Minutes of the meeting of the Community First Brierley Hill held at St Michaels Church, Brierley Hill on Tuesday 13th

March 2012 commencing at 7pm. Present Panel Members: Gary Colwell, Rachel Harris, David Hoskin, Peter Plan, John Rogers, Tim Sunter, Gary Wright Additional participants: Susan Hunt, Fazal Hussain, Andrew Mann-Ray, Teresa Potter, Christine Syzgowski, Sandra Wood Apologies Kevin Gripton, Graham Hudson Introductions The meeting was being held together with that of Brierley Hill Community Forum on behalf of which Andrew Mann-Ray welcomed all of those present. Community First Tim Sunter gave an update on the Community First Brierley Hill panel. It was intended that membership should be as inclusive as possible and, hopefully, consensus would be reached on which projects to recommend. However, if there was the need for a vote, the members of the panel would have a final say. The meeting agreed the priorities for Community First Brierley Hill which had been formulated following discussion at the last panel meeting. The priorities may change as the Community First Brierley Hill plan is developed, but initially there were agreed as: 1. To support improvements to the environment in the Brierley Hill area. 2. To support activities which enrich the lives of those most in need, in particular young people, the elderly and those with special needs. 3. To add value to the work of local individuals and qualifying organizations by supporting activities which: complement existing works plug gaps in the work already being undertaken in the community improve communications

encourage participation in community activities

4. To support events and visits which raise aspirations, inspire learning and celebrate our town and its heritage. The meeting heard that a website was being set up for the project. This would be part of the blog at the www.brierleyhill.org project. TS to action this. The contact email address for Community First Brierley Hill is communityfirst@brierleyhill.org. TS continued to outline what Community First match funding could be used for, which groups were eligible for funding, and which were not. The meeting resolved that a quorum should be set of a minimum of 4 members of the panel should be present when applications were considered. In terms of dealing with funding this would be considered in tranches. The panel will consider the first tranche at its next meeting on 17th April 2012, and organisations were requested to submit their funding applications by 10th April. It was agreed that further meetings of the panel would take place in May, July, September and December. TS to identify dates. A number of questions were asked by attendees for which TS resolved to get responses from the CDF: How long will a project take to receive funding following recommendations? What does a community group need to produce to demonstrate a governance document is in place? Can the panel partner also apply for funding? Is it possible to apply for capital funding to help with maintenance of a building? The group also considered how to spread information about Community First to all community groups in the area. It was agreed that all present would inform as many groups as possible. Additionally AMR agreed to produce a flier for circulation. Conclusion of meeting AMR thanked everyone for their attendance. The meeting closed at 8.30pm. Date of next meeting The date of the next meeting will be 17th April 2012 at 7pm at St Michaels Church, Bell Street South, Brierley Hill