NOTES OF SIXTEENTH PROJECT STEERING COMMITTEE MEETING

Thursday 9^th August 2007 -- at PSJ, Beacon Hall, small Lounge Meeting Room

R.W.G.Butt Chair (RWGB)

Kathy Thomas Vice-Chair+"Environment, OpenSpaces, Footpaths, Flora&Fauna" (KMT)

P.R.Provest Secretary + "Transport" (PRP)

Terry Nicholls "Social Facilities and Peasedown Opportunities Project" (T_N)

Josephine Stockley general advisor (J_S)

Bridie Marshall "Youth, etc" (BFM)

Michael Gregory "Sport", etc also "P.A.C.T." (formerly C.S.A.G) (MJG)

Ruth Grant advisor on health / social aspects (R_G)

Derek Kennedy advisor on available public meeting facilities (DJTK)

Dave Dixon B&NES Local Partnership Co-ordinator (D_D)

Jacqui Ward Community Action, Parish Plans Officer (J_W)

Josephine Stockley : had also e-mailed an individual apology on this occasion, in addition to the ‘Standing’ one in her name, this due to the incidence of School Holidays.

Dave Dixon : has a date clash with another commitment ( also for some of our future meetings )
but is available to help the Group as required, and is separately in contact with Jacqui Ward.

Jacqui Ward : was unwell due to a sickness ‘bug’ developed during this day, but sent in a very comprehensive e-mail detailing status of all matters she is dealing with specifically for PSJ.

Draft Minutes had been circulated and -NO- bids for amendment received.

Minutes were signed by RWGB as a true record.

( Specific comments from RWGB and PRP placed under relevant Minutes )

Bob Butt announced with pleasure Quartet Foundation had now agreed our Grant Application.

As we do not have a Treasurer, RWGB asked Secretary PRP to complete the Acceptance forms required by Quartet. ###PRP

It was noted that opening a "business" bank account was prolonged and not easy these days due to ‘money laundering’ legislation, and in any case we would only need one for a relatively short period. After discussion it was agreed the incoming cheque should be made payable to PSJ P.C., and outgoing cheques thereafter raised via Christine Hartley.

There was no problem "ring-fencing" the ‘Parish Plan’ funds within P.C. funds ( including remainder of original sum vired from the P.C. itself ), and this would obviously be checked as part of the normal Internal Audit process for correct protection of the interests of both parties.

Separately, after we received the new money, a regular monitoring statement would be needed at these meetings of this Group.

It was noted that Quartet would be needing a Monitoring Report in regard to the spending of the Grant, of which the most difficult part, again, would be accurate quantification of beneficiaries.

 6. PSJ PARISH PLAN GRAND OPEN DAY EVENT -- Saturday 29^th September 2007

(6a) Hall hire. The Group now had a confirmed booking of the Beacon Hall for this event, public opening times in the span 10.00hrs to 16.00hrs, with access to the Hall by our members before and after those times for setting-up and clearing away respectively. The Group would be charged at a very favourable "public service" rate, a concession indeed as it blocks out the Community Association from booking any more lucrative commercial hire on that Saturday.

PRP reminded members that in consideration of the very favourable rate, the Group had a moral obligation to restore Beacon Hall at the end of the day to the condition in which we received it at the start of hire ---invariably immaculate. RWGB and KMT felt that after the long hours already to be spent in the hall on the day, and of course the clearing away of exhibits, there would be some tiredness / reluctance to undertake much in the way of fine cleaning / polishing. PRP was asked to approach DJTK with an offer of £ 20 beyond the agreed hire fee if he could arrange any cleaning necessary to restore the Hall to usual order. ###PRP(done)

(6b) Publicity. We had fortunately been in time to get a two-thirds page announcement of the event in the PSJ P.C. Newsletter, August issue, the last before the event and now published.

This had been unexpectedly effective as it had already generated two unsolicited requests to have ( relevant ) display stands at the event !

As agreed at the last meeting, RWGB would co-ordinate the commissioned publicity materials.

Primary purchases would be posters and fliers. It was agreed A4 size posters on wooden telegraph poles can be particularly effective. In a strict sense illegal, but usually condoned if conscientiously removed from -all- posting sites immediately after the event. All ###RWGB

Statements to the Press ( Guardian, Journal ) would not incur us in any cost. ###RWGB

KMT reported there was a temporary general difficulty at the moment in accessing the

PSJ P.C. internet website to carry out any updating.

