MINUTES OF HEALTHY LIVING & WELLBEING GROUP AGM
14th JANUARY 2020
Apologies: Finella Whitehorn, Derek Greatorex, Roos Allsop, Ann Meyrick & Jenny Charlton.
Present: Elaine Cawthraw, Fran Edwards, Keith Lambert, Eddy Stephenson, Mary Hampson, Carlie Karakusevic, Jacqueline Pester, Alison Prestt & Andy Davies
Minutes: The minutes of the previous AGM held on January 15th 2019 were accepted as a true record. Proposed by E. Cawthraw and seconded by F. Edwards. There were no matters arising from these other than those already on the agenda for this meeting.
Financial Report for year ending 30th November 2019:
Unfortunately the treasurer, Jenny Charlton, was unable to attend due to illness but sent this report.
TREASURERS REPORT 30 NOVEMBER 2018 TO 30 NOVEMBER 2019
The Healthy Living Group has had a very good year. There have been various donations and grants, which has given us a surplus of Income on Expenditure of £987
These accounts to be Audited by Martin Pester, before forwarding onto the Charity Commission. Martyn Pester currently has business commitments – a time has yet to be arranged for Auditing the Accounts
| Co-operative Bank Community Directplus Account | £ |
| Income | 2127 |
| Expenditure | -1140 |
| B/Fwd from Year End 2018 | 1838 |
| Total | 2825 |
Jenny Charlton
A breakdown of the accounts are attached.
All present agreed the figures were a true record, subject to audit.
Appointment of Honorary Auditor: Mr M Pester was approved by all present as auditor of HLG accounts.
Chairman’s Annual Report 14 January 2020. ( Eddy Stephenson)
I guess it goes with the territory that anyone delivering an annual report starts by looking looked back at that of the previous year. As is often the case many items follow a familiar pattern and some of the plans are found to have fallen by the wayside. This report in the main follows that “norm”.
2019 was year of progress for some projects and perhaps little disappointing at a failure to move forward sufficiently with others.
Plans to add a Bereavement Counselling to our activities had to be postponed due to the workload of the person identified to lead. We do however have a facility to refer anyone enquiring. The Counsellor concerned remains associated with HLG, maybe at a future date we can revive the plan.
A Dementia Friendly Village continues to become a reality for Bishopsteignton. Our Champion, Finella, is all geared up and ready to move further forward as 2020 progresses.
The Defibillator located at the Community Centre was successfully used early in the year. The unit was back, available for service within 48 hours with new pads fitted.
A new cabinet has been installed at the Village Hall site, thanks yet again to Russell Edwards for his complimentary and much appreciated service.
Despite phone call there has been no clear response from our hoped for site at the lower end of the village. The donated unit remains available for installation as soon as a suitable site can be found.
Carewatch maintains it development as a free of charge transport provider. Jacqueline and Fran have led from the front and has also found a suitable replacement co-ordinator when Jacqueline has been unavailable. Following the recent incident of the vehicle crashing through the railings greater used of the Carewatch facilities is being encouraged.
The Memory Cafe continues to be a valuable village asset. The Quality Assurance award earlier in the year singled out the Bishopsteignton Memory Cafe as a highly successful unit and the first in the county to reach that standard. I’ll leave Mary to update you alongside her secretarial report.
The Village Trim Trail continues to make somewhat slow progress however a big step forward was made when the Table Tennis Table was installed at The Lawns in late summer. I know it has been used, but winter weather is not the best of times to enjoy that sort of facility. It is planned to target some promotion of the table in the spring.
We have a number of measured, timed walks around the village that we plan to promote over the next few months. A Duke of Edinburgh student is currently working on them to ensure accuracy after which they will be featured as centre page pull outs in The Chronicle.
HLG continues to work closely with BERT on the village Emergency Plan. By its nature the plan must be a ‘living document’ that while it holds BPC acceptance later versions will continue to be submitted for approval. Leaflets that contain contact details and advice should an emergency arise have been delivered to all homes in the village. It should be noted that BERT is not a replacement for the emergncy services but exist to cover if emergency services cannot arrive with a reasonable timeframe.
