Sonya Farrell (Past Chair); Richard Holborn

Present:

Mark Brayne (Chair); James Thomas (Chair Elect); Joe Kearney (Treasurer); Shirley Young (Secretary); Morven Fyfe; LauliMoschini; Balbindar Mann

Apologies:

Sonya Farrell (Past Chair); Richard Holborn

1. Steering Group Committee Meeting Minutes for Monday October 30th 2017 - approved.

2. AGM Minutes held at Regional Network Day in Ipswich on Saturday November 11th 2017 - approved.

3. It was agreed that Steering Group Committee Meetings would be held on Zoom from now on as the platform is more reliable, has better clarity and focused at business interaction. The cost for the platform for group interaction is £12.00 a month and Mark will look into setting this up from the Paypal account in the regional groups name so that different people can act as hosts. It was noted how important it was to have compatible software if using these types of platforms for clinical purposes helpfully highlighted by some teething difficulties tonight (our first venture into using this platform)

4. Finances - nothing has changed since the Excel sheet sent round by Joe and accounts sent to EMDR UK&I for the end of accounting year in November (£2,740 in the bank and £168.96 in Paypal)

Given that we only just broke even this year, Joe suggested adjusting attendance fees for our events. It was agreed that we might up these to £40 for members and £45 for nonmembers, and for occasions where we had special speakers appropriately more.

5. Notes from Ipswich - Joe noted that it was important to have only one entrance to the network day. Ipswich had two, and it was not made clear which one to use, leading to difficulties around keeping track of who was actually at the event.

Mark noted that in future we need to ensure that there are sufficient badges for the numbers attending.

Action: Shirley to make up a master check list for organising events, to be shared among group members and posted on the regional group website.

It was noted there had been some difficulty over the labelling of the food attendees struggling to identify ingredients (vegetarian/non vegetarian etc). This needs to be clarified at other events.

Morven noted that she would have liked to have been able to talk to the clients who presented with Mark on the network day, reflecting that she had seen a 16-year-old client with her art therapist present their work at a recent CPD event and how empowered that client had felt. Whilst one or max two participants at the network day had expressed some disquiet about the ethics of clients being involved in presentations, the reflections tonight suggested the positive aspects of this and noted how the user voice component is often missing when material is presented.

Overall the feedback about the day was highly positive, endorsed by committee members who were at the day.

6. April 28th 2018 Networking Day

Without confirmation from Derek Farrell that he would be available for our next networking day, to talk about the Blind to Therapist protocol, Mark has been exploring other options.

Pam Virdi had indicated she might be available and it was agreed that this might be an exciting opportunity to explore her work around eating disorders and ego states. As she prefers to offer a day for her talk, given the complexity of the subject matter, it was agreed that we might forgo the network groups for the day but not lose the Consultants panel with questions and answers. This could end the day with our own network focus.

It was suggested that we might have the day run from 9.30 to 4.30.

Action: Mark will contact both Derek, and Pam to see if he can negotiate a fee slightly reduced from her usual £800.

Stop Press: Pam can no longer make the April 2018 date, so Mark has approached Dr Mel Temple, co-trained by Laurel Parnell in Attachment-Focused EMDR and Clinical Director at The Retreat in York, who is happy to do us a half day on her speciality, structural dissociation. Mel says she will do this at no cost beyond transport – to be discussed.

Richard has booked the Sugar Beet Club in Ely for this event. The charge there is £20 per hour (£160 for hours we are planning for). It was agreed that we should ask Richard to organise outside catering. Action: Richard to book Ely as before.

NB As there were problems over the gluten free food not getting to the individual who ordered it at Ely previously, and considering the difficulties over the labelling at Ipswich, we need to highlight this to the caterers when booking.

Lauli to cancel our provisional booking at Quy Mill Hotel in Cambridge.

7. November 2018 Network Day in Chelmsford.

As Mark is unable to make 10th November it was agreed we would make the date 17th for this network day – Action: Sonya to press ahead with organisation and contacts.

Sonya has already put a great deal of work into the day but there are still issues around venue etc. James has been liaising with Sonya and it was suggested that Lauli also could assist with the Chelmsford logistics.

8. Peer group supervision

Balbinder reported on the progress of the peer group supervision groups. Currently there are 14 individuals interested in meeting in Cambridge and 9 interested in meeting in Peterborough. Logistics are still being worked out, but it was agreed that this was an exciting development for shared learning and reflection.

Mark considered that perhaps the Norwich contingent should think about what could happen in the region. Shirley suggested that an online Zoom group might be more helpful as the benefits of her previous experience of peer group supervision had been negated by hours of travel.

9. The next meeting was arranged for Monday February 19th 2018 at 7.00