Service User Member Involvement Team – SUMIT
Seeing Better Together
Minutes: Wednesday 27 May 2015
1. Welcome and apologies
Present: Matthew Galtress (MG Chair), Paul Baskcomb (PB),
Stella Hodgson (SH), Sheila Long (SL), Kay Dear (KD), Catherine
Norcliffe (CN) and Julie Scarle (JS staff rep & Minutes).
Apologies: Shamaila Kauser (SK), David Butler (DB) and Neana
Lawson (NL NFB). Absent: PS
Chair for next meeting
MG (later changed to SL with the consent of MG).
2. Minutes from April meeting
Approved, subject to the following three changes requested by
MG:
1) MG asked if his comments made in the Feb meeting about a
possible sub-staff rep for SUMIT if JS wasn’t available could be
added to the Feb minutes. JS had responded that due to the small
staff team it was unlikely a permanent nominated staff rep
substitute could be identified, but JS could try to recruit one if
needed. She’d also pointed out the decision to cancel the March
meeting was not made because of her annual leave commitments
but because of the meeting’s close proximity to Easter and the
lack of availability of SUMIT members to attend.
2) MG asked if his request, made at the last SUMIT meeting for
an update from EC on the numbers of people accessing the
Support Centre could be included in the Minutes and if information
on the apparent decline in numbers could be brought to the next
meeting.
3) MG asked that his comments about a SUMIT feedback form
being included on the My Sight Notts website be included in the
previous minutes. JS had pointed out in the meeting that there
was already a feedback form on the My Sight Notts website.
Action: JS to make the requested changes. SUMIT were happy
for these changes to be made and for the minutes to be
published without coming back to SUMIT for approval.
3. Matters arising:
a) SUMIT membership:
SUMIT currently has 10 members, 7/8 of who are active, with a
capacity of 11.
It was agreed: that until such time as SUMIT has 11 members
and people who failed to attend regularly were blocking others
from joining, to take no action, but to keep the situation under
review.
b) Drop in/e-mails and suggestion box
JS to check SUMIT email after the meeting on behalf of SK.
Suggestion box contained no items:
JS had thanked Carole Bowles for her note left in the SUMIT
suggestion box and read out at the last SUMIT meeting. She’s
fed back verbally to Carole Bowles who had suggested a Royal
Visit to the charity.
Michael Conroy (MC) attended the meeting to update SUMIT
on a number of issues, including:
a) SUMIT’s proposed membership rules which were reviewed
by the Trust Board at its meeting on 14 May
b) AGM date
c) Reaching Communities application
d) Consultation for Reaching Communities application.
4. My Sight Notts membership rules
MC said the Trust Board passed on its thanks to SUMIT for a
well considered policy document for our membership scheme
as it currently exists, however, after some discussion the Trust
Board felt SUMIT might like to reconsider the policy in light of
possible changes to the scheme in the future.
The Trust Board felt that in order to be truly representative,
membership of My Sight Notts should be open to every service
user free of charge. This would give the charity an opportunity
to consult with and obtain the views of a wider number of local
visually impaired people, which would make the scheme more
representative and more attractive to potential funders and
partner organisations.
PB said he agreed, but there would be a shortfall in funding if
the scheme were made free of charge to all service users. MC
said this had been considered by the Trustees and it was felt
that service users might be encouraged to sign up to become
Friends of My Sight Notts and make a regular donation that
way. MC also said for those service users who took out
membership in order to benefit from discounted services, it had
been suggested that the charity offer a discount card, which
service users could purchase and which would entitle them to
discounted trips and some services.
SUMIT welcomed the proposals and PB suggested that in
addition to making the charity more representative and
democratic (as service users weren’t being asked to pay £10
membership for the right to vote at the AGM and to be
consulted with) it would also make it easier for the charity to
campaign and to bid for funding. PB asked if associate
members would then become full members and MC suggested
they might be offered the Friends scheme. PB asked if
volunteers would be eligible to stand as Trustees and MC said
everyone could stand as a Trustee if they had the skills to make
a contribution to the Trust Board, but it was not the views of
volunteers or Trustees that the charity and SUMIT wanted to
canvas, it was the views of local visually impaired people who
would all be automatic members.
PB offered to re-draft the membership rules to reflect the future
of the membership scheme as outlined by MC. SUMIT agreed
and MC said the new membership scheme wouldn’t be
introduced this year, so there was plenty of time to review it.