2019 saw three series of Seated Yoga/Gentle Exercise class that attracted an average of 14 attendees per session. Two of the sessions were part funded by grants with the third being commercially charged. A new commercial series is scheduled to start on Friday planned to run for eight weeks.
Publicity and recognition continue to be problem areas. The articles in The Chronicle last year may have had some effect. It is planned to produce another series later in 2020.
I know this will sound repetitious but as I wind up this report I will say it again, this group holds no hidden agendas and exists for the benefit of the residents of Bishopsteignton, it must remain so.
My personal thanks and appreciation to everyone who has worked with and supported me in leading its aims in 2020.
Secretary’s report: 14th January 2020. Memory cafe (Mary hampson)
Bishopsteignton Memory Cafe continues to run successfully with a usual attendance of 20+. Over the past year we have had a range of activities including games, singing, craft, quizzes and reminiscences. The aim is to provide a friendly, welcoming environment where people with or without dementia can meet and socialise over a cup of coffee and one of Pat’s homemade cakes or biscuits.
At the beginning of the year we were presented with the Quality Assurance Award in recognition of the work we have been doing and we were the first memory cafe in Devon to be awarded this. This had taken a lot of work and effort but was worthwhile in ensuring we were meeting all the requirements for the safety and wellbeing of our clients.
We had an outing in September that involved a walk along Teignmouth seafront in beautiful weather followed by a delicious cream tea at the Langstone Cliff hotel in Dawlish Warren. The outing was greatly enjoyed by all who went..
“Singing for Memory”, the new venture started last year, has continued to take place once a month and this provides an opportunity to sing songs that people remember, some from many years ago and some more recent. The confidence gained by this activity meant that those who attend were able to take the lead in our singing of Christmas songs at our meeting in December prior to our Christmas lunch. The running of Singing for Memory is in the skilful hands of Liz MacNamara & Finella Whitehorn who are doing an excellent job.
Throughout 2019 Memory Cafe has met at the Cockhaven Arms and we are very grateful to them for the facilities provided. However, from January 2020 we have had to look for new temporary premises as Cockhaven is undertaking a building programme involving the room we have been using. Finding a replacement for Cockhaven hasn’t been easy but for the next 3 months we are meeting in the Methodist Church. The room and facilities here are excellent but there is a problem with access. Some of our clients find it impossible to walk up the steep slope to the church and, following the accident here at the end of last year, we are keen to discourage people from driving up to the Church. To mitigate this problem we have hired a minibus from Dawlish Community Transport that collects any who wish from Cockhaven and drives them up to Fore Street. However, it is unable to drive up the slope so there is the ongoing problem of access for those who find the slope difficult. The minibus also does the return trip from the Church to Cockhaven at the end of Memory cafe. This does cause some congestion in the entrance to the slope in Fore Street and it also costs us £36 for each session. It is hoped that once the building works are complete we will be able to return to Cockhaven and that the premises will still be adequate for our needs. We will also be able to revert to our usual day of meeting on a Monday as not everyone is able to make the new date of the 2nd Wednesday in the month (including one of our key volunteers)
Finally, the Memory Cafe would not be the success it is without the excellent and dedicated volunteers who help in so many ways. My thanks go to all of them for their hard work and support.
Carewatch: Jacqueline Pester reported this was working well but that more volunteers were needed. Baz Carpenter is to raise the topic of Carewatch at the next Probus meeting in the hope of attracting new volunteers. Some users of Carewatch like to make a donation towards petrol and it was suggested there could be ready printed envelopes that could be used for such donations. In addition these envelopes could have the information on them to enable the donations to be made under gift aid. Jacqueline is also to liaise with Volunteering in Health, Teignmouth on the subject of transport to Torbay Hospital. It was felt people should be encouraged to use Volunteering in Health for these hospital visits rather than using Carewatch.
Trustees: Roger Hunt is standing down from HLG and as a Trustee. An emailhas been sent thanking him for all his work over the years with HLG. As there are still 7 Trustees there is no need to appoint another unless anyone is keen to fill the vacancy.
AOB: There were no items raised under AOB.
The meeting closed at 8.01 pm
Next HLG meeting Tuesday 4th February at Methodist Church at 7.30 pm
Next year’s AGM Tuesday 12th January 2021.