03/10/11

Present: Susan de Swarte (SdS) (Chair), Clover Williams (CW) (Vice Chair),
Hippo Grigg (HG) (Treasurer), Max Deckers Dowber (MDD) (Secretary),
Blanche Pavia (BP), Noshir Patel (NP), Rosemarie Falaiye (RF),
Sarah Williams (SW), Irene Kimm (IK), Emily Georghiou (EG).

Also Present: Sarah Coyte (SC) Capacity Building Officer, LBL
Gail Rowe (GR) Enterprise Manager, LBL (Items 1-4 only)

Minute Takers: Helen and Richard Penn (HP and RP).

1. Introduction and Apologies: IK explained that she was acting Chair for this meeting in accordance with the idea of Rotating Chairs agreed at the previous meeting (Item 11.3 of the draft minutes). HG would chair the next meeting. Apologies had been received from Shaun Francis, David Walker, Mohamed Khan Lodhi and Sinead Donoghue.

2. Minutes of Previous Meeting: MDD had a number of comments on the draft minutes of the 5th September 2011 meeting, dated 7th September. It was agreed he would e-mail these to RP. RP asked members to submit comments on draft minutes ahead of the next meeting so revised drafts could be prepared if required.

3. Matters Arising:

3.1 Re: Item 6.5: HG asked where funds would come from for the proposed social event. IK said no decisions had been taken but one possibility was selling food and drinks. SdS said 8th December Open Meeting expected to be in Old Library with strict 6.30 to 8.30 pm timescale.

3.2 Re: Item 8: SdS said she was in the process of completing these evaluations.
Action: SdS to prepare and circulate evaluations of August TRA events.

3.3 Re: Item 9.1: MDD asked SC to follow up this report with DM.
Action: SC to prompt DM to complete report of 19th August Youth Forum event.


4. Outer London Fund:

4.1 IK said this was an extra agenda item at the request of SC and GR.

4.2 GR said that £23.5k had been allocated for Christmas decoration in West Norwood, from the £310k allocated to LBL from the Mayor’s Outer London Fund. She identified where it was proposed to place lights and asked for feedback since decisions would be taken very soon. She said the funds would also support opening events, perhaps a childrens’ party and a tea party for older people, probably on Sunday 4th December to coincide with FEAST.

4.3 BP, IK and HG asked for the area of decoration to be extended to include Tulse Hill and Norwood High Street. GR asked if the Forum was aware of sensitivity to placing lights in St Luke’s gardens on account of children having been buried there. Members were not aware of any such sensitivity but that there should be no advertising or sponsorship there. BP said care should be taken to ensure lights were not a traffic hazard.

4.4 SC suggested the Forum get involved with FEAST to plan events for 4th December. MDD, HG and IK said they would try to attend a future FEAST meeting to take this forward. HG asked why FEAST had not responded to the Forum’s offer of £450 funding and GR said the delay was because FEAST had only just set up its own bank account and agreed its method of organisation. GR said Spacemakers aimed to step away from helping with FEAST around March 2012. She also said FEAST needed more volunteers and urged the Forum to do what it could to help.
Action: MDD, HG and IK to pursue Forum involvement with FEAST in 4th Dec events

4.5 HG asked GR to provide the Forum with a note on progress of all the projects in Norwood being supported by Round 1 funding from the Outer London Fund. GR agreed. GR said that much larger sums were potentially available under Round 2, perhaps £1million or more. GR confirmed that an LBL proposal to charge fees for cafes placing tables on their forecourts had been dropped and that delivery of shopfront improvements would be by LBL contractors doing the work rather than cash payments to shopkeepers.
Action: GR to provide Forum with a progress report on Round 1 projects in Norwood.

5. Database Controller:

5.1 MDD referred to SC’s e-mail of 15th September to committee members (HG circulated paper copies) which outlined the principles of the Data Protection Act (DPA) and said the Forum needed to appoint a Data Controller for membership details and could also appoint Data Handlers. SC said the Data Controller should ensure the Forum was DPA compliant, which included using the data for Forum business only, and that while there was nothing wrong with the Forum’s current practice, arrangements needed to be formalised. NP asked whether the committee was corporately responsible for upholding the provisions of the DPA. SC was unsure but agreed to check. RP said he was not willing to be Data Controller but was willing to be a Data Handler. MDD said he was willing to be Data Controller. In the absence of other volunteers, IK proposed that MDD be appointed Data Controller and RP be appointed a Data Handler.

VOTE: In Favour 6 Against 0 Abstentions 3

Actions: SC to check responsibility for upholding DPA.
RP to pass copy of members database to MDD.

6. Pycock Motion:

MDD said he had spoken to Mr Pycock after the 1st September Open Meeting regarding his motion on declaration of political interests by candidates for positions as Forum Officers. After considering the constitutional position and taking particular note of Clauses 5e, 5h, 5i and 5k, the committee agreed that MDD should write to Mr Pycock saying that his motion could either be deferred to the next AGM or that he could consider calling an EGM.
Action: MDD to draft letter to Mr Pycock and circulate for comment before despatch.

