Venue: Oake Manor Golf Club, Taunton
See Distribution Date:5 May 2011
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING MINUTES OF RCN-OH Nurses Group South West
PresentApologies / Fran Chappell (FC),
Jane Hannaford (JH)
NickiPauncefort (NP)
Catherine Wood (CW)
Study Day delegates
Lorna Richards, Annie bamfield, Gail Bryant, Edel Greenwood / Role in Meeting
Vice Chair
Chairperson
Treasurer
Secretary
Item
(a) / Discussion & Decisions
(b) / Action
(c)
1.
Introduction and apologies / The Chairman opened the meeting at 09.15 by welcoming those in attendance and thanking them for coming. Those unable to attend due to other commitments offered their apologies.
2.
Review of Previous AGM Minutes / Minutes from last AGM agreed as a true record and seconded as accurate
3.
Chairpersons report / See annex 1
5.
Treasurers report / See annexe 2
6.
Secretary report / Current Membership stands at 66members.
In 2010 there were also 66 Members, but interesting that they are not the same.
In 2009 there were 104 Members.
Current membership can be broken down by area:
2 Dorset
2 Gloucester
6 Wiltshire
16 Devon
18 Cornwall
25 Somerset
7
Election of Committee Members / Nominations received for the post of Secretary and Treasurer from the group.
2 Existing committee members agreed to remain on the committee:
The following positions were voted on:
Chairperson - Catherine Wood
Proposed by: Dawn Veale
Seconded by; Ellen Cole
Vice Chair – Nicky Pauncefort
Proposed by: Jenny Dolan
Seconded by: Sally Hobbs
Treasurer – Alison Presswell
Proposed by: Rita Jevons
Seconded by: Janet Baker
Secretary – Sally Hobosn
Proposed by: Serena Horrell
Seconded by: Gail Bryant
Anne Ashlee and Georgie Lloyd volunteered to assist the committee if required.
8.
AOB / Sue Pitt won the draw for the next Study Day
A show of hands for the Autumn study day reflected that health surveillance and legal update was wanted by the members. Therefore it was suggested that ½ day session to be provided on each. The new committee to discuss at next meeting.
In order to move the group forward it was suggested 1 study day a year to be held in the Spring with smaller sub groups throughout the counties.
The next study day is planned for Thurs 6 October at Sandy Park, Exeter.
Dawn veal volunteered her place of work as a venue for informal session. / New Committee
10.
Date and time of next meeting / Next Committee meeting to be at SWW , Exeter
Date tbc
Signed on Original
C M WOOD
Sec
Distribution:
All Group Members
Annexe 1
Chairman’s Report – May 2011
Welcome to my final year report to you as your Chair and as a committee member. This past year, I am pleased to report that the membership numbers have remained steady with the majority of the members coming from the Devon and Somerset area.
Study events have been organised by the committee during the past year. The 2010 spring study day was held at South West Water. This was a well-organised day and was attended by 22 members. The day consisted of presentations and a site visit of the laboratories, wastewater and sewage plant at Exeter. My thanks go to the Treasurer, Nicky Pauncefort who organised this successful day with the assistance of her colleagues at the plant.
The OH debate, which the members requested from October 2009 study day unfortunately, did not happen, finding a suitable date and venue was difficult to arrange with a splintered response from members and so we allocated time on the autumn study day for this to take place.
Then, the 2010 autumn study day was cancelled due to insufficient delegate’s numbers. There were several problems with organising this event, for example, it proved time consuming and difficult to find speakers from close to the South West to talk on the chosen topics. We considered it not financially viable for either the group’s funds or the exhibitors and certainly not good for our profile as a group to have a poor attendance.
Following on from this disappointment, the committee have looked at different approaches to meetings, to see if the attendance rate would improve and to reduce the time and effort involved in organising events. To compensate for the cancelled October study day, evening meetings in different areas of the region were arranged, at different venues to see if this would be more acceptable. The first evening meeting was held in November at St Mellion Golf Club, Cornwall with a talk from the Red Poppy Company (15 attended). The second meeting was held in December at Taunton with GP Harry Yoxall speaking (10 attended) and the final meeting (15 attended), was held in March at Exeter Chiefs Rugby Club with a very interesting talk on psychosis from Adrian White. Unfortunately another evening event was offered in February at Rookery Manor near Weston Super mare/Bristol but only 2 members signed up for this and so this event was cancelled.
The bi annual newsletter has continued to be of its usual high standard of presentation and quality. This, together with the website was devised and edited by the past Chair Tina Critchley for 4 years. Tina has been an excellent committee member and has now decided to retire from this commitment. We sincerely thank her for all her hard work over the years. I know from speaking to members that the newsletter and website is valued for its up to date information and its web links. It would be very rewarding for Tina to see this newsletter continue. The role of newsletter editor is a non-executive position and therefore it is not a necessity for you to attend meetings or to be involved in organising study events. If you enjoy surfing the net, IT and finding useful OH information and would like to consider the role please speak to Tina, or one of the committee.
The committee has also held some discussions on the future of the group and the way forward. As an affiliated group to the RCN we look for support from the RCN OH at a national level. Unfortunately this has not happened, to this end, I have recently been in discussion with Sue Matthews, SW regional RCN adviser. A teleconferencing meeting has been proposed to discuss with Paul Thomas from the RCN how we can be better supported as a group. It is important that you give your views to either myself or your new Chair to ensure your voice is listened to.
Finally I would like to thank all the past committee members I have worked with over the 6 years period of committee work. I have enjoyed the experience, the challenge and meeting so many lovely people. I would like to thank Catherine for being an excellent secretary, efficient and always reliable with minutes, emails and post to members. I would like to thank Fran for being Vice Chair and organising the sponsors and I wish her well in her retirement. My thanks also go to Nicky for carefully managing the Group’s finances and for her innovative ideas for events.
I do hope you all enjoy today. The committee have worked very hard to bring you this event. It is my desire is to leave this committee in good order. There are 2 executive posts vacant and a non-executive post available. I hope that there will be nominations for these positions. If these posts are not filled then the group is in jeopardy of folding.
Please make every effort to keep this successful group running and be part of the new committee so that we can meet at the next event.
Provisionally booked for Thursday, 6th October 2011.
Venue: Sandy Park, Exeter Chiefs Rugby Conferencing Centre.
Topic: Health Surveillance
I wish the new committee and group every success for the future.
With kind regards,
Jane Hannaford
Chair
Annexe 2
TREASURER'S REPORT: May 2010/April 2011
Income
Membership fees:660.00
Study Day delegates, paid: 1900.00
“ outstanding:400.00
Study Day Sponsors, paid:900.00
“ outstanding:460.00
Evening meetings, non-member attendance: 40.00
______
4360.00
Expenditure
Sandy Park Deposit (Oct.2011)293.75
Phillipps Frith (audit)458.25
Sandy Park (Evening presentation)330.10
St. Mellion (Evening presentation)253.00
Committee expenses839.62
D Critchley (IT services)100.00
Talking Life (Study Day presenter) 2204.58
Oake Manor (Study Day venue x 70) 1358.00
RBL Donation 25.00
______
5862.30
Bank balance @ 01.04.11 as per statement 6670.00
o/s cheques: 3112.35
debtors: 860.00 = £4417.65
Nicky Pauncefort, Hon. Treasurer 1/05/11