Annual General Meeting Monday, 21st November 2011 National Railway Museum, Leeds MINUTES PRESENT: Chair: Board Members: Members of the Company: Clare Morrow Gary Verity Cllr Arthur Barker David Lascelles Deborah Egan Shaun Watts Cllr Peter Box Cllr David Jeffels, Scarborough BC Charles Forgan, Captain Cook Museum Peter Banks, Rudding Park Hotel & Golf Club Cllr Glen Burton, Wakefield Council Cllr Geraldine Carter, Calderdale Borough Council Ena Dent, Craven Garth Cottages Sir Thomas Ingilby, Ripley Castle Cllr Tim Swales, Hambleton District Council Ian Ashton, Moors & Coast ATP Michael Hjort, York Food Festival Pat Oxley, Yorkshires Finest Accommodation Judith Rayner, British Holiday & Home Parks Association 1. Welcome The Chair, Clare Morrow, welcomed everyone to the 2011 Annual General Meeting of Welcome to Yorkshire and thanked them for coming. She said it was good to see so more than 100 people attending the meeting. She referred back to the previous AGM when snow had prevented many people from coming on the day. Clare introduced Steve Davies Director of the National Railway Museum and thanked him for allowing Welcome to Yorkshire to use their conference facilities for the AGM free of charge. Steve welcomed everyone and shared with the meeting the current success of the Railway Museum as well as talking about some of their plans. 2. Apologies for Absence Apologies had been received from a number of legal members of the company who were not able to be with us today. 3. Highlights of the Year 2010-2011 The Chair introduced Chief Executive, Gary Verity, to present highlights of the year. Gary confirmed that tourism in Yorkshire held its own during some of the most challenging economic times in living memory and that overnight tourism spend was up in Yorkshire by 12% according to Visit Britain while an average of minus 1% elsewhere in the UK, and that there had
been a 6% increase in overseas spend compared to 3% elsewhere. Business tourism has doubled between 2010 and 2011. Gary was proud to announce the year s many achievements. He played a film showing some of the highlights and outlined the following activities which had helped to raise Yorkshires profile, encouraging people to visit: o April 2010 Welcome to Yorkshire was the key sponsor for the FINA Diving World Series, Sheffield o July 2010 the launch of the Welcome to Yorkshire Open Air Theatre in Scarborough attended by The Queen o January 2011 the world famous climber Alan Hinkes launches the Yorkshire s Great Outdoors campaign at the Outdoor Show in London o March 2011 the Dales TV series went on air on prime time ITV. Welcome to Yorkshire played a vital role during the making of The Dales series as well as hosting a VIP premiere of the first two episodes in Richmond for an audience of 100. The 12-part series attracted an average of nearly 4million viewers per episode. o March 2011 Welcome to Yorkshire helped to bring Frankenstein s Wedding Live to Leeds. 12,000 people gathered at Kirkstall Abbey profiling Leeds as a destination live on BBC Three o April 2011 the launch of our new TV campaign Have a brilliant Yorkshire at Y11 the biggest tourism conference in the UK. o May 2011 Our Art of Yorkshire garden at Chelsea made Chelsea Flower Show history as Welcome to Yorkshire becomes the first organisation to win the People s Choice award two years in a row. We also won a silver medal for our garden. o July 2011 Yorkshire went global with our support for Clipper 10-11 Round the World Yacht Race o Welcome to Yorkshire s work had been recognised by the winning of a number of awards the World Travel Award for the World s Best Marketing Campaign, the Travel Mole Award for Best Tourism Website, Yorkshire.com, 2009 and 2010, Travel Marketing Awards for Best Magazine & Best Website 2010, The British Educational Travel Association (BETA) British Youth Travel Awards 2010 for Best UK Youth Destination Award, Drum Magazine Marketing Industry Awards 2010 -The Chairman s Award for outstanding marketing work. Our excellent PR team win silver at the CIPR Pride Award for Outstanding In-House Public Relations Team - Nov 2011. We ve been nominated for two further World Travel Awards this year; results will be announced in the New Year. o Welcome to Yorkshire s website had seen a hit rate of 5.24 million visitors which surpassed Visit London. o Campaigns on Art, Weddings, Battlefields were launched as well as a programme based round the Olympics - Yorkshires great party. o Welcome to Yorkshire and UK Inbound have formed a strategic partnership to showcase Yorkshire and are the first in the country to do so. Working with UKInbound will give Welcome to Yorkshire great opportunities to reach tour operators who sell Yorkshire internationally. 4. Minutes of the 2010 Annual General Meeting The Chair presented the Minutes of the previous AGM and asked if there were any matters anyone wanted to raise on the Minutes. There were none. She explained that the meeting was not quorate so we were unable to vote to accept the Minutes. This would have to be done later via email.
