Occupational Health Wales AGM

NOTES FROM MEETING

Waterton Buildings Brocastle Ave Waterton Ind Estate BRIDGEND CF31 3US

FRIDAY 18TH OCTOBER 2013 at 1000

Attendees:

R Harries vice chair, A Cairns treas, L Jenkins Sec, D Hathway, B Welsh, K Evans, C Evans, D Smith, and S Roberts

Apologies:

From CW Chair in Afghanistan, A Phillips web master, and many others by e mail

Agenda Items

1. Minutes of previous meeting
The minutes of the previous meeting were read though and agreed as a true representation
Prop Dawn H Seconded Amanda C
2. Chair report
There was no official report by CW so Ruth Harries gave an overview of last year’s conference.
The feedback was very positive and Amanda C gave a synopsis of the feedback sheets.
Most popular speakers were Prof Cullinan and John Ballard
Breakdown of attendees were 47% NHS 48% private and 3% freelance
94 % felt the content of the day was relevant
94 % felt the facilities were comfortable
100% had the opportunity to interact with colleagues and speakers
99% felt they could consolidate their experience and reflect
69 % enjoyed the food and refreshments
Income
We had 68 delegates which brought in £4420 ( £ 65 per person)
Exhibitors paid £1790 for their stands
This brought revenue of £6210
Expenditure
Venue including refreshments and lunch cost £4388.0
Stationary and misc. expenses came to £164.18
Speaker expenses (travelling. Hotel etc.) came to £704.0
Speaker gifts came to £72.35 note- speaker did not charge for their time
Total expenditure came to £5329.73
Profit overall £880.27
Please note that cttee members did not claim any expenses and gave their time freely.
3. Treasurer report
AC said that we had £3951.77 in our account and £ 2766.0 in the savings account
Outgoings
1 Logo was designed and paid for
2 web site renewal fee paid £70
3 Bursary of £100 paid out
We have anew accountant who is more accessible
4. Secretary report
Main issue was that of contactable e mail addresses .Still getting e mails bounced back
Need people to advise if move on or change e mail address
5. Election of officers Chair Sec and Treasurer
There had been no nominations
Chair will remain as CW
Treas as AC
Sec as LJ
6. Review of strategic objectives and action plan
Committee needs to look at this
7. Other business
7.1 BW suggested that conference admin support is paid for in order to relive the pressure. LJ said she had a member of staff who had provided some admin support this year and would continue to do so and a minimal fee would be charged to OH Wales. Action LJ
7.2 AC asked for assistance with analysis of the feedback for forms next year’s conference as it is time consuming and she has a young family
D Smith and S Roberts volunteered to take this on board. Action DS and SR
7.3 Sue Roberts told us she had visited West Wales OH group which meets at lunchtime. RH said she had tried to make contact with other groups but it was difficult to get any feedback DS said that local groups were not going well generally and they tend to fizzle out quite quickly.
DS said he had attended the South West OH conference in Bristol
SR said she went to the public health conference in Hammersmith but OH was not represented very well and there were a lot of school nurses.
7.4 AC said that we need to review our policies and procedures especially the expenses policy, the submission dates for claims and how we emphasis the least cost option. AC will adapt Action AC
Other policies as in Lynda Spear prize conditions, the Bursary and the Constitution. A fresh look was needed and Kath Evans volunteered Action KE
7.5 Website
Criticism that the website had not been updated was voiced and it was appreciated that it was quite a commitment for Andy P to keep on top of. LJ suggested that we could use her marketing employee to take this on under the supervision of AP. Totally redesign and bring it up to date and check with AP for content. It was agreed that this could be done on a fee basis on the days he did not work for LJ. Rate would be kept low and CR (marketing) would liaise directly with AP to take over the technicalities.
7.6 Remploy
Dawn H told us about the help available for businesses under the Remploy scheme especially mental health .They have mobile Units and will come on site free. The service is free, and for 6 months, and is accessed through Access to Work. http://www.remploy.co.uk/
8. Conference 2014 update
Venue is the same as last year Millennium Centre Cardiff
Date Thursday June 12th
Theme “ Tools of the Trade”
Speakers: most confirmed
CW giving overview
AP doing update
Janet Hensey HSE
Glyn Morris doing mental health workshop
James Strong doing muscular skeletal workshop
John Ballard back by popular request
Keynote speaker Professor Diana Kloss
Back up Greta Thornbory
Exhibitors
It was agreed that we need to focus on specific exhibitors that would be interesting for the delegates
We have already Amplivox
Healthy Workstations
Probably Synergy Lab
Probably Kays medical
Ask Remploy
Ask Gofal mental health charity in Llandarcy
We need to open it out to Nursing Agencies and other ideas most welcome
Any contacts or suggestions would be welcome
Price for delegates
Cost was £65 this year and if we keep it the same e need 80-90 delegates to break even
Suggestion of increasing price to £80 which was felt acceptable and we would only need 71 delegates to break even.
Promotion
Web site
Lined in
Jisc mail
OH Groups
9. Lynda Spear Memorial Prize

It was agreed that as we had not had any nominations that meet current criteria the terms needed looking at Kath Rees kindly volunteered Action KR

10. Society of Occupational Medicine

Is proposing a new organisation for OH professionals see below

The single organisation website features a copy of the slide presentation and all of the latest FAQs that have been asked.

Please visit http://singleorg.co.uk/wordpress/

Further events and webinars will be organised as the project progresses.

New Linked In Group

In addition we have set up a Linked In group to facilitate discussion and debate. Please join the group here and feel free to submit any thoughts, comments and ideas

http://www.linkedin.com/groups/new-single-organisation-Occupational-Health-7404496/about

The Society and Faculty are currently considering creating a new single organization for occupational health. The aspiration is that this will incorporate both the Faculty and the Society and also be open to other health professionals working in occupational health. The aim is that the new body will bring together the best of the existing organizations and create something that is greater and better than the sum of its parts.
This group has been created for members and potential members to feedback their ideas, views and comments and discuss issues relating to the proposal

Meeting closed at 1130

Lorainne Jenkins

Sec