Tuesday 24 April 2012

Working with the Wider Community & other groups

Hi All

I've been in touch with City South, Mosscare and Adactus and asked them to put us in touch with other established residents groups in the area. I have a really good response.

Andrew from Adactus is passing my details onto the Chairs of Residents Associations supported by Adactus and he mentioned the TARA meeting that is coming up soon and which Adele has agreed to attend.

Teyei from Mosscare has been in touch and they have expressed their support of our group and how keen they are to support us. She provided me with a funding form to apply for up to £200.00 towards our Jubilee celebration event. She also said that the closest group to us is the Moss Side Residents Association who are meeting on 9 May 2012 at St James' Church and would be happy for us to attend. Unfortunately I am on holiday then so would anyone else be able to attend and introduce our group?

My neighbour who has only just moved in is keen to join the group so I'll have a chat with him and add him to the blog list (if I can work out how to do that)

I couldn't attach the Jubilee funding form to the Jubilee post anyone know how I attach a file?

Sunday 22 April 2012

Minutes of Meeting on 17th April

The full version of the minutes of last Tuesday's meeting can be found by following this link (Google Docs).

Please have a read and check them for accuracy - the chair will ask for any amendments to be proposed at the beginning of the next meeting, which is on Tuesday 15th May.

Thursday 19 April 2012

Jubilee Street Party

The second thing I've been asked to circulate via the blog is the following from Esther on Beresford Street about the Jubilee Street Party, just in case you missed it when it came through the door:

Hello, my name is Esther Webb.

This is a quick note to let you know that some of your neighbours are organising a Street Party for Beresford Street on Monday 4th June to celebrate the Jubilee and get to know each other a bit better.

We are still in the early stages of planning but wanted to let you know what our thoughts are and give you the opportunity to get involved. We are applying for street closure on the day so we can utilise the space well and make sure it is a safe place for children and families. The food and activities are still to be discussed but we are sure that it will be a very exciting day.

If you would like to be involved in the planning of the party or have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us. Our details are as follows:

Email: Party4Beresford2012@hotmail.co.uk
Facebook: Beresford Street Party

Thank you very much,
Esther

Contacting our PCSO

I was asked at the meeting to post a couple of pieces of info to the blog that might interest many of us - the first is contact details for PCSO Lee Harris who was there to introduce himself.

If you want to get in touch with him, you can reach him by phone: 0161 856 4466
e-mail: william.harris@gmp.pnn.police.uk
or via Greenheys Police Station (behind the Royal Brewery)

Tuesday 17 April 2012

Fantastic turnout at this evening's meeting

Wow. You were awesome.

Thanks so much to the nearly 30 people who turned out to the inaugural meeting. I can now officially announce, hot off the presses, the freshly-minted and fully operational... (drum roll)... Bowes Street Residents' Association!

Thanks especially are due to Karl for arranging such a convenient venue, to Natalie for minuting furiously and reminding me what I should have been talking about, to Andy for triumphing over technology, to Jo and Leah for drafting the agenda and to everyone who contributed such great ideas.

The full minutes of the meeting will be circulated soon, but in the meantime here's a brief summary:

  • We voted to adopt a constitution and formally became a Residents' Association.
  • We elected Jo Laycock as Chair, Adele (sorry - don't know your surname) as Secretary and John Haines as Treasurer. In addition, Natalie Lewis agreed to assist with secretarial duties.
  • We discussed lots of great ideas about how improve our community - gardening/yardening, a community noticeboard, a Jubilee street party, communal bike storage, a local history project, engaging with local businesses and far more besides.
  • Our PCSO, Lee Harris, introduced himself and spoke about what support he could offer (e-mail him).
  • We agreed on a date for the next meeting (Tuesday 15th May) and discussed ways of communicating the agenda with the wider community.
Further details on all of this are to follow, and not necessarily from me - I'll be discussing handing over this blog to our newly-elected officers!

Friday 13 April 2012

Agenda for Tuesday's meeting


The (final) proposed agenda for the meeting on Tuesday is below - thanks to Jo L, Leah and everyone else who contributed comments and suggestions. Sorry if this seems a little late, I think once things are up and running it will be easier to organise this kind of thing in advance. 

We've tried not to overload the agenda and have incorporated some time for discussion about the general aims of the group. Its also quite broad (for example item 4 could incorporate several different ideas that people have raised).

Based on how this meeting goes we can tweak the format for the future. 

Tea, coffee and setting up from 6.15...

1. Introduction & meeting agenda

2. Intro to community groups (Phil Dodd from Cranswick Square residents' association

3. Discussion - purpose and priorities for the Bowes St. Residents' Group

Teabreak

4. Improving the local environment - establishing priorities, application process for available grant money, delegation of tasks

5. Establishment of a formal Constitution

6. Election of officials - Chair, Treasurer & Secretary (Possibly also Vice-Chair, Communications Officer etc?) and delegation of tasks

7. Any other business (please say so in advance if you'd like to contribute anything here)

Our local PCSO, Lee Harris, will also be around to introduce himself and offer any relevant info. I'll try and keep everything to time so we should be all wrapped up by 8.

Can't wait to see you all there!

Saturday 7 April 2012

Constitutions

In order to formally be recognised as a residents' association, we need to adopt a constitution which sets out our aims and objectives, along with rules by which we agree to operate. As far as I can tell, it needn't be particularly complicated, but there are certain things it needs to include.

Everyone at the meeting will be asked to vote on whether they agree with the proposed constitution, so it's worth doing a little reading beforehand if you can, so we all know what we're voting for and have the chance to suggest any changes in advance.

Here's a factsheet on constitutions (pdf file) produced by Manchester City Council.

Here's a model constitution that we could use (pdf file) and just change the relevant bits. Thanks to John for researching this.

Please have a read if you can, and add a comment below if you have any suggestions or changes. I think it's important that everyone who wants to have a say in this gets one.

See you on the 17th!

Thursday 5 April 2012

Draft Agenda

Because the Residents' Association isn't formally constituted yet (that's what we're hoping to do at the meeting on  the 17th), we didn't want to set the agenda without giving others a chance to contribute their ideas. Broadly speaking though, we think the initial meeting should be short, sweet and very positive, focusing on the good things we can do to bring our community together more. Here's what we've come up with so far:

  1. Adopting a formal constitution to create a residents' association - nothing else can happen without this bit of red tape.
  2. Election of 'official' roles (Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary and Treasurer are essential, but we may want others too)
  3. Communications: how to get our messages heard across the community.
  4. Money:  a grant of £1000 is available for community organisations in our area - what could we do with it?
  5. Gardening in the alleys and use of growing space on the bus depot site.
  6. Other business suggested before the meeting.
What do you think? Post a comment if you'd like to contribute anything else to the meeting.

Monday 2 April 2012

Meeting Date and Venue

Wow. Lovely to see such a lot of enthusiasm! Thanks especially to Andy for setting up the mailing list, Jo C and Keir for the flyers and Karl for booking a venue.

This is my important announcing voice. Ahem. You are invited to:

A MEETING TO CREATE THE BOWES STREET RESIDENTS' ASSOCIATION

on TUESDAY 17th APRIL

at FALLOWFIELD LIBRARY on PLATT LANE (map here)

to start at 6.30pm

All are welcome. Check back here in a few days for a draft of the agenda, but if you've any ideas in the meantime then please add a comment below!