Meeting held on Friday 30th January 2015
Refreshments from 10.00am
Meeting at 10.30am
At English Heritage, South West Regional Office,
29 Queens Square, Bristol, BS1 4ND
MINUTES
Attending: James Webb, Caroline Power, Rebecca Harfield,
Maureen Pearce, Helen Garside, Liz Smith-Gibbons, Greg Venn,
Malcolm James, Charlotte Lewis, Ian Lund, Kate Baxter-Hunter
The meeting welcomed Rebecca Harfield (Full Member) from WYG who has recently returned from 9 years in New Zealand and has offered to help with the Branch (see below)
Our thoughts and best wishes were also sent to Guy Bentham-Hill who is currently unwell.
1. Apologies
Alyson Cooper, Guy Bentham-Hill
2. Minutes of last meeting held on 31st October 2014
Agreed as a correct record
3. Matters Arising
8. GB-H to cover N. Somerset, BAINES & S Gloucestershire ;
10. Brief discussion relating to the Consistency Seminar at DCOG. The next session is to be in Gloucestershire, see below;
Thatch Day update, see below;
HELM event on New Housing in Historic Areas now 25th February 2015 in Swindon; joint RTPI/EH Pilot Training Day for Planners to be held on 11th February 2015 in Chippenham at request of Wiltshire County Council and neighbouring LA’s;
Under A.O.B GV to send link
4. Report from the Chair
No specific report
5. Treasurer’s Report
The current balance is £4636.74.
AC also raised various issues as detailed below.
6. SW Historic Environment Forum
It was agreed by Committee that AC should continue in her role to represent the Branch.
7. Honoraria
MP apologised for not circulating the results of the previous comments relating to this from the meeting held on 11th April 2014. However, it was noted that the Honoraria had previously been agreed as part of the Business Plan 2014-2015 and that these should now be paid. MP/AC to action
8. Business Plan
The query over the Business Plan and whether it had been received at the last Council meeting has now been resolved and will now be submitted at the next meeting of full Council. The current BP will need to be updated for the AGM. It was noted that the last three training events have made a profit and the predicted figures may need to be amended.
JW to draft for next Branch meeting
9. Governance
JW outlined the new Governance system, Council Plus +. Separate Councils eg. Membership, Policy, Education/Training, Communications/Outreach, Discipline etc. More Branch involvement in meetings and possibly need to consider more than one Branch Rep in future. Further draft papers to follow.
No Constitution changes and JW passed round papers. Likely to rotate venues and types of meetings. Will need to agree who might be the Council+ Member and who attends. Branch reps to ask for volunteers on this and to feedback to JW & Central office. It was suggested that the Committee would prefer several representatives rather than a specific person depending on the subject matter of the group and what the remit for each group might be.
10. Branch Activities/ Feedback & Future Events
· Bulletin 28 & 29 – MJ
Bulletin 28 was revised and re-issued in January 2015 following comments from Richard Gage.
Items required for Bulletin 29. Various ways were discussed to achieve sufficient material including requesting contributions from the Members and ensuring individuals are approached at events to submit an article/write up.
Action: ALL
· Insurance- reminder for events to be advertised on IHBC website
Action: those organising event
· Future Training events:
i) Highcliffe Castle, nr Christchurch – border of Hants, but would make an interesting afternoon looking at challenges and the Management/Heritage Plan and how the scheme can move forward. Max 25/30. Nominal fee of £10. JW to look at dates end of May
A La Ronde - possible Committee venue- KBH/JW
ii) Thatch Day – Alison Henry (EH) now 22/23rd April 2015, possibly Taunton. – GV to progress
Alternative ‘Understanding Thatch Course’ - The National Heritage Training Group on Friday 20th March,Friday 8th May,Friday 14th August £160 for the day.
NB. Since the meeting this item has progressed to an alternative solution for delivering training on thatch
iii) EH Hotlime day – Dartmoor – June 2015 – MP
VH & Keith McKay looking for a venue – continue to liaise
iv) Exeter – HLF project - Simon Cartlidge
GV to liaise with SC
v) Gloucester HLF
Various Stage 2 bids likely to come forward in the next 2 years including Cathedral, Grade I Church and Llantory Priory, Gloucester College – CL to action
vi) Bath – Royal Crescent - Electrification of railway – currently a sensitive issue, discussion relating to this item, but agreed that this might not go forward at the present time. Discussed alternative Bath venue eg. Clevedon Bath project.
vii) New Members Day – Affiliates – LSG
See below
viii) Tuckers Maltings, Newton Abbot – MJ to speak to MP
Tie in with Newton Abbot real Ale Festival in April 2015, see below
ix) Enforcement/Compliance – 2015 – HELM
KBH to check website for date – everyone to request – ALL
11. Membership
See email sent by LS-G, attached.
