Minutes of a meeting of the Marden Community Plan Management Group held at The Allens on Thursday 2^nd February 2006.

Present

John Verrall                 Chairman

Chris Turner                Treasurer

John Banks

Graham Tippen          Secretary/ Acting Co-ordinator

Apologies

Mike Lutener               Marden Parish Council

Kate Tippen                Note taker

1.          Funding

 Graham had completed funding applications to go to Sue Beer, Kent Rural Towns project, and Paulina Stockell, Kent County Council, both for £3,000.  The latter, if successful, will be in the form of a member’s grant from the 2006/07 allocation.

 It was agreed that both of these should be submitted immediately and the Chairman signed the applications for dispatch.

 2.          Budget

 Chris is proceeding with opening an account with Nat West and stated that he had been advised by the bank that once the Secretary/ Co-ordinator had supplied his personal details to the bank, the account should be opened within 48 hours.  It was confirmed that he had done so on the morning of this meeting.

 ACTION          Chris to finalise details of the bank account.

 3.          Terms of reference and constitution

 Following suggestions made at the last meeting, Graham had amended the Constitution, Project Plan and Terms of Reference.

 The Constitution requires us to specify when AGM should be held and he suggested October, as being a year after the meeting when it was agreed to produce the Community Plan to a Market Towns Healthcheck format.

 John Banks proposed that these documents be adopted; voted unanimously.  Graham was thanked for all his efforts in producing these.

 They have been distributed to Working Group members as agreed at the last full meeting.

 4.          Working Group

The Chairman would be unable to attend the next full meeting on 23^rd February and asked the Co-ordinator to act as Chair for the meeting.

 He asked that the following items were included:

a progress report from each of the Workstream leaders.

the Identification of questions within the Healthcheck worksheets that were causing them difficulty, or they considered irrelevant to Marden. Determine action as a result.

the identification of any areas that are missing from the worksheets that we need to address as important to Marden, including identifying people within or near to the community who could help with these.

How we move forward, beyond the base questions and broaden the discussions.

 5.         AOB

The Chairman reported that he had attended a forum on 26^th January, organised by KCC, about consultation techniques.  He had found it of limited benefit.  The co-ordinator reported that KCC were organising another event, this time on fundraising at the Great Danes on 7^th February.  He would try ant attend.

 The Chairman also reported that Sue Beer had agreed to attend the annual Parish meeting on 11^th April, where we would promote the Plan.  He felt, however, that whilst this would help a more specific and focussed event was necessary, along the lines of the Traffic Consultation morning held recently in the Scout HQ.

 John Banks suggested that having such an event in 2 parts, held over a Friday evening and Saturday morning, would draw the widest audience.  We would aim to do this in May or early June, in line with the Project Plan.  Its purpose would be to: explain the Plan’ purpose; gain community involvement; identify issues; and receive comments.  A questionnaire, or flyer, publicising the event being dispatched beforehand, possibly with the next Parish Newsletter. 

The Co-ordinator was reminded to claim for his expenses: printer paper, postage, etc, keeping receipts for the Treasurer. 

ACTION: Co-ordinator to identify suitable date, book venue, draft ‘flyer’

NEXT MEETING THURSDAY ^9th MARCH 8.00PM THE ALLENS