Notes on First Parish Assembly and Parish Council Elections held on Sunday, 28th March at 4.00 pm.

Approximately 60 members of the parish were present

1. WELCOME

Fr Dennis welcomed parishioners and opened the first Parish Assembly with a prayer. He reminded parishioners that he had brought them to this point over the last 15 years and it was now for the parish to elect a Pastoral Parish Council to assist him to make decisions for the future direction of the Parish.

2 INTRODUCTION

Mike Watson, Chair of the Pastoral Parish Steering Group, gave the background to the Parish Assembly and the purpose of the Pastoral Parish Council.

• To take responsibility for our future

• To plan for the future

• To communicate with and engage parishioners

• To help the Parish Priest

He explained that we all need to take some responsibility to ensure a future for our church in Buxton.

The benefits of the Pastoral Parish Council were explained as follows:-

• To formalise and improve parish communications

• Encourage more involvement in Parish activities

• Help Fr Dennis to decide the future direction for the Parish

• To help share the leadership and management challenges

3 STEERING GROUP ACTIONS

Over the last two months the Steering Group had met on four occasions. Many positive ideas had been raised at the first Parish Meeting in February and had been discussed by the Steering Group. The Steering Group had agreed that in the short time available to them they should concentrate on two main areas – Pastoral

Parish Council Elections and Communications:-

• The Parish Assembly and Pastoral Parish Council - To agree the structure of the Pastoral Parish Council, which would provide representation for all groups and individuals within the parish, and ensure that everyone had a voice.

The suggested set up for the Parish Groupings is as follows:- Liturgy; Adult Education and Formation; Youth and Children;Church and Parish Centre; Outreach and Convent; Finance and Secretarial.

• Work was carried out to co-ordinate the arrangements and publications for the First Parish Assembly and Election Process

Pastoral Parish Council

Membership agreed as follows:-

• 12 x Parish Representatives

• 9 x elected from parishioners

• 3 x to be appointed by the Parish Priest to represent un-represented community sectors and interests

The Council Role

• to help confirm Parish Vision, Mission and Pastoral Plan

• To help direct, promote, communicate, unify, affirm and renew.

Term of Office

• 1 year initially as a trial

Meetings

Not more than 2 hours. Monthly initially. Minutes kept. Agenda circulated

minimum of 3 days before each meeting.President presides and participates fully.

Parish Assemblies

Purpose : To provide regular and open feedback on Parish Council progress and plans.

Frequency: Three Assemblies during 2004-2005 including an Annual General Meeting.

Further detail of the work of the Steering Group would be given once the election process had been carried out and whilst the scrutineers were counting the votes.

4 ELECTION PROCESS

Bruce Thomson explained the election process.

14 nominations had been made. Parishioners attending to cast up to 9 votes. The results would be given before the end of the Assembly.

Once the votes had been cast, the Scrutineers – Mrs B Mellor and Mrs M Kelly, who were overseen by Mr J Duffy and Mrs G Hallam – would count the votes, along with postal votes which had been held by Fr Dennis in sealed envelopes. The 9 elected representatives would be those with the highest number of votes cast.

The 14 nominations were listed as follows:- Robert Aldous; Jay Dobson; Angela Duffy; Andrew Etchells; Joan Howard; Andrey Lowe; Mike Monaghan; Aileen O’Connell; Andrew Payne; Margaret Robinson; Brent Salt; Bruce Thomson; Aileen Warnesford; Mike Watson.

Photographs of the nominees were shown on the screen, and the nominees were asked to stand to aid identification.

At this point voting was carried out.

5 COMMUNICATIONS

Mike Watson explained that Communications had been chosen as one of the main tasks for the Steering Group to concentrate on. Many quick improvements could be made to improve the communication system within the parish.

Changes had been made to the Newsletter; Notice Boards had been placed at the back of the Church to display Parish Council communications; a Website had been set up to give detailed information about the Parish ( A number of

‘flyers’ had been produced to keep parishioners informed on the run up to the Assembly and Elections; Letters had been sent to Parish Group representatives requesting information; the Schools had been kept informed.

Website – Mike Watson gave detailed information on the links provided by the Website, which not only provided information for our parishioners but also for visitors and interested people worldwide. The Website also gives access to a number of useful external links.

Parish Group Survey

Margaret Robinson reported on the progress made in providing detailed information on the numerous Parish Groups running at St Anne’s. Letters had been sent to a representative of all the groups and much progress has been made to eventually provide a ‘communication tree’ for use by parishioners. This information would eventually be displayed on the notice boards at the back of the church and also on the website. Some Parish Groups had already started being more actively involved

e.g. “Welcomers and Greeters” at each Eucharist.

6 QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSION

Parishioners were asked whether they had any questions or required any further information:-

a) Q) Who would be the Council President

A) This position would be held by the Parish Priest. Fr Dennis explained that he would not vote against any actions by the elected Council unless he had confidential information not known by the Council which would make any decision detrimental to the Parish.

b) Q) Would parishioners be disadvantaged by not having access to the website.

A) It was explained that all information would be placed on the Notice Boards. It was acknowledged that at present only approximately 35-40% of parishioners had access to computers.

7 ELECTION RESULTS

All the Nominees were thanked for coming forward to offer their services and the following members were announced as being elected to the Pastoral Parish Council:-

Robert Aldous; Angela Duffy; Joan Howard; Mike Monaghan; Andrew Payne; Margaret Robinson; Brent Salt; Bruce Thomson; Mike Watson.

8 SUMMARY

Fr Dennis thanked the Steering Group for their work on the run up to the Assembly, the Scrutineers, and all the parishioners for attending and lending their support.

The Assembly closed with refreshments.