November 2015 County Exec Minutes

Posted on by

CLWYD COUNTY EXEC MINUTES – 24th November 2015

1. WELCOME AND APOLOGIES

Present
Isabel Blore – County Commissioner
Ruth Davies – Assistant County Commissioner
Alison Williams – Assistant County Commissioner
Lynda Walmsley – South Denbighshire Commissioner
Beth Taylor – North Denbighshire Commissioner
Nicola Barlow – West Flintshire Division Commissioner
Denise Morris – Berwyn Assistant Commissioner
Brenda Lewis – Wrexham Assistant Commissioner
Megan Jones – Treasurer
Jane Bevan – Outdoor Activities Adviser
Bev Davies – International Adviser & Representing East Flintshire Division
Hazel Webb – Adult Support Co-ordinator
Alice Lovegrove-Jones – PR rep
Judith Standring – Ty-Clwyd Chairman
Brenda Trickett – Trefoil
Anna Preece – Dyfodol-y-Ddraig

Apologies
Alison Roberts – Berwyn Division Commissioner & TSS Centenary Champion,
Christine Dwerryhouse – East Flintshire Division Commissioner
Serena Broughton – Colwyn Division
Barbara Jones – Wrexham Division Commissioner
Wendy Malcolm – Join-us Co-ordinator

2. Reflections – see below
3. Minutes from last meeting – agreed by those present
4. Matters arising –
  1. Annual Review 2016 – West Flintshire – Tuesday 10th May – looking for a suitable venue
  2. YL Standardisation – progressing
  3. Ty-Clwyd 123 club £10/year 2 prizes each month – Form to follow
    1. DBS re-checks – on the whole these seem to be keeping on track on timings Any ID verifier can do anyone doesn’t need to be within their district.
    2. If any new volunteer is on Join-Us for more than 3mths & helping at a unit with their DBS having started they should be stopped from attending unit meetings until cleared.
    3. New volunteers need to be at awaiting recruitment check stage before their DBS is done. Please continue to ensure either GG reg number or “Join-Us” is entered into the appropriate box to enable the two systems to link up.
5. Treasurers Report (Meg) – report tabled
  1. Unit accounts – missing details – tabled
  2. Girlguiding Wales are asking if Counties are willing to pay £150/girl (in their county) wishing to take part in expeditions for their Gold DoE though Guiding. This if approved would be added to the County grants & bursary list. After some discussion to clarify including; probable number of girls who would be taking up this offer etc. All present agreed that Megan could pass on to Wales our support in Clwyd.
6. Outdoor (Jane) – report tabled
  1. Flyers for May 2016 – cascaded & on county website.
    These include:
    * Spectacular Senior Section Centenary Outdoor Weekend,
    * County Cookout,
    * Camp Blanket Weekend
    * Going Away Workshop – recommended for all leaders considering doing any of the residential or camp qualifications.
  2. County camp 30th Jul – 5th Aug 2016 – Flyer cascaded & on County website – next planning meeting Thursday 26th Nov
  3. REN forms – As a County we are receiving an increase in REN forms which is good as this means more girls are being given the opportunity to go away with Guiding.
    1. However a number of leaders submitting forms do not have the correct qualifications or they don’t have their qualifications recorded on GO. All leaders do need to check all their qualifications are recorded especially if they are intending to use these qualifications to take girls away. This includes 1st Aid and DBS status needs to be checked too please by DC before sending to Sheryl or Pat.
    2. Forms continue to be received later than recommended. Ideally these should be sent earlier than the minimum required. Especially if assessments are needed either for the venue to be approved or if the leader is doing Going Away module/s.
    3. Risk Assessments are frequently missing or are not covering even the basic risks such as craft activities, cooking/kitchen…
    4. Please read page 1 of REN form and check Guiding manual for information about Home Contact and 1st Aid.
