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13 October 2004

COMMUNITY INITIATIVES COMMITTEE MEETING

13 October 2004

Present: Mr Michael Wardlow (Chair), Dr David Stevens, Mr Barney Devine, Ms Libby Keys

Apologies:  Ms Jane Leonard, Ms Maura Muldoon, Ms Roisin McGuire

In Attendance:  Mr Paul Jordan, Ms Alison Montgomery, Ms Frances McClelland, Ms Jacqueline Irwin, Dr Duncan Morrow, Ms Marianne Laird (Minute Taker)

Observer:  Ms Karen Jardine, OFMDFM

1.0 Minutes of Previous Meetings:

20 May 2004 – Minutes Agreed

6 August 2004 (Extraordinary Meeting) – Minutes Agreed

2.0 Matters Arising:

Counteract – Ms Montgomery, Mr Jordan and Dr Morrow are meeting this week to discuss Counteract's progress and will report on this meeting at December's meeting.

Nerve Centre – Mr Jordan will be meeting with John Peto from Nerve Centre on 22nd October and will update committee at a later stage.

3.0 Programme Report:

(Paper CIC/30/09/04/001)

3.1 CR/CD Grant Scheme – Mr Jordan reported that F&D team have been processing a number of interface projects grants over the summer months.

Frances McClelland and Roisin McGuire have carried out a number of verification visits to follow up on grants awarded last year.

The Dungannon office has held a series of events over the summer months and this has generated revenue of £3,000. Frances and Roisin agreed to organise 5 information events and have carried out 4 and another 2 are in the pipeline. Mr Jordan will be meeting John Fitzsimons and Jacqueline Irwin to discuss sustainability of the Dungannon Office.

Paul reported that a large number of small grants have come in over the summer months and as a result, Carol Taylor will be acting as project officer on Mondays and Tuesdays until December.

Spend is going well with £290,000 spent so far this year.

Community Relations week will be 7 – 11 March 2005.

3.2 Core funding – Ms Montgomery reported that the decisions from the review panel have been actioned.

Future Ways have secured the tender to carry out the external evaluation of 10 Core Funded groups.

12 bids for Slippage have been received which total £63,496 and this exceeds the amount available. It was agreed by committee that the system used last year to award slippage, similar to that of the small grant process, will be used again this year. Discussion arose regarding the allocation of slippage and it was agreed that criteria will be drawn up for the committee to view at the next meeting. It was suggested that CRC make groups aware of the amount of money available so they have time to seek funding from other sources.

MsMontgomery informed committee that Ian Thompson has carried out all verification visits on all core funded groups over the summer months and Mr Wardlow asked that Ian be thanked formally on behalf of the committee.

Ms Keys enquired about possible themes arising from Alison's visits to groups over the summer. Ms Montgomery reported that some themes were practical approaches to working with other groups, sustainability, racism and the kind of sectarianism there is now.

4.0 Research Award Decisions:

(Paper CIC/30/09/04/002)

Mr Jordan reported that a staff team met and assessed applications for the Research Award and made the recommendations set out in the paper.

Mr Devine asked if the Training for Women Network's application and the Institute for Conflict Research's application can be looked at again. Discussion arose regarding procedure and criteria. It was agreed that the original panel would meet again and review their recommendations for The Training for Women Network and Institute for Conflict Research and circulate the outcome via e-mail to the committee.

The committee approved the rest of the recommendations to fund 4 applications and reject 5.

The committee agreed to discuss the process of assessing applications for the Research Award programme at a later date.

5.0 Reflection on Decision Making processes, prioritisation of applications and proposed recommendation framework:

(Paper CIC/30/09/04/003)

An extraordinary meeting will be arranged to discuss this paper.

6.0 External Review of Core Funding Programme:

(Paper CIC/30/09/04/004)

7.0 AOB:

7.1 Virement of money – This suggestion will be circulated via e-mail.

7.2 Dates for future meetings – Possible dates will be circulated via e-mail to members and a date for discussing appeals will be included.

Date of next meeting:

15 December 2004