Minutes of Committee Meeting 9th December 2013

Minutes of Committee Meeting 9th December 2013 NEXT MEETING tba

Present: Beryl Francis, Annette Harley, Christopher Evans, Tim Dawes, Ray Cantwell, Bill Woods, Sara Smith, David Smith, Carole Nash

Apologies were received from Michael Blanch

1 Committee members’ appointment to duties
BW Chairman
SS Membership Secretary (having been recruited specifically for this role)
AH Publicity; all should provide copy, AH will format the material
DS Vice-chair
BF Planning scrutiny
TD Special projects and Facebook (the latter with DS)
RC Treasurer
CE First support initially, until a particular role or preference becomes apparent
CN Secretary

CN will ensure committee members all know each others’ email addresses.
It was agreed that an appeal for funds could be made from time to time if our resources cannot cover venue hire and other expenses.
DS observed that Facebook was not popular with members; TD said it was complementary to the website – not essential, but useful for publishing dates and photographs.

2 Communication strategy
AH presented a comprehensive plan with actions, lead times, timescales and responsibilities.

Copy for PO9 can be written and sent in. The News (Portsmouth) needs a story, not simply “We are here”. Angel Radio are best contacted in person, Solent Radio provide good coverage. We could exchange newsletters with other local civic societies

AH is assessing printing quotes against our budget and proposed that the flyer and Welcome Pack for new members should be printed, but the newsletter distributed electronically (other than the 12 without email); there are full colour templates available for this.

Copy for the next newsletter is required by 27th January 2014. SS will complete the logo and approach Mercury Graphics for a vector copy in return for thanks in the newsletter. BW will interview John Pile for a report on English Heritage listing of the War Memorial.

3 Newsletter production schedule
These should be produced during February, June and September 2014 in time for public meetings and the AGM

4 Membership Renewal
The society was launched without sufficient attention to the mechanisms of joining or renewing membership and paying subscriptions. Now that SS has oversight of membership it is hoped that subscriptions which were actually due at the AGM will have been paid by 27th January. SS and RC will liase to ensure records are consistent.

5 Data Management
This was covered in 1, 2 and 4 above

6 Planning application Issues
BW had been unable to contact HBC’s planning offers, but will contine trying in order to establish how The White Hart change of use application will be decided. The development of Market Parade appears to be on hold. BF reported that work has already started on the Langstone Hotel south of the by-pass. TD said that no progress is visible with David Willetts’ house in West Street. CN will persue this by a letter hand-delivered to this property.

7 Dates and venues for 2014
We have 3 main events for 2014. Ideally we would hold these in the URC Meeting Place Main Hall – but all our preferred dates (pencilled in) are Mondays when the Main Hall is unavailable; we have to change either the venue or the dates. By moving the talk “How Conservation Impinges on Planning” from Monday 10th to Tuesday 11th March we could use the URC Main Hall. Before CN confirms this BW will ask the speaker whether this date is suitable. CN will check the Main Hall availability for Tuesday 8th July and Tuesday 21st October before investigating a room at The Spring.

8 Any Other Business
CN said that LRA had asked if the Civic Society has a preferred name for the fields behind the Royal Oak, which are to be designated a Local Green Space. Although some preferences were voiced the general opinion was that this is a matter for Langstone residents.

TD has custody of some large display screens which may be a useful community resource; he suggested the our Facebook page could be used to facilitate sharing of such resources by community groups.

TD has started arranging next year’s Literary Festival. Dates are 3rd-12th October 2014

9 Date of next meeting
To be arranged