October 2016 County Exec Minutes

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Clwyd County Exec Minutes – 3rd OCTOBER 2016

1. WELCOME AND APOLOGIES

Present
Isabel Blore – County Commissioner
Ruth Davies – Assistant County Commissioner
Alison Williams – Assistant County Commissioner
Christine Dwerryhouse – East Flintshire Division Commissioner
Nicola Barlow – West Flintshire Division Commissioner
Ann Egan – Colwyn Division Commissioner
Serena Broughton – Colwyn Acting Division Commissioner
Brenda Lewis – Wrexham Assistant Commissioner
Beth Taylor – North Denbighshire Commissioner
Cath Moore – Berwyn Division Commissioner
Brenda Lewis – Wrexham Division Assistant Commissioner
Emily Webster – South Denbighshire Division Assistant Commissioner
Meg Jones – Treasurer
Jane Bevan – Outdoor Activities Adviser
Hazel Webb – Adult Support Co-ordinator
Judith Standring – Ty-Clwyd Chairman
Merle Cook – Trefoil

Apologies
Barbara Jones – Wrexham Division Commissioner
Alice Lovegrove-Jones – PR
Anna Preece – Dyfodol-y-Ddraig

2. Reflections

A minutes silence was taken to remember Debra Smith. Our thoughts are also with Warren who has lost her sister this week.

Homily:

It is the practice at the first Executive Committee meeting following the Summer break to remind members of their role as members of this Committee.

The Executive Committee is primarily responsible for matters of policy, strategic planning and finance. In fact, the future of Girlguiding Clwyd is in its hands.

The voting members of the Executive Committee are the Charity Trustees of Girlguiding Clwyd. The responsibilities of Charity Trustees are detailed in the booklet “The Essential Trustee” published by the Charity Commission, which each member should read.

Although members of the Executive Committee, both ex-offico and elected, come from divisions and districts, they are not deemed to be representing these areas but must represent the best interest of Girlguiding Clwyd as a whole and all decisions are taken from this point of view. Any member who wishes to contribute to a discussion should ensure that she (or he) does so, then all views may be considered before a decision is taken. However, once a decision is made each and every member must give it their full support.

Expectations of Trustees and “What is expected of the Trustees of Girlguiding Clwyd”:

  • To act only in the best interest of the charity.
  • To be involved in major decisions and to take decisions jointly with other Trustees.

The Role of a Trustee of Girlguiding Clwyd:

To hold the charity “in trust” for its current and future members by:

  • Ensuring that Girlguiding Clwyd has a clear vision, mission and strategic direction and is focused on achieving these.
  • Being responsible for the performance of Girlguiding Clwyd and for its reputation.
  • Ensuring that Girlguiding Clwyd complies with all legal and regulatory requirements.
  • Act as a guardian of Girlguiding Clwyd’s assets, both tangible and intangible, taking all due care over the security, deployment and proper application.
  • Ensuring that Girlguiding Clwyd’s governance is of the highest possible standard.

Members of the Executive Committee should:
Question intelligently                Debate constructively
Challenge rigorously                 Decide dispassionately

Executive Committee papers

There are two categories of Agenda items. Some are private and confidential; the contents/issues of these should not be copied or discussed outside the meeting. When the agenda item is completed, the Committee may decide to release the information.

Every effort is made to circulate the minutes within two weeks of the meeting. Please check these as soon as you receive them, for any action required and submit any amendments to the County Commissioner, as soon as possible. So these may be included on the agenda for the next meeting.

Further guidance on Governance and the Role of the Trustee can be obtained from the following publications:

  • Good Governance – A Code for the Voluntary and Community Sector
  • The essential Trustee

Both publications are available from The Charity Commission.
http://www.governancecode.org/full-code-of-governance/
http://www.governancecode.org/summary-code-of-governance/

The Charity Commission has published a revised version of its guidance to charity trustees, The Essential Trustee (CC3). This is important reading for all charity trustees, including members of governing bodies of academy trusts[1], who are in the position of charity trustees as well as being directors of the academy trust company. The guidance is accessible at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-essential-trustee-what-you-need-to-know-cc3

The revised version does not change charity law. It is, however, presented more clearly than previously, contains links to other Commission guidance and is marginally shorter than the previous version.

