Initiative at The Edge – North Isles Ltd

Minutes from the Meeting held on Tuesday 3^rd April 2007  

at 6.30pm in the Sellafirth Hall, Yell

Present:                                                                                                          In Attendance:

Minnie Mouatt                                                                                                    Julie Thomson

Gordon Thomson                                                                                               Fiona Stirling

Cheryl Jamieson                                                                                                Jackie Smiles

Lesley Gray                                                                                                       Michelle Morris

Roger Brimacombe                                                                                            

1)       Apologies

James Rendell                                                                                                    Robert Jamieson

…………………………………………..

Minnie welcomed Roger as the new IatE Director for Fetlar and had an informal introduction from all present.

2)       Minutes

§         Minutes from 7^th Dec 2006 approved and seconded by Lesley Gray and Gordon Thomson.

§         Minutes from 27^th February 2007 approved by Minnie Mouatt and Cheryl Jamieson (subject to change for item 4.2 to read “Gordon enquired about looking at the HHA survey already done for Unst”.

3)       Development Workers Update

As below.

4)       Matters arising from minutes of last meeting                     

.1 Local Entrepreneur Project  – Minnie noted briefly that the Norway Exchange part of this project has been a great success so far and is working with Michelle on public presentations for this with an “8 O’clocks" at the local halls. Most folk agreed it would be better to have one event at the main hall of each of the North Isles with reports made available beforehand to help raise public awareness of the events. Final date and venues to be confirmed.

Roger went to the ASSYNT SEMINAR (Community land ownership and management - Learning from 200 years of experience in Norway) in March on behalf of IatE NI. Roger reported that Norwegian delegates had been invited to look at areas that need developing in Scotland and the most successful projects in Norway involve deer and trees. A full report from the co-ordinator is due soon.

.2   Directors: Action Plan

Lesley gave an update on her areas for youth work:

§         Youth Exchange to Norway – Lesley taking this to the Youth Voice conference at end of October this year to include all of Shetland. There should be places for ten young folk aged between 16 to 18 years.

§          ‘Momentum’ Driving for 15yr+ - funds are now available, just to be finalised. The instructors insurance only covers drivers over 16 years but Lesley suggested IatE and other funders get together and pay the extra insurance premium to cover 15 year olds as originally planned. Fiona suggested to find out the difference in the premiums and add this to the total invoice for the project. Lesley noted once the insurance is in place this scheme is ready to go. Lesley now has responsibility for all the North Isles Youth Clubs.

§         Odd-Job Scheme  - this project will not be going ahead as there has been no feed back from local businesses/folk to take on all safety and insurance issues etc now required when working with children.

§         Babysitting / 1^st Aid / Life Skills – Lesley looking at dates and availabilities.

It was noted at this point that funding needs to be vouched for ASAP for year 2006/7. Michelle been informed that ROA funding will not release the second lot of monies for 2007/8 until some spent for year before.

Minnie’s update on her areas for:

§         Entrepreneur Project – funds need to used here too ASAP and it was suggested if ideas come from the folk in the Entrepreneur Group it would be good to use the funding to take them further. Michelle and Minnie have not discussed the future of this group with them yet but Minnie suggested this could be

4)       Matters arising from minutes of last meeting                     

§         done when the public presentation is organised for the Norway Exchange project. During more talks Fiona noted the need to look at projects different to those readily available and come up with some original ideas for training.

Fiona updated on:

§         NI Trails - Michelle working on this project and noted that the new Centre for Creative Industries, Yell and the Northern Lights Bistro (when up and running) could be included in this. Fiona suggested the skills capacity readily available in the NI involving tourism needs looking into and would be useful to take action points from the SEC NI Tourism Report and update the IatE Action Plan. 

§         Business and Employment – the previous information now needs updated for the Action Plan. The SEC office in Unst still have a significant caseload of projects and Fiona noted the recent funding SEC NI received called “Investing in Unst” has been given to promote organisations and businesses that will have an economic impact on Unst and the Scottish Executive decided this is for Unst only and not the NI as a whole.

- Business Units: H&I Shetland have funding in place to put service sites at the new pier area in Uyeasound which will be mainly fish/industrial related (not like the units at Sellafirth). Yell: not looking at any more units until Sellafirth rented out. Fetlar: looking into with Development Worker. Unst: MAM/Freshpaint Pictures/Blackwood Distillers hoping to use space at Saxa Vord. Fiona has asked these companies about taking on a Graduate placement but no feedback yet. 

     - Skills: the initial survey done of local skills not viable for upkeep/updating etc. Fiona noted the focus

      should be on IT/administration skills as this would be the most required for job dispersal in the NI.

- Broadband: Fiona will find out about the Faroes Interconnector that should update the Shetland broadband facilities.

Fiona suggested the IatE Development Plan now needs updated and allocate tangible projects for different sectors having Actions under each sector. 

