November EC Meeting 2019

This is insufficient to sustain our level of activities and educational provision at the current levels.

The GFTU therefore agreed to use some of the money normally allocated for a full time education officer to get a consultant, Paul Skitt, to propose a way forward to obtain additional sources of funding for education. The report on this work expected for this meeting is not finalised. It will be forwarded as soon as possible. In general terms it looks as though a combination of new partners and sources of funding could within a couple of years have replaced a lot of the GFTU subsidy without compromising our control and curriculum. It is vitally important in my view that there is a shared sense of ownership and responsibility for the income generation so I will be discussing the following with relevant staff. Inevitably in our current position I do not see how we can avoid having some income targets against staff.

I propose that we put the affiliation fee up by 2p per member to become £1 in 2020.

26

Housing.

It was agreed to enhance the salary of Cecile Henry Martin a hotel receptionist and former chartered surveyor to manage the tenancies for the housing. Cecile’s work in the regard is accountable through me to the Trust not the hotel directors as the income generated will be paid directly into the GFTU Educational Trust Account. This will provide a regular and steady monthly flow of cash. The houses open on December 1 st and I am chasing the estate agents to try and fill them from day one. So far it looks as though 3 properties are rented out.

27

Insurances.

A significant insurance survey was undertaken and some cost savings made and insurances renewed.

28

New Build.

Weekly site meetings have been held involving the Hotel General Manager.

Weekly reports from our Project Manager to me have been assessed throughout.

Monthly Project meetings involving the contractors and Project Manager and Hotel Manager have been held. Where relevant the Operations Manager has been involved to ensure communications with our own site managers. Generally speaking the contractors have been slack on timescales and suffered penalties according to contract, the quality of the work is good and our Project Manager has been very good protecting our interests at all points. Despite heavy penalties for delays on each section of the work, the contractor has missed lots of deadlines, which has been costly to us. We are secure in the penalties deducted but also mindful that there is theoretically a special jurisdiction for the contractor to go to should they wish to challenge our deductions.

6