Lancaster University Friends Programme Disbursement Committee Minutes of the Meeting Held on Th 13 December 2007
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Lancaster University Friends Programme Disbursement Committee Minutes of the meeting held on th 13 December 2007 Present: Cary Cooper (Chair), Tim Roca, Susan Lucas, Carol Williamson, Rachel Newbury, Dr Gordon Clark, Dr Paul Fearnhead, Gavin Brown, Dr Sally Bushell, Rachel Davis 1. Apologies for Absence Apologies for absence had been received from Maggie Mort, Fiona Aiken and Chris Saunders 2. Welcome & introduction of new committee members The Chair welcomed Gavin Brown who was standing in for Peter Scullion as the Colleges’ Representative. 3. Minutes of the previous meeting and matters arising Reports from the July disbursement projects were circulated prior to the meeting with the committee papers. Two official reports were still outstanding from Grizedale and Bowland. However, Grizedale have verbally reported that due to them undergoing major refurbishment and construction, they wish to postpone spending their grant in case the benches get damaged. In the July meeting the committee had agreed that greater emphasis should be placed on the need for reports from awardees when informed of their grants. As a result, a report form haqs been created which will be sent to awardees with their confirmation letter as a matter of course, with a request that they must be returned before a set deadline. These forms were sent out to awardees from the July 07 meeting and consequently we had a better return of reports. Since the agenda for this meeting was circulated a new issue had come to light. In 2004, Student Support were awarded a grant of £800 to conduct market research into the effectiveness of a web- based overview of support services at Lancaster University. This work was subsequently undertaken at no cost to Student Support Services, so the Friends Grant was not used. Student Support approached Rachel Newbury last year to request they use the money for their International Student Barometer survey. Student Support had put in an application for a grant for this survey for the December 2006 Disbursement Committee Meeting. This application was subsequently unsuccessful. The committee agreed to discuss this issue after the other applications had been considered There were no further matters arising and the minutes of the meeting of 23rd July 2007 were approved. 4. Update on fundraising activities Rachel Newbury gave an update on the fundraising expansion and activities within Alumni & Development, as follows: The Friends Programme (Annual Fund) closed for the 2006/07 year having raised £98,664 in confirmed donations (total includes the value of single gifts and regular gifts over a 4 year period) from approximately 1,200 donors. These figures compare to: 2005/06 - £88,224.10 confirmed donations / 1,100 donors 2004/05 - £86,169.82 confirmed donations / 1,200 donors 2003/04 - £51,219.96 confirmed donations / 1,000 donors The Friends Programme engages approximately 8,000-9,000 alumni via the telephone throughout the year and performs a vital relationship building activity with Lancaster alumni as well as providing a reliable and effective way of updating contact details. This term launched the 2007/08 Friends Programme and with a calling campaign of 4 weeks. The pledged total was £32,052.36 and £20,415.39 had already been received. It was reported that this term, the telephone campaign had included the following groups of prospective donors: event attendees, renewals, 2006 grads, previous alumni card payers and Psychology graduates (this was a specific ask for the Ed Chronicle Memorial Fund as established by Professor Tom Ormerod of the Psychology Department). The groups for next term had not yet been confirmed but it was noted that Family Programme members would be included following last year’s success with this segment. Cary gave a brief update on recruitment planning for the Director of Alumni & Development, following Chris Fancy’s departure in October 2007. 5. Report on specified donations and funds available The committee received the report on specified donations (where donors have indicated how they would like their gift to be spent, or have donated to a specific fundraising ask, such as the Austin Woolrych History Scholarships). The overall amount of money available for disbursement was confirmed as £47,382.60 (£14,824.88 earmarked for specific project areas and £32,557.72 available to the committee to award Friends Programme Grants). 