Meeting Minutes 4th March 2024

Debriefing and decision following the last updates, incl. meeting(s) with the involved external teachers, and point on the resources available by AGSEV (Petra – see presentation attached for detailed assessment)

1.1 Scope = after-school activities and Music courses, involving about one hundred students. 

There is a vast range of activities involving: parent support answers; planning of course structures and numbers; setup of website content and website ecommerce products; communication campaign to parents; collection of course participants; collection of funds and memberships; follow-up for courses with not quota; management of insurance; communication with school for space and teacher vouching; day to day running; communication with COMSEV and COTSEV regarding transport and meal planning. AOB.

 
All these amounting to scores of hours of voluntary work especially concentrated between September and October.

1.2 The external teachers expressed willingness to continue and support in prima persona these activities.

1.3 The Board discussed the need to set a clear date for starting the activities, eventually from September, by anticipating if needed the subscription period (e.g. by June). This could in particular help coordinate with the COTSEV planning (contracts closed by August), while providing more support to parents, who sometimes have difficulties in finding a solution for their children for September/October until the start of these activities. An earlier start would lead to an increase of prices because a higher number of lessons would be offered, the Board considered this to be acceptable in order to have a solution in place for families from the first day of school. 

F.Scabini informed that COTSEV prepares student cards indicating the travel plan at the contract closure. These cards and the lists for the teachers are crucial for the safety of the students who need to take the bus. If the information for extracurricular course registrations were to be received at the same time as the closure of the transport service contracts, there would be no obstacle to starting the activities in September. Cases of subsequent enrolments can be managed in October, or on a case-by-case basis depending on the numbers, as has been done up to now. F.Scabini emphasizes the importance of coordination with COTSEV for the administrative management of student lists on the buses; this also applies to the end of the courses, which it would be desirable to extend until the end of the school year, both for families and for the management of the bus lists.

1.4 The Board also discussed how to manage the payments by bank transfer (‘bonifico’) which currently need separate verification of the memberships and the effective payment (with respects to the on-line shop payments).

1.5 The possibility to have one coordinator for school activities and one coordinator for music courses among the teachers is supported by the teachers present. A contact point from AGSEV Board remains in any case needed to supervise the activities for next scholar year.

1.6 The Board agreed to apply an overhead cost of 25€/student/year in order to cover      overheads for coordination, insurance, accounting/bookkeeping, and compliance with the Safety & Security agreement (see point 1.8).

1.7 The AGSEV instruments and goods available within the School premises should be inventoried           for better monitoring of their status and maintenance. A volunteer is needed to do this work. The      inventory and the status of the material should be checked and agreed with school at the beginning of each academic year.

Revised Safety & Security Agreement (J.Barroso):

1.8 Revised version (as discussed in last Board Meeting) has been signed by the AGSEV President today.

Discuss and agree on the next steps, considering:

• if and how to interpret Art. 34 of the COTSEV Statute regarding the nomination of n. 2 AGSEV members (as ‘socio sovventore’) to the COTSEV Board (see ‘diffida’ and ‘verbale’ of the Ministry inspection transmitted)

The AGSEV President informed that a parent lawyer offered to support AGSEV to assess the legal situation and AGSEV’s rights regarding its participation in the COTSEV Board.

The AGSEV President returns to the issue of past votes. He explains that it is AGSEV’s business to claim something it has always had and now no longer has. He acknowledges that COTSEV must follow the directions of the Ministry in charge of control, even though it could have contested the incorrectness of its warning. However, it is AGSEV’s duty to contest the incorrectness of the warning because it is convinced there has been a mistake. The President stated that in fact, AGSEV purchased 200 COTSEV shares, contributed with 5.164,00 euro when COTSEV was founded, so it is certainly a supporting member and so it has the right to five votes. The President also points out that in the last COTSEV AG, it voted only as a parent and not as AGSEV. F.Scabini asks why the President is speaking of 5 votes, and AGSEV President says that AGSEV has always had 5 votes as a supporting member; F.Scabini emphasises for transparency and completeness of information that the contribution the President is referring to dates back to 1997.

E.Merglova asked F.Scabini (as President of COTSEV) for a copy of the ‘Atto costitutivo’ of COTSEV to be able to check how AGSEV was mentioned/considered when COTSEV was created. F.Scabini clarified that AGSEV was not considered a founding member of COTSEV as claimed by the AGSEV President and that it is just briefly mentioned in the ‘Atto costitutivo’ as supporting the creation of COTSEV. The AGSEV President mentioned that nevertheless, it would be useful to have a copy of the ‘Atto costitutivo’ so that the lawyer has all the relevant documents to conduct his analysis of the situation. F.Scabini stated that COTSEV could share the ‘Atto costitutivo’ of COTSEV with AGSEV.

