Minutes of a Meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Scottish Hypnotherapy Foundation
(SHF) held at Mannerston Holdings on Saturday 7 th March 2015
Present:
John Lawrence Chair
Susanne McMahon Vice Chair
Rae Jenson Marketing Director
Dr Fiona McLeod Medical Advisor/Research Director
Alison Bruce
Jo Goss
Apologies:
Conference Director
Treasurer/Secretary
Rod Beaumont
Rachel Coleman
Deputy Conference Director
Fundraising Director
Education Director Thomas Munro
The meeting commenced at 2.15pm.
Item 1. Minutes of Previous Meeting
The Minutes of the Meeting held on Saturday 15 th
November 2014 were accepted as a true record.
Item 2. Ongoing Actions a.
Supervision and Training Days
The Trustees had now all had the opportunity to look at the Confer web site
( www.confer.uk.com
) as agreed at the previous meeting (Item 2). It was considered that this site could provide and excellent resource for CPD and for discussion. The Vice Chair had undertaken one of the on-line modules and had found it to be of very high quality.
However, it had a strong bias toward psychotherapy and might therefore have a limited appeal to some hypnotherapists. Furthermore the fees for both Individual and
Institutional rates, were quite high. It was agreed therefore that the SHF would not invest in any courses at present. However, we would review the situation at a later date once our organisation was fully up and running. b.
Hypnotherapy in Schools
As the Education Director was unable to attend the meeting it was agreed that his progress report should be deferred until the next meeting.
The Marketing Director reported that Braes High School in Falkirk, which already runs an
Anxiety Group, had expressed a very strong interest in such a project. Indeed, the Head
Mistress had already trained with Caroline Dyson (Director of the Hypnotherapy in
Schools Programme (HISP), although as a non-hypnotherapist she was not in a position to use this method herself. The school has offered to help by examining our proposals and assisting in putting a package together.
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It was suggested that either the Chair or the Marketing Director, both of whom are qualified to work with children, should offer to visit the school and give a talk on hypnotherapy to the Anxiety Group. It was noted that parental approval for each child should be obtained prior to exposing the children to hypnotherapy.
It was noted that any hypnotherapist working with children would require Disclosure certification. The Secretary agreed to look into the system for charity organisations wishing to provide clearance for their members. She would also investigate the system for individuals wishing to apply independently.
The question of availability of speciality training courses for hypnotherapists wishing to work with children was raised. It was agreed that, even if not mandatory, it was highly desirable that any hypnotherapist wishing to work in schools should have a formal qualification in this area. As noted at Item 4.3.c of the Minutes of the Meeting dated
Saturday 15 th
November 2014, Ms Dyson ran a variety of such courses in England, and had expressed a willingness to provide a course in Scotland should we wish.
Alternatively the SHF could arrange to run a CPD course of its own.
Action:
1.
The Education Director would provide a progress report at the next meeting.
2.
The Chair/Marketing Director would offer to give a talk to the school’s Anxiety Group.
3.
The Secretary would look into the procedures for obtaining Disclosure certification. c.
SHF Presentation at Scottish Parliament
Arrangements.
The date for the SHF’s presentation and reception at the Scottish
Parliament Building had been confirmed, taking place in the Fleming Room on Tuesday
21 st
April 2015 from 6-8pm. The Chair and the Conference Director would be holding a planning meeting with the Events Officer, Ms Claire Phale, at the Scottish Parliament on
Friday 13 th March 2015, after which the Chair would be provided with an Event Contract.
Once this had been signed and returned to Ms Phale the Secretary would send out the official invitations.
Speakers. Unfortunately Professor Whorwell was unable to attend. Nor was he able to provide a member of his team to stand in for him. However, he has generously provided a copy of a research paper he has recently had published, and would be sending us a further one that was shortly due to be published as soon as it became available. Copies of these would be made available to all those attending the event, together with copies of the SHF
Strategic Plan. (See Item 2.f below). The SHF Medical Advisor/Research Director, Dr
Fiona McLeod, agreed to give a short presentation on the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of hypnotherapy for IBS in his place.
