Director of Civic Society Initiative speaks at YHACS AGM10 February 2010 - Director of Civic Society Initiative speaks at YHACS AGMThe 2010 YHACS AGM was held, once again, at the White Hart Societies were welcomed to Harrogate by The Mayor of the Borough of Harrogate, Councillor Pat Jones. The minutes of the previous AGM were approved, there were no matters arising. Chairman's Report to YHACS AGM 2010.This was our tenth anniversary year but this positive achievement was overshadowed by events at national level when the Civic Trust went into administration in April. This news was a shock but came after the Trust lost the Green Flag contract in late 2008. Despite this, it was thought that it would maintain its solvency throughout 2009 but events conspired against this. Failure to attract sufficient funding to the Purple Flag scheme, poor results from the fundraising appeal to the membership, a drop in income from other local authority contracts and an unsuccessful bid to the government's Empowerment Fund meant that even a modest financial forecast for the next few months was unlikely to be achieved. It became clear that severe funding restraints being imposed on local authorities and other potential funders meant that, despite restructuring, the situation was deteriorating rapidly and, after considering all options, the Trustees, of which I was one, with great regret, could see no other option but to seek administration. This distressing time eventually brought something positive. The goodwill built up by the CT over the years meant that various national organisations stepped forward to see if a new national built environment group could be formed and the Civic Society Initiative was born. We will be hearing a lot more about the CSI later. YHACS has been closely involved in the developing CSI story, we recently participated in a teleconference to act as a sounding board on funding issues. A good number of Yorkshire and Humber societies attended a CSI workshop at the offices of Leeds Civic Trust. The nine Regional Associations, of which YHACS is one, were financially independent of the Civic Trust and able therefore to carry on. We did, however, receive £2000 per year from the Civic Trust and losing this has meant that your committee has had to review our method of working. A paper dealing with this issue, 'the Future of YHACS' was sent out with the papers for this meeting and we will be debating matters arising during this afternoon. However, we kept calm and carried on. Main meetings were held at Barnsley and Harrogate. The main event was our second CS Week held in June and launched at Wakefield with guest speaker Martin Wainwright from the Guardian. The winner this year was Scarborough CS, second prize going to Huddersfield and Third to Ripon. Commendations went to Bridlington, Castleford, Harrogate, Selby, Skipton and Wakefield. We represented YHACS at some regional events this year but unfortunately my activity in this area has been restricted because of health reasons. We were represented at the national conference in Blackpool in October and also attended a meeting of all the regional associations held in Birmingham. Malcolm Sharman represented YHACS at an event at the House of Commons regarding the future of our region. This year the Civic Trust Awards ceremony was held in London at the Emirates Stadium. In our region an award went to the splendid Castleford Footbridge and mentions went to Haworth Medical Centre, Leeds City Museum, New Pavilion, People's Park Grimsby and Rotunda, William Smith Museum of Geology, at Scarborough. In March we had the Paving the Way weekend here at the White Hart with over forty delegates present from Yorkshire and Humber societies and others even further afield. In November we had our YHACS 10th Anniversary lunch in the splendid surroundings of Ashville College, Harrogate. During the year we carried out a survey of subscriptions charged by our member societies. This revealed that the average individual membership rate in our region is £9. We said goodbye to Katie Stewart who is now responsible for 'Communications, Economic Drivers and Innovation' at the new Leeds City Region. We thank Katie for all the good work she did during her time with us and wish her good luck in her new position. We welcomed David Moss from Selby and David Winpenny from Ripon as new committee members. This was also our first year with a President and we have been very pleased to have Peter Spawforth batting with our team. Once again all the association's varied work has been done efficiently, most of the year without a fully functioning chairman. None of it would get done without the hard work of a wholly voluntary committee, most of whom also hold responsible jobs within their own societies. Thanks are due to them all. The chairman's report was approved and adopted unanimously. Treasurer's ReportThe Treasurer circulated copies of the signed and audited Statement of Accounts. The accounts were approved and adopted unanimously. Discussion on the Future of YHACS.There was a discussion on the paper 'The Future of YHACS' led by Kevin Trickett. The main point of this paper is that, following the demise of the Civic Trust, YHACS has no members as such and no core income. The YHACS committee have resolved that YHACS will have to charge a membership fee of £40 per annum this year, to be reviewed for future years. The fee is payable in February 2010. There were various questions and comments from the floor. A straw poll concluded that 19 societies were in favour of paying, none were against and two were don't knows. Election of OfficersThe following officers and committee members were elected unanimously: Chairman: Peter Cooper Election of PresidentPeter Spawforth MBE was elected unanimously. Guest Speaker - Tony Burton, Director of the Civic Society Initiative.Tony spoke about CSI and the future of the civic society movement. He said that the sudden demise of the Civic Trust had been a surprise not only to societies but to many of the bodies which were keen to establish a successor organisation to support the civic society movement. He was clear that the CSI has to be put on a sound financial footing from the outset. It has the potential to be a broad based body of some 1000 organisations with 250,000 members. The CSI needs to be able to speak out independently. Tony felt that people's expectations are changing and that many more people want to put down roots and create an identity for themselves, moving away from traditional forms of communication and politics toward Facebook. Members of all kinds of organisations were now demanding higher levels of service and were more aware of how their donations were being spent. Civic Society members have a huge variety of interests. They now need to be more politically aware. The government itself has said that it wants a 'healthy civic society' The movement must be able to speak 'civic sense'. Civic Societies are the largest organisations involved in responding to planning applications and policy issues The CSI was set up to address the opportunities and risks. The first stage was to have many discussions and network meetings with societies and stakeholders. There had been over 100 responses to the 'Own the Future' document. Working together National Body Funding. To meet the aspirations of the movement a reasonable annual income would be required. The new organisation will start small and build confidence. In those societies where there are large numbers of life members there is a need to define how they are counted. There may be a cap for large societies and consideration will be given to weighing any voting arrangements. Trustees and officers will be sought shortly. The public launch will be in April. CSI funding runs out in May and transitional funding is being sought. The new name will be announced in about 10 days. Tony ended by reiterating that - Civic societies need a national voice There were a large number of questions covering funding, location of the new organisation, insurance for societies, proposed manpower and the possibility of working with other bodies. Civic Society WeekKevin Trickett led a discussion on Civic Society Week which this year will take place between 29th May and 4th July. Kevin asked all societies to provide a working email address for their CS Week contact in order to reduce paperwork to a minimum.
Society News and ViewsThere were reports and views from Addingham, Halifax, Harrogate, Skipton in Craven and Howden societies. The meeting closed at 4pm
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Hotel, Harrogate. About 50 members and guests representing 25 Yorkshire and Humber societies attended and heard guest speaker Tony Burton outline progress with the Civic Society Initiative and his view of the future of the civic society movement. There follows a summary account of the business of the day.