In light of these changes, SUMIT agreed to put a hold on the
action from the last meeting, when JS was asked to draft a new
membership promotional leaflet for S\UMIT to consider.
Action: PB to review membership rules and bring back to
SUMIT.
5. Consultations
MC informed SUMIT that having successfully completed stage
one of the Reaching Communities application, staff were now
working towards stage two, which would need to be submitted
in August.
As part of the stage two application process, the charity needed
to host focus groups in order to further consult with people
living in the geographical areas where the proposed new
service hubs would be set up i.e. Mansfield, Newark and
Bassetlaw. JS asked if SUMIT would support the focus groups
by helping to facilitate discussion and SUMIT said they would
very much like to get involved.
Action: JS to circulate consultation focus groups’ dates and
venues to SUMIT when they had been confirmed.
SUMIT also briefly discussed the next AGM and associated
SUMIT consultation and MC said it might be worth waiting to
decide the date of the next AGM until after the outcome of our
Reaching Communities stage two application was known. This
would enable Trustees to provide timely information on the
charity’s next steps. SUMIT members supported this
suggestion and JS said she would keep them informed.
6. Engagement events
MC informed SUMIT that as part of stage two of our Reaching
Communities application, we needed to hold consultation focus
groups in the areas where we were proposing to set up the new
service hubs, namely Mansfield, Bassetlaw and Newark. He
explained that the purpose of the focus groups would be to
determine what type of services and social group each local
community would like to see developed, and to discuss in more
detail what these new social groups would deliver and how
many people would access them. MC explained that volunteers
from the Thursday Social Group would also take part in the
discussion, in order to explain how their social group was run,
delivered and maintained.
MG asked if mini bus transport would be available to take
SUMIT facilitators to the focus group events and MC said it
should be possible to arrange this.
Action: JS to speak to staff about the availability of minibus
transport.
Action: SUMIT members said they would like to support the
focus groups and asked JS to let them have the dates and
venues.
7. Courtesy calls
It had been agreed at the last SUMIT meeting that the subject
for the next set of courtesy calls would be My Magazine. JS
asked that, in light of the Reaching Communities application
and the timing of the focus groups, SUMIT postpone the
magazine courtesy calls until a later date and focus on
encouraging attendance at the focus groups instead. SUMIT
agreed that this was more pressing and agreed to set up
courtesy calls for the week commencing 22 June and week
commencing 29 June.
JS and MC thanked SUMIT for its support.
Action: JS to circulate a list of dates and times for courtesy call
sessions and to book resources.
CN asked if venues had been booked yet for the focus groups
and MC said that he and Emma Cruickshank (EC) were going
to visit possible venues in Bassetlaw, Mansfield and Newark in
the next few days to check them for accessibility. CN said she
had spoken to EC about a possible venue and access to a
mailing list from Age UK in Mansfield. MC said he would speak
to EC and follow this up.
CN also asked how many people were on the database from
the key target areas and JS said it was approximately 350
people, which would mean SUMIT were likely to need to make
telephone contact with around 300 people.
Action: MC to check Age UK contact given to EC by CN.
8. Raising the profile of SUMIT
PB asked if the re-designed SUMIT leaflet could be added as a
loose leaf insert into the next issue of My Magazine. JS said
she would speak to Donna Keane in Touch Transcriptions but
she felt this would be prohibitively expensive and very time
consuming for volunteers to print off and collate 1,500 SUMIT
leaflets to insert into the magazine. MG asked if a single page
feedback form might be included instead and JS said this more
likely.
Action: JS to speak to Touch Transcriptions and report back.
10. Any other business
a) Move from Ortzen Street
MC updated SUMIT on plans to sell or rent Ortzen Street, He
informed them that the building had been viewed by a number
of local charities – some more than once – but that he
anticipated it would take some time to find a buyer or tenant.
SUMIT asked to be kept informed.
b) CN invited SUMIT to attend an engagement party for her and
former SUMIT member and Trustee, Mark Whittle, being
hosted by the Thursday Social Group on Thursday 10 June.
SUMIT passed on its congratulations to Catherine and Mark.
 June 24 3:00-5:00pm – earlier time to accommodate courtesy
calls
 July 29 9:30am-12:00pm
 August 26 1:00pm-3;00pm