5 Lister Court
Halifax
HX1 5DR
01422 365281
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5 Lister Court |
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Way back in January, Iris turned up at a management meeting, excited because she had come up with a title for the conference, She went on to explain the reasons for this: |
Fed Conference 05 |
1 Many different types of properties.
2 Many different locations (Country side, village and town)
3 Their different needs and views
Ideas came forward how this could be achieved, and yet cover all the issues.
4 We needed a venue
5 We needed good Catering
It was decided to choose a venue first, only two were viewed, the second one we saw we jumped at, booking it there and then. We were given a good discount because we were hiring the whole building. We were told catering needs could be met if we wished. Oh what a bonus!! We had sampled food at their monthly open lunch day, which by coincidence happened to be the same day that we had arranged to view the Kings Centre. Prices and menus were discussed and agreed.
We were in agreement that the total cost had to come under last years prices. We then realised that we did not have a breakdown of last year's costs, and put into action tracing them.
Iris and I have been to different conferences and events and noticed advertising methods, and so we borrowed the odd one or two.
Back to the management team -
Should we purchase pull up advertising boards that can easily be transported to other venues where we are asked to attend. Yes they could be used again and again. A justifiable expense.
Should we ask different groups and contractors who work for our communities to advertise? Instead of us buying lots of things for us to give away.
Could we get them to do it for us?
Iris started asking favours of Pennine staff (of course asking DP first) -
Where did we have printing done last year? A phone call to Keith Stacey, he knew and would arrange for what ever we needed from the printers.
Delegates chat before the Conference |
Many hours our Iris sat in front of a computer screen, putting ideas down, who she would like to do what, checking the endless lists, sending emails receiving replies, and writing something to go into the folders. As well as all her other commitments, that she has in her position as chair. |
Then came the news that the caterer was to have major surgery and would not be well enough to do our buffet, an alternative was offered but it was nowhere near the same standard. Iris went again asking favours of Fed members and friends, and was reassured it could be done at the same budget and quality.
Should we purchase token gifts for the speakers, all of whom had given a Saturday up, for us at no cost? Four pen sets, a dream catcher, and a crystal tankard were thought to be appropriate. All gifts were gratefully received, as those present witnessed.
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Iris had expressed her worry in case she had forgotten something or worse still that no one turned up. I repeatedly told her everything would be alright and no one would take her day. What she did not know was that another member of the management team and I had been saying how much time and effort she had put in to this project, had organised it almost single handed. Yes she warranted a thank you, in phone calls and whispered conversations, all the team agreed. What a shock she got when DP gave her our Thank you bouquet. |
Tom Miskell addresses the Conference |
Well done Iris!
PS The Fed management would appreciate some feed back from anyone who attended the event
Sheila Whiteley
Conference delegates |
To cover the range of both tenants and leaseholders and owner occupiers who live in the very varied range of properties that sprawl over Calderdale's vast area in the Pennine range. In fact to include anyone or everyone who lives in or has an interest in the ex council housing properties where we live. |
We sent flyers out with tenants' rent statements and invitations out to every leaseholder. Invitations also went out to Board members.
The Venue that we found was The Kings Centre. We could have use of the whole building on 18th June 2005. We could use the car park near to the Centre for that day. Lunch to be provided and the church ladies would serve coffee for a total cost to the Federation of £50. This would be available for everyone, throughout the day. Menu for lunch was chosen.
Keith Stacey (Tenant Board member) opened the event for us. David Procter, Pennine's retiring Chief Executive did the closing bit.
We contacted partners and service providers to ask for their support, which was readily given by some and no answers came from others. Tom Miskell our soon to be Chief Executive forgot to ask Amanda to do the morning session with him, he had to agree to do it alone. Serves him right. The whole morning was given to Tom's Presentation, followed by the questions which arose from it.