6. Consideration of applications Committee members were thanked for having carried out their initial ratings of each application prior to the meeting. This had allowed for applications to be sorted into an order of preference as a starting point for discussion and decision-making. A total of 20 applications were considered and the following grants were made: Applicant Project description Grant Notes Bowland College Mature & Off-Campus Student £3,700 Part funding Facilities Cartmel College Showcase Facility for Arts Students £1,554 Lonsdale College Outdoor Furniture £1,578 Law School Lancaster University Innocence £3,361 Project English & Creative Wordsworth’s Sense of Place: Home £1,796 Writing at Grasmere Accounting & Finance Purchase of additional handsets for £4,452.08 and Economics PRS RF system European Languages & German Film Club £1,000 Cultures LICA (Music) Enhancement of Live Performance £3,803 Teaching, Capturing, PA and Diffusion System Continuing Education Student Ambassador Presentation £375 Part funding Skills Training Biological Sciences Behavioral interactions underlying £4,454 biodiversity effects on pest control Student Services Talking Heads Videos and Funding £2,000 Support Promotional Video Advertisement LUSU Roses Tournament 2008 £4,000 LUSU Societies Union Honours Board & £700 Trophy TOTAL £32,773.08 Discussion During the grant-making process the following discussions took place and comments were made on specific project applications: College applications The committee agreed to part fund the Bowland – ‘Mature & Off-Campus Student Facilities’ project. It was brought to the committee’s attention that the Calder Room is in an area that is due for possible relocation, so there was concern expressed about funding fixtures and fittings (e.g. the kitchen work surfaces and sinks etc). As such, the committee agreed to make the grant to pay for the items on the submitted budget that could be transferred to a new location (i.e. lockers and settees). This decision was based on the assumption that if the Calder Room is relocated, the facilities such as work surfaces, oven, fridge, sink, light fittings etc. should be provided by Estates. It was highlighted that outdoor furniture (relating to the Lonsdale application) is a popular bid for funding amongst the colleges and that there should be basic resource money available for this. However, it was agreed that lots of people can benefit from these projects and that alumni are generally keen on supporting the colleges. Both the Lonsdale and the Cartmel bids were awarded the full amount. Law School Concerns were raised over the detailing of the budgeted equipment for this bid, in that teaching care resource requests, i.e. the computer and printer, should be properly justified as this could be funded internally. However, it was agreed that this project was a strong candidate and the full funding was granted. Action: Rachel Newbury & Rachel Davis to look into the wording in the application guidelines for explicit detailing in the budgets. English and Creative Writing The committee agreed to grant the maximum fund request for this project and that it would be good advertising for the Friends Programme. Accounting and Finance It was highlighted that this type of IT equipment could be a capital expenditure and therefore may be funded from Resources. However, it was strongly agreed that it would be excellent PR as the handsets should be labelled with the Friends Programme Logo. The grant was awarded in full. European Languages & Cultures As this funding request was for the insurance excess, it was decided that the money should be retained in the Friends Programme restricted code account in reserve, then transferred if needed. Continuing Education This project was awarded part funding, as the catering costs are not able to be funded (as stipulated in the guidelines). Action: Rachel Newbury to request a copy of the training pack with the report. Biology applications Concerns were raised on the number of applications from this department, and the committee felt that so many applications were off-putting. However, it was noted that the Head of Department had given an order of priority for these applications prior to the meeting, which was useful to the committee. The committee felt that most of these applications were pilot projects which could also be funded by the University small grants research council; and that new members of staff would also have a budget for these type of pilot projects. It was suggested that clarification is needed in the guidelines on pilot projects and that the bidder should show evidence of having applied for funding elsewhere and subsequently been rejected. The resubmission of the ‘British Wild Flowers – A Seasonal Guide’ was not a departmental priority and there were concerns at the lack of a publisher. The committee agreed not to fund this project. The committee agreed to fund in full the ‘Behavioural interactions underlying biodiversity effects on pest control’ project. This was given highest priority by the department and also ranked higher than the other departmental applications in the committee’s ranking system. Action: Rachel Newbury & Rachel Davis to look into the wording in the application guidelines to give clarification on bidding for ‘pilot’ projects. Student Services It was brought to the committee’s attention that a similar video is currently being produced by a Lancaster student and that Student Services are aware of this. The issue was raised over the quality of the production of this proposed video, however, Tim Roca assured the committee that Student Services have the contact details of an individual who has produced some excellent materials in the past.