DRAFT
Minutes of the Meeting of the Board of Directors of The Coigeach Community Company held on Friday 31st December at 4.00pm.
Present : Peter Haring (PH), Peter Muir (PM), Alison Hitchens (AH), David Heaney (DH), and Bill Wilder (BW).
Absent : Bill Mullin (BM), Gordon Smith (GS), Davy Garrett(DG).
PH agreed to chair the meeting. BW agreed to take minutes.
1.Apologies There were none.
2.Status of the meeting.
A discussion took place following the statement by BM that it was 'inconsiderate' to hold a meeting on Hogmanay. It was agreed that, as it was early in the evening and that so many were prepared to make the effort, it was not inconsiderate, and that the meeting should be viewed as a Board meeting.
3.Report on status of GS and DG.
Two directors had been contacted by DG who was concerned that his letter of resignation, sent to BM on 8th December, had not been communicated to other directors, and that it might not have been received by the company secretary. It was agreed to seek clarification of the company secretary, and to now treat DG as no longer a director. Action PH
News of the resignation of GS had been heard, but only informally. It was agreed that we should continue to treat GS as a director until otherwise informed.
4.Minutes of the last Board Meeting and of the Directors' Meeting.
The minutes of the Board Meeting of 29th November were unavailable and would need to be approved at the next meeting. The minutes of the Directors' Meeting of the 22nd December were approved.
5."Principles of board conduct".
This letter which had been circulated following the directors' meeting of 22nd Dec. was approved. It was noted that there had been no response from other directors.
6."Allocation of tasks and responsibilities".
These had been detailed in the minutes of the directors' meeting of 22nd December and were now approved, with the addition of BW and PH as contacts with HIE/Neil Ross.
7.Chairman's recent letter to the Ullapool News.
This letter announced the successful registration of our application. It also spoke of the disciplining of directors, the calling of an EGM and the possible referral of the matter to the Minister at SEERAD.
It was noted that there was no board approval of this notice. It was agreed that we should consult with the Company secretary concerning the continuing failure of the chairman to work within the Memorandum and Articles of the company. Action PH.
8.Chairman's proposal to hold an EGM on 31st January
PM and RL declared an interest in this item and did not take part.
It was noted that the board had received no proposal for an EGM and agreed that the chairman be invited to explain how it had been correctly called.
It was further agreed that, in the absence of such an explanation, an announcement should be made that the meeting be cancelled, probably following the next meeting.
It was also noted that the chairman referred in his letter to the Ullapool News (item 7 above) of letters sent to two directors concerning disciplinary matters. It was agreed that these letters had not received the authority of the Board and therefore carried no weight.
9.Report on tasks undertaken following the meeting of 22nd December.
RL reported that his approaches to members in the Elphin area had not been fruitful in finding new Board members from that area. BW had been attempting to contact others: so far without success.
AH, RL and BW reported on their efforts to improve on the Consultants' questionnaire that had just been circulated. The main improvement would have been a covering letter carrying AH's signature which was sent to the consultants just in time for printing, but the chairman had stopped it because he had not seen it and because he did not communicate with the above directors to seek its content. His agreement to include it had been sought and received.
10.Action Plan in run-up to drop-in-day.
It was agreed that, in view of the chairman's recent propensity for negating work carried out by board members, no further efforts should be expended at this time.
11.Date of next meeting.
On 29th, December PM had formally called for a meeting to be held on 6th January. On 30th December the Chairman had suggested a meeting be held on 7th January. His letter making this request had been dated 24th December but was not received by directors until 30th.
Consideration was given to the chairman's suggestion, but it was agreed that, in order to give time for tasks to be carried out prior to the drop-in-day on the 8th, the next meeting should be held, as called, on 6th January at 7.30pm in the Hall.
NB. In view of the sensitive nature of some of the discussions recorded above, it was agreed to class these minutes as CONFIDENTIAL.