ABAS: April 2018

Friday, 13 April 2018

CVS TRAINING EVENTS

Bolton CVS are running the following events:-

All courses run at The Hub, Bold Street, Bolton. BL1 1LS.

Bolton CVS will be taking it’s training programme out into communities across Bolton. Courses including how to set up a new group and roles and responsibilities of a management committee are some of the topics we will be offering local communities.
In addition to our courses offered at The Hub, we would like to come to your community and deliver the training on your doorstep.
Keep an eye our training page for further details, if you think there is a need for training in your own community then please e-mail us on training@boltoncvs.org.uk

Community Fundraising - Hints and Tips
17th April 1:00pm - 2:30pm
Community fundraising usually involves activities in your local neighbourhood to raise money for your good cause and have the added benefit of bringing people together, making local connections and having some fun at the same time.
Free course.
For more information: https://www.boltoncvs.org.uk/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=452

Co-design, Tools and Methods
19th April 10:00am - 12:30pm
Do you need some co-design tools, methods and experiences to make co-design work for you? This in-depth session will equip you with confidence and activities to embed co-design processes within your work.
Free course.
For more information: https://www.boltoncvs.org.uk/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=421

Good Practice Seminar 2 Volunteer Recruitment
25th April 11:00am - 12:30am
This informal seminar will enable you to demonstrate an understanding of how to recruit volunteers and the different methods available, understand the importance of using consistent processes and ensuring these are different from that used for paid staff.
Free course.
For more information: https://www.boltoncvs.org.uk/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=445

Safeguarding Adults at Risk - Train the Trainer
25th April 12:30am - 4:30pm
This Train the Trainer course is suitable for staff and volunteers including management committee members and trustees. Please note * Places are limited to 2 per organisation.
Full Members FREE
Non-Members and Associate Members £30
For more information: https://www.boltoncvs.org.uk/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=459

Writing a Strong Bid: Health and Wellbeing Community Investments
9th May 10:00am - 12:30pm
The session is also suitable for anyone working on funding applications for a wide range of other Charitable Trusts dealing with Health and Wellbeing.
Free course.
For more information: https://www.boltoncvs.org.uk/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=438

NB THIS IS NOT THE ABAS / BMBC TRAINING EVENT ON AWARDS FOR ALL

Story Telling for Social Value
11th May 10:00am - 4:00pm
Due to the popularity of our last Storytelling training and the great feedback from the attendees we are delighted to welcome back Geli Berg to deliver this one-day Storytelling for Social Value course. This interactive workshop will help you write case studies with personality, compelling funding applications and insightful evaluations.
Full Members FREE
Non-Members and Associate Members £30
For more information: https://www.boltoncvs.org.uk/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=460

Making the Most Difference - An Introduction to Social Value
22nd May 12:45pm - 4:15pm
This half-day workshop is designed to help you develop a practical understanding of what social value means for your organisation and help you to make a start or continue on your journey in delivering social value.
Free course.
For more information: https://www.boltoncvs.org.uk/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=464

Good Practice Seminar 3 Volunteer Policies & Processes
23rd May 11:00am - 12:30pm
To help volunteer involving organisations to consider the appropriate policies and procedures to use in their volunteer programme.
Free course.
For more information: https://www.boltoncvs.org.uk/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=446

Good Practice Seminar 4 Supporting Volunteers
27th June 11:00am - 12:30pm
This informal seminar will enable you to demonstrate an understanding of supporting volunteers, why it's important to support volunteers, what issues could arise and how to respond.
Free course.
For more information: https://www.boltoncvs.org.uk/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=447

Good Practice Seminar 5 Recognising and Developing Volunteers
25th July 11:00am - 12:30pm
To discuss good practice in relation to providing recognition and development opportunities for your volunteers.
Free course.
For more information: https://www.boltoncvs.org.uk/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=448

Good Practice Seminar 6 Including a Diverse Range of Volunteers
5th September 11:00am - 12:30pm
This seminar will give you the opportunity to share good practice regarding including a diverse range of volunteers in your organisation.
Free course.
For more information: https://www.boltoncvs.org.uk/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=449

