CHOLSEY'S 2020 VISION -- developing our Parish Plan for the future Steering Group: Minutes of the Meeting held on 22 May 2006

Present: Geraldine Kelly, Sue Jeffs, Barrie Charles, Steve Stocks, David Beaumont, Barry Sheldon, Pam Kendall, Leslie Kendall, Mick Woodley, Stella Mitchell, Chris Naivar

Apologies were received from Alan and Lisa. Silke would like to stay involved with Community & Leisure, but can’t come to meetings or carry on as Secretary.

Minutes
These were agreed. For clarification, it was confirmed that all the consultations we’ve done so far are ‘formal’. The questionnaire will be more quantitative, not necessarily more formal.

Feedback from meeting with Anton Nath, ORCC
Anton had made it clear that the ORCC Grant cannot be used to pay a company to:
·    draft the questionnaire
·    input data
·    analyse data

Everyone felt that it was essential that the process is seen/known to be completely independent, unbiased, and independently validated. This would be the advantage of using an experienced, external company, rather than doing it ourselves.

ORCC would be willing to check the wording of the questionnaire for us and provide an independent  validation as to lack of bias. It was agreed that we should take them up on this.

Several suggestions for inputting and analysing the data were considered, and there was general concern about quality and reliability if we don’t have this done professionally. If we wished to employ people directly, this would have to be done through another body (possibly the Parish Council), as 2020 is not a constituted ‘body’ to act as employer.

It was felt that with a reasonable return rate on the questionnaires, for the data entry there would be at least 100 hours work, preferably by not more than about 3 people.

We could use the Parish Council Grant to pay a company to do the work for us, and Geraldine agreed to ask Brightwell if the company that did theirs might also do ours, if we pay them (depending on their quote!)

Geraldine also offered to get some prices for Temps from a recruitment agency.

SODC had also said that they may be able to provide this service for us.

Barrie offered to do the data analysis, which would be a massive job in itself.

Anton recommended that we have separate columns for several respondents per household, rather than several questionnaires per household. The questions would need to be short and simple in order to make this work.

Anton thought that a week was too short for piloting, and also that the draft questionnaire could usefully be open for consultation prior to piloting. It was agreed to bring the timetable forward so that 2 weeks could be allowed for piloting. This would mean the text must be ready by 9th June. The draft questionnaire would be consulted on via the website and on Notice Boards by Tesco (in the Post Office, if Post Master willing) and at the Parish Council office.

Lots of publicity would be needed - to re-inforce the message about the importance of returning the form.

Drafting the questionnaire

Stella presented the proposed questions from the Youth and Education group, which were discussed in detail.

For Community and Leisure, there was some discussion about whether we should list all the 35+ clubs and societies and ask people which they belong to - also as a way of publicising the groups and encouraging involvement. It was felt that this would make the questionnaire incredibly long.

For the Churches questions, there was discussion about what quantitative information we need from the questionnaire.

There was not time to go through the other issues at the meeting, and it was agreed that Barrie and Geraldine would look at all the questions submitted by the groups and draft a questionnaire for comment.

It was agreed, following a vote, to have columns for separate household members to complete on one form, rather than several forms per household.

There was concern that we will have too many questions, and that we may need to be ruthless about what is included. If necessary, we may each need to prioritise by:

·    must include
·    nice to include
·    no strong opinion

 Next Meeting
In order to keep to our timetable and have the text drafted by 9th June, it was agreed to have a meeting on Saturday 3rd June at 2.30 p.m. to agree the questionnaire, and the next steps.

The meeting would be at Barrie’s house (73 Papist Way).