Minutes of last meeting.
JF summarised minutes, which were agreed as
accurate.
Matters arising
IG noted that many of the action points had
been achieved and JF summarised these. JF
noted the good turn out at the ESIN
conference and IG observed that the issue of
the Islands minister had ongoing interest
amongst senior politicians. ES reported
that the Nàdair Trust had written to George
Lyon on the subject and had received a
positive reply. CD had also written to
several ministers and had received a
disappointing number of replies. AH
observed that after the elections of 3rd
May, there will be a greater number of
councillors with islands responsibilities
and that this would be a good time to begin
lobbying.
JF felt that a good amount of publicity had
been achieved from the ESIN conference
although IG had seen some negative letters
in the press. The meeting felt that the
conference should be highlighted on the SIF
website, directing to the presentations,
which are available on the ESIN site.
ES updated the meeting on the funding
obtained for the SIF AGM - £15.5K has been
achieved for the conference and travel
bursaries. Of this, £1005 has to be spent
before the end of March. ES suggested using
this for consultation.
AH suggested that the consultation could be
carried out via the SIF website and that
some of the money should be used for the
purpose of updating the website database and
including a downloadable questionnaire.
Discussion followed as to who would take on
responsibility for the website ES and CD
volunteered to manage the data and AP agreed
to host the site on a temporary basis.
Newsletter – IG felt this had been effective
and supported its reinstatement. AH
suggested to have something prepared for the
w/c 7th May following elections,
perhaps feeding out MSP details for
interested parties to contact.
Stakeholder consultation on the new
Federation
CD summarised the history of the Network to
date and what is required for the future, as
compiled by CD and ES. CD suggested that
the consultation should be based on a
limited number of options: the steering
group to come up with a vision and ask the
membership to sign up to that. CD wanted to
have some feedback on the consultation
before 26th April for the
hustings on Skye but the group felt that
this was too tight a deadline and that
preliminary results would be sufficient. IG
proposed writing to individuals as soon as
the questionnaire is available on the
website to ask for contributions, and then
to follow up non-responders after a couple
of weeks. ES volunteered Nàdair to draft
something for discussion by the steering
group, with support from CD
AH further proposed that individuals from
each island and/or group should go to
Edinburgh within a week of the elections to
lobby parliament. This was agreed.
Constitution
Discussion followed on membership and the
nature of the Federation. It was agreed
that the Federation should be inclusive of
all islands and if it is felt that the
smaller islands require different or greater
representation, then a subgroup or
sub-groupings may be formed.
JF suggested that councils should not be
voting members as the Federation would then
be in a better position to attract
discretionary funding through meeting
corporate priorities. Councils would still
be involved but in an advisory capacity
responding to specific requirements. A
discussion of various forms of constitution
followed but IG suggested awaiting the
results of the consultation.
Discussion followed on the nature of the
membership and voting rights.
AH proposed that a small group should look
at the feedback from the solicitor and make
any amendments. SB proposed a change of
name to Scottish Islands Federation: this
was agreed.
CD emphasised that changes to membership
should be made. There was much discussion
and it was agreed that only fully
constituted groups should be full members
with voting rights. Individual members can
be associate members without voting rights
but with the right to speak at meetings.
The Management Committee is to include
co-opted members with voting rights.
Various electoral arrangements were
discussed, in particular the idea of a
rolling programme of elections in which one
third of the committee changes each year,
and AH agreed to look into issues of
elections and eligibility and report back in
the first instance to CD in the next week or
so and CD to go through constitution and
alter all appropriate references.
JF noted that it would be important to aim
for a wide spread of geographic and sectoral
representation at the conference.
Funding requirements up to and including
conference
ES raised the question of expenses for
attendance at meetings. It was agreed that
this is not a big issue as yet and that it
will be addressed but that individuals could
apply to Communities Scotland until the
Federation is constituted and funded. Legal
fees are also no longer required as
constitution already been through solicitor.
JF reported 2 upcoming ESIN meetings:
29/30 March – Galway – 4 spaces available so
any SIF members interested should get back
to JF by 20th.
13/14 June – lobbying exercise on back of
European maritime strategy
Funding requirements of new Federation
SB reported an idea of Lesley Riddoch -
‘Islands Work’ - in which best-practice
could be shared through subscription to a
Newsletter or ‘bolt-on’ to the website to
generate income for SIF. JF noted that this
is a key theme if the Galway meeting and
suggested that it would not form core
funding for SIF. IG/AP agreed that it might
be an idea to pursue in the future but would
not answer the immediate funding issue.
CD and IG felt that membership will be the
core funding and various levels of
individual and corporate membership were
discussed. CD to look at including this
issue in the questionnaire to determine the
levels that the membership deem acceptable
and to make appropriate provision within the
constitution. AP noted that membership
should not be a condition of receiving the
Newsletter, which should be free on the
website but that a subscription may be
sought for access to archive issues.
Conference date, format, speakers &
publicity
Date was agreed as 27/28 September
AH suggested holding the conference in
Edinburgh, preferably within the Scottish
Parliament. AP to approach Jim Mather to
arrange and if unsuccessful to inform IG who
will try to arrange via George Lyon.
SIF policy statement – IG to write up and
circulate
5 policy objectives were agreed:
-
Minister with responsibility for islands
-
Transport – commitment at national and
regional level for island ferry and air
travel to be considered an extension of
the national roads network. SIF would
like the Scottish Executive to consider
the Swedish model.
-
Conservation/planning vs economic
development and the population
-
Statutory requirement for Local
Authorities to produce a
strategic/development plan for the
individual islands in their control.
(Perhaps though Community Planning and
the creation of Development Companies
where they do not already exist)
-
Endorse Jack McConnel’s view of a ‘New
Deal’ for the Scottish Islands and
request further ideas from
candidates/newly elected representatives
Allocation of responsibilities/contracts
Nadair was invited to undertake the event
coordination work for the conference
AOCB
Island debate on Skye – Lesley Riddoch ‘Votepods’.
Arthur Cormack offered use of Aros Centre,
Portree but requires an organisation to be
the titular host of the event and proposed
that SIF might do this at no financial cost
to SIF. The steering group felt that more
information was required before a decision
could be taken – CD to obtain. CD will
attend meeting and present 5 bullet points.
DONM
A meeting specifically to discuss the
conference was arranged for 7th
June.
