MINUTES OF FUTURE OF SURESEARCH MEETING FRIDAY JANUARY 8TH, 2010 AT CEIMH

 

 

PRESENT:

PR(Chair & mins), JR, AF, SJ, JJ, JS, DP, DH, DB, PO.

APOLOGIES: 

AD2, PD, BN, AL, AW.

 

PROMOTIONAL/CELEBRATORY DVD:

PR successfully negotiated funding of £700with CEIMH to produce a DVD to promote Suresearch to potential funders with its need to become financially independent of CEIMH and sustainable post October 2010. It will also celebrate 10 years  of Suresearch (See attached ‘Request letter’). The DVD must be completed by April 30th in time for the anniversary celebrations on 5th May.*

JG, AF and DH agreed to form small working party to lead and be responsible for the production of the DVD. JG and AF will look specifically at Creative Visualisation and content/ scripting of the DVD. DH will look after filming and editing. This does not preclude other members of the Futures group getting involved passing on their ideas for the DVD to the working party preferably by e-mail or phone call. Progress will be reported back to the Futures group but the working group will have the final decision on script and content.

Apart from DH who will be paid a fee from the budget  for his editing work all other members have agreed to give their time freely although travel expenses will be paid for meetings of the working group which will be fairly frequent. JS offered to do talking head interviews for a fee but the budget will not allow this. PR, at the suggestion of the group, has agreed to be budget holder and will be responsible for recording and monitoring expenditure and ensuring the DVD is delivered within budget.  He will agree a system with the CEIMH staff sotravel expenses can be claimed and paid on the day.

The meeting briefly looked at content: there will be a number of ‘talking heads’ featured in the 15 to 20 minute DVD including founder and current members talking of the benefits to their own wellbeing of their involvement with SS; academics and health & social care  professionals speaking of the value of involvement of SS members in their own work; and past funders. There will also be short clips of Suresearch ‘at work’ in meetings, projects and at events. It was suggested AF might consider being the commentary link person of the DVD. The working party will meet on Friday Jan 15th at 2pm at CEIMH.

 

WRITERS GROUP:

Not much progress has been made with the book celebrating Suresearch’s 10th Anniversary and JG suggested it would be unlikely to happen in time. Instead a longer time span-perhaps 6 months-is envisaged. Quality is most important. The group will be looking to collect and collate a selection of  published materials from 2001. They are planning to showcase the work of the group on May 5th as should other sub-groups be considering.

 

RESPONSIBILITY FOR PLANNING OF TENTH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS:

It was agreed the Futures group will hold responsibility for the planning of the event.

 

BUSINESS MODELS:

The group again revisited business models- namely Co-ops and various versions of Community Interest Communities. JG suggested Social Firm status best suits SS as the government has a focus on people with disabilities and getting them into work and there are a lot of grants available to incorporated organisations. Some members were keen to proceed to register as a CIC with the approval of the full Suresearch membership. Others suggested it may be possible to stay as we are as SS options will not be made clear until CEIMH negotiations are complete and decisions made in April.

SJ reminded group that choice depends on relating business model to the values of the organisation and not other way round. He agreed to do a presentation at the next meeting of the business model options.

Should SS become a CIC all sorts of practical questions need to be addressed such as where will Suresearch Income come from and how any income gained on an individual basis from being involved in Suresearch would be ‘taxed’ to cover the running costs of maintaining SS.

 

SKILLS DATABASE:

There was no time to look at this item.

 

DATE OF NEXT MEETING:

Wednesday February 10th at CEIMH

*Certain other factors have meant that the Anniversary Celebrations will now be held on Tuesday 13th April 2010, immediately following a shortened Suresearch monthly Meeting.

Please check back regularly for any updates.

 

A PDF copy of the above Minutes are available for download here.

 

 

 

DAB-P (25th January 2010)