Emergency First Aid in the Work Place
10th September 9.30am - 4.30pm
This one-day course is a fun-packed training day where practical participation is essential – so come prepared to get down on the floor and act out injuries! This exciting course has been developed to help learners retain information better by relating it to individuals work space and everyday life. On successful completion of the Emergency First Aid course each delegate will receive a certificate which is registered with the awarding body.
Members £55
Non-Members £65
For more information: https://www.boltoncvs.org.uk/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=461

Good Practice Seminar 7 Assessing and Developing Your Volunteer Programme
3rd October 11:00am - 12:30pm
An opportunity for you to learn and share good practice around how to assess and develop your volunteer programme.
Free course.
For more information: https://www.boltoncvs.org.uk/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=450

For more information on upcoming Training Courses and to book onto a course please visit: http://www.boltoncvs.org.uk/training

If your group is a full member of Bolton CVS with an income below £25,000 you may be eligible for one of our Big Bolton Fund Training Grants which cover up to 80% of the cost of our non-accredited courses. To apply for one of our training grants please visit: http://www.boltoncvs.org.uk/big-bolton-fund-training-grants

ADDITIONAL NOTE ON INSURANCE - SEE MINUTES BELOW

COMMENTS ON NAS INSURANCE PROPOSALS

The following comments refer to the NAS (National Allotment Society) proposal to offer a personal liability insurance to members as part of the membership fee. As we understand it this would cover a member / plot-holder in the event that someone goes onto their plot (whether invited or not) and sustains harm or injury – the classic case referred to by the Regional Mentor of a child running onto your plot and falling though a cold frame and cutting himself / herself followed by the plot-holder being sued.

The interim comments (as presented to the meeting on 09/04/2018) are as follows:

Martyn Swain, acting on behalf of abas, contacted NAS with regards to the plot-holders’ Liability Insurance. His initial contact was unable to provide the information he asked for but promised to call back. He did receive a further call.

In essence, the insurance is OPTIONAL. If insured with a third party (not Shield) the member is still covered if opted in

Martyn asked for full policy T&C wording. This is yet to be received and this would shed light on who the underwriter is on this particular amendment.

His view is it makes absolutely no sense for an “added benefit” to be excluded from an independently sourced policy (insured by Shield, yet not through NAS). He suspects that upon renewal, this inclusion will be listed on all policies.

He wonders if NAS are using it as a means to state “better off with us using Shield” as opposed to a competitor, thus reinforcing the position of Shield as the NAS preferred choice of insurer for ALL allotment societies.

Until the full Policy Wording is received, Martyn is unable to make a judgement as to any potential benefits compared with the “old” policy.

However, based on Insurance Standard Practice, he feels that the only legitimate benefit of “opting in” to this “optional extra” that he can currently identify is the cover whilst attending events etc. He is sceptical as to the chances of getting a claim though on that one (an immense number of obstructions and counter-claim options can be used by the insurer). He reminds members that basically the insurer is not your friend. They are a business … if they can get out of paying they will!

Member to Member Aspects

When signing up to the optional cover, a full list of “plot-holder’s” details are required to insure each individual. “If the name ain’t on the list you ain’t covered”. (Abas questions here – Do they mean only those plot-holders who are members of the Society taking out the insurance? How will lists be updated during the year as members leave and new members come onto the site?)
This includes details of names, addresses, contact numbers etc.

Main concern of Abas (as expressed at the March 2018 meeting) is the new DATA Protection Guidelines (as understood by Bolton MBC). Bolton MBC have stated that any contact details that they supply to the Society’s officers (e.g. through the updated waiting list information) are “Strictly Confidential” and are not to be shared with any other parties. The Council is considering requiring OMA societies to nominate an officer to receive the data who will accept responsibility for ensuring that it will be used for no other purpose.

NAS stated that no details (given to them as part of “opting in”) will be passed to any 3^rd party outside of the triangle which consists of Society / NAS / insurer (this has yet to be confirmed in writing).

The NAS view is that a society is made up of individuals who CHOOSE to pay a subscription to join. This makes any PAID-UP members of a Society (which is independent of the Council) effectively a member of a Private Club.

If members of a Private Club have supplied their contact details to the Club’s Officers for purposes of contact then the data liability moves from the Council to the Society as the details have been supplied willingly. We are advised that there are no issues with DATA protection – so long as;

1) When a member pays their annual subscription they sign a form which states that they are willing for the society to hold their contact details and stating the purposes for which that data may be used
2) Whenever the Society communicates by email or letter to a member they state at the bottom of that letter that the member is receiving the communication because they signed the above form and giving them the option of unsubscribing from the circulation list of such communications.

