Attendees:              Dinah McDonald               Chair

 

Advisor:                 John Forth                       LLTNPA

 

Apologies:              Dorothy Bruce

 

 

The minutes of the last Board Meeting held on 6 April 2009 were proposed by Ron Cruickshank and seconded by David McKenzie.

 

 

There was a discussion about the matter of Mr Dave Hart and the process that had been followed for his co-option as a Director. It was agreed that the due process had not been followed in this case. For any future appointments, it shall be for an existing Director to propose a new Board Director and for the Board then to vote on this. In the case of Mr Hart, he has now indicated that he does not want to be considered as a Director.

 

The Treasurer confirmed that £120 had been paid to Mr Hart for flowers and related.

 

The visits to the Kilmun Mausoleum as part of the Sandbank Homecoming events raised £208 in donations, resulting in a profit of £33 to the Trust. This has also resulted in an invitation from Cowal Archaeological and Historical Society (CAHS) to speak to one of their meetings in October. It was agreed that a reasonably professional presentation be prepared for this occasion and that this can used in the future. John Forth agreed to find out if the National Park could assist in this and David McKenzie will also raise with Hannah Dinneen.

 

 

 

Secretary’s Report

 

David McKenzie indicated that he needed to file the Financial Statements of the Trust for the period ended 31 December 2008 with OSCR before the end of September. Pearl Brown agreed to provide a copy of these to David.

 

Update on Membership

 

Nothing to report

 

Treasurer’s Report

 

Pearl Brown advised that the balances on hand were:

 

Account 1     -        £1557.47

Account 2     -        £8931.34

 

The following invoices were agreed to be paid:

 

Stewart McNee Coaches     -        £175.00       -        Homecoming Event

MacDonald Henderson       -        £1721.00      -        Mausoleum

DTA                                -        £55.00         -        Company set-up CD

 

Pearl suggested that, for about £35, Directors of the Trust can be trained to use school minibuses belonging to the Council and that these can be used for community purposes when not otherwise required. It was agreed that this might be a better option for future events rather than a commercial hire.

 

 

Forestry – Dinah advised that there was discussion about FCS selling land behind Clachaig from which the community currently obtained their water supply.

 

Villages in Bloom – nothing to report

 

Graham’s Point – nothing to report

 

 

Paths & Access – no meetings held. John Forth was requested to ascertain whether Jim Downie – NP Ranger – would be available for a future meeting.

 

Mausoleum

 

David McKenzie reported on the five streams of work underway:

 

1.     Memorandum and Articles of Association for the new company (Argyll Mausoleum). The Church of Scotland had now formally notified that Mr Alasdair Brown, Fabric Convenor to the Kilmun C of S, would be the designated representative to the new company. The draft Memorandum and Articles of Association have been distributed to the key principals with a request to formally approve these by the end of June. Approval had already been obtained from Mr Andrew Montgomery, factor to the Duke of Argyll. Dinah McDonald requested that the draft documents be circulated to the Trust Board for comment before she took a formal position on these on behalf of the Trust.

 

As soon as agreement is reached by all parties on the draft Memorandum and Articles of Association, the Company will be formally registered.

 

2.     Mausoleum Lease and Minute of Agreement. David had met with Iain Welsh, Donnie MacLeod and Gordon Dagleish of Argyll and Bute Council on 23 April. The Heads of Agreement document, which outlined the terms of the proposed lease, was endorsed. It was also agreed that Mr Dagleish would prepare the draft lease for circulation and approval. Mr Dagleish thought that he would have had a draft lease available within 14 working days, but nothing has arrived so far. David continues to chase.

 

A paper requesting a £50,000 contribution from the Council to the costs of the Mausoleum restoration has been discussed with the Area Committee. It is expected that this will eventually be approved.

 

3.     Artefacts. Following on the recommendation of the Board, David had gone back to Nic Boyes, specialist stone conservator, to advise that the £350 +VAT cost to survey the artefacts was considered excessive. Mr Boyes had then agreed to do the survey for nothing. He visited the Mausoleum on 5 May and his report and recommendations for the removal and conservation of the artefacts is expected shortly.

 

4.     Fund Raising. Hannah Dinneen has completed a draft application to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for a development grant. David will be working with Hannah on this over the next few days.

 

5.     Visits. In addition to the homecoming visits mentioned earlier, David indicated that he was expecting visits in the next few weeks from the Duke of Argyll, Michael Russell MSP, Minister for Culture, External Affairs and the Constitution and Professor Richard Oram from Stirling University. Local press would be advised of these visits to see if any publicity could be generated. John Forth also asked to be kept apprised of these visits as the National Park communications team may want to be involved.

