ERTC Board Meeting

ERTC Board Meeting 18th July 2012

Present Chris Hart (CH), Carolyn Custerson (CC), Rebecca Sanders (RS), Will Ford (WF), Pippa Craddock (PC), Cllr Richards (JR), Sheena Powe (SP), Nick Powe (NP), Laurence Murrell (LM), Tony Smythe (TS), Steve Hurley (SH), Vince Flower (VF), Claire Jeavons (CJ), Michelle Pugh (MP)

Agenda Welcome & Apologies Action Item 1 1.1 Apologies: Cllr Roger Stringer, Sue Cheriton, Robyn Brown 1.2 CC was congratulated on achieving the national web site award.

Agenda Approval of Minutes of last meeting and matters arising Action Item 2 2.1 Agreed and taken as read.

4.1 – NP has agreed to stay on the board until January 2012. It was agreed to rotate some of the existing members so the ERTC don’t have too many Board Members leaving at the same time.

RB, PC, MP, TS would like to remain on the board. Unless an agreement can be reached CC amongst the four directors a ‘straw poll’ will be taken to determine which person remains on the ERTC board for a third year at the next board meeting. CC to liaise subsequently with MP with regards to advertising in the HE for four board members, including a new finance director to replace NP with new appointments commencing January 2013. 2.2 VF – review Jan 2014 which will tie in with second board resignations. This position is VF subject to TDA nomination. VF to look into it and report back.

Agenda Finance Update Action Item 3 3.1 SP received pension quotes to present at the meeting. Decision taken to proceed with Scottish Widows. Three members of staff have confirmed they would like to join the scheme. 3.2 TDA now looking to charge an ‘all inclusive’ rent/service charge of £7k pa which with a reduction of £3,100 for notional rent will leave a charge of £3,900 for the ERTC to pay for this financial year and this amount has not been budgeted for. It remains unclear as to exactly what this amount covers as the ERTC have received a further demand for cleaning at £391.63/month (£4,712 pa) which is being disputed. In the meantime the cleaning contract has been terminated and the ERTC executive team have taken responsibility for cleaning their individual space. Communal cleaning remains of the stairways and toilets as part of the ‘all inclusive’ rent.

3.3 Inflation adjustment for grant is forecast to be lower due to a fall in the inflation rate.

3.4 Please see the Finance Minutes (from 12th July 2012) for more information.

Agenda Company Issues & Communications Action Item 4 4.1 CC attended a meeting with the Mayor, SP, Pat Steward and Cllr Dave Thomas to discuss the Tourism Strategy. The Mayor would like to undertake a strategy review focusing on the current PHAA policy with specific concerns related to a possible ‘explosion’ of HMO’s through the release of commercial property for residential use. Alan Denby is managing this review from the TDA and the next meeting is scheduled for mid October. CC welcomes this review and shares the mayor’s concerns but has highlighted at the first meeting that addressing the over supply of poor quality serviced accommodation is still considered very necessary as recommended in the TTFT Strategy.

The review has been emailed to the board and CC would like comments back to let her Board know if she missed anything.

CC recommended that the review is renamed to Tourism Strategy Refresh rather than using “review”.

CC will be meeting with Pat Steward next week to discuss the neighbourhood plans. The CC review will be presented to the three towns. The timing issue needs to be taken back to CU and SP.

Agenda CEO’s Report Action Item 1 1.1 The ERTC will be featuring in the Western Morning News tomorrow.

Torbay Business Forum – CH advised that the business community support the work of CH the ERTC. The TBF asked to see a copy of the strategy and a copy of our achievements.

1.2 Promotional Partner Income CC £10,000 down but have managed to secure £50k. Face to face meetings are working and the majority of businesses are signing up for silver. However a lot of people don’t want to sign up until September. 1.3 It was reported that Torquay.Com appears to be currently more effective in generating CC direct referring traffic to third party attraction sites compared to the new ER site. CC to review this.

1.4 Guide – Front Cover CC A discussion took place with regards to the front cover of the guide and the latest market research that had been undertaken. All agreed to ask RH to present alternative covers.

1.14 ITB – Berlin CC As suggested by the board requests for support in terms of offering accommodation, meals etc was circulated to the larger hotels and there is only very limited availability being offered brining this visit back into question and as such CC recommended that the ERTC regretfully advise Hafferman Reisen that due to budget cuts that unfortunately we cannot go ahead with this visit at this point.

1.15 Android Apps CC The android version of “My Riviera” has now been submitted to Google. 1.18 Attack brands

Super Weekend The ERTC supported the Super Weekend with PR and a dedicated consumer newsletter. The event had to move to the Princess Gardens area which meant free entry. Unfortunately this negatively impacted its financial viability.

Agatha Christie The Agatha Christie Festival’s programme is now available in print and online.

Please see CC’s Confidential CEO report for more updates on the attack brands.

1.21 Business Tourism CC and CH met with Cris Boyce and Simon Jolly, who has been appointed General Manager of the RICC, to explore how the two organisations can work more closely together. CC suggested for the RICC to consider aligning more closely to the ER brand.

Parking angels scheme – NP NP handed out to the group a printed presentation to discuss the Parking Angels Scheme that Maureen McAllister invented. Please see presentation for more information.

SH advised Torbay Council will look into this further and will report back to the board. CC SH advised the urgency of this scheme.

Agenda Diary Dates Action Item 4 4.1 All agreed it would be a good idea to coincide the Industry Update with the launch of the CC 2013 guide. Date TBC but first week of Dec planned.

Conference CC The ERTC would like to hold a conference for a whole day to include speakers (including Robyn Barker). All agreed for CC to look into this further.

Agenda Any Other Business Action Item 4 4.1 The next ERTC Board Meeting will be held on Wednesday 19th September 2012.