The full list of speakers is: The Hon John Finnie MSP; John Lawrence, Chair of the SHF;
Dr Fiona McLeod, SHF Medical Advisor/Research Director; and Margaret Coats, Chief
Executive and Registrar of the CNHC.
Guest List. All SHF members would be invited to attend. Additionally it was agreed that we would invite non-SHF hypnotherapists in the local area to attend. It was also suggested that we could invite: the renowned therapist Dr David Hamilton PhD; the award-winning journalist Lesley Riddoch; Scottish actress and comedienne Elaine C.
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Smith; and the Dowager Duchess of Hamilton. The Duchess has an active interest in mental health issues. The Chair suggested that, subsequent to the event, the Dowager
Duchess should be invited to become an Honorary Patron of the SHF.
Actions:
1.
The Chair and the Conference Director would hold a planning meeting with the Events
Officer of the Scottish Parliament on Friday 13 th March 2015.
2.
Once the Event Contract had been signed the Secretary would send out the official invitations to guests of the SHF and prepare a guest list for security purposes. d.
UKCHO Membership
The Secretary had submitted an application for the SHF to become a Member
Organisation of UKCHO, together with the membership fee and a copy of the
Constitution. The application would be discussed at the next meeting of UKCHO on
Wednesday 15 th
April 2015, and the SHF chair, who is on the Executive Committee of
UKCHO, would present our case at this meeting. e.
Conference
It has been confirmed that the 1 st
Annual Conference of the SHF would be held on
Saturday 17 th
October 2015 in the Green Room, Callendar House from 9.30am – 4.30pm.
Speakers. The Conference Director informed the meeting that Dr David Hamilton had agreed to give a presentation at the Conference. In addition Dr Jenny Lynn will give a presentation on health and well-being and the mind/body connection. We therefore now have a full programme of presentations.
Fees and Administration.
It was agreed that fees should be set at £70 for SHF members and £80 for non-members. It was further agreed that the students attending Hypnosis
Scotland’s current course could attend as a part of their training. Hypnosis Scotland would make a financial contribution to cover this. The venue requires that we confirm the numbers attending by mid-September, so it would be necessary to start advertising soon.
The Conference Room has a maximum capacity of 70, so we should advise those wishing to attend to book early to avoid disappointment.
It was suggested that we could use Eventbrite ( www.eventbrite.co.uk
), an agency which handles all aspects of event co-ordination, to handle all the administration on our behalf.
The Treasurer agreed to investigate the cost of this as it would take the pressure off the
Conference Team. Details of the event and how to book would also be included on the
CPD page of the web site, and emails would be sent to all SHF members and other interested therapists. The Marketing Director offered to draft a PR form for the event.
Should we decide to handle the bookings ourselves the Secretary agreed to handle this aspect. It was agreed that to facilitate this it would be advisable to set up a PayPal account. Other methods of payment, already in operation, are BACS transfer and payment by cheque. The addition of PayPal could also be used for other payments such as membership feed, CPD events and donations. The Marketing Director offered to set up a PayPal account on our behalf and arrange to have the appropriate links added to the web site.
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Actions:
1.
The Treasurer would investigate the cost of using Eventbrite and would report back to all
Trustees for their consideration.
2.
The Treasurer would arrange for the full details of the event to be included on the CPD Page of the web site once these had been finalised, and to email SHF members and other potentially interested therapists to further advertise the event.
3.
The Marketing Director would draft a PR form for the event.
4.
The Marketing Director would arrange a PayPal account for the SHF. f.
Strategic Plan
The Secretary presented this item on behalf of the Fundraising Director, who was unable to attend the meeting. The Strategic Plan was very close to completion, and would soon be ready for publication. However, there were one or two areas where the Fundraising
Director requested further input from the Trustees, specifically in the area of IBS. The
Secretary would circulate the most recent draft to all Trustees for their consideration.
