The Scottish Islands Federation  Conference 2007

The conference has focused on the future of Scotland’s islands within the emerging National political scene as well as looking at the role of Scottish Islands within the European Union. The conference theme was “A Voice for the Islands” and was attended by key politicians, decision makers, and local community and voluntary group representatives.

“A Voice For The Islands”

Click on all images to enlarge, and 'mouse over' for a description

Day 1

Click here for day 2

This report is purely by myself, Alan Parker (SIF committee member with responsibility for the website) and is only as a temporary measure to give some immediate feedback after the Conference.  A full report will be constructed soon, both for our membership and also to comply with our grant application. 

It is also to give our very sincere thanks to all of those who gave up so much of their time to take part: to our Council (Argyll & Bute) for help in hosting the event, to the excellent quality of our key speakers, some of whom travelled here directly from the European Parliament, and took three days out of their hectic schedule to be with us. And last, but by no means least, particular thanks go to the Mull and Iona Community Trust for their help in organising the event.  It must be noted that some members of the Trust spent many hours, until quite late at night, preparing paperwork and details to make sure the event ran so smoothly.  The event DID go smoothly and professionally.  WELL DONE!  Their work has not ended even though the delegates have gone home.  The Trust and Committee will be still working on follow up reports, and collating the feedback information so that we can prepare our action plan and publish it to the website.

I think that we have to admit that it was quite late on in the year when we found a time the Conference could be organised, both for accommodation and for speakers.  This resulted in some speedy work being produced by the organisers and some delegates not being able to attend.  We apologise for this and we are already making sure that this won't happen again.  We already have a very good offer by one Council to help with next year's event.  This needs formally confirming, and then we will make our decision and publish both provisional dates and the venue.

Day one started with typical Mull weather, blue skies and fair conditions (we had a day like that last year as well).  Delegates were warmly met at the Isle of Mull Hotel and signed into their chosen workshops.  In order that delegates coming from further a field would not miss important components of the event, we started with some visits to Community based projects: the Mull Swimming Pool £1.8million community / private / public partnership & the ‘MESS’ Community Recycling Social Enterprise. 

After lunch and further registrations, the Conference began proper with a 'welcome address'  from  Ian Gillies, Chairman Scottish Islands Federation.  Ian is from Tiree, and, until the last election when he stood down, was a very experienced local Councillor.  Ian also brings with him all of the experience gained from the Scottish Island Network (SIN).

Ian Gillies PresentationCamille Dressler, SIF Committee – Isle of Eigg, came forward to give an analysis of a questionnaire carried out some months previously to test opinion of islanders about their wishes for an islanders Federation, and ways in which they would like it to progress.  (A full copy can be gained by clicking here) The results were conclusive.  Islanders of Scotland did indeed want a Federation and felt strongly how they wished it to proceed.  The Conference was drawn together from this survey's report.

At 2.00pm  Irish Islands Federation – An Example of Successful Island Networking -was introduced by a very compelling Mairéad O'Reilly, Manager of Comhdháil Oileáin na Éireann (Ireland).  Mairéad and their group have been very successful in their efforts to influence island events and their promotion as an island group.  They have persuaded their Tourism Board to launch an advertising campaign to market the islands of Ireland and influence the government to recognise island issues.  With a much smaller group of islands, with markedly less population, they have made a huge impact on island lives.  Mairéad will be viewing our progress with interest.

View the presentation by clicking here

2.15pm The assembled delegates now had a chance to start work on developing the ideas identified in the questionnaire and place them into a structured action plan.  (Results to follow in the final report).  One significant development was in the Gaelic workshop.  Here delegates with interest in Gaelic, formulated a plan of ideas with particular enthusiasm.  Hamish Fraser from Skye, there to represent the Federation of Small Businesses, led the group in putting together a plan.  I think this will result in this website being in dual language.  A lot of work, but well worth it!  The Committee are keen to see Gaelic take its place alongside English.  Other Gaelic issues have been raised, including the Gaelic Ring run by Caledonian MacBrayne.