After discussion it was agreed there was no scope currently to involve any "Significant Person" in this event. This would be more appropriate e.g. when we came to launch the published Plan.

KMT said she still believed the most effective publicity would be a cross-street banner in centre of the village, e.g. Waggon & Horses to Arleens or Jones, or Methodist Church to Pizza or West Country Vending, and it did not matter this was not specifically adjacent to Beacon Hall.

Some caution was expressed over this, gaining of consents and clearances, four bus journeys per day were run with double-deckers, and similar high-sided freight vehicles at any time.

RWGB would include possible banner provision among his range of enquiries. ###RWGB

(6c) Stalls and Displays. The situation to date regarding expected Stalls and Displays was reviewed. Members greatly appreciated the energy of Jacqui Ward who had herself organised a good range of relevant ones from both inside and outside the village. The total so far now read:

Practical displays and demonstrations :

• Tae Kwon Do --at 1200hrs
• Cheerleading --at 1300hrs
• Police --Sgt Pat Moore at mutually convenient time yet to be agreed
• Community Action Parish Plan --Jacqui Ward presentation to public approx three times.

Individual stands and stalls :

• PSJ Parish Plan --our own in-house presentation
• ‘Transport’ --part of above to including ‘Ring & Ride’ and L.Transport Plan effect on PSJ
• Beacon Hall PSJ Community Association
• Christadelphian church ( unsolicited trigger from write-up in August PSJ Newsletter )

( Confirmed bookings made through Jacqui Ward on our behalf ) :

• ‘UA’ ( not known to anyone present, does this mean ‘U3A’ ? –who would be welcomed )
• Brownies & Guides
• Peasedown St.John Youth Centre
• B&NES Community Voluntary Services ( the ‘B&NES’ is just a label, not part of B&NES )
• Crime Safety Partnership
• Age Concern
• Centre for Sustainable Energy
• Avon CDA ( not immediately recognised as such )
• Social Enterprise Works

( Contacts that Jacqui Ward has made but are not yet Confirmed as stall bookings ) : ###J_W

• W.I. ( ‘dead’ as such in PSJ, but the same members still exist as a group )
• Citizens Advice Bureau
• Environment Agency
• Ground Work South West
• Forest of Avon

Discussion ensued on deployment of the exhibiting parties. Felt most suitable for hard-core Parish Plan to be in Lounge adjacent to Refreshments ( q.v. ) whilst chatting-up public.

Number of stands already reaching a manageable maximum ? Original idea to persuade
in-village businesses ( Mercedes, West Country Vending, etc ) not to be pursued.

Nathan Hartley not here for past two meetings so unsure whether "Faith" groups are being
co-ordinated ? ( noted from August PSJ Newsletter that NLRH is now on Anglican staff )

In absence of alternative we will accept the unsolicited request from Christadelphians alone.

Felt that space should be found for a ‘Dick Graham’ Village Past and Present exhibition as previously staged at Millennium and Methodist Anniversary and very popular each time.

Much disappointment at lack of any initiative from School to offer to stage anything at all,
nor anything from any of the several sporting organisations within village.

RWGB would speak to Dick Graham and Linda Day re the first two possibilities. ###RWGB

KMT counselled adequate spacing. Enough room needed for simultaneous deployment of very active demonstrations ( e.g. Cheerleading ) plus audience, plus static stands/stalls.

Desirable to explore possibility of an overflow marquee on grass immediately outside Hall.

RWGB has a contact for a marquee and will enquire availability and size, etc. ###RWGB

Steering Group to make closer allocation plan for the stalls and events at next meeting.

PRP raised whether we were supplying blank boards to exhibitors (as done at Camerton 2006),
KMT felt our few boards were all needed for PSJ Parish Plan core exhibits, so we could only offer "bare table only" to other visiting stall-holders. Some exhibitors might be happy with just "wall space" (PSJ Community Association had already indicated this might be enough for them).

Desirable to provide some "attractions" which will draw attention to encourage participation in the event and occupy accompanied children. ‘Bouncy Castles’ suggested for the latter.