  4. International (Applications for 2017) There will be an International Selection weekend 4th-6th March at Ty-Clwyd approx £25 – Applications by May to Bev. International forms out in Jan 2016.
  5. Senior Section Centenary – Lots being planned in County. Next planning meeting next week.
  6. Queen’s Guide – 13 registered as working towards this Clwyd.
  7. DOE – need people with walking qualifications to be these. Level 1 training in May weekend at Ty-Clwyd. Min level 2 for DOE assessor. If any leaders have or know of people with these please let Jane know. It is anticipated that the number of girls wanting to apply to do this is likely to increase; as local councils and schools are starting to cut back on certain extra-circulator activities DoE included. At present our DoE adviser is reluctant to register more girls as we don’t have sufficient people with relevant qualifications available to assess them. If you have walking qualifications or know of anyone please sent their names to Jane B.
  8. G15 – Sports trainings. We have five girls in County that attended the G15 training at Broneirion. They returned having been trained as “Sports Educators” to deliver a variety of games for all sections and a bag of equipment to enable them to carry these activities out. Each girl now needs to deliver a total of 39hrs to complete. Some have already started towards this target visiting units near to them. Please can leaders try to remember them when planning their activities for next term; especially if organizing district or division fun-days etc when they would be able to potentially achieve several hours during one session. Hopefully we will be able to invite them to take part at County events too. It was agreed that we perhaps need a co-ordinator to act as a central point of access to book the girls to visit units. Jane is going to follow up on suggestion made during the meeting.
  9. Vehicle insurance update on Girlguiding website – see the online manual for more information. This has also been cascaded out.
7. Ty-Clwyd (Judith) – report tabled
  1. A suggestion from previous Ty-Clwyd meeting to review fees was put forward. Those present approved the increase of £1/person at every level for house & 50p/person for camp site.
  2. Quiz Sheets which went out at last exec, money is starting to come in to Beth at £1 per sheet sold.
  3. A walnut tree has been planted near the campfire circle in memory of Fred.
8. Adult support & Training (Hazel) report tabled
  1. County Training day on 24th October in Denbigh went well
  2. 2016 – County Training day on 12th March in Gwersyllt – flyers will be out after Christmas
  3. Broneirion weekend in October – new booking system for Broneirion!
  4. Food Hygiene – On-line Catering Module available in GG shop
  5. 1st response courses x 2 for which forms have been emailed out to Div Coms to cascade. Book early as these are expected to fill up quickly. Please remember that all units now have to have at least one member of the unit team with a valid 1st Aid Certificate.
9. PR – (Alice)
  1. A small meeting has been arranged for next week will decide date for next meeting. Please can DC’s approach someone in their area who is enthusiastic and willing to join this team. This could be a Senior Section member or an LQ lady maybe?
  2. Pull-up banners – On line print centre is down at present. Waiting for reply from another company that has made these for other counties.
  3. Growing Guiding –
  4. Join-Us : “Just to keep reminding people to use the comments tab when they do anything on Join Us. Also at the beginning of November Julie Edwards (Wales) contacted District Comms with a list of overdue enquiries. Can leaders please make sure they have followed up on this email. I hope to check up myself over the next few weeks” – Wendy
10. Dyfodol-y-Ddraig (Anna)