5. Approval of the Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2011 and Re-Appointment of the Company s Auditors The Chair invited the Director of Finance and Operations, Gerard Downes, to present the Annual Report and Accounts. Gerard explained the financial figures in the annual report, highlighting that the year had ended with a retained surplus of 664k. He explained the expenditure profile and the main changes from the previous year. He explained that the pension scheme assets had increased by 16% in the year to 4.8 million, and that the liabilities had decreased by 0.7 million to 6.4 million, largely due to a change in the basis of valuing future liabilities from RPI to the lower CPI, with an effect of 0.5 million. Overall liability at 31 March had therefore reduced by 1.1 million to 1.6 million. Looking at the balance sheet this had moved the organisation s position from a net liability of 559k in 2009/10 to a net asset of 807k in 2010/11. The property valuation for 312 Tadcaster Road remained static at 800k. He confirmed that the organisation had a solid financial platform for future development. The Chair invited Guy Ward from auditors Barron and Barron to address the meeting. Guy explained his role as auditor and confirmed that he was satisfied that the accounts had been prepared in accordance with the necessary financial rules and showed a true picture of the organisation s financial position, that the auditors had issued a clean audit report, and that the positive balance sheet strength was a welcome change from the previous year. The Chair invited questions from the floor on the annual report and accounts. Ruth English asked whether there had been a replacement for the now defunct England s North Country s activities. Gary explained that it had been decided that the organisation was not adding value to Yorkshire s activities, and that Peter Dodd, who was previously part of the organisation was now a permanent member of staff at Welcome to Yorkshire. Sir Thomas Ingilby asked why the figure for staff costs had risen when staff numbers had not. Gerard explained that this was due to a change in the way payment for Chief Executive roles in the sub regional partnership were recognised in the accounts. Two Chief Executives were now being paid for directly and seconded into the partnership organisations. The Chair confirmed that an additional legal member had joined the meeting during the presentation and it was now quorate. That being the case she asked for the Minutes to be accepted as a true record. Cllr Geraldine Carter proposed, Arthur Barker seconded and there was a unanimous vote in favour of accepting the Minutes. She asked Members to approve the Annual Report and Accounts. Sir Thomas Ingilby proposed and Cllr David Jeffels seconded, and there was a unanimous vote in favour of approval. She asked that Barron and Barron be re-appointed as the Company s auditors. Arthur Barker proposed and Sir Thomas Ingilby seconded and the re-appointment was unanimously approved. 6. Alterations to Memorandum and Articles of the Company The Chair explained the proposed changes. The first group of changes were necessary to remove the references to Yorkshire Forward from the Memorandum and Articles as they would no longer be in existence after March 31, 2012. Yorkshire Forward had asked for these changes to be brought to the AGM. The second proposed change was to the wording of the Board make up in the Articles. She explained that this was to give the Board the flexibility to operate legally if at any point they did not have the full complement of Board members.
