Service User Member Involvement Team – SUMIT Seeing Better Together Minutes: Wednesday 26 August 2015 1. Welcome and apologies Present: Matthew Galtress (MG Chair), Catherine Norcliffe (CN) Sheila Long (SL), Shamaila Kauser (SK), Paul Baskcomb (PB) and Julie Scarle (JS staff rep & Minutes). Apologies: Stella Hodgson (SH), Neana Lawson (NL NFB). Absent: PS, DB and KD. 2. Chair for next meeting SK. 3. Minutes from July meeting Approved with the following edits: 1) Include a record of the discussions with invited guest, Jonny Rudge Community Fundraiser. 2) Item 7 said report back to the July SUMIT meeting but it should have read the August SUMIT meeting. 3) Record an action for MG to circulate a list of recycling items being collected for the new fundraising scheme. 1 4) BP asked for future minutes to include page numbers. Action: JS to make the above changes to the July minutes before posting them on the website and notice board. 4. SUMIT membership: JS said she had emailed PS and NL, who had not been able to attend a SUMIT meeting this year, to ask if they would suspend their membership of SUMIT to create capacity on the committee. She said NL had emailed back and confirmed that she was happy for her membership of SUMIT to be temporarily suspended until she was well enough to take up her place again. JS had not received a response yet from PS. MG asked JS to pass on SUMIT’s thanks to NL for responding and for her understanding of the need to create capacity on SUMIT for new active members. JS had also emailed all SUMIT members on behalf of CN (Chair of the July meeting), reminding them of accepted meeting etiquette when sending apologies for meetings in a timely manner and asking those who had been absent for some time to let her know if they wished to continue on SUMIT or resign freeing up spaces for other services users. JS had received no response from anyone to this email. SL informed SUMIT that KD was away on holiday, which may be why she hadn’t picked up emails. SUMIT asked JS to email again saying that anyone who failed to attend for three consecutive meetings would be automatically removed from SUMIT unless they communicated their absence. With the application of this rule; SUMIT assumed that PS and DB no longer wished to be members of the committee. if they failed to respond to the second email (above), this would create a further two vacancies, which, when added to NL’s temporary 2 resignation created three vacancies for new SUMIT members. One vacancy would be filled by potential new member, Philip Simpson in September, leaving two vacancies. JS asked SUMIT members to try to recruit new SUMIT members from amongst the My Sight Notts groups they attended. Action: JS to email SUMIT members again saying that anyone failing to attend three consecutive meetings and who hadn’t sent apologies would be removed from SUMIT because it will be assumed they’re no longer able to make a regular commitment. 5. Drop in/e-mails and suggestion box SK asked if JS could resend her the password for the SUMIT email so that she could continue to monitor any incoming mail. Suggestion box empty. Action: JS to send SUMIT email password details to SK. 6. My Sight Notts membership rules These had been circulated by PB but no comments had been received and SUMIT therefore assumed everyone was happy with the revised version, which would be retained and circulated to the Trust Board in due course. Action: Item closed and removed from agenda. 7. Consultations & events JS to include a review of the Reaching Communities consultation in her next briefing paper for the Trust Board, highlighting SUMIT’s important role. SUMIT discussed the forthcoming AGM, likely to take place in early December, once the outcome of the Reaching Communities funding application was known. SUMIT agreed 3 that due to the large number of consultation events held in the last two years, they should consider making a different contribution to the AGM this year. Following discussion it was agreed that SUMIT would suggest it provides the following at the AGM: A talk or presentation on its work. Promote the importance of engaging with SUMIT (CN suggested she should dress up as the SUMIT Suggestion Box as a fun way of promoting engagement). A Coffee and Cake Corner for service users to find out more about the work of SUMIT and to share their views in an informal and relaxed setting. Produce large print feedback forms and make them available at the AGM. Action: JS to discuss the above SUMIT proposals with Michael Conroy and the trustees and report back. 8. Courtesy calls At the last SUMIT meeting it was agreed to change the emphasis of courtesy calls, moving away from specific questions and themed calls three times a year, to a more ongoing support call made regularly throughout the year. Two trial sessions had been pencilled in during July and Aug but unfortunately neither of these sessions had taken place due to capacity of SUMIT members. SUMIT still felt that it wanted to make more regular supportive calls to My Sight Notts’ service users and there was a detailed discussion on how best to create sufficient capacity to make the calls. Transport was discussed as an issue, but JS said she was struggling to find a volunteer driver able to transport SUMIT members for activities outside of the regular monthly meeting. 