Points 1 and 2 above concur with the advice given by Abas in the March 2018 minutes. Given that the data referred to has been willingly given and obtained separately from any data supplied through the Council’s systems we believe the NAS’ view to be correct. Note that the Society is responsible for data security.

Concern arose because of a laxity of wording by the NAS – in their public utterances they have simply used the term “plot-holder” rather than “member” or “plot-holding member”. Some secretaries interpreted this as meaning that the names and contact details of all plot-holders, (or tenants as BMBC would call them) whether or not members of the society, need to be supplied. We understand that this was not what was meant but would prefer to see a clearer wording used.

Since this form of plot-holder insurance is often the basic block of the insurance packages from insurance firms which Bolton Societies use, Abas would wish to enquire whether such packages allow the possibility of buying e.g. Society Public Liability, Product Liability, Trustees Liability etc. without also paying for this plot-holder level as part of the premium. We would advise Society Treasurers to carefully check what cover they need and look into how premiums are calculated.

This provisional / interim report has been prepared with the assistance of Martyn Swain of Rawlyn Road Allotment Society. We would like to thank him for his time and expertise.

He has agreed to assist in compiling a full report on the matters surrounding the proposal once the Policy Wording has been received from NAS / Shield. That final report will form Abas’ firm advice on the matter. Until then the advice is to hold off opting in – you never had it, so you won’t miss it.

Thursday, 12 April 2018

MINUTES OF APRIL MEETING

Minutes of the ABAS meeting held at Astley Bridge Cricket Club

On 9^th April 2018

Present:

Apologies: Jeff Gibson, Carol Deplitch

Minutes of the March Meeting

The Minutes having been posted on the Association Blog-site and there being no corrections anyone wished to make or points anyone wished to raise, it was moved that the minutes be adopted as correct.

Matters Arising

No society had as yet received an amended OMA from Malcolm Russell.

The majority of Secretaries present had sent in March monthly reports with the additional updates asked for.

ABAS Membership

A number of societies have still not yet paid their annual subscriptions to the Association.

Current membership still stands at 399 plot-holders.

Allotment Competitions

The Fairhurst, Greenhalgh, New Tenant and Rosebowl Competitions will again be run by ABAS in 2018

Judging Criteria are available
First Round Judging will take place in in week commencing 25th June
Second Round Judging will take place in in week commencing 23rd July
Additional information has been placed on the blog-site

Terry passed out the entry forms for the Competitions to those present – the forms will be posted onto the blog-spot.

ABAS ONION, LEEK AND VEGETABLE SHOW

The Annual Vegetable Show will be held on Saturday 4th August at Trinity Church, Tonge Fold

There will be 25 Vegetable Classes and lists and schedules will be available

NWCAA

The NWCAA AGM was held on 8th April at Greenhall Sports and Social Club, Alder Hey Rd., St Helens, WA10 4DN– unfortunately we could not provide a Bolton representative

Please note the new NWCAA email address:

nwcallotmentassociations@gmail.com

The NWCAA website is www.northwestallotments.btck.co.uk

We trust that minutes of the AGM will be posted on that website in the near future.

Secretaries were urged to visit the NWCAA website to sign up for NWCAA Newsletters

NAS INSURANCE SCHEME

A short analysis of the pros and cons of the proposed NAS members’ insurance scheme was presented by Martyn Swain (Rawlyn Road)

He has prepared a longer analysis which he has presented to the Committee.
We will place a precis of that analysis onto the blog-site as soon as possible.
We would like to thank Martyn Swain for his work and his report.

GM SPATIAL PLAN

Spring 2018
News and updates about the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework.

This summer, Greater Manchester will be asking for the public’s feedback on a rewrite of last year’s spatial framework. The plan will set out a strategic plan for sustainable development between now and 2035, exploring potential sites for new homes, employment opportunities and transport links to get our city moving and growing.

In March they published data revealing the land identified for future housing and employment developments. Between now and 2035, Greater Manchester’s councils estimate that there is potentially enough land across Greater Manchester for around 175,000 homes.

GM is trying to increase the land available for development within existing towns and neighbourhoods, while minimising the impact on our green spaces.

