Venue – Balmaha Visitor Centre

Images from Wikipedia

On arrival seating was arranged in an Open Area of the Visitor Centre. Then the seating was removed except for three chairs for members of the public attending the meeting – there were four of us!  Apparently it was to be a “Standing Meeting” where only members of the public would be seated whilst Board Members and Staff stood around (or mingled and chatted??). Quite how this was intended to work we were not sure. How could Minutes, for example, be recorded? Perhaps that was the ideology behind it because if no Minutes were recorded no-one could find fault with them apart from the fact that a) they were missing or b) no-one in one area of the room would know what was being said in another.

However, we presume some Board members were unhappy because at the last minute chairs were brought forth again and all were seated. We hesitate to say that Common Sense prevailed! Needless to say there was no PA system (which is pretty dire at the best of times) and some Members were difficult to hear; the CEO in particular. To compound the problem, because we were in an open public area of what is after all a Visitor Centre, a number of National Park Authority  Rangers were dealing with visitors/ tourists and a horde of somewhat noisy school children at the other end of the room. There was a cacophony of constant door-banging and uncontrolled racket.

Eventually, the meeting got underway, but the noise continued unabated.

Item 3  Minutes

3.1    Minutes of Meeting held on 27^th February 2018

Members were invited to comment on the Minutes relating to a Special Board Meeting re Cononish Mine which had been subject to a complaint (see here). No-one did. There was a reference to “a discussion” later.

3.2    Minutes of Meeting held on 14th June (at Brig O’Turk)

No comments.

4. Matters Arising – at this point a question was asked re Cononish Mine and apparently Monitoring Officers are being appointed.

By 10.20 am we had reached Item 5 on the agenda

5. Core paths Plan Review

A few questions were asked here and were ably answered by the presenter, Kenny Auld, manager of Recreation, Access and Health for the NPA.

10.40 am brought us to Item 6 on the Agenda – Governance

6. 2019/20 Meeting Dates

• Appendix 1 – Draft 2019 meeting calendar
• Appendix 2 – Draft 2020 meeting calendar

Members were reminded that these were as per the new Governance framework and that the timing of Board meetings was not finalised or even how many of these were genuine, accessible, public Board Meetings.

At this point one of the lady Board Members vociferously questioned the Convener of the suitability (or otherwise) of the recent choice of venues; why Members were having to travel to venues which lacked the facilities of Headquarters at Carrochan in Balloch. It was impossible to dispel the mental image of a Dad’s Army episode where Private Pike was given a drubbing by Captain Mainwaring for being a silly boy!

We agree that she had a point. Today’s venue, whilst easier to get to and on better roads than Brig O’Turk, was by any standard a most unsuitable venue on many fronts as indicated above. Also would those travelling incur claims for expenses?

The Convener indicated that meetings held away from headquarters helped to give members a sense of place!!

7. AOB ( 10.47 am ) – issues raised by Members

• Car Parking charges By Argyll & Bute Council (see here) – the NPA had concerns re £9 per day charges; their own max charge was £4
• Campervans on old A82 along Duck Bay
• A Member for Argyll & Bute gave a lengthy reason for the charge rate (otherwise the Meeting would have finished even earlier!)
• A Member requested a synopsis/compilation of vehicle parking charges across the NP for comparison

Dredging of Drumkinnon Bay for European Championships             Photo credit – Lennox Herald

• The Convener congratulated all, especially the team, on the success of the Open Water Swimming European Championships held in Balloch and it being fantastic for the Park. (No mention was made of the disruption to other loch users over many weeks; the loss of revenue to businesses in Drumkinnon bay where one business was closed down for three weeks; the dredging in the bay fiasco (see here); or the fact that there was only a total of 96 swimmers over the course of the week and a maximum of 38 swimmers on any one day. From what we saw and from speaking to others, the event was very poorly attended. There was little of it on television and local press barely mentioned it but made reported more on the popular Festival held to celebrate the event! ).

OPEN WATER SWIMMING

DATES       AUG 8 – AUG 12

ATHLETES      96

Schedule:

DATE	TIME	RACE	GENDER	NO.PARTICIPANTS
Wed 8th Aug.	9.30	5km	FEMALE	18
	11.10	5km	MALE	24
Thurs  9th Aug	9.30	10km	FEMALE	31
	12.30	10km	MALE	38
Fri 10th Aug	——-	——–	———-	—-
Sat 11th Aug	11.00	5km	MIXED TEAM RELAY	8 TEAMS
Sun 12th Aug	9.00	25km	FEMALE	15
	9.00	25km	MALE	21

• The Convener intimated that subject to their acceptance 2 (if we heard that right) new Government appointees to the Board should be announced soon (five posts had been advertised).
• A Member highlighted the lack of Motorhome provision around Callander.

The Meeting closed at 11.15 am.

We have since discovered that the purpose of ‘Standing Meetings’ is to keep meetings short. It is our understanding that these are often held in corridors and may last only a few minutes or up to 15 mins for a short ‘brainstorming’ session.

“Stand-up meeting

A stand-up meeting is a meeting in which attendees typically participate while standing. The discomfort of standing for long periods is intended to keep the meetings short.”                  Wikipedia