by Sarah Clancy | Jun 15, 2020 | Current, Members News, PPN News |
Minutes of Clare PPN Reps meeting
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2020
Present: Damon Matthew Wise, Emma Karan, Eugene Cremins, Fionnuala Collins, George Atijohn, Hilary Tonge, James Giller, Mary Leahy, Mary O’Donoghue, Noel Kearney, Oonagh O’Dwyer, Padraic Hayes, Madeline McAleer, Sarah Clancy, Sarah Ferrigan, William Hederman
Apologies: Aisling Wheeler, Annie Wise, Elaine Dalton, Helen Liddy, Jean O’Keefe
Facilitated by: Sarah Ferrigan
Minutes: William Hederman
UPDATE FROM LAST MEETING
Suggestions on the Work Plan from the last meeting included: developing a Communications Strategy, both media and social media; encouraging people to support local businesses; encouraging people to protect bees and biodiversity.
UPDATES ON COUNTY COUNCIL, SPCs etc
County Council due to meet next Monday, 8th June, in Glór. SPCs due to start meeting in June. This week a call was also made for the LCDC to meet soon.
Several people said the PPN Reps had been ignored for the past three months. The Council has not involved the voice of the community during the pandemic, when in fact this is exactly when community’s input is needed. Agreed that this should be raised, but noted that councillors are not necessarily the ones to target, as they may also be feeling left out.
UPDATE ON FINANCES & RESOURCES AVAILABLE
Sarah Ferrigan gave an update. Once running/fixed costs have been accounted for, we have approx €4,500, to spend mostly on ‘Training & Development’ and ‘Projects & Events’. This is a low amount.
We have pre-paid €1,800 for training in three areas: Cultural Diversity & Anti-Racism; Local Government; Media. This can be online.
We also have paid for some venues for events. And for some transport with Clare Bus.
DISCUSSION ON WORK PLAN
Sarah Clancy: key ambitions are becoming more effective at having the views of community and voluntary sector taken on board at local authority level; and encouraging participation and a sense of ownership of the PPN among people in Clare.
Open discussion – suggestions were based mostly around:
- i) mental health, especially due to effects of lockdown;
- ii) supporting people to retrain, refocus careers, an ideas fair;
iii) seminars / webinars
Noel: Can we include in PPN people with mental health difficulties? Also, we should tie in with Aoife Boland of AIRES Mid West/ HSE.
Sarah C: We can do events around mental health, but note that our role is to influence policy, not to provide service. We need to make sure mental health is considered in all relevant forums. Should we declare that we are a mental health friendly organisation?
Mary O’D: Suggests a poster and a spread in Clare Champion about all the orgs and agencies you can contact if you’re feeling down.
Hilary: Good time to boost the PPN online, as everyone is at home and online. Boost posts. Perhaps a weekly training session; life coaching.
Damon: Disabled People need social events, some don’t use social media very much.
Mary O’Donoghue: Points we are raising here should be expanded and input into Clare LECP (Local Economic and Community Plan), which is up for review soon, and other county-wide plans. Good opportunity to gather people’s views.
Fionnuala Collins : suggests holding an online conference on belonging to a democracy, focusing on the need for open, transparent input and decision-making. Also, we should signpost about options for getting back into the community – classes, social interaction, which places offer counselling, community garden etc
James Giller: Good time to invite public to participate, like the ‘What do we want?’ submissions. Also, pandemic has highlighted discrimination. Ask Council to push for policies to prevent and lessen discrimination. And suggests training for use of online tools.
Madeline: A webinar on ‘Where to post-Covid?’, with follow-up events and trainings, with the PPN leading with the message that community representation needs to be very strong now at decision-making level.
AOB:
Madeline was contacted by a Colin McGann, who is making a documentary on people’s experiences in Clare during COVID:
Please note that we have his contacts but don’t want to share them online
http://www.clare.fm/podcasts/new-documentary-tell-story-clare-covid/
NEXT MEETING:
Monday 15th June, 2020 at 6:30pm
ENDS
by Sarah Clancy | Dec 4, 2018 | Current, Members News, PPN News |
Clare PPN is seeking nominations for three representatives to sit on Clare County Council’s Rural Development Forum.
December 4th 2018
NB: Closing date for nominations is December 14th
The Rural Development Forum which meets three times per year is comprised of more than 40 representatives from organisations in County Clare. One of its key achievements so far has been the consultation and launch of Clare County Council’s Rural Development Strategy 2026 which can be read at the link below:
http://www.clarecoco.ie/services/community/publications/clare-rural-development-strategy-2026-26009.pdf
Clare PPN’s representatives on the Rural Development Forum will have the chance to discuss and influence policy decisions, projects and strategies for the development of County Clare and to network with the other 40 members of the forum. We are seeking energetic people for all three roles who are willing to play an active role in both the Rural Development Forum and in consulting and feeding back to Clare PPN’s member groups.
