Meeting House Management Committee Minutes 2026-01-13
Tuesday 13 January, 5.15 p.m., in 7 Victoria Terrace

And then with Trustees from 6.15 to 6.45, if you can

* Attendance: JP Ascher, Rachael Fitzgerald, Emma
  Lawrence (online), Katrina McCrea (online), Sammi Searle, Henry
  S. Thompson, Andy Tucker, Duncan Wallace

  Prevented: Laragh Quinney, Chris Jardine

* Matters Arising

  * Meeting House closure

    HST was on 'phone cover during Managers' absence for a few days,
    no calls came in

  * YFGM
    *Action* on HST: Ask YFGM for feedback about other venues after the
    upcoming visit.

  * Community Evening on Mondays

    We said in November that we were minded to approve this for a
    January start, but Ellie (EG) and the Managers needed a bit more
    time to get a complete plan ready, see below.

* Convenor's report

  * Welcome Emma Lawrence

* Managers' report

  * New Website

  * New emails for 7 VT office and Managers

  * Lift inspection

  We *agreed* to authorise a further more detailed report on its
  condition.

  * Fringe let to CVenues

  We *agreed* to authorise a CPI-based annual increment in the fee.
  The lease needs to be clear about detail: e.g. uplift in April on
  the basis of January CPI.

  We *agreed* to work the HK to explore [bed tax] funding for venue
  improvements

  We *agreed* to tell Trustees about allowing alcohol for sale

* Financial Report

  Slides attached as circulated

  We *endorse* CJ's point 6.  Managers will meet with CJ shortly to
  begin this process.  Forecasting is _always_ vulnerable to
  unexpected events, but we can at least do better than the current
  uniform division by 12 approach.

  We are very grateful to CJ for his excellent report.

* Works to be undertaken: Bow Room

  We have asbesto behind the cupboard.  Demolition and refurbishment
  survey?  And then remediation.  Recommendation is if building work
  is planned then such a survey should be commissioned for the
  relevant areas.

  There is an earlier survey, but its scope and date is not
  immediately available.

  We *agreed* to revert to the companies we've asked to quote for a
  clear statement of the scope of the investigation they've already
  done, the scope of the work they have quoted for, and to _increase_
  that scope to the whole of the Bow Room.  Feed in to that any
  information from the putative earlier survey, as a matter of
  urgency.  If this involves up-front expenditure up to £2,000 that is
  *approved*.

  As soon as the scope of the previous survey is clear we will need to
  make the situation public, but for the time being we will keep the
  news quiet.

  For the time being we will stop letting the Bow Room, in
  anticipation of refurbishment.

* Central Edinburgh Sunday fee

  AM Treasurer has asked if we plan to change this. It's currently
  £600.  Maybe it's time to ditch this meaningless paper transfer?

  > Catriona suggests a 6% increase to Central Edinburgh, does that seem
  > sensible?

  > ---------- Forwarded message ---------
  > From: Central Edinburgh Treasurer (Catriona Dickson)
  > Subject: Re: Edin Quaker Meeting House use rates
  > To: SESAM Treasurer (Jonathan Riddell) <se-treasurer@quaker.scot>


  > Rent 2024@ £563.20 per month. Rent from Jan 2025 @ £600.00 per month


  > That was approx a 6% increase. so maybe we could expect £636.00 per month
  > from Jan 2026, but of course I would prefer no increase!


* Staff escalation route if they need backup

  The Minutes on this item from 2025-10-20 say:

   Trustees asked us:

    "we need ... an assurance from [MHMC] that staff have an
   escalation route whenever they need backup. ... We are happy for
   trustees to be on a reserve backup list in case no-one from MHMC
   is available."

  All we have at the moment is an informal phone tree: MHM -> MHMC via
  HST -> Trustees via Martin Ward

  What SCALP gave us was more in the direction of how to behave
  towards the police in a less than full-cooperation way.  But was not
  really quite what we expected/hoped for for _building staff_.

  De-escalation training!  RF to let us know more about this.

* Policy/procedures for early booking arrivals

  What is the policy wrt Friends opening the front door when they are
  in the Foyer, there are no staff present and someone knocks or
  rings?

  This may arise if for example someone with a booking arrives more
  than 15 minutes early, a tourist wants to ask questions or look for
  Major Weir...

  This is clearly complicated, and begs the question of how a Friend
  or Friends may come to be in the Foyer without staff.

  This interacts with the "be a welcoming place for SESAM" goal.

* Policy for charges to non-SESAM Quaker bodies

  We need to standardise on a more nuanced policy for e.g. YFGM, QiS,
  NFPB, along the lines of covering costs (which is a lot if the MH
  would otherwise be closed, nothing at all if staff would already be
  present throughout, marginal cost for adding housr, requiring
  flexibility about what room they end up in on the day, ...

  Does it matter if _none_ of the participants will be from SESAM?

* Convenor of MHMC

  HST demits office on 1 April...

* Date of next meeting

  Tentatively Monday 2 March at 1715 in 7 VT

* AOB

* Time without staff

* Joint session with Trustees