Service User Member Involvement Team – SUMIT
Seeing Better Together
Minutes: Wednesday 28 October 2015
1. Welcome and apologies
Present: Catherine Norcliffe (CN Chair), Shamaila Kauser (SK),
Sheila Long (SL), Paul Baskcomb (PB), Philip Simpson (PS NFB)
and Julie Scarle (JS staff rep & Minutes).
Apologies: Stella Hodgson (SH) and Matthew Galtres (MG).
Absent Kay Dear (KD).
2. Chair for next meeting
SL.
3. Minutes from September meeting
Minutes approved subject to changing one reference to PB
incorrectly written as BP.
Action: JS to make the change above and post minutes from
the last meeting on the website and notice board.
4. SUMIT membership:
JS informed SUMIT that following SH’s appeal to the choir and
her visit to the IT group that she had spoken to three people
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about joining SUMIT; Simon Sigh, Peter Sturt and Wendy
Bradshaw. SUMIT welcomed the news of 3 potential new
members and asked JS to invite them all to the November
meeting.
There was a discussion about absent committee members who
failed to send apologies and SUMIT asked JS to implement the
policy agreed, which stated that anyone who failed to attend for
three consecutive meetings and who did not send apologies
would be asked to commit or to leave.
Action: JS to make arrangements for Peter Sturt (PS2), Wendy
Bradshaw (WB) and Simon Singh (SS) to attend next SUMIT
meeting, which would bring the committee up to its 11 member
capacity.
5. Drop in/e-mails and suggestion box
 PB had submitted ideas about how to improve the
recruitment of volunteer drivers to the SUMIT email and
these had been passed to Martha Highton, volunteer
coordinator who had responded to PB to say the charity
already produced a separate leaflet/advert for volunteer
drivers. PB said he felt the leaflet should adopt the heading
of the recruitment leaflet he had submitted and JS said she
would discuss a headline change with Martha.
 SK informed SUMIT that there were no new emails.
 Suggestion box was empty.
6. Consultations & events
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JS informed SUMIT that the charity had invited Lord Chris Holmes, a
former Paralympics swimmer, IT guru and campaigner against
shared surfaces schemes to attend the AGM on 4 December and
that although it was a long shot; they were waiting to hear from him.
CN offered to draft a presentation outline and send to JS and SH for
comment and SK and JS would set a date to meet and make a
suggestion box costume for SK to wear at the AGM.
SL asked if transport would be available to bring people to the AGM
and JS confirmed that the usual arrangements would be in place
and people would be picked up from outside the Royal Concert Hall
in Nottingham and the Bus Station in Mansfield.
Action: SK and JS to meet to make SK’s suggestion box
costume.
Action: CN to draft an outline presentation.
7. Courtesy calls
SUMIT discussed the first six sessions of general peer supporttype courtesy calls. PB expressed surprise at the disparity in
the number of calls made during each two hour session but
those who had actually made courtesy calls felt this was largely
due to the more general nature of calls and the callers should
be allowed to chat for as long as they needed. PB agreed but
said there would have to be a balance struck between long
phone calls and the need to give as many of the 1,500 people
on the My Sight Notts database as possible the opportunity to
receive a call.
Capacity for phone calls was discussed and PB suggested
efficiency could be improved by re-designing the feedback form
to make it quicker and easier to fill in. CN and SK said all the
information contained on the forms needed to be logged but
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that they hadn’t designed the forms so if the design could be
improved and the form shortened while retaining the
information that would be beneficial.
There was also a discussion about data recording method but
SUMIT felt handwritten forms, word documents and voice
recordings should remain as options to cater for the access
needs of SUMIT members. PS explained that forms with data
boxes (like spreadsheets) were not accessible for those using
access software.
Action: PB to re-design the data recording form and JS to
circulate for comment.
8. Raising the profile of SUMIT
Information about SUMIT was sent out in the last My Sight
Notts Mail Shot.
The SUMIT Annual Review had been produced by SH and JS
for comment. SUMIT approved the Annual Review and JS was
asked to send it for transcription.
Action: JS to send SUMIT Annual Review for transcription.
9. AOB
a) Move from Ortzen Street
JS informed SUMIT that following a visit by the architects from
Framework, it was felt likely that some sort of offer would be
made, although what the offer would be was not yet known.
There had also been an expression of interest from a local
nursery, which would be subject to planning permission
(although as the site had contained a children’s nursery in the
past it was felt planning permission was unlikely to be refused.
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b) JS said that Emma Cruickshank (Services Manager) had been
approached by the City and County Council’s Visually Impaired
Access Group (VIAG) to ask if any SUMIT members would like
to join them to provide feedback to the council on sensory
services for visually impaired people. SL, who was already a
VIAG member, explained more about the working of the group
and PB and PS expressed their interest.
Action: JS to forward PB and PS’s expressions of interest in
VIAG to Emma Cruickshank.
c) Christmas lunch
The 9 December, which as originally proposed for the SUMIT
Christmas lunch clashed with the volunteer party, which many
SUMIT members wanted to attend. SUMIT therefore agreed to
look at two alternative new dates, one on 2 December and one
on 10 December. JS asked to circulate dates to all SUMIT
members current and past. The date which the majority of
people could make would be the one selected for the lunch.
SK said the New Mechanics only offered meal bookings for
members so that was not a possible venue. She read out
menus for Clarendon College and The Orange Tree. The
majority felt the Orange Tree offered most flexibility given the
timescales.
Action: JS to send out email with alternative dates for the
Christmas lunch and SK to book based on the best date for the
majority of people.
10.
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Date & time of next meeting
SUMIT agreed that training for future courtesy calls should take
place immediately before the next SUMIT meeting on 25
November as follows:
 10-12 Courtesy call training
 12-1pm JS to provide lunch
 1-3pm SUMIT meeting.
PS asked if transport would be available for the training session
and JS said she would speak to SUMIT’s two volunteer drivers
(Bob Abrahall and Alan Higson) and let people know via email.
Following a discussion about the January meeting, it was
agreed that the evening (4-6pm) meeting slot should be
cancelled for the present. SUMIT didn’t have any people of
working age on the committee at present and the majority of
members preferred a morning or an afternoon session,
especially during the winter months, so that they could get
home before it got too dark. SK said she would like this
decision to be reviewed if someone of working age applied to
join in the future.
Action: SUMIT agreed to suspend early evening meeting slots
but to review if circumstances changed.
 November 25 1-3pm
 December Christmas Lunch
 January 27 9:30am - 12:30pm
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