes would be long enough.

The Committee didn't decide whether to hold a Committee meeting immediately after the AGM.

Post-meeting suggestion from Jo:

Don't hold the Committee Meeting immediately after the AGM, as anyone who decides they'd like to join the Committee (or attend meetings out of interest) probably won't wish to extend their evening even more (having already attended 'meet the tutor' and the AGM).

Action: JP to thank Simon for his suggestion and to find out how long the event will be so a time can be set for the AGM. (Done: 8 March 2019)

The Minutes of the previous meeting were signed by the Chair and approved by the committee.

Agenda item 3: Ball update

Sponsorship MT reported:

• James Sumsion of the company Heat Haus (based in Newark, Mansfield and Lincoln) has promised £250 sponsorship. MT has thanked him.

• We will offer to put company flyers on the tables
• He will be thanked via social media to advertise the company
• Might he offer a voucher as a raffle prize?

Planning Meeting set up for Ball planning 19:00hrs Thursday 21 March at a pub in Grantham.

Action: MT to email all the Committee and those who wish to be involved will attend.

Ball tickets MT will approach a graphic designer business contact to see if they will design the tickets free of charge and include the designer's details on the tickets. (Any means of not spending money is good, in case the profits from the Ball are low.)

Draw/raffle tickets There was a concern that draw/raffle tickets aren't already on sale as a number of School events have passed already.

Action: asap

Entertainment (in addition to the Soul Band) A caricature artist was suggested

Action:

Agenda item 4: Treasurer update

AV reported that he has finally got the accounts to a state where he can produce useful reports of current and historical data.

He downloaded all bank transactions since August 2012, the start of our FY 2012/13, then reconciled every single line (over 300 of them) against archive information that he has.

There is still some tidying up to do on the fundraising side where we have for example  banked income from three separate sources in one go. This is where the time disappeared because the values do not show up anywhere else and I have to figure out which numbers added together match the bank statement item! However, they paint a broadly accurate picture, which is more precise for most recent years (partly because we are doing fewer things). The figures for support given to the school are accurate throughout.

AV hopes that this new data will be useful in making better informed decisions, rather than the Committee responding to funding requests based on half-remembered things and anecdotal history. This is especially important if there is a rapid turnover of Committee members.

AV brought printed copies of the spreadsheets of financial activities which the Committee looked at. There were comments about how useful this was.

Action: JP to email coloured versions of the financial activities spreadsheets to the Committee

Balance of the current account is £1318 with £500 ringfenced for the School Council and

£200 ringfenced for the electricity bill for the Toy Shop

Action: It was noticed on the spreadsheets that in 2017 there was 'uniform commission' of £133 which AV said was from Schoolguise. Might we be entitled to this again? Someone to investigate.

JP investigated this after the meeting:

On the Schoolguise page on the School's website it says: "Schoo/guise is proud to work in partnership with The King's School Grantham in providing quality uniform at competitive prices. Commission payable to The King's School on uniform sales through our website is used for the benefit of all pupils."

Agenda item 5: Gold Card

VS has been told by the bank that signatures don't tally (even though Matt, AV and herself went into the bank together and completed documentation)

Action: At the end of the meeting MS and AV signed a form

Action: VS will take this form into the bank

New sign-ups to the scheme as of 1 November 2018 are showing on the statements.

Transfer of £2100 to PTFA current account A cheque was signed and given to AV to pay in.

Monthly draw using randomised number generator

• 5.1        January           number 272 S Raja
• 5.2       February         number 348 S Bremner-Harrison
• 5.3       March              number 401 GC Dobinson

VS couldn't be certain at the meeting that GC Dobinson had paid. Until this is confirmed only January and February winners will be made public.

Action: VS to confirm GC Dobinson as a winner. If they are not eligible to win, March's number will be redrawn.

Action: Advertise January and February winners on social media. (Advertised on Twitter 7 March 2018)

Agenda item 6: Second-hand uniform update

SG passed £81 cash to Adam.

This included £13 from Cash for Clothes. This amount was slightly disappointing considering the quantity of clothing SG and AG had taken to Cash for Clothes, but it transpired that these clothes are sold on as wearable garments in Africa and not turned into rags. Cash for Clothes is unable to take clothes with badges on.

