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Minutes of the North West Region amicus-lgbt Committee held on Saturday 20th January 2007 at 18:30 in the Lesbian & Gay Foundation's Meeting Rooms, Manchester
1. Introduction
Mick opened the meeting at 18:40 and welcomed all the members present.2. Minutes of the October 2006 Meeting
The minutes were agreed as a correct record.
3. Matters Arising
Andrew asked about the action request from the last meeting regarding delegates to the National Committee asking about promoting Pride and obtaining merchandise. Mick advised this action still stands but would be discussed later in the meeting.
4. Reports From Delegates:
4.1. NW Regional Council
Mick tabled a reported from the Regional Council and advised he had asked if a meeting of the four equalities delegates and the relevant regional officers would be possible, but was refused this, although the Regional Secretary, Graham Goddard, did say a meeting of the delegates with him could be arranged.
Sarah will meet with Nancy Greene on this. Sarah also asked if this committee could look at the Amicus Equality Strategy whether it is on a future agenda or a separate meeting. This was agreed.
Mick had asked about the provision of equalities training but got no firm commitment from the RC. He said that things still seem disjointed at the moment and that he had a worry that the budget might be lost at the end of the financial year. Sarah advised there should be no problem getting the money.
There then followed a general discussion on training - should it be new/young people, campaigning issues and also it should tie in with equality strategy.
Graham asked how many members were on the NW database and was advised eighty. He also said we should be promoting LGBT. Sarah advised there is a commitment to do this, but we need to find our LGBT members.
Mick pointed out that nothing appeared to have come from the monitoring form issued to all members with the magazine in spring 2006.
The discussion then moved on to the venues provided and required for training purposes. For example, our primary training venue is in Esher that is residential, but at the other end of the country.
Sarah said we should look on going forward and she mentioned that she is a trained LGBT trainer herself.
Mick suggested we should look at weekends for any training events.
Action: Sarah will try to plan for two weekends «Organising Around Equality»
Graham asked if equality strands and contact information could be listed in the magazine - Sarah will ask.
There then followed a short discussion on the membership system.
4.2. NW TUC LGBT Forum
Andrew reported back from this meeting which was held in December and was the AGM with invited speaker Maria Exell - she spoke about homophobia within a religious context. It was also mentioned about a «Faith and Homophobia Conference» due to be held in February. Mick had subsequently requested funding from the RC for Anna to attend. This had been approved. Andrew advised that, following the AGM elections, the committee remained with Peter being re-elected to the chair. Our delegates are: Peter Jewell, Peter Cookson, and Anna Booth. Andrew Wheatley is also a member but elected from the LATUC.
4.3. National amicus-lgbt Committee
There was no report as the committee has not met since our last meeting. Their next meeting is in February.
4.4. National LGBT Conference
Andrew reported back on this advising that most motions were approved, it was also decided who was going to the TUC LGBT Conference, but no minutes have been received as yet. In conclusion Andrew said the conference went very well and there were lots of opportunities and time to have discussions.
5. Communications Between Committee and Members
Mick advised the committee that Joe Waters had resigned from the committee and joined UNISON.
Mick advised that not many replies had been received from his emailed meeting reminder, but some people did not think a reply was necessary. However, the meeting agreed that people should reply out of courtesy and because refreshments are provided so it is useful to know numbers attending.
Mick advised there is still an ongoing issue that he should not have a membership list in his possession. He advised that at the last Regional Council meeting he had been told that it was up to the regional office staff to organise our meetings and notify members. But as the office still had no member's contact information, Mick again had to arrange the meeting.
Andrew asked if we could have speakers at future meetings and it was agreed to discuss this in more detail at our next meeting. He also provided the amicus-lgbt discussion group email address as follows: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/amicus-lgbt.
6. Updates On Regional Activities (Pride etc)
Mick advised that he believed that the LGF, a major sponsor last year, might not be involved in this year's Manchester Pride as he understood that they had lost money on the event last year.
Graham asked what was happening with Pride literature, merchandise etc and also said that last year was unorganised and it was the same small group of people staffing the stall again. Andrew was reminded that he had an action from the last meeting to take this back to the National Committee. It was suggested that we don't bother with an Amicus presence if we can't improve on last year's arrangements.
Andrew to take the matter to the National LGBT Committee
7. Discuss any Campaigns That We Feel We Should Be Involved In
Sarah had had to leave to attend another meeting, but she asked if we would support «IDAHO» (International Day Against Homophobia) which is on 17th May 2007. There then followed a short discussion on this, and the meeting agreed that more information was needed.
8. Discuss Our Role In The Workplace
It was agreed to defer this item to the next meeting.
9. Education and Training for Members and Officers
This item was discussed earlier in the meeting.
10. Agree Any Issues that We Wish To Refer Back To The National Committee, Regional Council Or NEC
Two resolutions, one on training and one on regional equalities committees were discussed.
It was decided that Mick would amend the first resolution to tie it in with the merger and that the second one would be deferred.
Once this has been done the first resolution (training) could be forwarded to the NEC (copy attached).
Action: Mick to forward resolution to NEC
11. Dates of Future Meetings
- 2007-05-05 - before Policy Conference, before TUC LGBT Conference
- 2007-08-18 - after Policy Conference, before Manchester Pride
- 2007-12-01
- 2008-03-15 - get ready to start it all again with Forum in April
12. Any Other Business
Andrew advised of a forthcoming fundraiser for the Morning Star Newspaper as follows: 2007 Burns Supper at Crescent Public House, Chapel Street, Salford, on Sunday 2007-01-28 at 14:00.
With no other business the meeting closed at 20:55.
Resolution from the NW amicus-lgbt committee meeting on 2007-01-20 to the Amicus NEC
Training Facilities
We note that in the recent publication of Amicus educational courses that in the equalities section there are no national courses specifically aimed at LGBT members and representatives (again), we request that in future years ALL equalities strands are catered for equally in this publication.
We also note that all specialist and residential courses seem to be centred at Esher College, south of London.
Is the NEC aware that two of their three largest regions (in terms of membership) are Scotland and the North West, which are hundreds of miles from Esher?
All four education centres mentioned in the publication are in the southern half of Great Britain.
In view of the pending merger with the T&G, and any subsequent rationalisation of educational facilities, would the NEC please give us an assurance that some consideration will be given to the setting up of an Amicus training establishment in the North that would be far more accessible to Amicus members in the Northern regions and Scotland, than is Esher College.
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