His Title: DESTINATION 2010
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We felt that we need to know where we will be after the next five years have passed, which will constitute an Era with Pennine. We held a surgery advising people what to do about Anti Social Behaviour. This was available from lunchtime onward. We also had a surgery dealing with other tenants' individual housing issues. |
Tom Miskell |
REGENERATION
What's it all about? I asked this question at a full federation meeting and no one seemed to know even those that are working within the regeneration areas. So we thought we would try to put that right. Martin Reed is our man at PH2K who knows lots of stuff about that and he agreed to facilitate a panel of guest speakers for the afternoon session. A question and answer session with more than one point of view was arranged and he also found for us four speakers, one from each area of Calderdale who work in regeneration: Adrian Rose, Mark Thompson, Liz Broadley & Liz Ingleton.
We had a shuttle service from the bus station called the Federation Flyer. This was booked with Twin Valley coaches and needed between 9 and 10am and again between 3.30 and 4.30pm.
Iris with Tom's surprise present |
As DP was leaving us we felt that a leaving gift would be appropriate, and we took this in hand. None of our outside speakers asked for a fee. We presented 4 pen sets to our afternoon guests to thank them for giving up their time. We gave prizes this year; £25 each for two delegates. |
Fairer than giving one prize of £50 like the previous year. In the event people were very generous and we had lots of other prizes to distribute. Out with the old and in with the new.
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We felt we couldn't leave Tom out so we surprised him with an aptly chosen gift. The gift that we found was a Dream Catcher in the Shape of an Indian Chief's head. Well after all, we're relying on him to make our dreams of beautiful homes and surroundings come true. |
The Dream Weaver |
That's about it; the day went really well and we feel that we managed to achieve all that we set out to do. The feedback has been great not many warts in it at all, so now we will have to try very hard to surpass ourselves when we organise the 2006 conference. We hope to be using the same venue but we want to hold it much later in the year and not on a glorious June day. As I write this we are thinking of choosing a date in October but nothing is decided yet. We have to concentrate now on giving a good show at the Food and Dance Festival in the park at Boothtown on the 6th August where we are planning to have a stall to advertise the work that the Fed is doing.
Iris
Federation Conference |
In June 2005 I attended the second conference organised by the Tenants Federation and supported by Pennine Housing 2000. The event took place in a new venue, Park Church, which in my view was a well designed and comfortable conference centre and I hope we can use it again. |
Management and Board members from Pennine Housing gave their free time to be there and this was much appreciated, and all who attended were given lots of information, interesting talks, free tea and coffee all day and a wonderful lunch was prepared by tenant volunteers.
The elderly and disabled were catered for, with tables and chairs laid out on the ground floor for those who could not climb the stairs to the dining room at lunch time.
After the guest speakers session, thank you gifts were given from the Federation and presented by Iris (I won't mention the knickers, oops I just did!) followed by a gift to Tom Miskell, for his morning's hard work, then a retirement presentation to "Our Dave", and lastly Iris received thank you flowers from the Federation Management for all her hard work in arranging the day.
I can only advise tenants who missed the event, book early next year!
Jane Toye
Ladstone Towers
Sowerby Bridge
(written next day)
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That was the date that became imprinted in my mind from early in January 2005. We had chosen to hold the second annual Federation Conference on that date. I had been involved in the 2004 conference because Ken Smith chose a team to lead on that one and we were assisted by Viviana (our now moved on TPW) and now Ken had stepped down from the Fed. That was two of the previous team of five down from the start. |
Ken Smith chats to a fellow-delegate |
Keith Stacey (Tenant Board member) and I put our heads together and decided that we had better see if all the loose ends had been tied from our last year's event and Keith said he would just stay and help until that was sorted.
Keith Stacey |
Well, you know Keith as well as I do, once in he got involved (as he does); he stayed with us till the very end. Even getting roped in to open the event, when we found out that the Chief Exec, who we were going to ask, was holding a retirement bash on the night before our conference and was likely to be a bit shaky at our opening time. So! Keith agreed to limit his liquid intake, so he could be bright eyed and bushy tailed at 10.15 on the morning of the 18th and we shoved Dave in the end spot, in the hope that he would be back to normal by then. Which he was (WELL ALMOST) |
First job; choose the venue a bit more carefully this time. We were very lucky, five of us set of to look at suitable places and found the perfect place to hold the conference on our first trip out. At The Kings Centre. We got lovely people to deal with, a lovely building, really good disabled access and facilities and we got a wonderful deal for the whole building plus an offer of in-house catering on that first visit. The prices were great; in fact we could hardly believe it when the estimate came.
