Held on 10th May 2018 at: West Byfleet Social Club
Attendees:
Jane Armitage- Physiotherapists, Simon Preece- Accountants, Alan Fuller-Fullworks,
Kim Dhanoa – Byfleet Village Dental Boutique, Sue Taylor- FDTS (Seatbelts)
John & Christine Morrison, Apples/Pears
Apologies:
Neil Butcher- West Surrey Lettings, Gary Elson, Michael Lee Brown- Bray wood
Roland Nevett, Sheena Inwood -Academy Windows, Mike Mingoia -Smart Cartridge
Jo Schwarzkopf -Sweet Passion, Natalie & Teresa- Natalie – Marie Beauty, Christine Osbourne –Dental, Alison Turner – Medical Centre, Jeremy Andrews
Minutes of Meeting and Matters Arising:
The last minutes of the AGM 5th April 18 were agreed. Matters Arising discussed:
-Poster Plan: Property owners need to know as to when posters will be erected. Quotes for posters are needed and all are required to sign up and agree to location, cost, and wording. It is proposed to place one banner above the Station, above West Byfleet Social Club, on railings north side of station entrance. Michael wants others to be invited to help. ‘Apples and Pears’ have found a banner printer supplier in the Hazelmere Area that can offer banners like those that have been used to advertise West Byfleet Live in previous years and that a good price has been offered. The posters are to comprise of phrases such as: ‘Shop Local First’, ‘West Byfleet Still Open for Business’.
-Relationship with Working Borough Council: JA has attended meetings with the West Byfleet Neighbourhood Forum (WBNF) including meeting Cllr Graham Christie. WBNF will be talking to Altitude. ??Bruce Daniels and Mary of Curchods??. JA is working to build relationship within the Council and has a meeting arranged with them on 24th May.
Keeping West Byfleet Open Campaign
-Curchods are paying for a time line to be on the windows of the former Thomas Cook and maybe WBBA can be involved in something similar.
–Waitrose is happy for a sign to be erected. Their Manager would like to join WBBA- Action: Michael to be informed to follow up this enquiry.
West Byfleet Live- weekend of 31 July. West Byfleet Neighbourhood Forum is to have a stand and has invited WBBA to join them on the stand,
Treasures Report:
John advised the bank balance. Recommendation was made for funds to be spent on ‘Keeping Village Open ‘and other BBA campaigns.
Annual membership subscriptions to be £35. For those joining part way through the year the fee to be based on £10 per quarter.
Parking:
Jane and Gary will be arranging a meeting with Geoff McManus of WBC Re Parking in the village.
Woking Chamber of Commerce have offered support.
Jane asked if anyone had experience of using ‘Survey Monkey’ to collect data to identify where staff in businesses currently park. Alan believes that the success rate form using IT Questionnaires such as this only produces a return rate of less than 30%. Jane is going to draft a car park questionnaire. It was requested that members of WBBA are asked to help i.e. approach a minimum of three businesses each to ask about their current staff parking arrangements. Ideally to provide data ready for consolidation and discussion with the Council by 21st May.
Marketing and Promotion:- A volunteer is required.
Eagle Radio have approached Alison Turner and they are willing to interview local businesses. There may be a fee as the businesses will be promoted on the radio station throughout the day.
Planning:
Alan asked, ‘what is the vision of WBBA going forward?’ Since Year 2005, West Byfleet has lost 80 businesses. John proposed that WBBA forms a subcommittee to discuss strategy. John /Alan/Simon have volunteered to sit on this subcommittee.
Broadoak Development: There was drop-in sessions at West Byfleet Library recently.
West Byfleet Recreation Ground Playground: There is a need to improve the playground and WBC are working on this. WBBA are interested as to the effect on parking.
Membership:
We welcomed Kim of Byfleet Dental Boutique to the meeting.
Sharon Brayne of Brayne, Williams and Barnard Accountants in Rosemount House, have joined WBBA. Application received from Christine of Byfleet Village barbers.
Alan recommended that a new members meeting is held once a year with new members introducing their business.
Meeting dates: One business has asked can the WBBA be held on another day of the week apart from Thursday and do we need only to meet for an hour. It was felt that we should continue with meetings in its current form for the time being.
Website / Integrations
Alan -The website provides automatic reports once a month showing number of visitors to the WBBA website and hits per business. There have been a few visitors to the WBBA home page with 38% of visitors drilling deeper with a hit rate of 150 and 300 views of internal pages. It would be more successful if we put more news on the website. Alan encouraged us all to submit more news relating to our business for him to host.
AOB & Chairman’s Report
-GDPR – The forthcoming legislation on the recording, use, storage, and security of personal information regarding members of WBBA was discussed. Alan stated that only name, address, email address and phone numbers were kept and that these relate to the contractual obligation of WBBA to its members, hence it is believed that WBBA is compliant. In this regard Alan will add a privacy notice to the WBBA website to this affect.
Current Roles:
Chair: Vacant
Vice Chair: Jane Armitage
Treasurers: John Morrison
Membership Secretary: Michael Lee-Brown
Minutes Secretary: Shared Role: Sheena Inwood, Mike Mingoia and Gary Elson
Social Media: Ancy, 57 Boutique and Jo from Sweet Passion
Marketing / promotion: Vacancy
Date of Next Meeting
6pm Thursday 14 June 2018 – Sweet Passion Patisserie, Old Woking Road