(Note; The meeting was held as a video conference due to the current restrictions, with a number of technical problems resulting in it taking an extended period of time)
Present: Alan Sloan, Terry Barnett, Mike Kelly (Chair), Fred West, Debi Hallett, Mel Frobisher
Apologies; Rob Buick, Eric Juul-Mortensen. It was noted that Eric will be unable to attend for the next two months for personal reasons. It was also noted that Barbara Gallagher has decided to leave the Steering Committee, and the Committee thanked her for the contribution she had made up to this point.
Welcome; Mel Frobisher was welcomed onto the Steering Committee
Minutes of previous meeting; Approved
Declaration of Interests: None of those present declared any personal interest in any of the matters to be discussed in the meeting.
Financial Report; Fred reported that the financial situation had not changed since the last meeting.
Locality Grant; to be applied for this month.
Action; Fred to find out approximate rates for the consultants that we’ve been in touch with and then confer with Mike to create a budget. Application then to be progressed ASAP
Insurance; There remains one query to be answered by Rob, and then we will put it in place. All the Committee have had sight of the policy and agree to proceed.
Action; Fred to place the policy as soon as the final query is answered.
Company; No known instances of a Steering Committee being sued have been found. After discussion it was agreed that such a situation was highly unlikely, and the Committee agreed that no further action should be taken, with a review if more information came to light. It was noted that only Virginia Water Forum out of the six Forums that we know of had formed a Company.
Action; None
Recruitment; Mickey’s extensive revamp of the Web site (undertaken by Rob and taking many hours of his time) has taken longer than intended, but in the last few days Mickey has been given the go ahead to go out to the various clubs he is in touch with to try and persuade their members to join the Forum. We currently have 98 Forum Members.
Action; Mike to check with Mickey as to how it has gone
Preliminary Questions; Mike replied on behalf of Rob, who has been working on this over the past month. For technical reasons it is very complicated to link the preliminary questions to the registration form. This idea has therefore been abandoned, and we will need to send out the questionnaire individually to new members. Members will also have to have a password to access any questionnaires we send out. This is a complication we could do without, but is necessary to ensure that we only receive genuine traceable replies from those entitled to reply.
Action; Mike to compose covering e mail and Rob to issue the questionnaire
Research;
History; Alan reported that progress was good and he is in contact with a number of authorities on the History of the Area. Mike requested that he contacted Mel to mark on a map the 6 areas that define the historic growth of Englefield Green, so that it can be co ordinated with the Housing Audit
Action; Alan and Mel to confer to define the 6 areas. Alan to seek Debi’s help when he is ready to put a document together..
Demography; Terry reported that he had most of the information and was in the process of sorting it out. Mike asked that once he was ready, Debi had agreed to assist with putting the document together in a similar style to Old Windsor’s Plan and appendix. Terry said he had been in contact with Old Windsor, and they had got a consultant to do this work, so if we can do it ourselves it is an achievement and a saving of money for the more important tasks of putting the Plan together.
Action; Terry to finalise figures and confer with Debi to put a document together similar to Old Windsor’s
Business; Mike reported for Erik. Erik has produced a very comprehensive list of businesses in the Area, and there are a surprising number. Next we need to devise a questionnaire and decide when to go out with the questions.
Action; Mike to devise a draft questionnaire
Social Amenities; Barbara is working on this.
Action; Mike to contact Barbara
Housing Audit; Mel has taken on organising this task. She has prepared a list of streets, divided up into groups. Next she intends to do a ‘dry run’ of an area, and then seek comments on content, so that we all have a template of what is required.
Action; Mel to do dry run and report back
Follow up Questions to Members; Mike asked the Committee to start thinking about what could be posted on the website to indicate our progress, and also what follow up questions these could generate. The need to continue using the web site as the basis for virtually all our interaction with the residents was noted, as it seems highly unlikely that we could have any Town Hall meetings/ presentations this year, given (a) the continued need for social distancing, hygiene, toilet separation etc etc making most venues difficult if not impossible to organise and (b) the fact that many members of the public are likely to avoid attending such gatherings anyway.
Actions; History and Demography to be progressed as quickly as possible to be posted on the web site, as well as the maps produced for presentations in January by Mike
Consultant; It was agreed that at this stage all that was needed from the consultants Fred had the names of was the scope of work they could undertake and (for the the budget and application for the grant) their prices.
Action; Fred to contact the Consultants and find out scope and approximate costs.
AGM; Mike noted that we need to hold an AGM within 3 months of the 31st March 2020, and give 24 days notice to our members. He explained that he had been in contact with Locality to get advice on what to do given that we cannot hold a physical meeting under the current circumstances, and it would appear that a virtual AGM could be held, in which an e mail was sent to members and they e mailed back their vote for the points raised.
Action; Mike to start the process.
AOB; None