Meeting of (acting) minds

The minutes are out of the BBC Executive's November meeting - and it's now clear that George Entwistle never made it that far ! It was held, rather chaotically, on 12 November - two days after Lord Patten agreed to George's terms for his resignation as Director General.

Three and a half hours of fun and frolics started at midday. Acting Director General Tim Davie was delayed by media interviews (which may seem odd, seeing his previous urge to walk out of them), and only arrived for the start of item 6; outgoing Senior Non-Executive Director Marcus Agius started the meeting as chair. Acting Director of Vision Roger Mosey and Acting Director of Audio and Music Graham Ellis were in place, but Acting Director of News Fran Unsworth and the Director General's Chief of Staff Jessica Cecil were missing. Non-executive director Mike Lynch, former boss of Autonomy, left after item 8, and the meeting broke for a period to discuss the MacQuarrie report on the Newsnight/Lord MacAlpine mess. It resumed with valedictories for departing Worldwide CEO John Smith and Marcus Agius.

The Entwistle legacy ? The Board also talked briefly about the workplan that George Entwistle had launched, noting that this was continuing to progress but that it would inevitably be reviewed in light of the new Director-General appointment.

One to watch: The Digital Media Initiative, aka DMI. Chief Financial Officer Zarin Patel noted that it had currently paused. This suggests it may not have completed on time during the Summer of 2011, as predicted to the NAO.