4 CN and SL suggested that if SUMIT members made calls immediately before or immediately after any groups they attended at My Sight Notts, they could use the transport provided for these groups and then perhaps taxi share on the way home. PB expressed concern that transport costs would be prohibitively high for SUMIT members who lived outside of Nottingham. He suggested that My Sight Notts should produce a recruitment leaflet specifically for transport volunteers, which he felt would be more effective than a general volunteer recruitment leaflet listing lots of volunteering opportunities. Action: PB to share his transport volunteer recruitment leaflet with JS who would discuss with Martha Highton, Volunteer Coordinator. PB asked if there was an update on the Transport Group, which he and PS had attended twice but then had appeared to fold. Action: JS to ask Emma Cruickshank for an update on the Transport Group. SUMIT agreed to pursue the idea of frequent supportive calls to service users despite the capacity issues experienced this time. CN, SK and SL agreed to email each another with dates and times and see who was able to make their own way in to My Sight Notts. JS again explained that My Sight Notts had considered the proposal of enabling SUMIT to make calls from home, but felt that the personal data of service users couldn’t be guaranteed if taken off site and to minimise the risk of a breach of DPA, calls would need to be made at My Sight Notts. SUMIT discussed data recording for courtesy calls, with PB suggesting that a standardised method of data recording needed to be adopted. Everyone agreed and SK pointed out 5 that two standardised data recording sheets had been drawn up by her and Mark Whittle sometime ago. Action: JS to email data monitoring forms to SUMIT for comments. If no comments were received before the next meeting, then SUMIT members would use these forms to record data during courtesy calls. 9. Raising the profile of SUMIT SH & JS met last week to begin pulling together ideas for the SUMIT Annual Review. Action: JS to draft Annual Review from her meeting notes with SH and circulate for discussion at the September SUMIT meeting. 10. Guest: Emma Cruickshank Services update Unfortunately Emma (EC) was off sick and so unable to attend the meeting to provide a services update. JS to speak to her on her return to work to see if a new date could be set for EC to update SUMIT. SUMIT said how much they had enjoyed meeting new Community Fundraiser, Jonny Rudge (JR), who attended the meeting in July as a guest. They asked JS to pass on their thanks to JR and also let him know how much they had enjoyed hearing his exciting new fundraising ideas, which had won unanimous support and admiration from the SUMIT committee. 11. AOB Move from Ortzen Street JS said there were no further updates at this stage. Action: SUMIT asked to be kept informed. 6 a) MG informed SUMIT that he would be starting his Masters course at University in September and he was unsure until the course started and he got his timetable how this would impact on his attendance at SUMIT. SUMIT wished MG well for his new course and hoped he would attend SUMIT meetings if and when possible. Action: MG to keep SUMIT informed. b) SUMIT Christmas Lunch provisional date agreed as 9 December 12noon-2pm. Clarendon College, New Mechanics and the Orange Tree were suggested as central accessible venues. Action: SUMIT to appoint a volunteer to obtain menus and deal with the booking arrangements at the next meeting. c) JS informed SUMIT that the award entry she submitted for the Lloyds Bank Foundation Charity Achievement Awards in the category Valuing Volunteers had been successful and My Sight Notts had won the award for the East Midlands! We would now go forward to the national finals in London in October. The award entry used Shamaila as the case study, featuring her sports achievements, her role as volunteer sports mentor of young people attending our Youth Club and her work as a volunteer committee member of SUMIT. JS thanked Shamaila for agreeing to be the case study for the award and said that because her role on SUMIT was featured heavily in the award entry, it was also recognition of the value the charity placed on the work of SUMIT and a tribute to the contribution all SUMIT volunteers made to the work of the charity. 7 Action: SUMIT congratulated SK and My Sight Notts on the award and MG asked if JS could circulate a copy of the publicity produced to mark the award win. 12. Date & time of next meeting September 30 4-6pm October 28 9:30-11:30am November 25 1-3pm 8
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