We are now seeking nominations from Clare PPN member groups for the relevant positions:
1 Clare PPN Environmental College Representative
2. Clare PPN Community and Voluntary College Representative
3. Clare PPN Social Inclusion College Representatives
All groups who are members of Clare PPN on December 4th 2018 can nominate one person for one of these positions. If you don’t know which ‘College’ your group is in please contact us at admin@clareppn.ie and we will check it for you.
Election Rules and Process
- Only groups who were members of Clare PPN on 4th December 2018 are eligible to vote in these elections.
- No individual can represent Clare PPN on more than one external committee or body.
- Only groups who are members of the particular college can nominate a candidate for that college’s seat.
- Each member group may nominate one candidate and may then cast one vote in the resultant election should we receive multiple nominations. It is each group’s named contact person’s responsibility to consult with their own members in regard to this.
How to nominate a candidate:
Nominations are open from December 5th 2018 until December 14th 2018
In the event of an election being necessary voting will be open from December 14th – December 21st.
The next meeting of the Rural Development Forum is January 15th 2019 and it is our intention to have representatives in place for that meeting.
Groups wishing to nominate a candidate must seek the person’s consent first and then must send us an email to admin@clareppn.ie with the following information:
- Name of Community Group.
- Position number for which they are nominating a candidate.
- Name of proposed nominee.
- Contact details of proposed nominee.
- A short paragraph (up to 200 words) detailing the nominees’ suitability and experience for the role- this will be shared on social media and on our website in advance of voting.
- A photo of your nominee which we may share with our members and social media followers.
What happens then?
- Clare PPN will confirm receipt of nominations by email.
- Following the close of nominations, Clare PPN will circulate details of candidates to our eligible members and online voting will be open for seven days.
- The successful candidates will be informed immediately.
- NB: Even if you have nominated a candidate you will still need to vote for them once voting opens to support their election.
For any further information about any of the above roles or Clare PPN’s election processes please feel free to call us on 087 1617375.
by Sarah Clancy | Feb 13, 2017 | Current, PPN News |
February 13th 2017
Notice of Elections: Seeking a representative from Clare PPN to participate in the Rural Development Forum.
Clare PPN is holding an online election for a representative to attend Clare County Council’s Rural Development Forum on our behalf. The forum is an initiative of Clare County Council’s CE Pat Dowling and aims to set out a new Rural Development Strategy for the County. This initiative is timed to coincide with the National Government’s Action Plan for Rural Ireland and to maximise its potential for County Clare. The forum will mostly be focused on identifying projects that can be developed within the time frames of the Action Plan and avail of whatever funding is made available.
http://www.ahrrga.gov.ie/app/uploads/2017/01/162404-rural-ireland-action-plan-web-2-1.pdf
This new Rural Development Forum will meet 5 times before summer, and may or may not continue thereafter or in fact it may continue in a different format. This means that for the moment we are seeking someone who is available between now and summer to attend meetings and who will be willing to take on the work of reporting back from each meeting to the members of Clare PPN. We would hope that the person elected will be someone who already has experience in the area of rural development but they may be from any of the three PPN colleges.
NB: The forum’s first meeting is on Wednesday 15th of February and Clare PPN’s Christy Sinclair of Burren Ecotourism Network will attend this meeting in an acting capacity and will report back until we have a representative in place.
We are open for nominations from today Mon 13th Feb until Thursday 23rd of February and every group who is a member of Clare PPN today can nominate one person for the position.
After the 23rd Feb we will circulate a list of candidates and every group who is today (Monday 13th Feb 2017 ) a member of Clare PPN will be entitled to vote for those candidates. The election will be held on March 6th 2017
According to last year’s updated guidelines for PPNs nationally, no person who already holds a representative position for the PPN can be nominated for this role although secretariat members may be nominated by their groups so long as they do not hold any other position within the PPN.
How to Nominate a Candidate:
To nominate a candidate please email sarah@clareppn.ie with the following information on or before Monday 13th February.
- Your name and contact details
- Your group’s name
- Your chosen candidate’s name and contact details
- A short statement (even one sentence) on your nominees suitability for the role.
Please note that even if you have nominated a candidate you will still need to cast a vote for them after the nomination period has closed. More details and reminders of how to do this will be circulated when the list of candidates is finalised.
