Minutes of Suresearch Review of The Year

Wednesday Sept 1st, 2010 at CEIMH

This meeting immediately followed the ‘Business as Usual’ September Monthly meeting so the record of those in attendance and absent were the same as for that meeting.

Paul Roberts chaired the meeting and by default took the minutes too.

Update from CEIMH about Partnership With Suresearch

Ann Davis confirmed CEIMH’s continued support for its partnership with Suresearch within the new surroundings of Muirhead Tower post Oct 31st. She has successfully negotiated the following with the College of Social Science:

Office space on the 9th floor for Suresearch

-Travel expenses for all of Suresearch meetings (Monthly main meeting and sub groups).
-Helena Madden to devote part of her duties to payment of travel fares, preparation for main monthly meeting and managing existing mailout.
-There will be a semi permanent space for film and video equipment on 10th floor which Tarsem, Dee and Pam will be in charge of in terms of booking out for use.
-As there is uncertainty about the current bookings in the Glyn rooms post Oct 31st Ann is looking at possible alternative space  in Muirhead Tower.

The support for Suresearch within the College of Social Science is for the next twelve months only and Suresearch’s contribution to the work of CSS will be reviewed at the end of this period and will need to demonstrate the value of its partnership.
Members voted unanimously to continue its partnership and asked Ann Davis to convey Suresearch’s acceptance of what is on offer at Muirhead Tower to CSS.

There is a small amount of money- funded by the Gibbs Family-available for small payments towards SU/Carer project work. Books purchased from this fund earlier will go to Birmingham Mind.

There is no salaried role for a service user/carer co-ordinator post Oct 31st-the university generally has had to take 25% cuts.
There will be an Advisory Board of SUs/Carers set up starting Jan 2011 who will be invited to join in the near future . This will meet 4/6 meetings a year.

Tony Glyn’s plaque will be removed from the Watson Building and a suitable location found in Muirhead.

Proposed Future Organisation of Suresearch

At the August monthly meeting Suresearch members voted unanimously to create a basic organisation to be in the position to make bids for research and other funding possible in the future. This is all part of the need for a more  independent organisation to be grown, to continue into an uncertain future.
So there is a requirement for at least two officers to be elected to open a bank account plus a constitution. In the draft Constitution( to be presented later) the posts of SECRETARY, TREASURER and ASSISTANT TREASURER were identified. The third post is necessary as it is presumed two signatories will be required to write cheques/pay out monies and in the absence of one of the former two a third signatory may be required.

These posts will be elected at the AGM to be held following directly on the October Monthly meeting (Oct 7th) where the Constitution will be adopted. Members are invited to attend this meeting and expression of  interest in standing for these posts should be made by  contacting Adrian Fisher beforehand on 0121 414 8170/e-mail: a.fisher@bham.ac.uk . A brief description of their roles can be found in the draft Constitution.

A discussion followed about the management and maintenance of the Suresearch database of members details- Where will it be sited? Who will manage it post Oct 31st ? What are the requirements of the Data Protection legislation in the transfer of management of the Suresearch database to named officers of Suresearch and who might be able to access these details? It was agreed that members will research these requirements as a matter of great urgency and a letter will be sent out to members requiring their agreement to such a transfer of information asap. Members will be asked to write/e-mail their agreement to Adrian Fisher.

Proposed Constitution

Stephen Jeffreys presented the draft Constitution to members present which he has worked on with input from the Futures group. There was an opportunity to briefly read through it and discuss. Members will be mailed out the draft Constitution and any suggested amendments be conveyed to Adrian Fisher (see contact details above) by Thurs Sept 23. The Futures group will consider any suggestions made at a meeting to be arranged after this and ask for the final draft to be adopted at the October monthly meeting of Oct 7th.

Date of Next Review Day

To be arranged

 

A Copy of these Minutes is available to download here

DAB-P (12/09/2010)