Tuesday 14th August at 2pm,
Monet Room, Suffolk House, St Clements Hospital, Ipswich

Present: Annette Petty, Steve Cook, Philip Bloyce, Ray Hill and Ian Talbot - notes

Annette opened the meeting by stating there had not been a meeting since March which had been due to other commitments and pressure of work by all in attendance.

Discussion took place around membership data and new joiners which included the processing procedure from branch and region. In addition, to help reduce any future delay with membership numbers being issued to new members by region on an ID card, it was agreed all new joiners will now have their membership number added to the branch welcome letter as standard as well as an increase of requested information such as Email and mobile phone numbers.

The next full branch committee meeting is to take place on Monday 17th September. It is expected that union associated representatives from Frizzell Insurance and the Britannia Building Society will be attending following a recruitment and free marketing session in the restaurant at St Clements Hospital. Ray Hill has pledged his support to the two associated companies on the day.

Full recruitment packs for local NHS induction days by SMHPT and Suffolk PCT have been sent out.

Due to significant changes within the core operating branch structure later in the year, it was agreed further discussion and action plans need to be put into place to ensure continuity and support is maintained.

Membership recruitment needs a long and sustained boost it was claimed. The branch has maintained and even increased membership overall, but with more NHS jobs being put at risk and probable redundancies looming, a long term solution must be found. The only method in real terms which is known to work well is to go back out into the field and speak to staff not only in the hospitals, but GP surgeries and the private sectors. In addition, the branch office will also be looking for additional representatives within key constituent areas. 

It is recognised that branch officers are continually picking up cases from area's which should either have more steward input and support or from area's we don't have any local representation at all causing individual overload and undue stress. As already mentioned, recruitment and retention of key stewards in constituent areas is of high importance. Other matters of concern is with high level meetings with employers such as SMHP or Suffolk PCT where branch officers are not getting adequate time to deal with complex issues. There are also raised concerns over SMHP methods of consultation on policy making and the frequency of last minute cancellations of meetings.  

Representative training record templates have been created in draft form and finalisation is now required before being submitted to the branch office.
Action - Annette & Ian

It was agreed to vary the venues of branch meetings starting next year.
Action - Philip & Annette

Date/Time of Next Meeting
Monday 17th September 2007 @ 14:00, Monet Room, St Clements Hospital. Ipswich
Refreshments will be available

Download the notes:
Acrobat PDF version