Meeting at 6.00 p.m. on Friday, 10 March 2017
Comrie Parish Church Annex
MINUTES
1. Attending: Joan Carmichael; Gordon McCartney; Ian Pinkerton; Mairi Philp; Janice Donaldson; Fiona El-Miligy: Murray Lauchlan; Jane Reid; John King; Stephanie Cameron; Andrew Reid
2. Apologies: Colin Sears; Joyce Carnegie; Judy McDowall; Ken Heiser; Amanda Laing; Leigh Doy; Alan Laing; George Lees
3. Minutes of Meeting 8.2.17 – approved with no amendments
4. Survey
a. Printing
The 4,000 letters/survey forms, for delivery to each household in the village and Comrie area, had been printed at the CDT office.
b. Delivery
Twenty one areas had been identified with a matching number of people to make deliveries, which had almost completely been carried out.
c. Group meetings
Murray Lauchlan had attended the Singalong Group about the legacy and survey. Judy McDowall would provide the same information to introduce group discussions at the Comrie Silver Circle meeting on Thursday 16th March, which might also be filmed by the BBC following communications with BBC journalist, Elizabeth Quigley. Judy McDowall had also spoken about possible meeting arrangements at Cameron Court with Mary Gavin, Manager there from Caledonian Housing Association, with whom details would have to be finalised if any meeting time was requested.
d. Collection arrangements – locations
Boxes for collecting completed survey forms had been made up and delivered to all of the designated locations by Murray Lauchlan.
e. Publicity
Posters about the public meeting and survey are up around the village. The BBC may film at the Comrie Silver Circle, this would provide for a news item. There had also been contact from United Artists based in London, who were interested in filming for a documentary.
f. Other issues
Contact had come from Perth & Kinross Libraries Service looking to explore Legacy funding for a mobile library service in Comrie. Andrew Reid had added the details of this to the notes being kept about proposals, which had been made outwith the survey process.
A Comrie resident had also been in touch to say Heinrich Steinmeyer’s membership Waffen SS during World War II meant Comrie should not accept the legacy. It was noted that he would have the opportunity to make this point in a survey response and in one of the discussion groups if he attended the public meeting.
5. Public meeting
a. Publicity
Poster to be sent to Sandra McRitchie for the Comrie Facebook page and Community Website, and also requested by Janice Donaldson to put up in the Medical Centre.
b. Transport assistance
Transport assistance requested so far by one person, who John King will collect. Gordon McCartney, Mairi Philp and Ian Pinkerton offered to provide transport if further requests were made, and it was also agreed to consider the CoCo bus if necessary.
c. Presentation
It was agreed that Murray Lauchlan should make the opening presentation. Murray said that he would provide background information about the legacy and its use for older people, emphasising that the next steps would be based on the public consultation and survey.
d. Discussion group arrangements – group chairs/reporters – discussion recording
It was agreed that the short presentation should be followed immediately by small group discussions, with rules proposing that everyone get an opportunity to put forward ideas, different views should be respected, and the various proposals discussed. These ‘rules’ and the group tasks should be listed and printed with a copy for each group.
Each group should identify a chairperson and notetaker, which might be the same person. The notetaker should record every group members’ views on a large poster size sheet, and also report back to the final plenary session about all of the proposals coming from the group. It would be helpful if members of the Interim Committee were spread around the groups, perhaps with some form of ID – they might also be chairs and/or notetakers. It was also suggested that discussion group members should be asked if any wanted to be a member of the Legacy Group, and that a note should be kept of any volunteers for that committee.
It was agreed that it was an ideas meeting rather than for conclusions and decision-making. It was not a substitute for completion of survey forms, and everyone attending should be encouraged to complete an individual survey form. People who had already submitted a survey form might have new ideas to be submitted on an additional survey form.
The report back session would give all of the ideas from the evening and also include the ideas already submitted before the meeting. The meeting should conclude with information being given at the final plenary session about what will happen next, including the end date for the survey, collection and analysis of the survey forms, the completion of a report with the survey results available to people in the village, and a decision about how to take things forward based on the survey, including the possibility of a second round of community consultations about the main ideas put forward.
e. Legacy group elections
The position should be reviewed against the survey results and nominations coming through the survey form and public meeting.
f. Sound system – Murray would discuss the sound system with Kenny Mowatt. The option of pursuing use of the film club sound system would be followed up if necessary.
g. Media – Strathearn Herald
The attendance of Lynn Duke from the Strathearn Herald would be very welcome at the public meeting.
Stephanie Cameron said that there might also be interest in attending the public meeting by a staff member of Perth & Kinross Council, whose work included recording community development. It was decided that this might inhibit some people from talking and therefore not to go ahead with this at this stage.
6. Communications
a. email address – comrielegacy@gmail.com;
The email address established specifically for the legacy work was now fully operational.
7. Finance – budget
CDT requires a third signatory to ensure availability of signing off invoices and other finance items in case one of the signatories is not available. As with other responsibilities, this would have to be reviewed by the final Legacy Group, but was needed even at this interim stage. There had been some costs for the letters/survey printing, and there would be further costs if it was necessary to hire sound equipment for the public meeting. Mairi Philp was proposed and agreed to become the third signatory.
8. Next Steps
Murray spoke about his own ideas about the management of the legacy funds, and his contact with people in the charitable sector about extending the use of the legacy monies over a longer period by capping the amount available at any one time and providing awards for specific ideas. Other group members noted the potential for very different approaches, such as distributing all of the funds immediately. It was agreed that the presentation given at the start of the public meeting would not mention any particular approach, and that the consultation exercise would be an open exercise for everyone to express their own personal views. The process of consulting and deciding about legacy use should go stage by stage. Depending on what comes back at this stage, there might still need to be further consultation.
Following the public meeting, there would need to be some continuing promotion and publicity of the survey. Following the deadline of 28 March, the survey return boxes should be collected from their seven locations on 29 March, with a meeting that evening to open the boxes, count the returns, and decide on arrangements for considering and reporting on them.
9. Any Other Business – none
10. Next meeting – Date and Venue
6.00 p.m. Wednesday, 29 March – Comrie Parish Church Annex or Entrance Area