 

Marine Environment

 

David McKenzie reported that Community Energy Scotland (CES) had revised the rules regarding tenders for the proposed feasibility study for waste water treatment for the shore communities. In particular, a cap of £10,000 for the Stage 1 study had been made explicit. As a result, we had been required to re-tender to the seven consultants who had originally made bids. Of these, three – Manorlane, AECOM (Faber Maunsell) and E4 – had re-tendered. David asked the Board to review the tenders submitted and to indicate who they felt we should put forward for funding to CES.

 

It was agreed to get back to David with any views by end of June. David would then advise CES and start the process to get the feasibility study underway.

 

Post Office / Shop

 

John Forth advised that a sub-group had been set up to examine the option to purchase the Post Office and run it as a community project. Topics to be considered include market research on business viability, building soundness, and potential to expand. An application had been prepared for the ‘Investing in Ideas’ fund and will be available for review this week.

 

The next stage is to examine options involved in purchasing, including staffing – part-time / full-time, volunteer / paid – and to look at whether the alcohol licence should be continued. A building survey would cost around £500; basic market research would be about the same.

 

A package is expected from the Co-op Retail Network – it was agreed that this should be distributed to the Board when available.

 

 

The next network meeting is Thursday 3 September – venue TBA

 

The AGM of the Trust will be held on Saturday 5 September in Kilmun Hall and will encompass a BBQ. Invitations will be distributed by mail – see below.

 

    

Web-site – David McKenzie will finalise the details of the web-site with Mike McDonald and get this live in the next month. The web-site will be highlighted in the letter sent out re the AGM, which will be mailed to everyone on the voter’s role in the area.

 

AGM invitation – a draft letter is attached to these minutes.

 

 

The next Board meeting will be held on Thursday 16 July at Uig Hall at 19:15. It was agreed that the invitations to the AGM will be prepared and envelopes stuffed by the Board immediately prior to the meeting and then mailed. A copy of the Community Profile booklet will be mailed with each letter.

 

 

Dear Resident

 

 

The Benmore & Kilmun Community Development Trust (B&K CDT) is one of the networks of Community Development Trusts sponsored and supported by the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park. This Trust – your trust – has been and continues to be active in the area taking forward projects for the benefit of the Community. The Graham’s Point play area, the range of planters and flowers, the growth of the approved path network are among some of the Trust’s achievements. The renovation of the Kilmun Mausoleum and the improvement in the marine environment are current projects which can eventually also provide significant community benefit.

 

In the last year, the Trust has prepared a Community Action Plan based on surveys of the residents and a Community Profile. Copies of the Action Plans were distributed to each household and a copy of the Profile is included with this letter. Additional copies of both documents are available.

 

In order to communicate more effectively with members of the community, the Trust has launched a web site (www.xxx.xxx), and all news regarding new projects, progress on existing projects and minutes of Trust meetings will be posted on this web-site. In order to make the web-site effective, we will be asking for e-mail addresses at the AGM (see below). If you don’t have internet access, we will be able to mail a limited number of residents by traditional means. 

 

On Saturday 5 September, the Trust will be holding the Annual General Meeting (AGM) at 14:00 in Highgate Hall, Kilmun. All residents of the area, whether they are members of the Trust or not, are cordially invited to attend. During the AGM, we hope existing members will renew their subscriptions (£2 per person per year) and that as many new members as possible will join. The format of the day will be as follows:

 

14:00           -        Introductions

14:10           -        Talk on the Kilmun Mausoleum Project

14:30           -        AGM

15:00           -        BBQ

 

During the BBQ, anyone who has an interest in the Mausoleum will be given the opportunity to make a visit to this fascinating building. A small donation to the Mausoleum restoration fund would be gratefully received if you decide to take the opportunity to visit the site.

 

We also invite any of the local residents who are interested in community projects to consider joining the Board as a Director. As you will see from the Community Action Plan, there are many projects which the community would like implemented, but we need more resources to get these underway. To join the Board, please advise one of the existing Directors of your interest and that will then permit the Board to consider the nomination.

 

The existing Board of Directors are:

 

Chair            -        Dinah McDonald      - 706591

Secretary      -        David McKenzie       - 840025

Treasurer      -        Pearl Brown            - 840389

Directors       -        Ron Cruickshank

-                     Billy Reid

-                     Russell Bruce          - 840888

-                     Dorothy Bruce         - 840888

 

 

The Board of Directors look forward to welcoming you on 5 September.

 

 

 

Dinah McDonald

Chair