Supporting this approach is the Mayor’s Town Centre Challenge – an ambitious new initiative designed to both regenerate urban centres across Greater Manchester and help meet the demand for housing.

The Combined Authority's ‘One Public Estate’ programme is also exploring whether various public sector organisation estates – facilities, space and buildings – could be better shared, perhaps co-locating or sharing some public services across Greater Manchester in order to free up more land for homes.

For further information visit

GMSFconsultation@greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk

Where you can view their data maps of the land supply identified for homes and jobs

A meeting of Greater Manchester Allotment Federations has been organised (by the Salford Federation) for April 24^th. Jeff and Terry will represent Bolton at that meeting.

WHAT’S ON IN 2018?

We continue to maintain the section of the blog site that highlights events being organised at or by allotment groups within Bolton (and possibly further afield).

Additional Events are:

Tonge Fold, Plant Sale, Saturday 12th May 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Harpers Lane, Annual Open Day and Show, 12th August

POINT OF INFORMATION

Financial Data (relevant to the later discussion about grants).

Since 2010 Bolton Council have withdrawn all / severely reduced any subsidies to Allotments and we now operate on a Balanced Budget of some £30k annually.

BMC Accounts for Fiscal Year 2016/17 indicated the following:

Income
Rent £32k [Balanced Budget]

Expenditure

Total Expenditure £ 32k of which:

Day to day Maintenance/Repairs £9k

Water Charges Metered                               £8k
Water Charges Un Metered                         £0.5k
Contract Services [Chemical Toilets]         £9.5k

(BMC are to provide the Allotments Budget for 2018/19, Abas to review.)

As will be noted there is potential for cost savings by reducing water charges and the replacement of Chemical toilets by composting toilets. Any such cost savings should result in more funds for maintenance and repairs, and/or improving clerical / admin. support.

It should be noted that the Budget does not include an item for staff / admin time at Bolton MBC. The Council regard the costs of this time as the subsidy to the allotments provision.

GRANTS ETC.

There has been a meeting between abas and Lesley Turner, a Grants Officer at the Council.

Ms Turner’s team offer a free service as long as they can show that the bids they write support Department of People priorities around, Starting Well, Living Well and Ageing Well. Ms Turner feels that Allotments fit this perfectly. However, as the team has only 2 members it would be unreasonable for them to offer to write bids for all our societies. She would therefore like to proceed as follows:

Training Session

To begin with Awards for All grants which are up to the value of £10k. Ms Turner would offer a free 2 hr Awards for All workshop at a date and time of our choice to which we can invite members to attend. It is likely that this workshop would be held one evening at the Hub in Bolton Town Centre. Ideally they need people who are willing to “have a go” at writing their own Awards for All for their own society. The team can offer free ongoing support after this initial training in terms of proof reading and advice. Potentially if all 18 societies applied this could generate up to £180k into the local allotment economy per year.

It was agreed to ask Ms Turner of this training session could take place on the evening of May 14^th. The session wold thus replace abas’ May meeting.

Composting Toilets

Secondly, the Grants team can consider a joint bid on behalf of a number of societies for the installation of composting toilets across a number of the borough’s allotment sites. Given sufficient support Abas can then seek to obtain a ball park costing for the project so that Ms Turner’s team can look at potential funders to get a collaborative bid completed through ABAS.

Tonge Moor allotments who already have a composting toilet agreed to share their experience and knowledge with other sites.

The Secretary will also try to aggregate data about composting toilets.

In the meantime Secretaries were asked to canvass their societies to see how many would wish to participate in this joint bid.

Grant Co-ordinator

As members will recall there was a suggestion that abas pursue grant funding to employ our own Grants Co-ordinator. This requires more serious consideration if we are to go down the route of employing a person and all that entails.

MEETINGS SCHEDULE

The following meetings are planned

Monday 14th May

(may be replaced by the Training Session at the Hub and is likely to be moved in any case)
Monday 11th June
Monday 9th July
Monday 13th August
Monday 10th September
Monday 8th October
Monday 12th November (THE AGM)

ABAS

Friday, 13 April 2018

RECENT POSTS

CVS TRAINING EVENTS

ADDITIONAL NOTE ON INSURANCE - SEE MINUTES BELOW

Thursday, 12 April 2018

MINUTES OF APRIL MEETING

Wednesday, 11 April 2018

COMPETITION FORMS