F.Scabini once again explains the issue of the tripartite, explaining that in the articles of the ‘Atto costitutivo’, AGSEV is not indicated as a founding member. F.Scabini then leads back to the issue of the supporting member and once again explains what is indicated in the warning and reiterated in the Ministry’s response when recently contacted by J.Barroso. In other words, it takes up the definition of supporting member, as someone who contributes significantly to one of the cooperative’s projects, giving an example such as contributing to the expenses of the “accompagnatori”, the website, which are activities that support the protection of the children or services in the interest of the parents. At the time of the Minister’s warning, the COTSEV Board had 15 days to contest it and did not find any elements that justified a contestation. J. Barroso at this point says that the AGSEV Board at that time was not informed by either O.Mattana (ex-President of AGSEV and Vice-President of COTSEV) or F.Scabini of how the COTSEV Board had decided to address the ‘diffida’ it received from the Ministry inspector. F.Scabini intervenes, saying that she does not find it practical to continue with the redundancy of the discussion and that if the AGSEV President wanted to clarify O.Mattana’s choice to leave the COTSEV Board in response to the ‘diffida’, he could invite him. F.Scabini tries to get to the point by concluding that in any case, O.Mattana’s responsible choice to resign from the COTSEV Board and the acceptance for functional reasons by the ministry to accept the resignation from COTSEV of only one of the two AGSEV members, resolved the situation at that time. On challenge by F.Scabini, J.Barroso reiterates what he had written in a previous note to the AGSEV Board that, in his opinion, F.Scabini and O.Mattana had acted against the interests of AGSEV. F.Scabini contests this statement, as she believes she and O.Mattana acted responsibly for the well-being of the families, ensuring the functional continuity of the transportation service, which is in the interest of the parents. F.Scabini reiterates that discussing for the third time what happened does not add value in pursuing the well-being of the families, but remains available to explain anything necessary. The discussion ends after 20 minutes at the request of Mr. Hermann. And it is postponed to a meeting with the COTSEV Board.

Action (Pres.): AGSEV President to send an email to F.Scabini as President of COTSEV formalising the request for the “Atto costitutivo” of COTSEV.

The AGSEV Board decided to put in standby the action to ask COTSEV if and eventually how to reintegrate n.2 AGSEV members (as ‘socio sovventore’), pending the outcome from the previous point (legal advice).

• the proposal (incl. quotation) to AGSEV Board for subsidising an expert/assessment to optimise the Bus routes, based on input data from COTSEV

F.Scabini expressed disagreement on this point. She clarified that COTSEV is already in contact with JRC colleagues who are involved in the development of simulation systems. The point, however, is essentially different. F.Scabini said that the management of the transport service is not within the scope of AGSEV, and continued interference in its operations or information and document requests does not add value or support. F.Scabini reiterated that AGSEV, on behalf of some parents, can certainly, as done so far, collaborate with COTSEV in the common goal of reporting opinions and comments that will be evaluated by the COTSEV Board as provided for in their respective statutes. This and other points should be discussed in more detail at the next meeting between the Boards of AGSEV and COTSEV, which will be followed by related minutes (see below).

In conclusion, the AGSEV Board decided not to follow this pending action to seek external support (on payment) of an expert to assess and optimise the Bus routes, based on input data from COTSEV. This is the job of COTSEV and AGSEV should not spend its limited financial resources on something that is not within its remit. In any case, AGSEV is prepared to support COTSEV if this is needed/requested.

• possible meeting between AGSEV and COTSEV Board members

The proposal by AGSEV Pres. to hold a joint meeting (5+5 Board members) within the coming weeks, for discussing the follow-up of the last November information meeting (e.g. about anticipation/discussion with parents about the new bus routes), is agreed by the AGSEV Board.

3.1 P.Chyska proposed to better describe the AGSEV processes and activities on the website, for improving communication to parents potentially interested in getting involved in AGSEV.

Action (P.Chyska): set a working group on the matter

3.2 Formal approval of Board MoMs from 22/01 and 19/02 and their eventual publishing on the website

The Sec.Gen. finally recalled all Board members to check and review the previous Board MoMs (available on  Google drive) with the view to publish them on the AGSEV website:

• file ‘2024-01-22 – AGSEV Board – final MoMs rev.0.pdf’ => these MoMs have already been finalised and validated; to be checked if all content can now be published.
• File ‘2024-02-19 – AGSEV Board – draft MoM rev.0.doc’ => please complete the review and comments of these previous MoMs. 

3.3 The Vice-Pres. P.Schaaff mentioned the concept of starting a knowledgebase for AGSEV in order to have a history of necessary facts and documents for current and future board members. 

Action: Process to be included as agenda point in next board meeting.