It was noted that there was now a limited timescale for completing the document as we wished to give copies to those attending the Meeting and Reception at the Scottish
Parliament on 21 st
April (Item 2c refers). In order to avoid cost penalties for last-minute orders we should, if possible, need to have the completed document passed to the printers no later than 7 th
April. The Secretary noted that the document was already of a very high standard, and required very little further work other than the addition of any further suggestions from the Trustees and a final proof reading. Once the final version was complete the Conference Director would manage all the printing aspects.
Actions:
1.
The Secretary would circulate the latest draft of the Strategic Plan to all Trustees for their consideration.
2.
All Trustees would pass any suggestions they might have to the Fundraising Director.
3.
The Secretary would proof-read the final copy of the Strategic Plan
4.
The Conference Director would arrange the printing of the Strategic Plan. g.
Collection Boxes
Item 10 of the Minutes of the Meeting dated 15 th
November 2014 refers. It was agreed that owing to the costs involved we would defer a decision on the provision of Collection
Boxes to SHF members until next year.
Item 3. Treasurer’s Report
Community Grant. The Treasurer reported that the SHF was now in a stronger financial position thanks to the Fundraising Director’s successful application for a Community Grant from the Voluntary Action Fund (VAF). The amount received was £1,000. This grant was classified as ‘Restricted’ and was to be used specifically for ‘operational costs to enable us to develop and implement our Strategic Plan, expenses to access training, to cover expenses and to develop publicity materials’. We were required to use the grant by the end of December 2015, after which the Treasurer was to submit a return detailing our expenditure to the VAF. The Treasurer
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further advised that the Fundraising Director had submitted several other grant applications to various sponsoring organisations. The results of these were still awaited.
EasyFundraising.
The Treasurer reported that £25.75 had so far been raised through
EasyFundraising, which would be transferred to the SHF bank account in due course. She reminded the meeting of the many benefits of shopping via their EasyFundraising accounts rather than direct from individual suppliers. A wide variety of companies supported charities who were registered with EasyFundraising.
Financial Report. The Treasurer presented the Financial Report for the period 1 st
October-31 st
December 2014 to the meeting. A copy is attached at Annex A.
Action: The Treasure would submit a return to VAF at the end of December 2015 detailing how we had used the Community Grant.
Item 4. Any Other Business
The Gathering
The Conference Director had attended the Gathering 2015, an annual event run by the Scottish
Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO). Whilst there she attended a workshop on health and well-being, and visited a number of stalls, networking on behalf of the SHF. She found the event an excellent event for making contacts, but considered that the stalls did not provide the best value for money for participating organisations, and advised that this would not be a worthwhile investment for the SHF. She found the workshop she attended interesting. However, the general impression was that many of these workshops were intended more as a taster than a workshop in the true sense, the main aim being to generate custom rather than instruct.
The Conference director recommended that it would be very beneficial for representatives of the
SHF to attend at future Gatherings to hand out leaflets and generally network with other organisations, perhaps especially on the first day, which was better attended.
Item 5. Date of Next Meeting
The next meeting will be held at Mannerston Holdings on Saturday 6 th
June 2015 from 2-5pm.
The meeting closed at 5.15pm
I certify that this is a true record of the Meeting
Signature: …………..
Chair, SHF
Date:
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ANNEX A
THE SCOTTISH HYPNOTHERAPY FOUNDATION
Financial Report for the Period 1 October – 31 December 2014
Opening Balance
Fund
1822.53
General Fund
1722.53
Income
Membership Fees
Untaxed Interest
Community Grant
Total Income
Expenditure
Meeting
Refunds
Membership (UKCHO)
Printing (leaflets)
Total Expenditure
Closing Balance
Fund
2577.17
J P Goss – Treasurer
1st January 2015
90-00
0-04
90-04
100-40
45-00
100-00
90-00
335-40
General Fund
1477.17
Restricted
100-00
Nil
Nil
1000-00
1000-00
Nil
Nil
Nil
Nil
Nil
Restricted
1100-00
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