Minutes of SDN Quarterly Members meeting held on

Thursday 8th March 2018

at Telford Whitehouse Hotel, Watling Street,

Wellington, Telford TF1 2NJ

Attendees:Alan Allmond, Jill Buckley,Jo Edwards, Jimmy Evans, Helen Fokianou, Kathy Jones, Philip Kent,Vicky Hanbury-Madin, Chris Manns, Ruby Hartshorn, Tom Kane, Layla Mckee, Chris Manns, C. Matthews, Beverley Owen, Kelly Pledger, Kevin Tanner, Ann Shaw, John Simcox, Paul Siroky, John Speake, Erica Staples, David Tarr, Peter Walters, Lila Williams, Louise Duffet-Woods, Anthony Woods(Abbots Wood-Debbie Charmley, Tony Cheng. Christine Healey, Tim Ho, Gemma Simster, Tara Sudlow)

Apologies:Jo Allmond, Samantha Barber, Sophie Davies, Jo Edwards, Jenny Dickenson, Phil Godden,Maralyn Hepworth, Jess Hiles,Bobbie Hurne, Richard Kerr,Julie King, Miles Kenny, Sue Last, Jessica Lightwood, Janice Menage, Susann Mitchell, John Morris, Jeff Murison, Ian Roberts, David Robbins, Gill Robbins,James Sale, Sandra Spence, Sam Taylor, Marcus Watkin, Ian Warburton, Fiona Williams,John Wood, Tamara Wood,

  1. Welcome

Ruby (Chair) welcomed everyone to the meeting, especially the new faces. She thanked our BSL interpreters for today.

2. Minutes of meeting 25th January 2018

Agreed as accurate. Proposal to accept minutes – John Simcox; seconded by Philip Kent.

  1. Matters Arising
  • Park it, don’t Plonk it– ongoing. We were due to have a meeting with the police, but it was cancelled due to the weather.
  • Christmas Card Competition - we have received a few entries for the competition, including one today.
  1. Chair’s Report

SDN has been represented at the following events and meetings:

  • Management Meeting, where Alan Allmond volunteered to take the important role of Deputy Treasurer
  • 2 Bucket Collections
  • Safe Places Table Top sale
  • See and Hear meeting re Boccia competition
  • 2 Safe Places meetings
  • We trained 23 staff at Shirehall about Safe Places
  • We have distributed 5000 Safe Places Help cards
  • 1 Inclusively Fit meeting
  • Scam Awareness Day at the Darwin Centre
  • Spoke on Radio Shropshire about accessible parking
  • Involved in Shifnal Integrated Programme
  • Been approached by Transreport about a computer application that is being designed to assist passengers with disabilities or specific needs using the rail network
  • Advised on use of toilets in Ironbridge, where fathers do not want to take daughters into male toilets. The radar key will be held nearby for this purpose.

Looking ahead, we will be involved in the following:

  • On 10th March Philip Kent, our Membership Secretary, will be a guest judge a debating competition for schools held by Debate-Ed – led by Holly Edwards, Solicitor at Lanyon Bowdler
  • Safe Places training is taking place at Gobowen Railway Station on 12th March. They are going to be a new Safe Place.
  • We are attending a Spinal Injuries Conference organised by Lanyon Bowdler at Gobowen on 15th March
  • We have a PRH Awareness Day on 28th March
  • We have a bucket collection at Radbrook Green Co-op Shrewsbury on 4th May
  • Between 19th and 23rd March Barclays Bank at Bridgnorth are holding an Easter Event, where they will be raffling a hamper for Safe Places. There is also a ‘Name the Bear’ competition. Lanyon Bowdler have kindly donated a large bear and a framed picture of a bear.

The February and March editions of Your Voice are currently at the printers. Ruby asked whether anyone had suggestions about sourcing cheap printing. She also asked for contributions for the April edition. The deadline is 26th March. We still need an editorial Team to assist with the newsletter.

