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Trustees Meeting Report 2017

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Category: General Information

Published on Tuesday, 21 November 2017 20:34

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Report on Trustees Weekend meeting 28/29 Oct 2017

The trustees and regional coordinators got together on the weekend of the 28^th October in the Head Office site in Paisley. This meeting was to allow the board to discuss the strategy and business of the charity for the coming year. It’s also an important opportunity to meet with the regional coordinators and discuss how the charity can best help support groups and grow the charity.

These meetings as well as allowing the business of the charity to be discussed, allow the board and RC’s to meet socially and for new members of the charity to put names to faces and get to know one another. By appreciating the skills of each other we know who to call when the need arises later on.

Top to Bottom from Left to Right. Trustee(T), Regional Coordinator(R), Office(O), and Volunteer(V)
Pam Cantrell (R), Joyce Fox(R), Hazel Borland(O), Yvonne Singleton(R), Julie Powell(R), Ella Vine(O), Mo O’Donnell(O), Glen McGregor(T), and Simon Stones(T)
Janet Horton(T), Louise Dickson(V), Des Quinn(T) (& Chief), and Helen Watts(T)

Paisley itself was in fine form with pleasant weather and the Halloween parade happening. It was a busy weekend in the town, and our evenings allowed for fine food and good company to catch up with each other. Often the social parts of these meetings allow for important titbits of info to be shared about contacts made, meetings that have happened, and generally what’s been going around the country with fibromyalgia.

The meeting this year covered items such as our work with Unite to have a fact sheet available to their members, the work on our employment booklet which we hope will be completed soon. Awareness activities for the year was also discussed and some thought given to International awareness Day (May 12^th) and September Awareness Week (2^nd -9^th) with a view to what themes may be appropriate. Awareness week will continue to focus on activities that can help groups come together.

On the subject of groups, we hope that Regional Coordinators will be able to bring group leaders together for regional meetings to allow better communication and sharing of good ideas.

We also covered our compliance with the information standard which is complicated by the standard going through its own internal review and we will have to adjust to whatever new process is put in place.

 We will be looking at how we can best use social media to the advantage of our cause and look at developing a strategy to help our objectives. We found that the effort during the recent awareness week brought some good results that we can build on.

We will be reviewing our attendance at medical conferences to identify where we should be attending. Past attendance at the annual BSR conferences has been very beneficial. Attendance at more conferences as well as other activities shows that FMA UK is willing to invest to achieve our objectives. We will also be internally investing in support systems and more staff resource to help with an expanding role within the FMA UK community.

We have already started looking at next year’s meeting and what we may be discussing then. As well as our monthly virtual meetings, these physical meetings are essential to move the charity forward. They reinvigorate the team and reaffirm our commitment to improving the awareness of Fibromyalgia. As well as the groups, and some Regional Coordinators that could not make the meeting, the photo below is FMA UK. This small team are behind all our activities and will continue to work together over the next year to achieve the goals we set out this weekend.

Regards

Des Quinn

Chair on behalf of the board.

p.s. I would like to thank the office staff and volunteers for helping making this weekend a success. Thanks, must also go to Healthier Business for their use of meeting facilities. With our condition, we would often not be able to contemplate travelling across the country or committing to a meeting like this without support. So, thank you to the partners and family members that have helped make this meeting work as well.

I would also thank the other members of the board and the regional coordinators for giving up their time and energy for the meetings over this weekend. Travelling across the country is tiring for those without fibromyalgia and its appreciated when volunteers (as we all are) give up this precious energy for the good of the charity and others. 

Attachments:

FMA UK Organisational Chart	[ ]	214 kB
What Does FMA UK Do?	[ ]	158 kB