MINUTES OF FUTURE OF SURESEARCH

Thursday June 10th, 2010 at CEIMH 

Present:

Paul Roberts, Duncan Purslow, Anne Lloyd, Stephen Jeffreys, Dave Howes, Nicky Young 

Apologies:

Adrian Fisher, Janie Greville, Alice Woodall, Peter Downes, Alex Davis, Barbie Norden. 

Meeting at Watson Building Post October 2010 

The University has honoured bookings of the Monthly Main Suresearch meetings in the Watson Building up till the end of the next academic year July 2011. Dates have been agreed and the Glyn rooms have been booked out by Nicky at Paul’s request. Suresearch members will be informed of these in the July mailout. Arrangements for the sub groups have yet to be agreed. This has given Suresearch a breathing space to look into all options in terms of accommodation. 

Jobs That Need Doing post October 2010 

With CEIMH staff support ending Sept 2010 Nicky Young was invited to go through with us her current role with Suresearch and jobs she does for us. Currently before the actual Monthly meeting she photocopies minutes and flyers 3 days before and sets out the room the day before. She pays out travel expenses on the day.After the meeting once minutes have been written up and approved by Ann Davis they are passed onto Daniel to be uploaded to the Website and postal ones are photocopied as are flyers, enveloped and posted out. With Nicky leaving tomorrow these roles will be taken on by Dee , Elena and Adrian until October. Dee and Adrian will deal with any telephone enquiries, Suresearch e-mail enquiries by Adrian and Dee, Adrian and Ann will be sole accessors of the SS Database.

NB Suresearch has taken on the the minuting of meetings over the last 12 months.

Looking at the basic costs of SS current activities and disregarding Nicky’s staff time, Nicky estimated  the following: 

Postal mailout - currently 56 members are receiving the monthly mailout by post. A large A4 is used for an average of 6 sheets of paper. With photocopying at 5p a sheet each individual mailout costs 6x5p PLUS posting cost of 70p=£1. For a year that would be 56x £1x 12=£672.

We looked  at how that might be reduced: encouraging people to open e-mail accounts at libraries to increase the % on electronic mailout.  Use of the Internet generally should be encouraged and there are free basic training courses available. It was also suggested members on e-mail could print off minutes for their friends who are not. In the absence of any current income the idea of an annual subscription of £12 for members receiving the mailout by post was suggested (although it might not come to this if SS can be helped out on this). Using A5 envelopes would also reduce costs.

There are other costs associated with meetings on the day itself : photocopying of minutes and flyers 6x5px30=£9 times 12= £108 for the year. It is recognised there is quite a lot of waste and it would be good to reduce paper use to a minmum both for cost and environmental reasons.

Refreshments are also provided at meetings: these might have to be abolished altogether as there may not be a hot drinks making facility at Watson Building post October 2010 or if this is possible drinks would be by donation or more realistically charged per cup (a modest form of income!).

Travel Expenses are a major issue. For members who  travel from outside the area not being able to claim travel expenses could inhibit attendance. Ideally all members would use public transport only although for some people using their own car or taxi even is essential to them making a meeting. It was estimated by Dee that  travel expenses amount to £100 per month (£1200 per year) currently. Whether this includes sub-group claims is unclear. Paul will liase with Dee who has this info and report back.

Voluntary Roles. These require a commitment that should not only be acknowledged, appreciated but also rewarded if only in a small way. Small payments to volunteers  would necessitate SS having some sort of income.

All these costs suggest for Suresearch to continue functioning as it is it would require an income of about £3000 per year. It is possible that other organisations in partnership with Suresearch would pay all the above expenses but not travel.  

What Sort of Organisation? 

This led the meeting neatly on to revisiting a discussion of the above. It seems likely that SS will need to be constituted particularly if it is receiving monies from research. A basic model would require officers-ie Chair, Secretary and Treasurer, opening a bank account, holding AGMs etc. It would also need to have a constitution and a Mission Statement would be advantageous. It could evolve into a Community Interest company at a later date although some members are resistant to this idea given the size of the current membership and the extra time and commitment this would involve.

The group discussed income sources and it was suggested that any organisation approaching Suresearch with research proposals would have to top slice say 10% off any payments to Suresearch members who get involved and pay the money directly into SS bank account.

It was recognised that the ability of current members to put forward a tender for Research money is extremely limited due to lack of relevant expertise and for the foreseeable future it could only be done in partnership with academic/researcher leads.

Another possible source of income is by applying for grants from providers. Gary O’Brien’s website has links to such providers. This needs to be followed up. 

E-Mail Address 

Currently Adrian Fisher’s e-mail account at the University is Suresearch’s. As Adrian will not be employed post October 2010 at the University a e-mail address for Suresearch has been sought. Adrian has agreed to continue to deal with e-mails post 2010 and Stephen, Paul and possibly Barbie have offered to share the load(this arrangement yet to be formalised). 

DVD Working Group 

At the last group meeting Dave filmed Jean’s contribution. Unfortunately most of the group were unable to make the meeting so it was agreed to meet up on Tuesday June 15th at 2.00 at CEIMH.  It was agreed momentum needs to be continued to complete both the Promotional DVD and the 10 Year Celebratory one. Jackie Smart has agreed to do the voiceover but a script has yet to be written and more filming of talking heads is required. 

Paul McDonald 

Paul agreed to contact Paul McDonald, B&SMHFT Research manager to follow up his offers of support from last meeting. 

Date of Next Meeting 

Monday July 12th, 2010 at CEIMH at 10.30 

 

SJ(June 22nd 2010)