Our website has been getting over 5,000 hitsa month. It went live in 2010 and we have upgraded several parts over that time. However, we are now at the stage where we have outgrown our current website the result of being a victim of our own success so look at a complete new website. This is going to be costly, and we are looking at ways of funding this.

The table top sale at Lindale Court was cancelled as we ran out of planning time. It has been rescheduled for 23rd June.

The Titan Zip Wire Challenge has been booked for 6th October. Jo couldn’t be with us today as she is at a Dementia Conference in Wales, but she sent amessage.

22 people have volunteered to take part. 3 charities will benefit – Guide Dogs, MacIntyre and SDN. Jess cannot complete the challenge herself but will be leading the cheering. Two stowaways will be taking part. They are Cuddles (Jess’s constant furry bear companion and his great friend Murphy Bear). They hope to raise at least £500 for each charity. Sponsor forms are available and donations may be left here.

The Shropshire Star is advertising its Cash in the Community Fund. This year SDN has the opportunity of getting a share in the £20,000 available. Ruby urged everyone to collect the token published nightly in the Shropshire Star and to ask friends and family to do the same. We need to collect at least 500 tokens to be in with a chance. First prize is £5,000; second prize is £2,000and third prize £1000, the remainder is allocated in relation to the number of tokens collected. Tokens can be handed in to AWM Furniture or Lanyon Bowdler in Shrewsbury and at the Railway Station in Gobowen. They can also be given to committee members.

We continue to work with AWM in the Riverside Centre in Shrewsbury. They are a Safe Place. There will be a voucher in our next newsletters that offers members a discount on furniture. They are also donating a riser/recliner chair to SDN that will be raffled at our June meeting. All members will be eligible for the draw.

We have been assisting British Ironworks to become more disability friendly and with their planning application for more accessible toilets on site.

General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) come into force in May this year. We will need permission from every member to contact them. We are asking everyone to sign a letter agreeing to contact by letter, phone or email. To contact every member will cost us around £1000. But it is something that we must do. The letter will be available on our website.

Ruby urged everyone to check out our sales table and to buy a raffle ticket.Thank you to people who have donated prizes.

  1. Treasurers report

Erica reported that on deposit at 26th February there was a balance of £5,229.13, which still includes a little money for the Inclusively Fit project, together with £1,000 we are holding for Safe Places.

On current account the balance at the bank at 21st February was £1,415.28 (at the end of 2017 it was £2,175.60).

Safe Place Shropshire current account has a balance of £1491.01

There have been many expenses during the first two months of the year, the largest being to Safe Places (£460) for their share of the grant received from the Co-op in May 2017. Room hire of £180 for this meeting. £180 to Virgin Money Giving to enable a fundraising page for the Zip Wire challenge. This latter expense is a one-off payment and will enable future sponsorship moneys to be paid through Virgin Money Giving. We are members of Local Giving.com/,Just Text Giving & givingabit.com. This means there are now several ways on-line givers can donate to us.Being a charity, if you are a tax payer, we can claim Gift Aid on donations. This means an extra 25p for each £1 donation. Forms are available today or to download off our website.

Receipts have included Christmas card sales, on which a small profit was made, £453 from the Sainsbury Bag Pack at Telford before Christmas, £63 from a bucket collection at the Co-op on Wenlock Road in Shrewsbury, with a further £134 raised at the Co-op in Bicton on 21st February, not included in the above balance.

Monies owed to SDN. Safe Place Shropshire owes £159 and Inclusively Fit owes £139.

There will be an Awareness Day at the Princess Royal Hospital on Wednesday, 28th March from 10.00am to 4.00pm, and again on Thursday, 31st May. If anyone could spare an hour or two to help at either if these events it would be much appreciated.

We have a bucket collection at the Radbrook Co-op on Friday, 4th May, and on Friday, 8th June we have another collection at the Bicton Co-op.

On Wednesday 16th May, SDN will once again have a stand at the See and Hear Exhibition at the Sundorne Sports Village in Shrewsbury, where SDN will be hosting the Boccia Bowls Competition.