Abridged copies in flyer format were handed out.

3. Serious Incident Reporting –

No reports received. We are asked to include less serious reports too so that GGCymru are aware. I.e. – If an accident/incident form is completed.

4. Minutes from last meeting held on 3rd June 2016 agreed as a true record
5. Matters arising –
  1. 1,2,3 club – Application Form has now been cascaded
  2. Annual Review 2017 – Wrexham 17th May – Brenda confirmed that Barbara and herself were discussing possible venues.
6. Treasurers Report (Meg)
  1. Peer Ed Tee-shirts form has been sent out.
  2. Awards & payment – From County Finance meeting it was suggested that County would now pay for the following awards in addition to those awards already purchased by county:
    Queen’s Guide cloth & “Everyday” badge in addition to Presentation Badge and Certificate
    Baden Powel Awards and Certificates this will simplify the current system.
    YL Badges & Certificates.
    All those present at exec in agreement for these to be paid by County
  3. Annual Subscription GGCymru is increasing by £1.50, £1 of be reserved for events organised for the girls by GGCymru. We are all still awaiting for UK’s subscription allowance. It was agreed in principle that Clwyd would round up the final total to the nearest 50p.
  4. From Finance meeting suggestion for Bursary towards GOLD trips donation should be increased to £100. This was also approved by those present.
  5. Extra LQ modules for Leaders are downloadable from website, i.e. Modules 1 and 4 if needed. Ladies shouldn’t be given a new file to complete additional modules.
7. Outdoor Report (Jane) – report tabled
  • Sept 2016 weekend – see report
  • County camp – see report
  • International – Email from Jill Venus (GG Cymru International Adviser) – was read out
    Two girls from Clwyd have been selected to represent Wales at International events next year:
    Freya Harrison of 1st Holywell Senior Section and Elizabeth Haven of 1st Colwyn Rangers both aged 16yrs
  • Queen’s Guide – Katie Dutta has achieved her Queen’s Guide Award. Another member of Senior Section has registered bringing our total to 9 working towards the award. Can any more members aged 16-26yrs (or their leaders) interested in finding out about completing their QG please contact Jacqueline Duffield as they need to register before they start.
  • Duke of Edinburgh Award – At least two groups have this year joined up with local scout groups to start to plan expeditions.
  • Peer Educators – we have another three Peer Educators in Clwyd: Victoria Slugocki, Katie Parry and Lucianna Mee. All from North Denbighshire Division. Please ensure names of Peer Educators are forwarded to Isabel so that they can have Peer Educator added to their GO record. This will ensure they then receive communication from GGC.
  • G15 – Sports Educators – A second opportunity for senior section members to become Sports Educators – See Flyer/GGC website for more details
  • Baden Powell Award – There are lots of guides working towards this award. Ann is complying a list so we have some idea how many will be needing to complete BP Adventures over the next year or two.
  • GG Cymru Sports weekend planned, possibly at Ty-Clwyd awaiting confirmation 7-9th July 2017
  • Next County Outdoor Meeting is 14th November
8. Ty-Clwyd (Judith)
  1. Dormitory Flooring to be replaced looking at non-slip cushion flooring.
  2. Windows & soffits will need replacing soon
  3. Curtain track in main hall being replaced with a heavier duty type.
  4. Washroom Flooring – to be improved in-line with that in the wet-room
  5. New Ty-Clwyd FB page – (Chris D) 1,000’s of hits – considering open day for Ty-Clwyd to show what we have and encourage more bookings.
9. Adult support & Training (Hazel)
  1. Broneirion weekend in 21st-23rd October –
  2. Spring Training – 25th March in Rhyl – flyer to follow
  3. Safe Space training –
  4. First Aid – 19th November
  5. Leaders in training – training day – Maybe fast track training.
10. G.A.P. Team (PR) – (Alice)
  1. Denbigh and Flint Show Litter Pick: on Friday 19th August 4 adult volunteers (plus one 5 year old and one dog) from Clwyd Vale District attended in the pouring rain to litter pick over the D&F show fields. Thank you very much to Wendy Malcolm, Kate Mullen, Rachel Piggot and Alice Lovegrove; donation to their District to follow from show committee.
  2. Glyndwr Fresher’s Fair: unfortunately we did not have enough volunteers to put a team together to attend this year.
  3. Date of next GaP meeting is Tuesday 22rd November at 7.30pm at The Beaufort Park Hotel. Please would each Division send a representative.
11. Dyfodol-y-Ddraig (Anna & Sian)
  1. A meeting is to be held at Carmel Church Hall to look at setting up new Junior Council on October 11th. All members aged 16-25yrs welcome to attend.
  2. Third place on Dyfodol – Isabel is aware of two applications in February for our County’s vacancy. No-one has heard back. Isabel will chase up.
12. Trefoil Guild – (Merle) – Report Tabled
13. From CHQ –

