LOCH AWE COMMUNITY WEBSITE ASSOCIATION

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

24 NOVEMBER 1999

1. NOTICE CALLING THE MEETING

K. Baird, Chairman, welcomed those present and thanked them for attending the first Loch Awe Community Website Association (LACWA) Annual General Meeting. The notice calling the meeting was taken as read. Apologies for absence were received from P. Gibson, C. Gillespie, J. Kerr, M. McLeod (A&IE), Mr and Mrs I. MacPherson, Mr and Mrs Martindale.

2. ACCOUNTS, FINANCIAL YEAR ENDING 31 OCTOBER 1999

As of 31 October 1999, there was still outstanding grant monies of £617.33 if LACWA put up £264.57. As the closing date for grant purposes is 12 December, all applications must be in by that date. Two-thirds of this amount has since been spent on outstanding community and business pages. The committee decided that if AIE/EU were prepared to let LACWA use surplus grant money to purchase a desk-top photocopier, this should be done. AIE/EU were agreeable to this, and the matter is now in hand – which gives the association another revenue point. The estimated expenditure of the year to 31/10/2000 is £889.00.

The accounts were adopted (Proposer: M. Johnston, Seconder: B. Hogg). It was noted that as there is a surplus, and as the site was not up and running from a commercial point of view until well into 1999, the committee had decided it would be fair to use some of the surplus to subsidise the maintenance charge for 1999/2000. The maintenance charge will therefore by £12.50. The remaining surplus will be transferred to a depreciation fund.

3. REPORT ON THE INITIAL MEETING, 15 SEPTEMBER 1998

K. Baird explained briefly how the association came about.

In August 1998 there was a well-attended meeting in Lochawe village hall at which David Fallows and Gordon Lennox of Newtonmore Community Web Association gave an excellent demonstration of their website – an eye-opener for many of those present. We then contacted Argyll and Island Enterprise with a few to grants, etc., and this resulted in another meeting on 15 September 1998. Unfortunately it was not as well attended as the first one, but a good cross-section of the community was present. Melody Mackay-Burton of A&I enterprise gave a talk and presentation, which complemented the one given at the first meeting. During the ensuing discussion it was decided to go ahead with setting up – or attempting to set up – what is now LACWA. A committee was chosen, and later added to. The composition of that committee is:

K. Baird – Chairperson

F. Maher – Treasurer/Secretary

M. Borrett )

C. Gillespie ) Dalmally and Stronmilchan

M. Johnston )

P. Gibson Portsonachan

J. Goel Eredine

J. Kerr Glen Orchy

J. Wylie Lochawe

4. CHAIRMAN’S REPORT

I shall not bore you with the daily efforts regarding getting the site up and running, but will give a precis of it. The quotations we received for building the website covered a wide range of prices, and the committee chose Newtonmore Community Web Association for reasons of price and quality – and I think the question of quality is borne out by comments received in the Guestbook. We put our proposals to A&IE and Leader II and eventually signed the grant agreement on 12 December 1998. Having thus secured 70% of our budget for set-up costs, we were able to place the contract with Newtonmore for building the site and with Gaelforce in Taynuilt for the equipment.

The committee then started to enrol businesses and collect information for community pages – so that we could ensure that the site offered educational and historical pages and thus served the whole community. On our site this has been achieved in no small measure, and our community pages now number in excess of 120 pages. We are indebted to all those who supplied this information. One person deserves to be singled out. Averil Watson’s knowledge of the area and every one in the area was of invaluable help, especially in the early stages.

We eventually started sending material to Newtonmore in January 1999 and went live on 8 April this year. This was later than we would have liked, because it would have been better to have been live at the end of 1998 to help the tourist side of the website. As a result we have decided that the maintenance for 1999/2000 will be only £12.50.

