The board of trustees had its monthly meeting on Saturday 27 November. We met in the function room of the White Lion in Tenterden High Street. Apologies were received from David Nibloe, and from General Manager Shaun Dewey.
The e-Newsletter provides an opportunity to give a brief flavour of some of the most important points. It should not in any sense be regarded as a comprehensive formal record.
Before the formal business we had a presentation on safety strategy from Neil Sime, our Safety Director. We noted the continuing importance of ensuring that safety was fully integrated into everything that we did, and we discussed whether and if so how we might allocate more resource to it.
This being the first Board meeting after the 2021 AGM, all members were invited to update their Declarations of Interest. We confirmed that for the time being the principal roles and responsibilities would remain unchanged.
We noted that a review of the arrangements for holding AGMs was under way.
In Shaun’s absence we noted his report on recent activity on the Railway. The main items were Santa preparations and the completion of coach no 86 to a very high standard.
We affirmed that we were in a good financial position and recorded our thanks to the management for income generation and cost controls.
We noted the regular report from the Safety Director which highlighted some good initiatives by the Loco and C&W departments.
We noted the Risk and Compliance Committee’s report. Considerable further work was required fully to embed risk management in the Railway, and we agreed that the Committee might need to co-opt additional members with the necessary skills. The organisation’s limited bandwidth was an issue here, as in other areas.
We noted initial steps towards the preparation of a bid for a Heritage Lottery Fund grant for the forthcoming overhaul of 6619 and agreed that in the meantime there were a number of smaller potential projects that might be suitable for targeted fundraising efforts.
We noted the continuing work of the Projects Assessment Committee, including its recommendations for signing off some improvements for the C&W department. We also noted that the potential projects list, now some two years old, would be updated. We felt there was a need for more managers to make use of the PAC processes.
We signed off the approach to be taken for developing the forthcoming station site strategy; conversations with stakeholders would start in earnest in the new year and be accompanied by suitable communications. The aim would be to produce findings and proposals in the second half of 2022.
We looked forward to a visit from Arlingtons on 1 December to discuss their work on the Kitchen Car. This would lead to the preparation of a workscope for the final stages of the project.
We agreed Terms of Reference for the new Environmental Sustainability Working Group which would begin its work in the new year.
This was Charles Mavor’s final Board meeting as Company Secretary; we thanked him for his work and noted that steps were in hand to identify and appoint a successor.
We agreed not to hold the December meeting; the next scheduled meeting would therefore be on Saturday 29 January 2022.
