Synopsis of the Management Council meeting held on Saturday 11 June 2005 at the MS Society starting at 10.00 am

All the Trustees were present at this meeting apart from Pam Jones who had a clash of dates and Dorothy Leeder who has announced her retirement from Council due to being unable to attend the future meetings. Sir Bryan thanked Dorothy Leeder for her contribution to Council.

The first main item on the agenda was the presentation by the new Information Manager, Lisa Nichols, on her first impressions after joining the Fellowship. Lisa told the Trustees that her first seven weeks had passed very quickly and that she was glad that she had undertaken a lot of prior reading before taking on the post as she had been thrown in at the deep end with little further time for extended reading and assimilation. She reported that the team at Central Office is very passionate and committed and had made her very welcome. She also felt that there was a real and tangible sense of ‘fellowship’ when talking with members on the telephone. Lisa said that it was her intention to respond to the needs of all members within the Fellowship and as such provide a national service and will not be making many local meetings with members on a one-to-one basis. She also felt that the Voluntary Welfare Visitors and Branch Welfare Officers needed further help and support and ideas for this are currently being generated at Central Office. The grants system has now been recommenced with a small grants programme and, again, she is looking to ensure that this is a national system which is fair to all regions and that the grants to be awarded are in line with the needs of our current members in the 21st Century. Lisa felt that the immediate priority was to ensure that our current information is updated and re-printed to ensure that it is readable and accessible to all people.

The next item on the agenda was the Lantern Hotel and the Chief Executive was very pleased to report that contracts had finally been exchanged on the sale of the Lantern and that the price of £1.7 million had been obtained. The actual hand over of the Lantern will take place on Wednesday 20 July.

The Chief Executive then reported on the current ballot situation with an ongoing ballot in the South Area and that for the Western Area, Pam Jones had been elected unopposed. Unfortunately no Area Trustees had come forward for the North and East of England. The new Council in its first meeting will have to decide what to do about these two vacancies.

It was then reported that Mr Bert Massie, CBE, the Chairman of the Disability Rights Commission would be our guest speaker at the dinner at the AGM on 24 September at the Quality Hotel, Walsall.

The Trustees then discussed the issue of whether observers should be allowed in at Council meetings. This followed a request from the Younger Members Forum, who coincidentally meet at the same location, the MS Society, as the Management Council. After considerable discussion in which both sides of the argument were heard it was finally agreed that observers would not be allowed at this stage of Council’s development but that this proviso would be reviewed by the new Council.

Trustees then heard a series of reports. Firstly, on the financial situation and Trustees were pleased to hear that we are currently in a surplus situation in the first five months of the year. The Chief Executive then expanded on his circulated report and that further staff training and support was ongoing at Central Office. He also reported on a visit from Professor Gupta who runs a hospital in India for people with polio and is desperately in need of funds. It was agreed that we would work up a ‘twinning’ project for his hospital and invite our members who could spare some money to support it through the Fellowship. The Information Officer then gave her verbal report and the Chief Executive expanded on the Fundraising Manager’s report, in particular our need to move a member of staff away from Street Collections, which are not making very much money, to a more lucrative form of fundraising. Under ’Any Other Business’ two requests for National Scrolls of Honour were considered. Firstly for Elsie Sutherland, for her contribution to the Fellowship, particularly in Scotland, and secondly to Mr Arthur Taylor, for his long service and work in the Western Region. After hearing the contributions of these two it was agreed unanimously to award them both National Scrolls of Honour. The meeting closed at 2.00 pm to reassemble for the final meeting of this Council on 6 August 2005.