The access point is through Loch Awe Stores – purely because there was some space available and because Frances and I are what are called the key members, i.e. responsible for the daily operation of the access point, which is open during shop hours. Here I would like to stress that the equipment there is for the use of the community, and it is disappointing that few members of the community have made use of it so far. We have, however, had a fair number of casual users – holidaymakers, foreigners working in the area – wanting to keep in touch with friends and families at home or search for information.

The website would never have got off the ground without considerable help from many sources, and I make no excuse for taking up some time to express our gratitude to those organizations and individuals who have assisted the process.

Initially, I would like to thank David Fallows from Newtonmore for taking us in hand throughout the building programme and also Melody Mackay-Burton, Linda Parkinson and Jackie McLeod from A&I Enterprise.

We are very grateful to A&IE and Leader II for giving us a generous grant of 70% of the set-up costs. Argyll & Bute Council, through Councillor Macaskill and David Craig of the Education office, not only gave us an initial grant for building work and furniture, but also funds towards the first year’s running costs. Also to Glenorchy and Innishail Community Council go our sincere thanks for their valued contribution to our efforts. Without these three bodies the idea would have died due to lack of funds.

I would also like to thank our many sponsors and donors for their generosity, because without their support, even if we had managed to cover our 30%, the membership charges would have been considerably higher.

To the many contributors of material on a vast array of subjects, we are also greatly indebted, as we are to those who have permitted us to use their photographs, items from publications, etc. It is impossible to think of just how many individuals have been involved in this project, but I’m sure the number would be quite staggering.

We are also very grateful to the commercial members of the community for their support in this venture; at the outset they weren’t sure if it would be beneficial them, but let’s hope that being on line at this time of the year when people are planning holidays will reap benefits for all of us.

Let me reiterate my thanks to all those who have been involved, and not least to the members of the committee, who had to do a lot of chasing up to get people to agree to come on the website. The strange thing was that we usually got material quicker from people who had to pay for their site, than from those community organizations that didn’t have to pay. I shall mention no names.

At this stage, if I may, I would like to thank our Treasurer/Secretary for all her hard work in getting submissions in order to be sent, faxed or e-mailed to Newtonmore.

Please come along and bring children, friends, etc., to our Open Day this Saturday. Remember the internet access point and the website are yours and belong to the community. But just one aside: if at any other time anyone wants to use the computer or go on the internet and doesn’t know how to go about this, please try to bring a friend who does, as Frances and I may not always be able to show you how to operate it due to other pressures.

Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you.

4. ELECTION OF COMMITTEE MEMBERS

K. Baird explained that, according to the constitution, the whole committee retires at an AGM and is eligible for re-election. As no applications to stand for election had been received, a motion to re-elect the committee en bloc (Proposer: B. Hogg; Seconder: A. Watson) was passed by those present.

K. Baird pointed out that at the inaugural meeting in September 1998, F. Maher and he had agreed to carry out their current duties for one year only. They are prepared to continue for a further year, but would like to resign as Chairman and Treasurer/Secretary at the AGM in 2000. They would, however, remain the key persons as long as the access point stays at Loch Awe Stores. Their retiral would automatically leave two vacancies on the committee, as the key persons do not have to be members of the committee – being, as it were, unpaid employees of LACWA, responsible for the day-to-day running and reporting to the Chairman.

6. ANY OTHER BUSINESS

1. K. Baird reminded committee members to contact businesses regarding any changes to information on their sites – i.e. regarding charges, menus, updates on facilities – as well as for information regarding the disability angle. For community pages, too, it is important that LACWA is kept informed about what is happening. For everyone’s sake, the site must be kept fresh and up to date. Ideally, we would like to refresh the What’s On once a month. But we can’t do this if we only hear of an event two or three days in advance.

2. It was reported that the number of recorded hits is now 1,960 (though this does not take account of people who go directly to an individual site without going through the home page). A copy of Guestbook entries was available for inspection at the close of the meeting.

3. M. Borrett moved a vote of thanks and indebtedness to K. Baird for the burden he had taken on so willingly as Chairman of LACWA. This was adopted unanimously.