Minutes of Special General Meeting
held in The New Farm Restaurant, East Kilbride on
Monday, 7 June 2004  

Present

Ellen Muir		Chairperson
Caroline Tait	Secretary
Cathy Lee		Treasurer
Linda Johnston	Parent
Lesley Burns	Parent
Sheena Henderson	South Lanarkshire Leisure Ltd
Louise Gordon	South Lanarkshire Leisure Ltd
Margo Mooney	SLC Integrated Children’s Services
Salena Begley	SLC Social Work Resources

Apologies

Ross Macfadyen
Colin Jarvie
Marie McAdams
J Laird
Carol McCaig
Margaret Agnew
Janette Grossart
S Casey
C Mackin
Joanne O’Leary
Jan Warren
Lynn Docherty
Sharon Holton
Anne Farrell
Corrine Rankin 

Minutes from the Previous Meeting held on 28 January 2004  

There were no actions arising.

Proposal for Dissolution of PALS

Caroline told the meeting the reasons for proposing Dissolution were as stated in the explanatory note sent to everyone along with a postal voting form.  A further note was handed to all present stating PALS responsibilities in terms of the Constitution and the Inland Revenue if the group was to wind up. 

The executive committee expressed their disappointment in the response or lack of response from NHS Lanarkshire and SLC Directors of Social Work and Education with regard to funding playschemes for children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders. 

They felt the only route now to secure funding was to apply for grants, and due to the amount of money required and the work involved in completing and progressing grant applications, the executive committee did not feel they could commit the amount of time and effort required.  There were no other volunteers to take on these roles.  Ellen added herself and Caroline would be looking for out of school schemes for young adults as their children would soon be too old for SLL schemes where only children of primary school age are eligible. 

Caroline read out the voting statistics for the first motion in favour of winding up PALS;

49 ballot papers issued (one to each member of PALS as detailed in the Constitution)

28 papers not returned (of which 3 were notified abstentions but no papers returned)

21 papers returned

18 voted in favour of dissolution, 1 against and 2 abstentions

Transfer of all remaining monies to South Lanarkshire Leisure Limited

Caroline said that PALS had ground to a halt and as there was around £2000 in the bank account, the committee felt this should be put to good use.  It was proposed to hand over the balance to SLL stating that the money had to be used for playschemes for children with ASD.  This vote was carried unanimously, see detail below. Louise said she would write back to PALS with a detailed breakdown of where the money was spent.  Caroline said the only remaining assets of PALS were some paper cups and tea and coffee.  All agreed to the transfer of these to the South Lanarkshire Branch of the National Autistic Society.

Voting statistics for the second motion agreeing to the transfer of all remaining monies to South Lanarkshire Leisure Limited;

49 ballot papers issued (one to each member of PALS as detailed in the Constitution)

28 papers not returned (of which 3 were notified abstentions but no papers returned)

21 papers returned

21 voted in favour of the transfer of funds to SLL

Louise, Salena and Margo thanked PALS for their work and said that although PALS were disappointed in the lack of funding, awareness had certainly been raised over the lack of provision, and they were finding this helped them in their line of work when trying to secure funding for services for children with ASD.  General discussion took place on the numbers of children with ASD, raising awareness and the developments in the ASD field since PALS started.

Caroline thanked Louise, Salena and Margo and said PALS had enjoyed working with them, and she was sure the parent support groups would continue to work with them.