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Minutes of the Meeting of the Board of the Textile Institute held at 10





Minutes of the Meeting of the Board of the Textile Institute held at 11.00 a.m. at St Jamess
Buildings, Manchester on Thursday, 22
nd
January 2004.

Present: R Horrocks (Chairman), M Parkinson (Hon Secretary), S Anand (Ch: PEAC), D
Buchanan (Ch:Publications), J Cunning (Ch: Membership), S Kirkwood (Membership Director), J
Smith (Ch: International Events) and H Yeowart (Professional Affairs Director).

Apologies: Lord Haskel (President), A Priest (Vice-Chairman), K Silkstone (UK President), and B
Start. The Chairman refereed to K Silkstones illness and the Board recorded its best wishes for a
speedy recovery.

1. Minutes

The minutes of the meeting held on 18
th November
2003 were approved. It was agreed that the agenda
for Board meetings and a statement of matters agreed should be forwarded to Council members in
future.

2. Matters Arising

It was reported that £8 500 had been received from the Eureka project and a further claim for
£5000 had been submitted, with further claims pending.
The re-location of the TI offices group is working.
All sponsorship for the Design and Innovation conference have been re-confirmed for the new date
of 1
st
and 2
nd
April 2004. It was reported, however, that the Chairman of the Design SIG (J Pearson)
had resigned.

All 15 SIG Chairmen have been contacted regarding the activity (or lack of it) of their group. The
response was not encouraging and the following points were noted:

Apparel Group: There appears to be a desire for a group but a change of chair is needed. B Bohm to
pursue. B rating given.
IT Group: ( M Roberts chairman). No meetings held (S Kirkwood to pursued). Rating B-.
Weaving Group: (W Simpson chairman). A very active group. Board commends the group on its
work. Rating A.
Floorcoverings Group: (A Hassan chairman). A report from the December meeting is awaited. A-.
Fibre Science Group: Chairman (SK Mukhopadhyay) has left the UK to move to South Africa so a
new chair is required Increased co-operation with the Fiber Science Society is considered desirable.
Rating B-.
Technical Textiles Group: (R Shishoo chairman). It is a long time since a meeting has been held
although members have attended other conferences. Possible options are to hand over the
chairmanship to a younger man or to re-form the committee and then appoint a new chair. J Smith
suggested that the current chair continues but attempts should be made to bring others on line. It
was agreed that Technical Textile Group (UK) should be formed, with a UK chair, to attract DTI
funding. S Anand to suggest possible chair. R Shishoo to remain as chair of Technical Textile
Group International until a suitable replacement is found. Rating B-.
Interior Furnishings Group: does not exist at present. Rating C.
Fibre & Yarn Engineering Group: This group exists but is not active. Rating B-.
Nonwovens Group: (A Leather chairman). Chair to contact for further information. Rating C.
Yarn Group: No SIG at present.
Knitting Group: no response. J Mowbray to be asked by S Anand to chair this group.
Design & Innovation Group: Chair, J Pearson, has resigned. Prof C Johnson of RCA to be invited to
chair the group (K Silkstone/B Bohm to approach).
Strategy & Marketing Group: (D Rigby chairman). Not in operation.
Dyeing & Finishing Group: no response.
Narrow Fabrics Group: extinct.
Education Group: not in existence.
Textile Economics Group: not in existence.
Footwear Group: it was felt that such a group should be possible.

Following discussion it was agreed that:

(i)
The Membership Committee should be the parent committee for all SIGs.
(ii)
SIGs that wish to organise an event should have representative on the Events
Committee.
(iii)
Representatives on BS committees should be chartered members and be consultants or
an employee of a CPM.

All the above arose from minute 2.

Arising from minute 4:

(i)
Council had met on 10
th
December.
(ii)
The debt re-scheduling has been done.
(iii)
Writing the business plan is ongoing.
(iv)
The appeal was agreed by Council. The President will head the appeal.
(v)
The Board expressed grave concern at the state of the Design and Innovation Conference
to be held at Manchester Metropolitan University in April. Other events seem to be
progressing satisfactorily. The Design and Innovation Conference appears to have severe
costing problems. At least 80 delegates are required to break even and the Institute
cannot afford to incur any loss. It was agreed to express severe disquiet to S Spibey
regarding the organisation of the publicity for the event. Staff members S Tinsley and S
Kirkwood will offer assistance to ensure success. A Priest may be able to help also. The
Board wishes to encourage the Events Committee to take the most proactive approach
possible to sort out the conference. Further sponsorship might be sought.

3. Chairmans Overview of Previous Months Activities

Much time has been spent on financial matters and a strategic plan was circulated to Board and
Council in December. The Appeal will be pushed with the President.

4. Finance

The balance sheet as presented is correct to 30 September and extrapolated to 31 December. The
forecast deficit is £35k compared with the break-even budget. The major part of this discrepancy
results from an erroneous calculation of membership. The sundry creditors sum is high partly due
to the ITS contract being in euros. Unbudgeted items amount to £7k.
- 2 - The acting honorary treasurer thinks that the final figures will not be very different from the
forecast and things could have been worse.

The issues for the 2004 budget will be membership income and the publications income/costs. It
was agreed that the budget should balance and must be realistic. It was felt that services do offer
value for money but fixed costs need careful scrutiny.

By the end of January 2004, the Lee 400 portfolio will be removed. This will result in an overdraft
facility being reduced to £60k. The following actions were agreed:

(i)
Sell £20k to repay the Lee 400 requirement.
(ii)
Sell £50k to reduce the overdraft limit to £37.5.
(iii)
Check the capital gains position.
(iv)
Obtain a shares forecast from the broker.

It was felt that there would be two groups of donors in response to the appeal:

(i)
large, influential e.g. companies,
(ii) individual.

The Chairman will invite Lord Haskel and Mr S F Rubin to head the appeal and launch it. They will
be invited to set a target and recruit a team of contributors. The information will be sent to all TI
members.

5. Action Plan

This was updated by the Chairman in December 2003 and approved. The plan can be displayed on
the TI website. It is stressed that Board and Council members can help with progressing certain
items. It was agreed that progress is being made as the number of uncompleted issues is reducing.

6. Reports from Main Committees

(i) Membership

Tables of membership income were supplied. The forecast for 2004 is optimistic provided that staff
responsible for membership are not diverted to other tasks. Debtors are being chased, a rigid write-
off policy is being pursued and a re-join strategy is being developed.

The Business Information Service has caught up its backlog and a tender for NWDA funding is in
hand.

J Smith has recently visited Russia and reports interest in a Russian section probably on a
franchise basis. China may develop in a similar style to Russia.

A debate on a possible Convocation ceremony highlighted the amount of staff time required to
make the event successful. It was agreed to put the topic as an agenda item for the next Council
meeting with volunteer workers to manage the event.

J Cunning agreed to update the GFMP model and report by 10
th
March 2004.


- 3 - (ii) Publications

The catch-up programme is progressing although there is some shortfall of papers for the JTI. The
possibility of re-publishing The Identification of Textile Materials will be considered, hopefully
with the support of sponsorship. Discussions with Wiley regarding electronic publication are
ongoing. A proposal has been received from Woodheads regarding future cooperation.

The report was received.


(iii) Events.

J Smith reported that he had recently been awarded the St Petersburg medal and was congratulated
by the Board.
A planning meeting for the Design and Innovation Conference is to be held on 3
rd
February 2004.
AWC 2004, Shanghai: more than 200 papers have been submitted