Workshop Results and Outcomes of all four groups click here

3.45pm  Plenary Feedback – Chaired by Jane Fowler, Argyll  & Bute Council. Summary of Points from Facilitators on 3 subject Areas.   Jane was also on the original committee, and is the European officer for the Council.  When Jane leads a group, her sense of humour and sharp intellect make a session pass quickly!  Jane must now stand back from the Committee, as the whole idea is, that the islanders run the group, not the Councils.  I have to say, however, that we still need the guidance from Council experts in many areas.  We are assured that they will be there to help us when necessary.   European issues are emerging already, and so it won't be long before we will be calling on them.  Thanks Jane from us all!

4.45pm  SIF Inaugural AGM  - Election of Interim Committee.

Well, not everything goes quite to plan, and our first AGM was one of those occasions.  All went well until we came to the constitution.  We knew that this would have to be amended a little, as we defined membership and Committee makeup.  After all, this was up to our delegates to decide.  We are a democratic group relying on membership empowerment.  However, several of our delegates are experts in these areas, and soon pointed out some structural flaws.  The Constitution has to be 'fit for purpose'.  Are we going to be a Company Limited by Guarantee, a Charity or other?  It very quickly became clear that more decision making must be gone through first.  The time was not available to do this during this session, so an interim constitution had to be adopted.  I have to say that the outgoing steering group was a little shaken!  It felt like getting married and some one said 'we will be along with the ring in a couple of weeks'  Can you live together for a bit longer?   On the positive side, we have discovered expertise amongst the delegates that will see the 'ring' turn up a lot quicker, and, make sure we get the 'ceremony' right!  We have therefore voted an Interim Committee, which will be ratified properly later, when the constitution is complete.
One very heartening thing came out of all of this.  Everyone was so keen to help!  Not only that, but a very powerful and enthusiastic team has been brought together.

The new Interim Committee then met separately from the delegates.
More discussion took place and the formulation of the Federation discussed.  Objectives were also discussed to help formulate a constitution 'fit for purpose'.
The experience and talent of the new committee is extensive, as will become apparent when we get our profiles together on this website.   These are people of action, not talk.  We have a serious job to do.

7.30pm Conference Dinner.  Address by Councillor William Petrie OBE

Before the start of the meal we had entertainment from Mull Gaelic Choir.  The importance of Gaelic and heritage was a reoccurring theme within the Conference.  We are not there just to push an 'issues agenda', we are also there to celebrate the culture of our islands.  The choir did that with excellence.  Thanks to Elizabeth Jack and the choir!
Argyll and Bute Council, as hosts to this event, provided the Conference dinner.  We wish to express thanks to the Council.  It was a fantastic dinner, well suited to the event.  A lot of networking takes place on an evening like this, the value of which cannot be over exaggerated.   The Isle of Mull Hotel provided a good choice of menu, which was very well received.

Networking?  continued into the late hours with the journalists taking particular interest in the refreshments.

We must have missed one out, as we had a particularly unfortunate report the following morning in one newspaper.  In the editorial it basically states, 'What do we want with one more so called representative group?  To most of us this seemed like a 'slap in the face'; however, it did make one valid statement by doing this.  We HAVE to prove our worth, not just to our island members, but to our local Councils.  Some Councils feel that this sort of organisation is not necessary, as they already represent the interests of islanders.  They also network with each other.  I had a long and interesting conversation with one councillor from an Island Council who had exactly that viewpoint and defended it logically and eloquently.  At the end of the Conference he offered his Council to host the next event.  I commend him for his open mind and pragmatism.  I think we are on the way to proving that we can be a very valuable asset to all Councils and islanders.  We will be providing a service to all without favour. 

The next day all of the other news articles were more than favourable, including some on the front page of the 'nationals'.  More info on press articles to follow

Day 2 click here

Travel and Accommodation Form in PDF

Conference and Inaugural AGM - Isle of Mull

“A Voice For The Islands”

Thursday 15^th & Friday 16^th November 2007

Keynote speakers Jim Mather, Minister for Enterprise, Energy & Tourism

Willy Roe Chairman of Highlands & Islands Enterprise