Northern Ireland Community Relations Council - About Us - Council Minutes

16 September 2005

MINUTES OF THE EUROPEAN COMMITTEE MEETING OF THE COMMUNITY RELATIONS COUNCIL ON 16^TH September 2005 AT CRC OFFICES, 6 MURRAY STREET, BELFAST

(CONFIRMED)

01 PRESENT:

Dr David Stevens (Chair), Dr Cathy Gormley-Heenan, Maria Bannon, Paul Smyth, Maggie Bryson

02 APOLOGIES:

Colin Neilands, Eamonn Deane, Colin Craig, Pauline Morgan and Sean Pettis (Staff Member)

03 IN ATTENDANCE:

Jim Dennison, Jacqueline Irwin, Claudine Walls, Patricia Armstrong Libby Smit, Vanessa McCrory, Eileen Deacon, Duncan Morrow

04 GENERAL BUSINESS

Members were welcomed and apologies noted.

Minutes of previous meeting were checked for accuracy and agreed by Members.

05 MATTERS ARISING

None

06 REALLOCATIONS

Habitat for Humanity – 02/0087/006787

No conflicts of interest were declared.
Members discussed this reallocation request and reviewed all materials that had been submitted in relation to it. Members agreed to the request to reallocate the remaining grant aid of £11,319.89 from across all budget headings, to the Salary budget heading to cover salary costs. Committee acknowledged that the group gave a commitment/guarantee that all other project-related costs would be met from alternative sources. Committee were advised that some funding may be sought from a Slippage Application.

Ballynafeigh Community Development Association (BCDA) – 01/0402/001350

No conflicts of interest were declared.
Members discussed this reallocation request and reviewed all materials that had been submitted in relation to it. Members agreed to the reallocation request to use budget underspends of c£6,413 from a number of budget headings (Travel, recruitment, heat/light, administration and programme costs) to extend the life of the project by 3 months and to cover the salary related project costs for October, November and December 05. Members were informed that the group had secured match funding from the Arts Council (£30k) for 2 of the activities detailed in the project work-plan.

Worker Educational Association (WEA) 02/0167/007161

No conflicts of interest were declared.
Members discussed this reallocation request and reviewed all materials that had been submitted in relation to it. Members were informed that the group was requesting the reallocation of under spends from the following budgets: Rent, Heat & Light, Administration, Venue Hire, Materials, Catering, Accreditation, Care Costs and staff support. Members were informed that the project has experienced difficulties in terms of participant uptake and for this reason agreed that before any request to extend the project beyond its current end date could be approved, the group must provide an update on project progress at the end of September 05 and again at the end of December 05. Members advised that the group was to be informed that if satisfactory progress was made then Committee will look again at the request to extend the life of the project using project underspends. Members agreed that if there was no evidence to demonstrate that satisfactory progress had been made then the project would finish in line with the original end date.

UU-Patricia Lundy – NILT – Attitudes to Towards Truth Commissions

No conflicts of interest were declared.
Members discussed this reallocation request and reviewed all materials which had been submitted in relation to it. Members were advised that the project was seeking the reallocation of £2,300 based on an underspend in the Subsistance/B&B budget heading (for trips by Dr Mark McGovern from England to NI for research consultations) to undertake a visit to the International Centre for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) in New York and Greensboro Community Truth and Reconciliation Commission (GCTRC) in Greensboro, North Carolina. Members were informed that the aim of the trip would be to disseminate and publicise the findings of NILT survey on 'Attitudes to Truth Commissions', and to discuss and refine the findings of the research with organisations and individuals engaged in similar issues. Committee requested that the researchers (Dr Mark McGovern and Dr Patricia Lundy) explore every opportunity to publicise the trip through local and international media; that they produce a clear trip itinerary before accepting the invitation, and that they produce a report on the outcomes of the trip for the Research Officer.

07 SLIIPPAGE APPLICATIONS

Habitat for Humanity - 02/0087/006786

No conflicts of interest were declared.
Members discussed this slippage application and reviewed all materials that had been submitted in relation to it. Members agreed that on the basis of the information provided, slippage funding of £10,729.55 could be made available. Members were advised that this funding would be used to cover a shortfall in the salary budget heading to cover these costs until the original end date and to extend the project by 3 months until December 05 covering the salary cost associated with this extension.

Diocese of Down and Dromore - 01/0396/001163

No conflicts of interest were declared.
Members discussed this slippage application and reviewed all materials that had been submitted in relation to it. Members agreed that on the basis of the information provided to grant £8,000 of slippage monies to the project. Members were advised that the group had requested slippage funding of c£26,703. Given that they have been awarded c£8,213 and taking into consideration the £250k Economic Appraisal threshold a maximum of £8,000 could be awarded. Members requested that staff liaise with the group to determine if the group could take the project forward with this amount of funding.

Downtown Women's Group – 01/0329/001337

No conflicts of interest were declared.
Members discussed this slippage application and reviewed all materials that had been submitted in relation to it. Members were advised that the slippage application request was to cover the costs of a proposed Conference (and associated costs). Members agreed to award £4,751.50 to the group but noted that the costs for the recording equipment of £500 were not eligible.

Youth Action N.I. - 02/0055/002210

No conflicts of interest were declared.
Members discussed this slippage application and reviewed all materials that had been submitted in relation to it. Members agreed in principle on the basis of the information provided to the groups slippage application request of £10,259.00 to salary and programme cost to extend their project for a further two months, to deliver a 10 week developmental programme using the Young Men and Violence model of practice to explore masculinity and young men's place in the community with your young men from different achievements. Regarding £1,500 to pay towards a celebration evening for the young people committee agreed to this in principle, but requested that staff observe spend.

08 PEACEE II EXTENSION PAPER

Committee Members were presented with a Paper on the PEACE II Extension which outlined the revising of the assessment process to ensure that grant aid supports high impact, practical contributions to peace-building and reconciliation work. Committee Members received two Papers: Paper 1 – The assessment process and Paper 2 - The Thematic National Allocations of Grant Aid. Discussion was had by Committee Members regarding Paper 1. Committee discussed the idea of writing a letter to all groups that have applied to PEACE II Extension outlining the facts that the measure was highly over subscribed, and that they have to score 13 in the Reconciliation criteria, and to give them the option of opting out if they wish to do so. Committee discussed the Marking and the need to a create distinction between 63 -67 and to use a scale for example 10 for a good project and 2 for a bad project, to look at score and be happy with them. That there has to be robust scoring system, that the system is reasonable. The staff be fair but brutally fair. Having a panel meeting for staff to discuss applications. Committee Members discussed the notional allocations against Themes and will make these decisions at the meetings in December .On the receiving of applications it was agreed that CRC staff should electronically transmit the application form via CD ROMs and then send the narrative and scoring matrix on hard copy to Committee Members.

09 ANY OTHER BUSINESS

Dates for the next meetings were agreed: 7^th and 8^th November 2005 in CRC Belfast Office from 10am to 4pm and 7^th and 8^th December from 10am to 4pm in CRC Belfast Office.
Staff and members were thanked for their contributions. Meeting finished at 2.20pm.

SIGNED:_____________________________________ DATE:________________________

(Chairperson)