We are extremely grateful to Clear, our website designers, who are having a party to celebrate their 15thyear – and see in the 16thyear of business. At the party they will be having a raffle with high quality prizes and all money raised will be for SDN!!

Again, some of you may know, because of the Dragons Den event that Ruby pitched at last year we formed links with the British Ironwork Centre and one of the ways they would like to support us is by having a couple of our collecting tins.

As always, we are grateful to all the organisations who support us in so many ways with our fundraising activities. Thank you to everyone who helps fund-raise for SDN. We can only continue to operate with the help of all our volunteers and the hard work they contribute to the charity.

  1. Guest Speaker – Peter Walters, the Lyneal Trust

Peter thanked SDN for the opportunity to renew the links between the two organisations.

Originally, the Trust was run by Shropshire Council. The grounds belonged to Percy Thrower. The Princes Trust took over before the Lyneal Trust became involved. The scheme is run entirely by volunteers.

They have 2 narrow boats but will be getting a third next month. They are all on the Llangollen Canal.

The Shropshire Lass 2 is an 8-berth holiday boat. It has lifts and a kitchen and can be hired.

The new boat will be a 6-berth holiday boat. It is a groundbreaking design. They have already had enquiries from Australia and Germany. The design has involved physiotherapist and psychologists. The toilet facilities are incredible.

The Shropshire Lady is fully adapted for 12 passengers. It costs £85 per day to hire. It has been used by Help for Heroes. There is a trained skipper and crew, with a kitchenette and fridge. You can bring your own food and drink.

The Trust also has 3 fully adapted cottages for hire.

At Christmas they run trips to meet Father Christmas. There is a large car park for users.

Peter was able to show photos of the boats.

Peter asked members to spread the word about the facilities available.

Ruby thanked Peter for an enlightening presentation. She is sure that members will get pleasure from taking trips with the Trust.

Members broke for light refreshments and networking before the next speaker.

  1. Guest Speaker– Tom Kane and Harley, Deaf ‘n Able

Tom worked for the Air Force for 30 years as an engineer. He became deafened in2000 and has been using hearing aids since then. His last role with the RAF was as a teacher. In those days there were no adjustments made to assist him.

He acquired Nevis, a hearing dog. Nevis was a lifesaver. When Nevis passed away, he was replaced by Harley. (At this stage, Harley was fast asleep at the front of the room.)

Tom told us that by 2031 there will be an estimated 15.6 million people in the UK with hearing loss. Adult onset hearing loss will be one of the top ten diseases in the UK, above diabetes or cataracts.

In 2016 there were around 64,000 people in Shropshire with a hearing impairment. The number increases every year. This is 21% of the population.

Deafness can range from mild to profound, where there is no hearing at all. Deafness is an invisible disability. Until you tell someone you are deaf, no-one knows.

On a good day 35% of speech is lip-readable. But certain words can be difficult to distinguish. For example, beach and beech, or pat, mat and bat. It is essential to know the context of a conversation to be able to lip read successfully.

Noise at work can cause hearing damage that is permanent and disabling. It can be gradualfrom exposure to noise over time. But damage can also be caused by sudden, extremely loud noises.

A hearing aid does not replace the hearing lost. It merely enhances the hearing a person has left.

Tom told members that wearing in-ear bud-type headphones to listen to music for 40 minutes a day could mean that, in 20 years’ time, the wearer will require hearing aids.

Ruby thanked Tom and Harley for their presentation today.

The raffle was drawn. Today SDN raised £42.00 and sales table£21

Ruby urged everyone to complete the evaluation sheets.

  1. Next Meeting:

1030am Thursday14th June 2018

At the University Centre, The Guildhall, Frankwell Quay, Shrewsbury SY3 8HQ

Speakers will be Ruth Jones from Veolia talking about recycling and SDN Member Tony Lawrence, who will be talking about Tai Chi

Prepared by………………………………………….

Approved:………………………………………………..Date: ………………………

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