CHOLSEY'S 2020 VISION -- developing our Parish Plan for the future Steering Group: Minutes of the Meeting held 26 January 2006

 Minutes of the previous Meetings
The Minutes of the meeting on 5.12.05 were circulated tonight - any comments to be taken next time.
There were some amendments to the Minutes of 16.1.06:
It should read Dr.  Tony Vernon.
Alan confirmed that Helen Crofts is the contact officer for Parish Plans at SODC, and she would give Pat an information pack for us. 

Updates from Groups
David circulated his summary and possible questions about Churches for the Community and Leisure section.
Barry circulated his 'Asset Inventory' for the Environment section - with possible question areas identified.
Alan circulated his summary of health facilities.
Geraldine gave a verbal report on behalf of the Youth and Education Group.
It was agreed to read these and bring comments next time.  Geraldine would e-mail these out to people not here tonight, and make sure that Betty, Natalie and Lisa get paper copies.  .  We needed to make sure that we do include Community and Leisure, Transport, and the Economy.  Geraldine would follow up with John Aska at the Parish Council about the Transport Survey (carried out about 1.  5 years ago with ORCC).
It was agreed to focus this meeting on how we intend to move to the next stage.

Next Steps

• Barrie had circulated a very useful Marketing Communication Plan, setting out our 'message', the objectives, possible timetable, and how we might best get people involved.  It was agreed that our audience needs to include people with business interests in the village, as well as residents, and also that we should make it clear what influences the Plan can have.
• It was agreed to ask Stuart Dewey if we could have an electronic copy of the Cholsey's 2020 Vision logo, that he had done for the last Forty magazine, so that we can use this as our logo from now on.
• It was agreed that we need a series of events/locations to consult people about what is important to them and what questions should be included in the questionnaire, and to keep up awareness of the Plan and a sense of involvement in it.
• Barrie felt that we should make good use of the results of the original 'post-its' exercise to start this off.  He offered to draw up a shortlist of 3-4 good things and issues under each of our headings, which could be used to consult people.
• It was agreed to consult people at various times of the day and week between February and March, at the following locations:

  • Outside Tesco

  • School

  • Day Centre

  • Station

  • Church

·      Geraldine would circulate a tick list, so that we could each volunteer to be involved in this.  The dates didn't need to be pre-booked, we could just do it at short notice, if the weather looks good!  We would need to time some of the consultations to coincide with people coming out of Church, off the trains, etc.

·      It was also agreed to have an 'exhibition week-end' to finalise the issues for the questionnaire.  This was agreed for 8th/9th April from 10 a.m.  to 4 p.m.  at the Laurence Hall.

·      The questions would be finally agreed by having a stall at May Day (30th April), when people could comment on them.

·      It was agreed to ask the Youth and Education Group if they thought it would be useful for some young people to consult children and young people in the village about the questions that are important to them, during half-term week and at other times when people get off the various school buses.

·      There was discussion about the need to address the issue of whether Winterbrook residents want to remain part of Cholsey.  It was felt that this might need to be done by a door-to-door approach

·      Geraldine would do another article for The Forty magazine to report on progress and raise awareness.  This would also include the names and contact details for the Working Group leads.  People to let Geraldine know if they aren’t happy for their phone numbers to be included (no addresses).

·      It was agreed to send a letter and a copy of the consultation questions to the Chairs of all Clubs and Societies, to invite their views and also to offer to go to discuss issues with their group, if they wish.

·      Barrie offered to do some posters to publicise the Plan, and give people our contact details, and invite people's input.  Alan offered to get them run off.  Pam, Leslie and Lisa offered to help put posters up round the village.  Barrie stressed that the accepted marketing wisdom is that people need to be told things at least 3 times in order to get any response, so if we want people to come to the Exhibition, we need to bear this in mind!

·      There was some discussion about whether to do separate mailshots to every house (and to ask the Scouts to deliver = £100), or to have a flier in The Forty, as well as an article.  There was concern about whether the timings would work out OK if we only do this.

Finance
Geraldine confirmed that we already have access to £1,000 from the Parish Council, with a further £1,000 available from April.

The Grant Application to ORCC needs to be in during March.  Steve circulated the draft Budget for this, which has to show the notional cost of our voluntary time, (which then gets netted off the actual grant), as well as the actual cost estimates.

It was agreed that for our purposes, we need a budget which does not include any notional costs, so that we can monitor actual spend against it.

Steve would investigate the likely costs of market research and analysis by consultants, as we had not envisaged doing this ourselves (unless someone in the village has those skills to offer).

Website
Geraldine had made some enquiries about having a hosted site, under the www.cholsey.org domain, which would only cost £50.  It was agreed to go ahead with this.  Geraldine would make sure that there was also a link to the Parish Council web site.

Next Meeting
This was agreed for Thursday 9th February at 7.30 p.m at the Free Church.  David was thanked for his hospitality.

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