Committee members with children at primary schools that use the 'Bags for Schools' recycling scheme offered to take the rejected clothes.

New email address is generating requests for second-hand uniform. However, the old email address is still on the School website.

Action: JP to look at all the PTFA stuff on the School website to see what needs to be updated.

Agenda item 7: Funding requests

7.1 Mr Whales - electricity bill for Toy Shop. AV contacted School about a month ago, asking for this bill, but it hasn't been received yet. £200 ringfenced to pay this.

7.2 MS Lond - Samba Kit. See attached 'Request for Funding' form

Since MS Land first made his request, the price of the Samba drums has increased by around £500. KS spoke to him yesterday, and he promised that if we agreed to fund the drums and cases, then he wouldn't request funding for a year (calculated to at least March 2020). Some on the Committee suggested requesting this amount of money should last until 2021!

Generally, it was felt that the request was for a lot of money, but we understood that

• all the boys (years 7 to 9) would have access to the drums in music lessons drums are more playable instruments than some other instruments, so more boys may benefit
• music is valuable for personal wellbeing and it's good for the PTFA to support this aspect of School
• when the School has its own set of drums, there would be more opportunities to play Samba, than if drums are hired
• the music department support the PTFA immensely by playing at the Ball -without the Soul Band we'd have to pay for music
• suggestion: the Samba band play a couple of pieces at the Ball in 2020

Funding agreed unanimously

Action: AV to contact MS Lend and let him know of his successful bid (Done: 7 March 2019)

Action: AV to transfer £1613.86 to School account (Done: 8 March 2019)

Agenda item 8: DBS Checks and volunteer policy: is everyone up to date?

A question was raised: Do we have to approach School to renew a DBS?

Action: JP will ask Louise Wood for clarification

JP mentioned that four of the committee had yet to sign a Trustee Form for the academic year 2018-2019. (Tracy, Moira, AG and Michelle)

AG and MT completed forms at the meeting.

Action: JP to email the form to TH and Moira

Agenda item 9: Any other business

9:1 JP will be stepping down as Secretary at the AGM but will be unable to attend the next committee meeting on 4 July 2019. She will ensure that all the files are in order by then and will pass the files to someone on the Committee who will be attending that meeting.

She will circulate a job description of the role as Secretary to the Committee.

The need for a replacement was included in the PTFA section of the Head's Newsletter, February 2019.

Other ways to recruit a replacement and new members to the Committee, generally:

• PTFA presence at new Year 7 evening (1st July)
  • • selling second-hand school uniform
    • talking about the PTFA from the stage

• Refresh the information that goes in the Year 7 parent pack
• Update the PTFA entries on the School's website
  • • Change the second-hand uniform email address
    •           Change the second-hand uniform pricing to £5 for blazers; £3 and under for everything else

9:2 Those on the Committee with boys currently in Year 11 raised the point that their sons may not get places in King's sixth form, so other Committee members may be standing down too. TH pointed out that her son left the school five years ago, and she's still part of the PTFA -thank you Tracy!

Agenda item 10: Easter ChocFest Wednesday 3 April / tasks

The following said they were available to help:

Kim, MS S, Tracy, Sarah, Adam, Michelle, Amanda

Action: JP to re-email the ChocFest 'how to' document to Amanda, TH and Michelle

Preparation start time: from 09:00 Committee have finished by 14:00

There are enough cloakroom ticket books in the uniform room without buying more. AV will get float.

JP to ask the School Office to advertise the event via Parentmail from Monday 11 March JP to email a poster to JP Snee (School Library) so she can advertise the event

Agenda item 11: Dates of future meetings and events

• Thursday 21 March - Ball planning meeting 19:00 venue tbc (but not in School) Tuesday 26 March - submission deadline for Head's Newsletter
• Wednesday 3 April - Easter ChocFest
• Tuesday 14 May - submission deadline for Head's Newsletter Monday 24 June- Open Evening 18:00-20:30
• Monday 1 July - New Year 7 Intake Evening 18:00-20:00
• Thursday 4 July- Committee meeting (19:30, probably in Bishop Foxe Room) Tuesday 9 July - submission deadline for Head's Newsletter