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.
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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
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