7. Spending Authorisation:

The committee considered MDD’s draft proposal, circulated at the 5th September meeting (see Item 7.2 of draft minutes). Following discussion, MDD agreed that the last paragraph of the proposal be dropped as should references to “8 members” as a majority. Removing the references to 8 members would enable votes to be taken at any quorate committee meeting (the current quorum being 5). MDD agreed to redraft the proposal with these amendments and HP suggested it be dated. IK proposed a vote on the proposal as amended:

VOTE In Favour 9 Against 0 Abstentions 0

Action: MDD to redraft and date the proposal.


8. Secretary’s Duties:

8.1 MDD circulated a draft proposal for the Duties of Forum Secretary. HG and IK said the fifth paragraph needed redrafting to make clear that all Forum Officers and committee members act as the interface with the local community. RP asked that the monitoring of Forum webmail during absences of the administrators be added to the list of duties. MDD agreed with both points. Subject to these amendments, IK proposed a vote on Paragraphs 3 and 4 which contained the substance of the proposal.

VOTE: In Favour 9 Against 0 Abstentions 0

Actions: MDD to redraft and date the proposal.
RP to give MDD instructions to access webmail.

8.2 IK and others thought Annex 2 of the Forum constitution should be amended to reflect the adoption of MDD’s proposal and also his appointment as Data Controller (Item 5 above) and that the descriptions of the roles of other Officers in that Annex might need review.

9. Website Update:

9.1 HG said Andrea Perry had been asked to prepare the new site, initially using material from the existing one. The website sub-committee would be meeting her again on 11th October and intended to present a draft website design to the November committee meeting with the aim of finalising the new site well before the December Open Meeting

9.2 RP reminded the committee of his impending absence and asked that he be told by 9th October of anything connected with the website hosting or webmail maintenance or back up that required his input. He noted that the current hosting contract expires before his return from holiday. EG and MDD agreed to check these matters.


10. NAG Update:

10.1 HG said he had attended the last NAG meeting and had invited Rob Andrew and John Price to come to Forum committee meetings. IK asked that Forum committee members be informed in advance of details of NAG meetings.

10.2 MDD reported that John Price had e-mailed the Forum webmail asking for more details on the invitation to NAG representatives (sic) to attend Forum committee meetings. Following discussion it was agreed that MDD would draft a reply to Mr Price and circulate it to the committee for comment before despatch. The reply would indicate that Mr Price or a nominee was invited to attend Forum committee meetings. MDD would consider further how to describe the status of the NAG representative, various views having been expressed.
Action: MDD to circulate draft reply to John Price


11. Any Other Business:

11.1 Mid Year Review for LBL: SC said the Forum was required to complete an LBL mid year review form. This was a condition of funding. The form needed to be completed by end October – early November. SC would then compile the information from all the Lambeth Forums into a report for LFN. SC agreed to e-mail the form to committee members. It was agreed that MDD, HG and EG would discuss how to take forward the response at their website meeting on 11th October and would consult SdS and others as required. EG proposed that a draft response be circulated to all committee members before finalisation.
Actions: SC to send LBL review form to committee members
MDD, HG and EG to discuss response at 11th October meeting

11.2 Mid Year Peer Review: SC also said Lambeth Forums were being encouraged to undertake mid year peer reviews, where 2 or 3 Forums might get together to review their activity. Unlike the LBL review (Item 11.1 above) this was entirely voluntary.

11.3 Agenda for next Open Meeting: MDD suggested the Public Realm Study (See Item 2 of minutes of 11 July committee meeting) and related issues form the main agenda item for the 8th December Open Meeting. SdS said Michael Hunte was no longer LBL project manager for this matter and that the new manager should be invited. SdS suggested the agenda include parking issues in West Norwood and the Outer London Fund and SC thought all these topics could be sensibly combined in one meeting. IK said there should be no other agenda items.

11.4 IK asked that topics for Any Other Business at committee meetings be pre-notified to the Chair where possible.

11.5 MDD suggested sending a letter to local organisations introducing the new Forum committee and highlighting the new website. It was agreed and MDD would circulate a draft for comment.
Action: MDD to prepare and circulate draft letter for sending to local organisations

11.6 HG agreed to update and re-circulate his schedule of Chair Rotation at committee meetings. He reminded the meeting that he would chair the meeting on 7th November and that SdS would chair the December meeting.
Action: HG to update and re-circulate Rotating Chair schedule

11.7 HG urged all committee members to try to support the Norwood Park Centenary Event to be held on 8th October and noted that the Forum would have a table at the event. MDD, SdS and RF volunteered to help at the Forum’s table.

11.8 SC drew attention to a Volunteering Speed-dating Event on 24th November.


12. Date of Next Meeting:

Monday 7th November 2011 at 7 pm at

The Elmina Wine Bar, 463 Norwood Road, SE27 9DJ.

Action: MDD to book Elmina for this date.

The meeting closed at 9.25 pm