Feline Rescue CIO Trustees Meeting Minutes (25/02/2025)

Attendees:  Paul Johnstone (Chairman), Amanda Courtney, Ann Leal, Chris Wilkinson, Tania Jeffries (Secretary)

Apologies:  Judy Stewart

I.      Meeting Introduction

Paul opened the meeting.

II.      New Trustees

Tania has held a practice session for Ann and Chris, the new Trustees, to get used to joining a Jitsi call to ensure Trustees meetings run smoothly.  Paul set up access for them both to the Cloud file storage area and Animal Shelter Manager.

III.      Nominations for Chairperson, Secretary and Treasurer

Paul was nominated as Chairperson and unanimously voted in.

Chris was nominated as Deputy Chairperson and unanimously voted in.

Tania was nominated as Secretary and unanimously voted in.

Amanda was nominated as Treasurer and unanimously voted in.

Tania took an action to update the Charities Commission with information about last month’s AGM, including this year’s Trustees and which hold the above posts.

IV.      ECKSON

·   Wayne Eckersley has repaid his loan to us of £10,000 for using to help with the ECKSON Sanctuary CIC move from Sharnbrook to Sundon.

·   Wayne has asked us to let him know our plans for fencing/building in the area at Sundon which is allocated to Feline.

·   Paul took an action to ask Wayne to use the fencing he has already offered us to build a perimeter fence 11ft high.  Paul will offer this area, temporarily, to ECKSON for holding some of their animals, although he will caveat that they should not be animals who will turn the grass surface into a quagmire.

·   It was agreed that a single-subject in-person meeting should be held, to discuss our ideas for how we should use the Sundon space to add the most benefit to cats.  Meeting date was proposed as Saturday 15th February at 12 noon at Poplars Garden Centre (Restaurant Area).  [Post Meeting Note:- Tania has emailed an invitation to this meeting to all Trustees.]

V.      AOB

·   Old Actions - Tania mentioned that there are currently 23 outstanding actions (see below).  She took an action to group these actions into topics, then circulate them to all attendees, to be discussed at next month’s meeting.

·   Volunteer to sign-off the Accounts – An impartial volunteer is required to sign-off the annual account.   Judy has nominated Tina who works at a court and is therefore suitable to sign-off the accounts.  Amanda will let Judy know this has been agreed.

·   Trustees Annual Report – We need to create this report, showing our activities since the last AGM.  Paul took an action to do this.

·   Fundraising – Jackie needs to know what date she should give when applying for sponsorships and grants, as the start date for our work in building our Sundon space ready for holding cats there.  It was agreed that this should be the end of March.

·   Utilities at Sundon - Paul has made initial enquiries as to the cost of electricity and water supplies to the Sundon site and will discuss this with Wayne on his next visit.

·   Pets at Home have agreed to us holding an Awareness Session at their Gypsy Lane Store.

·   Asda (Luton/Dunstable) has agreed to us holding an Awareness Session on a Saturday.

·   Dunelm have agreed that we can hold a stall within their store to sell items, eg crocheted items, wooden bird boxes, candle holder centre-pieces.

·   Tesco – Jackie will be applying for us to receive donations from their blue token scheme shortly.

·   Mother and Baby Sale – Amanda will be attending this on 23rd February in Stopsley and has acquired ample stock.

·   Not Coping Situation – Amanda has been working with Becky from Cats Protection to persuade —————- to release some of his cats for rehoming as his home situation has reached a critical point.  The housing officer, adult social care and the council mental health team have all been made aware of ——’s living situation.

·   Mini-Beasts is a small rescue and Pam who runs it asked for help dealing with feral colonies and cats abandoned due to evictions.  Amanda used her network to reach out for assistance, but got trolled.

·   Kittens – Ann has two ginger and white kittens who will be available for adoption in two weeks.

·   Vaccination Policy – Other rescues have been broadcasting that adopters should not consider adopting unless cats/kittens have already been vaccinated, chipped and neutered – this all comes at a cost higher than our current minimum adoption donation.  To be discussed at next month’s Trustees Meeting.  It was suggested we could buy our own vaccines and ask a friendly vet (VetsGo?) if they would use these, in order to keep our costs down.

·   Boot Sales – Chris has about 1 car load of stock suitable for boot sales, which should be starting in around 6 weeks’ time.  Amanda has multiple car loads of stock in her barn too.

·   Ebay – Chris to look at the stock in Amanda’s barn, with a view to selling some of it on Ebay.

·   Roadmap – Paul suggested creating a Roadmap with Goals set on it, eg Membership Process, List etc.

VI.      Close

The meeting was adjourned at 21:20 hrs.

Next Meeting is scheduled for 19:15 on Thursday 6th March 2025.

Minutes submitted by:  Tania Jeffries