New Website is up and running

Information cascaded and available on GG website

14. Girlguiding Cymru (Ruth)
  1. Advised to take registers as children arrive – safeguarding
  2. Quality Pilot stage 2 – 6 units in Clwyd will be taking part
  3. T & F groups
    1. 30th Rainbow Birthday
    2. Brownie Funday
    3. Senior Section Funrun suggested
  4. GG Cymru list for providers of activities
  5. Accounts – following a serious incident. All unit accounts to be presented to DC’s before 17th These don’t need to be “audited” – see advice in manual. Tick list of units for districts to be provided.
  6. Section transitions
  7. Half term week – NVYO STEM SKILLS. Medical Science & Assembly Ambassadors
15. CC Report (Isabel)
  1. Appointments in Wales:
    • Beth Bradley – Deputy Chief Commissioner and Trustee
    • Belinda Mortell – Leadership Co-ordinator (responsible primarily for measures to enable a swift and smooth journey through the Leadership Qualification for new leaders and the adoption of a common standard)
    • Kat Read – Safeguarding Officer
    • Kathryn Garner – Complaints Officer
    • Jane Prigg – Trainer Co-ordinator (responsible primarily for ensuring that Trainers are deployed effectively, meeting and anticipating the training needs of our adult and young leaders and for training being relevant to the needs of today).
    • Hilary Jenkins – Trainer Qualification Co-ordinator (Prospective Trainers) (responsible primarily for ensuring that we have enough qualified Trainers, Tutors and Reviewers, all operating to a common agreed standard)
    • Jill Venus – International Adviser (responsible for leading and promoting activities which open the eyes of our members to our unique worldwide organisation and encouraging Leaders to offer international opportunities to young members and provide support and enabling members of all ages who would like to travel abroad with guiding in making that offer possible.)
      Appointments in Clwyd
    • Cath Moore now Division Commissioner for Berwyn
    • Sharon Frobisher new DC for Prestatyn
    • Jenny Maxwell new DC for Buckley
    • Ann Lovatt – BP Co-ordinator
    • Merle Cook – Clwyd Trefoil Chairman
  2. Correspondence
    1. Girlguiding Cymru exhibition ‘Pushing Boundaries’ was on display at the National Library of Wales.  Discussions with Sophie Fish from Buckley Museum have taken place and the exhibition will opening there next month. Please watch out for details about the opening ceremony.
    2. Young Roots – Bethany
      I am looking for units that would like to take part in a project that will put the history of Ty Clwyd into a digital format, encouraging more people to learn about the history of our county house. This project is part of a heritage lottery funded project ‘Young Roots’ being run by Girlguiding Cymru. The project has a deadline of the end of December. You can make this as big or as small as you want to fit in with your programme, looking into as many aspects of Ty Clwyd as you like, you could also look into different people’s memories of Ty Clwyd, completely flexible. Its up to you and your unit how you would like to present their part of the project, for example using video, audio clips, presentations, scanning in any documents and photographs then sharing them on Peoples Collection Wales where Girlguiding Cymru have already started publishing archive from their archive. I will help you plan everything and can visit meetings to help you complete the project, I can also get hold of any equipment you may need such as scanners, audio recorders, laptops etc. The only catch is that I will be away until around the 9th November as I am working as an intern at Our Chalet, however I will be contactable via email, skype and facebook. Towards the end of the project I aim to organise a day where everyone that has taken part in the project can come together, along with anyone else that has taken interest in the project and see what everyone has produced, this will also be an opportunity to use any of the equipment and gain more peoples memories. Feel free to contact me if you would like to know more
    3. Working with the Lead Volunteer for Youth Participation, Emma Gees,
      My role is to identify where girls are being included in decision making at a local level within guiding, from programme and events, to the way that guiding is run, and to share the excellent examples of how this is working in some areas. We’d love to know more about how girls of all ages, not just The Senior Section, are involved in decision making across the organisation and the kind of support needed so that every young member of Girlguiding has the same opportunity to influence decisions. We have consulted at Country/Region level to discover how these opportunities for girls are generated and communicated, and the challenges that volunteers and staff experience in this process. Now we’d like to dig down deeper and it would be lovely to hear about Clwyd. We’re keen to find out who is leading youth participation in your County and to hear more about your experiences to further shape our understanding of what is happening locally. The information you’ll be providing us will help us to determine how we can best support volunteers and staff at a County, as well at Country and Region level, to open up even more decision making opportunities to girls. The results of these conversations will feed into a plan for how Girlguiding can grow youth participation across the UK, and how we can ensure all girls in Girlguiding can have their voice heard and make an impact.