Junior Council – Planning to re-start this while at County Camp during the summer while some of the girls interested will be there all together. The members of Dyfodol will be able to explain what we hope the Junior Council will become – Hopefully starting with a name of the group!

Dyfodol Y Ddraig is a group of young women who are aged 16 – 25 years old and are involved in Girlguiding Cymru. We have meetings twice a year at Broneirion to discuss topics that affect Senior Section, such as: planning the upcoming centenary or empowering young women to fulfil their potential. Do you want your say in what Girlguiding Cymru events are organised? Do you want to help combat gender inequalities? Do you want to speak for other girls your age? Then come along and see how you can get involved!

11. Trefoil – (Brenda) – report tabled
  • Merle Cook from Wrexham attended the Service at Westminster Abbey in recognition of service to Guiding.
  • Hilda Broughton, Adele Price and Brenda Trickett from Wrexham were recently honoured for giving more than 20 years service as volunteers to Maelor Voluntary Service (MVS) at the Hospital.
  • A Starter Pack has been presented to 1st Rossett Rainbows.
    Remember Trefoil can give these to all new units – just need to apply.
12. From CHQ –
  1. NATIONAL SCOUT AND GUIDE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA & WIND BAND
    The NSGSO meets annually for a week’s course of music and activities led by professional tutors and conductor. Next course will be in Stourbridge from 24th-31st July 2016. Culminating in two evening concerts. Closing date for applications is Saturday 5th December. To apply for the 2016 NSGSO Course and to find out lots more detail go to apply.nsgso.com For anyone wishing to use this course for their DofE or QGA residential then this year must be the first time that they have attended.
13. Girlguiding Cymru – Further details on Girlguiding Cymru Website for all below:
  1. New Structure – Applications invited from those suitably qualified for 3 new positions for volunteers to head teams:
    Adult Support & Leadership
    Outdoors Experiences including International
    Youth Support
  2. Portfolios requested by GGC. This was discussed and individuals will be approached by Ruth.
  3. New Appointments:
    Sian Garside to be CC for Pembrokeshire from 14 November 2015 & Susan Coomber CC for Anglesey from 1st January 2015
  4. Grand Raffle – Win a Car – Raffle Tickets – please ensure all your tickets are returned with appropriate monies before the draw date.
  5. Dec 4th – Winter Wonderland at Broneirion
  6. Chill fest 22nd-24th January 2016 at Broneirion
  7. WOW – 2016 17th-19th June at Buillt Wells. Bookings open in January
  8. Order your 2016 calendar which has been created using the winning entries from the Snap Away photographic competition and Christmas Cards. Prices:2016 Calendar £5.00Pack of 5 Christmas Cards £4.00
  9. NEW QUAY WATER SPORTS WEEKEND – Brownies aged 8+, Guides and Senior Section…. Friday 13th May to Sunday 15th May 2016 New Quay, Ceredigion
  10. WATER & WELLIES 2016 AT YNYSGAIN – 7th to 12th August 2016
  11. OLYMPIC CAMP AT BRONEIRION – 15th to 19th August 2016
  12. BRINGING HISTORY TO LIFE – NEW COURSE
    Grant Funded Opportunity for Senior Section Members ages 16-25 Monday, 15th to Wednesday, 17th February 2016
14. CC Report (Isabel)
  1. Appointments –
    New DC’s – Hope & Offa’s Dyke District – hopefully these will be announced soon.
    Nomination forms for Prestatyn District & Berwyn Division sent out
    Soon to go out forms for Allington District.
  2. Correspondence & Visits
    Alison & I attended CC Induction in Manchester a couple of weeks ago.
  3. Our new Chief Commissioner for Wales is Lesley Mathews. She has asked to come and visit us on 31st Ty-Clwyd has been booked – invites to follow from Wales.
  4. This was discussed at Ty-Clwyd meeting and agreed that we would a work-day on Saturday 30th 10am-4pm. There are indoor and outdoor jobs that have been identified. Invitation to the work day will be extended to Movers & Shakers to help with these.
  5. Awards – see email – which has been sent out separately listing awards available. Sally Bosley is our County Awards Facilitator if anyone needs further information about these.
15. Division Feedback – Air & Share – All reports tabled
  1. Berwyn (Denise)
  2. Colwyn (Serena) LQ file for Lucy O’Hara
  3. North Denbighshire (Lynda)
  4. South Denbighshire (Beth)
  5. East Flintshire (Bev)
  6. Wrexham – (Brenda)
  7. West Flintshire – (Nicola)
16. A.O.B.

Feedback sheets – Just one enquiry concerning Home Contacts and the need for these to be used for day trips etc. Information about this is in the Girlguiding Manual if anyone has any questions relating to the need to do this they should be addressed to CHQ.

17. Date of next meeting:

Wednesday 3rd February 2016 at Cymau Community Centre – TBC

 

Additional Information:-

Reflections: We were late starting the meeting due to an slight issue with refreshments! So I omitted to save time. However I was intending say a little about the CC Induction Alison and I had been to a couple of weeks ago. While there the dreadful news about the occurrences in Paris were reported on the news. With us was the new Commissioner for British Guides in Foreign Countries. (BGFC). Alison and I spent both evenings chatting with her then the following week there were threats in Brussels and this is where Emma lives. I would just like for us all to spend a moment or two with our fellow leaders and their girls in our thoughts especially those living away from home.

Please also if you haven’t already read up about our Girlguiding Plan for 2020 over the next few years this is should be our aim: “Being Our Best”

http://new.girlguiding.org.uk/being-our-best

DBS checks:- ii. We have 14 volunteers outstanding for DBS re-checks from today’s report (25th Nov). – These roles now show as “active-pending” and these volunteers should not be left unsupervised or attend any Residential events until cleared.