At the offices of the SMART Company, 78 Cowcross Street, London EC1M 6HE

 

Present:         Amanda Jordan (Chair), Christine Atkinson, Michele Elliott, Hamish MacLeod, Tink Palmer, Nick Truman, Jim Reynolds, Ian Walden

IWF Staff:      Peter Robbins (Chief Executive), Brian Wegg 

Apologies:     Mark Gracey, Sonia Livingstone

Amanda Jordan opened the meeting and welcomed Board members to her first meeting as Chair.  Apologies from Mark Gracey and Sonia Livingstone were noted.

Board agreed that the current one year term of office did not allow sufficient continuity and asked the Secretariat to take the necessary steps to implement the change.

ACTION 1: Secretariat to issue necessary notices 

Elections for Vice-chairs were postponed until the appropriate amendments can be made.  

 

3.         Minutes of previous Board meetings – 1^st Nov. 2005 and 2^nd Dec. 2005 

These were accepted as a true record.

4.         Matters arising - (including action summary from 1^st Nov.)  

Board noted the position with regard to Risk review and the outstanding policies required as a registered charity.  These would be presented for approval to the May Board meeting. 

The position with regard to appointment vetting was noted and it was agreed that developments would be monitored.

ACTION 2:  Board to re-consider appointment vetting as appropriate

Chief Executive asked Board to note that the government had received a large number of consultation responses on extreme pornography and indications were that they would take a while to analyse these.

ACTION 3: Board to be kept informed of any developments  

There were no other matters arising.

Chair gave a verbal report back on the progress with her induction programme, the meetings she had held and complimented the staff of the IWF on their professionalism and help to her.  Chair outlined a number of initial thoughts on governance, the role of the Board and the frequency of meetings.  She felt there were a number of governance issues that needed clarification. 

Board members agreed that it would further understanding and improve Board engagement if future meetings included regular outside speakers on relevant topics.

Board considered its relationship with Funding Council and with the internet industry which makes up IWF membership, noting the diversity in company size and range of services. 

 ACTION 4: Board to receive a member list which also indicates the size of the company and the type of products and services that they offer.  

6.         Chief Executive’s Briefing

Chief Executive introduced his report and highlighted specific issues.

With regard to Trustee training, Board noted that an information pack would be circulated to all Trustees and a training session was planned for the next Board meeting on 2^nd May.

Further information was given about the Centralised International CAI database and Board noted that this IWF initiative would now be led by INHOPE.  Chief Executive pointed out that the centralised database would enable hotlines to share data and be more confident of volume.

Board members noted that the Discovery Engine project had encountered a number of problems and had been less successful in identifying child abuse content than expected.  The Discovery Engine Advisory Panel had therefore recommended that the project should be wound up.  It was noted that the engine may have other applications and some of the issues which made the searches unsuccessful would be raised with the search engine group. 

a)                 Members list

List noted.

b)                 Financial exception summary to 1 Feb. 2006

Board noted the variances in expenditure which resulted in a broadly neutral effect.  In response to a question, Chief Executive explained the background to the CAI licence fee and the position with regard to member subscription levels.

Board considered the present subscription arrangements and felt that there should be greater clarity.  Chair asked industry Board members to discuss the matter with Funding Council with a view to forming a working group to investigate subscription levels and to make recommendations to Board

ACTION 5:  Industry Board members to initiate a review of subscription levels.

Chief Executive explained that membership renewals were spread across the year and he outlined the process and the new member agreement which was being sent to all members as they approached their renewal date.

ACTION 6: A copy of the member agreement to be sent to all Board members  

c)                 Profit and Loss account to 1 Feb. 2006

The account was noted.

d)                 Balance sheet to 1 Feb. 2006

In response to a question, the Chief Executive explained that a significant proportion of the total debtors resulted from the delay in receiving monies from the EU.  Board noted the balance sheet.

e)                 Budget forecast and Financial Statement for 2006/7  

Chief Executive introduced the draft budget and outlined the assumptions and assessments that had contributed to the forecast.

Board considered the budget setting process and the sustainability of income.  Concern was expressed that the process was being driven by what members could afford and a more fundamental approach might be considered for future budgets.  Chief Executive explained that he was recommending a cautious budget and following further discussion, Board unanimously approved the budget for 2006/7

Chief Executive explained the background to the paper and the action he was taking in order to help address the issues.  Board noted the paper and asked to be kept informed of progress.

Hamish explained that this dated back to the 1997 EU directive with regard to the creation of a single EU market for TV services.  He explained that he was attending the forum on behalf of the Mobile Broadband Group and was also keeping a watching brief on behalf of the IWF.  The UK favoured self-regulation but had in place closer links between government and the industry and at this stage the UK was in the minority with regard to the way forward. 

Chair thanked Hamish for the update and asked that Board be kept informed of any developments.

Chair introduced this item and outlined some thoughts on the structure of the day.  It was agreed that the meeting would be London based and the morning would be used to receive and consider presentations on policy matters.  Board noted that a presentation from CEOP as a way of reinforcing and clarifying IWF’s relationship with the Centre would be helpful.  Chair asked Board members to forward to the secretariat any ideas on topics and speakers for the Away Day morning on Tuesday 11^th July.

Chief Executive outlined the arrangements for the launch which will be on Wednesday 8^th March at the House of Commons.

a) In response to a question from Nick Truman, Chief Executive said that the difficulties with page stuffing encountered by the Discovery Engine would be taken up with the search engines.

b) Chief Executive explained that he had been put under pressure from the media to show child abuse images to visiting journalists.  He explained that IWF would be committing a criminal offence and he was unwilling to cooperate with the request from the media.  Board gave unanimous support to the Chief Executive’s stance on the matter.

c) The Board wished to place on record their thanks to Frank Glen for his 5 years of hard work and commitment to the IWF and wished Frank every success in his new career.   

 Tuesday 02.05.06, Tuesday 11.07.06, Tuesday 31.10.06

The meeting on 2^nd May will be at the offices of Baker and McKenzie.

Meeting closed at 1.15 p.m.