So! We are ready for the off, and at the very first management meeting after we had chosen the venue, the whole team made it plain that they all wanted to be involved in this one, and that there would be trouble if they were not. Well! Thank God for that, and thank them for all the hard work they did and all the support they gave me as we prepared for it. With everyone willing to give a hand we decided we would be able to go it alone and need not ask for help from TIWs unless we got in a mess. That way it would be really our Conference, and at the end of the day (WE DIDN'T & IT WAS) and we are all really proud of that. I'm not saying that the TIWs did not help; they did the IT stuff for the badges, and shrunk my programmes to fit the plastic packets that I wanted to have hanging round our necks on our newly acquired Federation lanyards. Emma (Val's daughter) found those for me before she departed to organise the Gerry Springer Show (I wonder if he's more trouble than Naz was). They also helped us with the bookings and were all there on the big day (even if they did have hangovers). Thank you ladies.
Living in the Pennine Range |
Right! First decision. A title for the conference and we came up with Living in the Pennine Range. It seemed to cover everything, but we were aiming for people who don't usually go much for conferences, so it was decided to make it less formal with a sub title of 'Meet the Fed'. |
Second decision, how do we let people know about the event? We chose to use the same method as last year. Send flyers out with the rent statements. I have to say that if I'm an organiser next year we won't be using the same method. It's a bit messy and we loose control and have to hang on till the statements go out. I think some people were just keen to see their rent statements and just threw our flyers away thinking that they were the usual junk mail that comes with everything.
Next thing, subjects to cover, Rent - Rent Restructuring and Service charges are a worrying topic so we thought we would find a man who could help us to understand a bit more about that and be able to answer our questions. Tom Miskell? (Soon to be PH2K Chief Exec.). He's our man. That one was easy. He can take care of the morning, and he did very well indeed. Better than we expected (after about three hours sleep). Well it wasn't our fault. We didn't know they were going to throw a party on the 17th. Did we? We chose our date first.
We thought it was time to bring in new people who did not work in PH2K to tell us what is happening outside our windows, for our afternoon session. I asked at a Full Fed meeting how much people knew about Regeneration in Calderdale and it seemed that a lot of them did not know much. SO! Now we have our title for the afternoon.
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REGENERATION - what's that all about? I asked DP who would be the best person to get to speak about this and he told me to ask Martin Reed PH2K's Work Force Development Manager, who he thought would be best. Martin (OUR STAR) from the moment I collared him on the stairs at Bull Green House he threw himself wholeheartedly into our project, even to doing stacks of photocopying and delivering it by hand. A bad move on his part because as soon as he showed his face in the office, Mary and Sheila gave him a screwdriver and persuaded him to fix our new mirror to the office wall. He did it too, and assured them that he was fully qualified for the job. |
Martin Reed of PH2K |
He helped us to get a panel of top people who work locally in regeneration and he offered to facilitate the session. Everyone that he asked came and gave up a precious Saturday afternoon in June to us, and none of them asked for a Fee, which was a definite plus. (I feel that also, was down to Martin's charms) so as I said before he was A STAR. Eh: he even persuaded my offspring to come and give a hand (on a morning after the night before?) A STAR!!
Well that's about it: THE PLANNING OF A CONFERENCE; we came across some snags along the way. The first bus we ordered let us down. The caterer fell ill. We lost the Fed Secretary who found herself a proper job with pay (good for her) but that was another of last year's experienced helpers lost. But, we got there in the end and from what I've heard from people so far it was a Good Do.
PS You're sure to hear more from me when we have gathered in the feedback.
Next jobs:
Take it easy for a bit.
Get some more training.
Make plans for an even better one for 2006.
Iris
Fed. Chair.
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