Operations Committee Meeting 24th September 2016 at National Gathering
Present: Alan Saleh (chair), John Ling, Martin Mansell, B-J Borthwick (minutes)
1. Matters arising:
A) use of Dropbox pro.
Dropbox seems to be in use, though some material is encrypted, so we do not know by whom.
We note that details of individuals' email addresses can be accessed by asking the regional coordinator. Email addresses have been made public by people communicating to all volunteers without using blind copy, so they are in fact no longer confidential.
B) logos.
We think that the Welsh version has been done. Martin will confirm the details with Jane. ACTION: Martin
C) A fourth edition of the newsletter has gone to volunteers this week. For future editions, it was agreed that BJ will make the final corrections and submit the newsletter to Alan for publishing
2. Report from Trustees Meeting
The terms of reference for Operations Committee are being rewritten. We are going to be asked to be more accountable to trustees in the future.
The regional levy has been discontinued as some regions have declined to pay.
Alan reported to trustees that some volunteer agreements have not been returned and not all volunteers have registered. We view this as having serious implications for many reasons, including confidentiality, safeguarding and communication.
We are asked by trustees to produce a budget for April 2017 to March 2018 and one for the period to March 2017. We will do this when we finalise our action plan after canvassing members at the gathering for their priority needs from our committee. ACTION: All
We will be asked to review quality and content of FUTC.
We will be charged with revision of the regional handbook.
3. Manual.
A pilot copy has been produced. It has been decided by members at the gathering to delay piloting of the manual for one month, while Joan Neary and Stephen Quashie complete their edit. The intention then is to send the manual to 6 facilitators for feedback on format and new exercises. We suggest a rolling programme to monitor new exercises. We agreed to ask for volunteers to pilot the manual. ACTION: Martin/John in October
Our timings will be to start the pilot at the end of October and to publish in April or May 2017.
John notes that he will be absent until the end of October.
We thank John and Martin for all their hard work on this project. Feedback today has been positive.
4. Volunteer Handbook.
We have adapted the Leeds Draft volunteer handbook and amalgamated it with the facilitator training manual to provide a new updated handbook with policies.
We discussed the policies, which are at present at the end of the Volunteer handbook, and wondered if signposting was needed to alert non-facilitating volunteers to their presence. We decided to leave dates on the policies, even though many are apparently out-of-date for review dates. Martin will check with trustees that all policies are the most recent available, asking them to let us know by the end of October. In the meantime, we agreed to send the draft to trustees and all regional coordinators and paid staff, for comments, omissions and errors, to be sent to Operations Committee by end of October, when we will send it to all volunteers. ACTION: Martin
5. Website.
B-J reported that she and Joan Neary from trustees have been meeting weekly by phone to check and update the website content. We are now ready for the copy to be proofread by Jennifer Kavanagh, before uploading to the website, using the current layout. We have not yet worked on the restricted area of the website.
Operations Committee noted the importance of keeping the website fresh and updated and hope that this will be given priority in website planning and budgeting.
B-J showed us the draft editorial policy produced by Joan, and a paper from Riley in Leeds, outlining her proposals for a website policy. B-J was asked to do a written comment on these proposals, reflecting Operations Committee concerns for website security and public image, before sending to trustees for comment. B-J will circulate updated comments to J, A and M before sending to trustees.
ACTION: B-J
6. Action Plan.
We agree to ask Anne for time to flag up a flipchart request for volunteer proposals for priority tasks for Operations Committeeto work on in the coming year.
Alan asked what priorities our committee might have:
#We might investigate and report on the different formats for workshops which are happening in the different regions, perhaps doing a survey and asking for successes and outcomes, client participation, diversity, different lengths, total hours and materials, in order to share lessons learned and examples of innovative practice.
#We might consider different kinds of training needs and frequency - regional?
# We might consider the training pathway from apprentice to facilitator and how to ensure access to facilitate in different regions. We note the need to ensure that all facilitators are supported after the T4F and that all names are added to the register, with adequate and appropriate follow up and mentor support.
7. Training - see above
Upcoming T4F at Bamford: In order to remain accessible to all volunteers and in accordance with the statement in the Volunteer Agreementthe T4F will be funded from the Operations Committee budget. We will ask participants to pay a £30 deposit,refunded on completion,and to request a travel cost refund from their region.
8. A.O.B.
We have received the report of the outcomes of the participant evaluation survey for L1 workshops April 2015-2016. We thank Frances McCann for her work on this project. ACTION: Alan to convey our thanks
9. Date of next meeting: Wednesday 4th January 2017 at 19.15 for 19.30 start, by Skype.