New application form and leaflet for membership.
New Associate /Affiliate Membership.
How do we promote Members moving up?
Kate Kendall (LETS) to assist with this, either by a specific
Membership event or tagged onto other training eg. HELM
Perhaps promote IHBC through COG meetings.
· Branch Connection Day 2014 – Old Joint Stock, Birmingham Wednesday 5 November 2014:
Theme - IHBC membership and new membership opportunities - Report back LS-G – see email attached
Specifically relating to feedback from Committee to full Council on individual members, no specific format to follow;
· Membership Training (Affiliate Upgrade etc)/Learning Education Training & Standards Liaison Officer (LETS): Kate Kendall – future event – LS-G to feedback to KK regarding the number of Affiliates and to check database for any concentration of Members to support specific location on an area base; LS-G to formulate words to focus resources on an Event training
· Data protection – reminder to delete unwanted data or other sensitive information.
· HELM day in Swindon 25th February 2015 - LS-G to put together a Membership promotion pack. MP & JW to help on the day
12. Exchange of information/Any other business
· CP outlined the future for English Heritage with the
split due 1st April 2015 into two: Charity side to remain
English Heritage and the formal advice, consultation
side to be called Historic England a government service
championing England’s heritage and providing expert and
constructive advice. The New Chief Executives, Kate Mavor
previously NT Scotland and Duncan Wilson respectively.
Various changes including charging on a sliding scale for
pre-application advice & new logo.
Item for the Bulletin CP
· JW/C continuing with rolling out the Consistency Seminar at next meeting of Gloucester COG with EH in Bristol. Changing name to Best Practice Seminar and now including a Q & A session. Mixed into the meeting and changes to make it a more practical session. Agreed to include piece in the Bulletin.
· GV reported on possible joint training event on Flooding in the Somerset region linked to the Bishop of Taunton/DAC and how this could be linked to using Churches for multi-purpose activities. However, this has now resulted in GV being invited as a speaker rather than a joint initiative.
· IL suggested the development of Bath Abbey (vaults/WC/Choir School) as a future site visit/event
· JW query from Hays Recruitment to advertise in the Bulletin– refer to Central Office
· Dunster paved footpaths have recently been replaced with stone
· Prosecutions ongoing in EDDC & Gloucester and successful outcome in West Somerset (Nigel Pratt)
· SAVE – Welsh Streets NDHA decision – an interesting outcome
Rebecca Harfield Senior Built Heritage Consultant
WYG Ropemaker Court, 11-12 Lower Park Row, Bristol, BS1 5BN
Rebecca has recently returned from working abroad and is a full Member of IHBC. She has expressed an interest in helping out with events etc and will be coming along at the beginning of the meeting to join us over coffee.
Date of next meeting: Friday 17th April 2015 at Newton Abbot in conjunction with the Real Ale Festival at the Maltings
Registered Office: 3, Stafford Road, Tunbridge Wells, Kent. TN2 4QZ
Registered as a Charity No1061593 Company Limited by Guarantee .
Registered in England No 3333780
Email dated 10th November 2014
Branch Connection Day November 5th 2014 Birmingham
Dear All
As many of you are aware I attended the Branch Connection Day last Wednesday in Birmingham. The day was essentially about membership and include an update regarding the new Associate membership and opportunities for spreading the word about this and helping those affiliates who are keen to ‘upgrade’ to full membership. The day also clarified the membership process in terms of the membership assessors and membership committee. The day was well attended and I am happy to circulate the attendance sheet if anyone is particularly interested.
New membership categories – Associate
Regarding the new categories the new associate membership (not to be confused with the ‘old’ associate category - now defunct) is essentially in one of three areas (sub-categories). You can read about these on the IHBC website as I fear I won’t do it justice here - see:
http://www.ihbc.org.uk/join/Categories/index.html
Currently to apply for this ‘new’ associate category you use the ‘normal’ form but I understand there will be a new application form shortly (and personally I would perhaps suggest that anyone wanting to apply for associate membership wait for that new form).
Membership Promotion
Regarding promoting membership it seems there are many opportunities and it is up to us as a branch how we would wish to play this. I have some ideas and briefly these could be:
1. Add a membership promotion onto another training event – this I think could be a good opportunity for those already finding travel to a destination and may also open up multiple venues.
2. A specific membership promotion event – might I suggest here in Swindon might be a good opportunity. However this would need some funding/resources etc to stage such an event. I understand the south did an evening event last summer which involved beer and snacks!
3. A brief piece in the Bulletin – although I am aware that we only send to current members, be they full or affiliate – but possibly good for upgrades. We could add that we are planning some membership events and to ‘watch this space for details’
We can perhaps pick up on this at the next branch meeting however I finish by adding that the day was very useful and it was good to connect and represent the SW Branch.
Liz