Gordon updated on:

§         Dental Service: been advised that MAM still not officially bought Saxa Vord so still not definite for a site for a dental surgery. The NI currently has a dentist three days a week based in Yell. All agreed a dental surgery once a week in Unst would be a good provision. Lesley noted NI folk should be able to claim mileage from Unst and Fetlar to the surgery in Yell and also to Lerwick. Gordon will follow this up with Mike Collins.

§         Education: no apparent problems at the moment. Noted that Fetlar currently has three pupils.

§         Accommodation/Housing: SIC in talks with Simon Yates from MAM regarding property at Saxa Vord and Setters Hill Estate is still an issue to be dealt with. Hjatland Housing now have funding in place for new houses at Cullivoe and Fetlar are looking more into community housing and land use to attract new folk to the island. Michelle and Fiona have sent a bid to Communities Scotland to do a research study of folk who have relocated to the NI to get a better idea of what needs to be improved to attract more people to the islands. 

§         Astroturf Pitch at Saxa Vord –this has now been de-rated and could be handed over to any interested community group, running costs estimated at £5-6k annually. Gordon is currently looking into this.

§         Evaluation of Evening classes: need to get more adult learning classes arranged for next term. Julie is currently working with Andy Ross on an art/crafts/creative industries project for this year.

§         Adult Learners Week: this event held in Lerwick in May (not sure if coming to NI).

§         NI Newsletter: last issue was September 06. Michelle will help Julie with the latest edition. Coleen is working on a NI Summer Event flyer which should be out about the same time as the NI Newsletter. It was noted the Newsletter is too large to send electronically.

§         Encouraging NI Social Events: not much happened to date. Cheryl noted if Unst community ferry runs are cut back as suggested this would hinder NI folks attending events in each island. Seemingly Brian Gregson is already looking into this issue. 

Minnie suggested the Muckle Meeting held in June this year and could be combined with updating of the Development Plan and presentation about the Norway Exchange project with a smaller event in each island rather than one large one. It was generally agreed that one event in each island would be better as there was not a large turnout for the first Muckle meeting. There needs to be a specific attraction to encourage folk to visit the events.

4)       Matters arising from minutes of last meeting                     

After Gordon, Cheryl and Julie left the meeting the following points were also discussed:

§         Accommodation: Roger noted from the Community Land seminar that restoring old crofts is viable and could be applied to Fetlar if enough interest is generated and would be better to buy Fetlar (such as what happened with Gigha) and promote interest in restoration of old buildings.

§         Transport/Infrastructure – the Shetland Transport Strategy is not yet complete but should be looked at for the NI and if all agree could be used for the basis of building on for IatE.

§         NI Waterfront Groups – Fiona will get an update from Linda Coutts at SIC who is currently working on a project for pier facilities in Shetland.

.3   Office Space – Sellafirth “Hot Desk” system

Michelle had put out a proposal for this but it was not able to be discussed in detail as Gordon, Cheryl and Julie had to leave at this point. It was noted that Gordon and Cheryl did agree to the renting of office space after viewing the facilities before the meeting.   Michelle has been approached to take over the remainder of the lease for Shetland Mac Shop unit (not garage). Fiona advised Michelle to write to SEC NI requesting a lease for a unit as it can take up to six weeks to get things into place and Minnie to put a proposal to Robert Thomson about renting from his lease. Fiona will check out the legalities of subletting. 

.4   Local Media Profile

Laurence Tulloch from Gutcher will take over the Northern Outlook column later this month.

.5   IatE NI – new Directors

As the new Director for Fetlar, Roger is keen to encourage more folk to get involved with IatE.

.6   Geoparks

Geology leaflet is almost ready, the North Mavine Trails project is forging ahead and the Geoparks Conference is in September with a field trip to Shetland shortly after. Minnie gave Jackie a copy of the minutes of their last meeting. Roger noted at this point that stiles and way posts have been recently placed in Fetlar with a leaflet of local walks available soon from the Interpretative Centre. It was agreed it is important for the new worker for the NI Trails project knows what has already been done by various groups in the NI so as not to duplicate any work. 

5)       Finance

§         Development funding allocation – Michelle completed and returned to Hughie Donaldson.

§         Sellafirth Unit – new lease and rental from Mac Shop to be looked into further

§         Training – Fiona noted can apply to H&I Shetland from training grants

§         New pay rate for workers – needs to be addressed ASAP

6)       AOCB

1.       Development Worker: Job Share – all members informally agreed they have no objections to Michelle and Jackie job-sharing this post. Directors to meet to finalise.

2.       Sub-committee - Minnie suggested a sub-committee is needed to help with the employment procedure for a worker for the NI Trail project as she does not have much experience in this area.

7)    Next Meeting  

To be agreed. Jackie to confirm dates available.