Meeting House Management Committee Agenda 2025-10-20
Monday 20 October, 5.15 p.m., in 7 Victoria Terrace

* Attendance Draft minute: JP Ascher, Rachael Fitzgerald, Chris
  Jardine, Katrina McCrea (via Zoom), Jackie Noltingk, Laragh Quinney,
  Sammi Searle, Henry S. Thompson, Andy Tucker, Duncan Wallace

* Convenor's report
  * Change of representative from Treasury Team

    Draft minute: We welcome Chris Jardine, the new AM Assistant
    Treasurer, and say goodbye to Jackie Noltingk, with a very warm
    'Thank You!'  for your long service and many contributions to the
    work of this committee and your frequent help for its convenor.

  * Suggestions from Local Meeting

    Turns out HST misunderstood the suggestion from LM Co-Clerk Juliet
    Henderson regarding the provision of something to help keep folk
    warm in the Meeting Room: it was _blankets_, not gillets.

    Draft minute: We welcome the offer from Central Edinburgh Local
    Meeting to purchase a number of blankets to be made available for
    people attending Meeting for Worship as the temperature drops and
    ask them to liaise with the Managers about practical details such
    as storage, signage and cleaning.

  * Unpaid leave for Eliza Giles 3 months in August-November 2026: EAPPI

    Draft minute: We are happy to agree to Eliza Giles taking three
    months of unpaid leave August--November 2026 to be a volunteer
    with the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and
    Israel and wish her well in that very important and challenging
    activity.

  * Computing infrastructure
    * New domain and storage

    Jonathan Riddell (the AM Treasurer) and David Sterratt have begun
    a restructuring of various aspects of the Area Meeting's computing
    infrastructure, in part in response to the creation of a new
    domain (quaker.scot), including new email addresses and a move
    from Dropbox to Google Drive.  AT and HST met with them to discuss
    changes this requires and/or enables changes in the Meeting House
    computing setup.

    * Windows 10 support

    HST and AT have worked together successfully to extend the
    provision of security updates to our Windows 10 PCs for a further
    year to 1 October 2026.

  * Dundee Friends Property Trust

* Managers' report
  * Defend our Juries
  * Area Meeting 10 September
  * New Casual Staff
  * 2026 Room Hire pricing
  * CVenues 2026

* Upper Bow report
  * Rent increase
  * Vacancy management

* Finance report

* Heating/Insulation/Energy...
  * Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES)

* Works to be undertaken Upper Bow
  * Report from Majk Stokes

* Quinquennial review/News from Trustees

* Staff escalation route if they need backup

  Trustees wrote to us about this, following up on the meeting in
  July where SCALP (Scottish Community and Activist Legal Project)
  gave Meeting House staff a training session on _Working Well with
  the Police_.

  "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."

* Date of next meeting

* Any other business

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