MINUTES OF THE FOURTEENTH MEETING OF THE

DERBYSHIRE CHRONIC PAIN SUPPORT GROUP COMMITTEE

The Fourteenth meeting of the Derbyshire Chronic Pain Support Group Committee was held on 14 January 2003, at the Guinness Trust Community Room, Sidney Street, Derby.

Attendees:    Mark Charity (Chairperson), Janet Owen (Secretary),                      Ray Whitehurst (Treasurer), Margaret Whitehurst, Jacklin Moss, Paul Hearne, Eileen Hogg, Naomi Memmory, Sandra Cunningham, Sheila Coxon

1.      Apologies:   None

Mark Charity (Chairperson) opened the meeting by welcoming, introducing and thanking everyone who attended.

2.         Minutes from the last meeting held on 26 November 2002 were approved and signed as a true record, except for item 4 the statement regarding Norah Wickerson.   Paul’s statement in the previous minutes the word politically should have read partly.    

           Paul said it would be sad if we cannot have Norah as a member of the group to help with the members problems.   Paul is to see Norah and ask her if she would like to come to one of the meetings and give a talk to the group on Fibromyaliga.

3.      Membership / Committee Members

       If members of committee bring their partners/carers with them to the                         Committee meeting we are unable due to our Constitution to allow them to take part within the Committee.  

If non members attend the Speakers Meetings a charge of 50p will be asked of them.  

The fee for Membership of the group is to be changed, we are deleting the family membership and it will be across the board a £10 fee for all members of the group except for Group membership which will remain at £20.

If anyone makes more than 3 visits to the group they should be asked to become a paid up member.   Margaret as Membership Secretary is to approach the people concerned.

4.       Statement of Funding and finances

          Ray stated that at the end of the year we have a total of £939.14p, this consists of £500 that cannot be used for anything other than the running costs of the group.   Dr Aftab Laher before leaving Derby spoke to Dr Bavister Consultant in Pain Management at the DRI about providing us with some financial assistance; as a result of this we were sent a cheque for £300.

          We will require someone in Accountancy to audit our books for the AGM.

5.       Website

 Mark stated that he would move the website by the time of the next meeting at a cost of £50.   Sandra asked how many hits/visitors we have looking at our website, Mark said that we seem to get an awful lot of hits/visitors.

 6.       Christmas Party

 It was disappointing that not many people attended.   The question was asked why are people not coming more than once?   We need to be more welcoming when people attend the coffee mornings and introduce ourselves and them to the other members of the group.  Mark thanked everyone who had bought things for the party.

7.       Newsletter

 The newsletter has been sent out to every member.   Mark thanked Jacklin for doing the Newsletter and everyone agreed it was a good job well done.   Jacklin said that we need more articles for putting into the newsletter.   To advertise disability equipment that is no longer needed by our members but could be of some use to others.   The newsletter is to be issued every three months.

  8.       Advertising

 The question of advertising the group came up again and a few suggestions were made as to how we should do this.  

Radio Derby , CVS, Invite other groups to our meetings,

Carlton TV Nottingham,  DRI, City Hospital and  SYNAPS

9. A.O.B.

 A letter was sent out to Steve Wilson accepting his resignation from the Committee and thanking him for all the hard work he had done on behalf of the Group.

 We also sent a letter to Dr Bavister thanking him for the cheque of £300 from the Pain Clinic Trust Fund.

10.     Date of Next Meeting

          It was agreed that the next meeting be held on Tuesday 1 April 2003, 10.30 a.m. at the Guinness Trust Community Room, Sidney Street, Derby.