    4. As you know, Girlguiding Cymru has adopted an exciting strategy to meet the needs of girls in Wales in the 21st C, which means that some of our current structures and processes will need to evolve and change.   The Girlguiding Cymru Board now has three lead volunteer roles relating to different aspects of our plan and activity;
      • Youth Support – led by Caroline Harries
      • Outdoor Experiences and International – led by Jayne Hancock
      • Adult Support – led by Janet Horton
        In the Adult Support area, I am delighted to tell you that a great team is forming up at Wales-level to help us to identify and progress some of the changes that we need to make to help us all ‘Be our Best’ and deliver a fun, challenging and safe programme for our members.    I would like to introduce the new Adult Support team to you and ask that you please cascade the information in your Counties, so your teams are aware of the names and roles and are ready to work with the new team.
      • Leadership Qualification Coordinator – Belinda Mortell
      • Trainer Coordinator – Jane Prigg
      • Trainer Qualification Coordinator – Hilary Jenkins, supported by Ruth Purnell
      • Head of Adult Support – Janet Horton (leadership on the above, plus non-training related preparations for UK-led Programme Change, Management and Leadership Development for senior roles, External Accreditation options for LQ and Mentor Training, Succession Planning for senior Wales-levels volunteer roles, Talent Pool, Performance review/feedback for volunteers).
      • There is one area still TBC and that relates to Guiding Development – this will need to be resolved within the coming weeks and I will update you on how we will include and connect with the County Chairs of Guiding Development, to make sure that Adult Support meets the needs of leaders and leaders hear about the strategically important initiatives that we will all be working on. The extent of the activity we are going to focus on is of course still being scoped out and more about this will be shared in the coming months at appropriate times.    One of the most important and difficult tasks ahead will be to prioritise.  There is so much that we could do, but we have finite resources, especially the time and goodwill of our leaders and so will need to make some tough choices. If anyone has any questions or would like to discuss this, please do contact me Best wishes. Janet
  3. Visits
    1. Visit to North Denbighshire Rainbow Overnight to present Hannah Evans with a Girlguiding Star of Merit.
    2. Ruth, Alison & Isabel have attended Membership Update Training in Warwick. – As you know the GG Website has been updated and this is now going to extend to GO! There will be lots of improvements to make the system more user friendly. Including merging GO and Join-Us. We have been asked for all records on GO to be updated before the changes. Can all Commissioners ask unit leaders/key users to ensure their girls records are correct and check that all members of unit teams/district teams are likewise correct please? Join Us also needs to checked. Ideally no-one (Girl or potential volunteer) should be on Join-Us under assigned longer than 21 days. Once an email or text is sent, a phone message left or a letter posted. The record should be updated to the “contacted” column and a note made in comments box. DC’s or local Join-Us co-ordinators need to be aware of where there are shortfalls & making arrangements to meet up with these ladies. Please remember girls on join us are wanting to join Girlguiding …if you are realistically unlikely to be offer a place in your unit within the next term or term (provided the girl is correct age) please move her along to her 2nd or 3rd choice. Or find out where there are places available.
    3. Alison & Isabel visited Berwyn Divisions’ Senior Section Tea Dance. Thanks to Alison and Denise  for their work within both Division and County were given as they hand over the reins to Cath Moore.
  4. Feedback sheets – none received
  5. County T & F groups
    Following on from GGCymru I am proposing that future large scale events within County are organized by T & F groups. As the need arises I will be asking for volunteers to be members of these groups. We will be starting these groups from the ideas put forward at our County Planning meeting.  Volunteers sought for these groups:

