CHP committee, 2018-09-20
Minutes

Minutes of a Caradon Heritage Partnership committee meeting held at Liskeard on 2018-09-20. Readership is CHP members.

Present:

Peter Jackson           Secretary
Iain Rowe               Caradon Archaeology
Brian Oldham            Walkers are welcome
Lorna Shrubsole         Liskeard Town Council
Rachel Bennet           Stuart House

Apologies:

Derris Watson, Hilary Taylor, Alan Groves

The meeting was chaired by BO.

Previous minutes

Accepted as accurate, except it is unclear whether or not IR had been present as a late arrival.

Finance updates

DW was not present but had sent a report that we currently have £1588.35 in the bank account. There are pending transactions that will alter that figure.

Equipment update

There has been no change to equipment status. Noted that the Trevithick Society still holds surveying equipment in which we have interest and we have fewer reliable contacts within it than in the past.
Action: IR will investigate and report back at the AGM.

Web update

PNJ reported that Cornwall Council had now stopped paying for the domain name, which therefore expired, removing access to the web site. After some evidence gathering effort, assisted by IR, PNJ was able to convince the registrar to transfer ownership of the name to himself (as CHP Secretary) and the web site became visible again on 2018-09-05. The host fees for the site have been paid for a further year.

The web site is based on a CMS called Joomla in a structure which seems unwieldy and hard to maintain. Therefore PNJ and IR have met with Martin Russell of Webcube Media with a view to reconstructing the site under Wordpress, which is more widely known and more likely to be maintainable.

The cost to us for setting up the replacement site would be £800 for the work.

Webcube also set up the Cornish Graves and Dissenter's Cemetery web sites and has accredition as a supplier to Cornwall Council.

One of the modules we could have in the new site would allow us to sell things and receive donations. There is already a Paypal account which we might use for that.

Intellectual property from the existing site will be transferred to the new site and there will be a body of work to do that and set up the arrangements for the new site which will be carried out by PNJ and IR.

The value of the web site is as:

A means of making information available to the public;
A means for the HLF to monitor the legacy of the CHAHP, which maintains a connection that may be valuable if any CHP member organisation wishes to apply for funding.

The meeting unanimously agreed that the work described to change the web site infrastructure should proceed. This had also been verbally supported by AG and DW in previous communications.

Operating costs for the web site can be met by the CHP for the next few years at least.

The meeting thanked PNJ for doing the work needed to resurrect the web site.

Caradon Heritage update

The last meeting of CH officers was with Martin Eddy about ways of getting local government support for work to Houseman's engine house.

IR has spoken with Jenny Heskett, who is a countryside warden for CORMAC. She stated that they have a duty of care for this building lasting 10 years beyond the end of the CHAHP.

Proposed CHP management change

The CHP forum meetings appear to have diminishing value to its member organisations and are an overhead to maintain. The CHP's officers therefore propose that we discontinue regular forum meetings and that the officers remain as a management team to maintain the web site and provide a communications hub for the CHP.

Ad-hoc forum meetings can be organised if the membership requires them and there would continue to be an AGM to review membership, provide for the election of officers and provide an annual report.

The constitution should be changed to reflect the above intentions and to make explicit the membership of the management committee.

Action: PNJ to draft changes to the constitution for ratification at the AGM.

Event planning

Member organisations wishing to publish details of forthcoming events can continue to send information to the CHP for publication.

Next meeting

The AGM at the Public Hall in Liskeard on 2018-11-08T19:30.
The Chair will be BO.

AOB

None.

Meeting closed at 19:33 UTC.

Updates

This document is maintained by the Caradon Heritage Partnership. Comments should be addressed to CHP_secretary at caradon dot org dot uk.

PNJ, 2018-10-28. Transcribed from notes made at the meeting.