The Chair asked the meeting to agree the following changes: Resolution: That the Memorandum and Articles are changed: to remove references to The Regional Development Agency (Yorkshire Forward); and to provide additional flexibility in the constituency of the board, by providing that there may be up to 11 non executives, replacing the current specific requirement to have 11 non executives. David Lascelles proposed the changes to the Memorandum and Articles. They were seconded by Cllr Geraldine Carter and there was a unanimous vote in favour. 7. The next twelve months The detailed changes to effect this are set out below: Proposed changes to the Memorandum: Clause 3i) - delete the definition of the RDA Clause 3ii)g) delete the words the Regional Development Agency and Clause 3ii) h) delete clause: currently reads to provide intelligence on tourism to the Regional Development Agency and others to assist in strategic and policy decisions Proposed changes to the Articles: Clause 1 - delete the definition of the RDA Clause 29ii) add the words up to such that Clause 29 shall now read: 29 The Board shall comprise the following: i) The Chairman; ii) up to 11 non-executive directors; iii) Minimum 1 and up to 3 executive directors who are appointed by the Board. Asking the Chief Executive to outline plans for the next twelve months, the Chair confirmed that three of four Local Enterprise Partnerships in Yorkshire now had representatives on the Welcome to Yorkshire Board, and it was expected the fourth LEP, the Humber LEP, would shortly put a representative forward, now they were established. Gary confirmed that Welcome to Yorkshire remained on a firm footing and had an unwavering ambition for Yorkshire. He said that is should be Yorkshire s aim to double employment in tourism over the next ten years. He said we would continue to maximise opportunities to take the Yorkshire message outside the county and the country. He showed a BBC clip from live coverage showing Yorkshire s profile in the Lord Mayor s Parade in London last week, said the organisation was currently working with Opera North to promote them and Yorkshire at the Barbican in London, we would be back at the Royal Academy with David Hockney s Bigger Trees exhibition, and he would be in New York with playwright Sir Alan Ayckbourn next month. The Olympics and the Queens Diamond Jubilee were big opportunities for the county to show itself off and encourage visitors. He said the transition to a new business model was progressing well, with strengthened partnerships with both tourism businesses through the membership scheme, and businesses in the wider Yorkshire economy, who recognised that a strong Yorkshire brand benefitted them. He said that the organisation was planning
for income of 4 million pounds next year, providing expected sources of income materialised, and was in the process of reducing its cost base. An ERDF bid for 9 million pounds of activity over the next three years had been submitted and the organisation was hopeful that would be successful. Plans for next year included a domestic campaign, including TV advertising, sponsorship and outdoors activity, an ongoing programme of events and support for festivals to attract visitors, continued branding at multiple locations, and ongoing development of Yorkshire.com. He said that themed campaigns planned for the next year included The Coast, Heritage, Delicious, Sport, Festivals, Indulgence, City Life, Family, Artistic, Outdoors, and a regional short breaks campaign. Activity to engage consumers at the Great Yorkshire Show, and the White Rose Awards which celebrate excellence in the industry would continue to be important for the organisation. The Chair asked for questions from the floor. In answer to a question from Di Burton about concerns in Harrogate about the conference centre and how Welcome to Yorkshire would be working with the town, Gary said we had close working relationships with Harrogate and the council s Chief Executive and would continue to work very closely. Clare confirmed that Harrogate was a significant part of the ERDF bid, with some key activities planned for the town. In answer to a question from Peter Banks about when the ERDF bid would come on stream if successful Clare explained that it was a 9 million project with 4.5 million ERDF contribution, which would roll out from April 1 st 2012. It included work around festivals and destinations, including promotional activity. She confirmed that ERDF had been very encouraging, welcoming a significant bid for tourism activities, and that the Welcome to Yorkshire bid sat alongside a sister bid submitted by Visit Hull and East Yorkshire and Visit York. She said she was hopeful of a positive outcome. Charles Forgan asked Gary to confirm that in the context of overall tourism marketing falling across the UK, strong marketing activity from Yorkshire would increase our share of that market, and therefore all additional money raised from membership would enable us to spend more on marketing. Gary confirmed that this was the case. Cllr Geraldine Carter said that small tourism businesses had sometimes struggled in the past to join in membership because they could not afford to be inspected. She asked whether it was still necessary to be inspected. Gary and Clare confirmed that the situation in this regard was changing and that we no longer had an inspected only policy, in line with a national change in this regard. Clare said that it was now accepted that consumer activity on sites like Trip Advisor meant that new ways were developing for consumers to satisfy themselves about quality. Gary was asked what the key message from the industry to Downing Street should be. He said that we had been very active in putting forward a suggestion to government that they should match private sector contributions to tourism organisations, and that this suggestion was under consideration. Clare added that the key to unlocking public funding was proof of representation of a large part of the tourism sector in Yorkshire and that was why it was important that all businesses encourage other businesses to join Welcome to Yorkshire as members. There being no further questions the Chair closed the meeting, thanking the Welcome to Yorkshire staff for all their hard work, the Private Sector Members Group for their support throughout the year, everyone for attending the AGM and the Railway Museum for hosting it. Signed Chair