KMT will enquire availability of Bouncy Castle, erection/de-erection, hire cost etc, as we might want to provide this as a free service at point of use if not too expensive. In any case this will need adequate staffing supervision and a check that relevant Insurances are in place. ###KMT

(6d) Refreshments. Policy discussed and agreed. Refreshments ideally served from counter adjacent to B.H.Lounge. Supply f.o.c. to Visitors who would be sitting in Lounge being
chatted-up by Steering Group staff. This would be a mini thank-you to them for their participation. Supply intermittently ( say every couple of hours ) to stall-holders. This would be a mini thank-you to them for attending ( and quite a few would be giving their services over a period longer than six hours, yet they were from outside our village )

RWGB asked PRP to pursue this, in particular the purchase of supplies, including if

appropriate the enlisting of the purchasing power of JPR. ###PRP ( partially done see below )

(6e) The Great Map. We had been strongly advised from all sides to incorporate this as a feature enjoyed by the visitors, and it had been a resounding success at Camerton’s 2006 Day.

The obvious party to help us get this done was ‘nesa’, possibly as one of their Youth projects.

‘nesa’ had sent a representative to many of the earlier meetings in this series, but not recently, though we had continued to send them Agenda and Minutes of all meetings so they were aware of the progress and developments in this project, and it had been anticipated they would have by now re-attended or at least sent comment on this aspect.

Terry Nicholls said he also had had a disappointing experience of ‘nesa’ regarding lack of their practical help on another project he had been involved in. Because of this he had experimented with a do-it-yourself alternative approach for a Great Map for PSJ Parish Plan, and he tabled the result for consideration. Members were delighted with Terry Nicholls’ work on this. Although the original envision was for an "africa" outline of the PSJ Parish boundary, T_N had confined scope to the Carlingcott / By-pass area which was well over 90 per cent of the populated area and enabled all the inhabited roads to be shown at a reasonably large scale.

Members quickly agreed that the "africa" concept would have produced either a ridiculously large actual map or a ridiculously small scale on the inhabited area of a reasonable size map.

This compromise was clearly the best solution and was acceptable without further modification.

Members asked PRP to arrange to mount the map on hardboard, also to purchase a supply of the smallest size of Post-It Notes [ 50mm x 37mm ] as to use full-size Post-It Notes as had been done at other events would overwhelm our particular Map. ###PRP

Considerable thanks were extended to T_N for his commendable initiative over this.

(6f) Pre-questionnaire Sampling. Ross Thompson had clarified ( page.2, Minute.7 of

12^th July meeting ) that to maintain an even and manageable personal workload he would not be having a direct input into the organisation of other aspects of the Open Day, -but- he
-would- be using the event for trialling a pilot version of the emergent questionnaire.

As he was not present tonight it was unknown how this aspect now stood, but it needed to be clarified in advance of the Day itself, as to how this was going to be ‘worked’.

(6g) Staffing. This led directly to consideration of the ‘staffing’ requirements for the Day.

This fell into three distinct bands : Setting-up prior to the 10.00hrs public opening;

Attendance on the public during the !0.00hrs to 16.00hrs opening ( this was in itself six hours, whereas span at Camerton 2006 had been shorter at three and half hours ); dismantling, taking-away and reinstatement.

We needed enough ‘knowledgable’ people on hand to chat to visitors about Parish Plan, plus also enough to provide general ‘supervision’ within Beacon Hall and marquee areas.

By the next meeting we needed firm lists of named committed persons for these periods.

RWGB said he would be applying suitable pressures to obtain sufficient volunteers. ###RWGB

Members had not reviewed any additional already-published Plans since last meeting.

Derek Kennedy had left for the attention of RWGB and PRP copies of Version.3 of a Paper :

"Beacon Hall Civic Development Project". This was tabled but due to insufficient time at this meeting was not considered from scratch.

Bob Butt and Peter Provest had, at the invitation of Jacqui Ward, attended a "Parish Plan Training Seminar" held at Long Ashton on Friday 20^th July. PRP briefly outlined the key points arising at the Seminar, which had been particularly useful to us at this stage of our project,
with directly relevant input from Congresbury and Churchill / Langford who had passed their Questionnaire stage.

Chairman Bob Butt said we already had future Steering Group meetings diarised, but the ‘gap’ before the next one was too long in view of need to check progress on commitments for 29 Sep.

He asked PRP to check with DJTK whether 6^th September is also available, and if so book it and list in Minutes with the other dates of forthcoming meetings.

Steering Group Committee meetings are therefore :

then the Grand Parish Plan Open Day on 29^th September 2007

thereafter 25^th October 2007, 22 November 2007.

Invitation had been received from Jacqui Ward to a ‘repeat’ of the Social and Networking event previously enjoyed by several of the Parish Plan Groups, including ourselves, back in March.

The new date would be Thursday 4^th October.

RWGB asked PRP to respond thanking her for the invitation and confirming we would be sending a ‘team’, but the exact named members to be selected at a later meeting. ###PRP