    • County Event for Rainbows 30th Birthday
    • Brownies GO for It event (for brownies aged 9yrs plus– to include camping option
    • Looking towards Senior Senior Section for Guides aged 13plus – possibly with a camping/overnight element.
    • Fun Events for Leaders
  6. Coffee and Chat with CC
    My other thought is to start visiting different areas around the County perhaps once an area or two each term. With a purpose of not just meeting members of the county but also we catch up with the ladies aged 75+ to discuss their current role/s and who need to sign their Insurance Disclaimers. I am hoping an ID verifier will be able to join me so that we can try to offer an opportunity for any outstanding DBS’s too. It will possibly be an opportunity to go though any Join-Us or GO related questions with DC’s, unit leaders/key-users. With the aim of starting to Data-Cleanse our extensive lists as requested by GGUK! If any unit would like to offer their meeting place or suggest a suitable location for one of these visits please do let me know. Ideally the venue will have wi-fi but this isn’t essential.
  7. Data Cleansing
    In the Spring Term Ruth, Alison and myself will be organizing a day/s with Commissioners/reps to  check the records of specific divisions:
    Ruth: Colwyn & Denbighshire (North & South),
    Isabel: Flintshire (East &West)
    Alison: Berwyn and Wrexham.
    We will also be having a Spring “workshop” for Commissioners so we can go though each District’s records before the GO and Join-Us sites are amalgamated. Any DC’s that can’t either attend themselves or send a deputy will be “buddied – up” with a neighbouring district to check their records.
  8. DBS re-checks
    The DBS report from GO as of the afternoon of the meeting was checked. A large number are awaiting clearance having met with an ID verifier. Others have had their certificates but these aren’t yet showing on GO. It could be advantageous if ID verifiers and/or DC’s could follow up those that haven’t cleared after a few weeks who are still showing on local report as needing recheck. (or on Join-Us awaiting clearance). If ladies have received their DBS certificates but still showing on report please either contact Alison Williams as our County ID verifier & Adviser or ring CHQ. If they are just stuck in the system a phone call is sometimes all that is needed.
16. Division Feedback – Air & Share – Reports tabled
  1. Berwyn (Cath)
  2. Colwyn (Serena) LQ file for Lucy O’Hara
  3. North Denbighshire (Lynda/Emily)
  4. South Denbighshire (Beth)
  5. East Flintshire (Chris)
  6. Wrexham – (Barbara/Brenda)
  7. West Flintshire – (Nicola)
17. A.O.B.

1st Aid completion in Rhyl Young Dragons 28th January – teams needed please

18. Date of next meetings:

Tuesday 29th November 2016 – Please note new date @ Carmel Church Hall

Wednesday 25th January 2017 (TBC)@ Cymau Community Centre

Thursday April 2017 TBA

County Annual Review – Wednesday 17th May – Venue TBC (Wrexham)
– Everyone welcome to come & celebrate Achievements gained
(between March 2016 & March 2017) by members of Girlguiding Clwyd.

Friday June/July 2017 (Ty-Clwyd with County Planning)
– All District Commissioners & Members of Division teams welcome to join with County Teams planning events etc for the next 12-18mths.