Preston City of sanctuary annual general meeting will be held on Monday November 30th
Preston City of Sanctuary via Greg
Preston City of sanctuary annual general meeting will be held on Monday November 30th
From 5:30 online via zoom (we will send out the link with the final reminder a day or two before the meeting)
We hope you will be able to join us at our Annual General Meeting as we think about plans for the coming year. The agenda is listed below. We also hope to show a taster presentation of the video from the moving memories project that we have been working on throughout the summer. See
https://preston.cityofsanctuary.org/our-covid-memories-project-2020
One of the most important parts of the AGM will be the election and appointment of officers to serve for the following year. During 2020 we have operated without an elected chairperson so it is very important to appoint someone for 2021. Other posts including vice-chair, treasurer, secretary and communications officer are also up for re-election. We would also like to strengthen the membership of our core group and are especially keen to appoint people who are refugees and sanctuary Seekers. We are able to take nominations at any time up to the meeting but they should be in writing/ by email and be nominated and seconded by people who are already members of Preston City of Sanctuary. So please if you have suggestions would like to volunteer please email us before the meeting. We are especially keen to involve people who as refugees or sanctuary seekers are experts by experience.
We are also attaching the notes from last years AGM and an annual report covering what we have been doing the exceptional year of 2020.
Agenda:
Apologies
Last years AGM minutes (appended Below)
Matters Arising
Annual report 2020... see below
Annual financial statement
Election / Appointment of Officers for 2020
Chair
Vice Chair
Secretary
Treasurer
Communications
Plus 7 Core group members to make a total of 12 persons
Questions and A.O.B
to be followed by video presentation from the Covid memories project
Another major task that we hope to complete by the end of this year is to update our website, in the section detailing local services that are currently available for people seeking sanctuary. We would ask every organisation who is currently working to provide services classes or support in the Greater Preston area to have a look at their entry on our web page and to let us know of any inaccuracies or changes two patterns of activity or contact details. We will be trying to contact such organisations individually with a personalized request to do this.
Please also note for your diary Proposed dates of next years meetings
FULL NETWORK MEETINGS .. take place once a quarter on Monday evenings
Proposed dates for 2021 (by zoom at least till all restrictions are lifted)
- February 15
- May 17 (Eid is around 13/5)
- September 6
- December 6 (AGM)
Refugee week is June 20-27 we hope to run some events
Annual Report for 2020.
Preston City of Sanctuary is part of a national movement dedicated to build a culture of welcome for people seeking sanctuary in the UK. Our aim is to create a network of people and organisations right across the city, united in making our city more welcoming, open and fair for all, by creating platform for collaboration, dialogue and mutual opportunities.
Here in Preston we have built a network of volunteers, professionals, statutory, voluntary and faith organisations, together with asylum seekers and refugees living in our city. We are committed to supporting the new citizens and our multicultural communities with the two-way integration process. We hold regular quarterly open meetings of the whole network and other events and celebrations from time to time.
Membership and attendance at network meetings and events are open to any person or organisation interested. As an umbrella body we concentrate on networking and communications though our web site, social media and google group mailing list rather than delivering services to help sanctuary seekers directly (which is the role of our member organisations). PCOS is not a registered charity and does not normally seek funds or grant support. The small funds we do hold are used mainly to cover costs of events and activities such as publicity and refreshments.
The management of the group is carried out by volunteers who form the “Core Group” which meets four times a year, and uses a private email group, to plan meetings and activities and to ensure the smooth running of the organisations. Key officer posts, Chair, Treasurer, Secretary and Communications are nominated and elected or approved at our AGM, and up to 8 additional core group members volunteer or are co-opted by invitation either then or later in the year. Our aspiration is that more sanctuary seekers will join the Core group team so that eventually PcoS becomes a refugee led organisation.
In 2020 the members of the Core group have been.
… vacant (chair) , Andrew Pratt (secretary), Roy Leeming (treasurer), Greg Smith (communications), Cllr. Nweeda Khan,, Jackie Shurr, Suely Ludgero-Newlove, Dawn Judd, Mustafa Saleh and Abdirisak Abdilahi (Sharif), Jen Rankin and co-opted during the year Ghassan Mahdi and Jeff Morgan (NW regional co-ordiantor for City of Samctuary)
ACTIVITIES IN 2020
This year has been the extraordinary year of the pandemic and as a result we have held all our events and meetings online via Zoom
Besides regular core group meetings we held full network meetings in June and September allowing us to update each other on what is happening. At the September meeting we also had a panel presentation on Hate Crime awareness.
In refugee week we also put on a mental health focussed webinar led by Jeff Morgan
We experimented with several sessions of a Sanctuary Space session. Led by local sanctuary seekers allowing them to talk about issues and situations which were important in their experiences.. usually about situations in their countries of origin.
Our big project for the year was the Covid Memories project which was an opportunity for children and young people from local sanctuary families to write, draw or speak on video about their experiences of living in Preston during the spring and summer lockdown. Many thanks to Dawn Judd and Sandra Bilsborrow who were the driving force behind this project. Through their efforts we secured two external funding grants from LCC and the Harris Museum to enable us to develop a video book and multimedia presentation which will be available on line and early next year at the Harris Museum.
PCoS 2020 Financial Report
Our current bank balance is £1048.26 having started the year with a balance of ££975.59
This gives us a net current surplus for the year of £72.67
Income this year has included a donation of £100 from the Unite Community Lancashire NW/11500 Trade Union Branch which was received at the beginning of the year and then in June we were successful with a grant of £500 from LCC to support the Covid Memories project with Children and Young People.
To date I have paid out £383.45 in expenditure against the Memories project leaving a further sum of £116.55 available.
The only other item of Expenditure this year has been our annual zoom account which cost us £143.88 in June.
We have no outstanding commitments
All expenditure was authorised in advance and all invoices were paid promptly
Roy Leeming.. Treasurer
Preston City of Sanctuary Notes on Annual General Meeting 2019
held Monday the 2nd of December 2019 at Preston Town Hall
Just over 20 people were present and about half a dozen had sent apologies.
Presentation of Annual Report (Chair)
The annual report appended below show was presented by outgoing chair Felicity and was adopted.
Presentation of Accounts (Treasurer) Adoption of Accounts
Our treasurer Roy Leeming, presented a brief financial report showing there was currently £978 in the bank and the net spend for the year so far was £157. This was accepted unanimously.
Election of Officers Chair
With nobody willing to accept a nomination as chair it was agreed that members of the core group would take responsibility collectively, chair meetings in rotation and ensure appropriate spokespersons would publicly represent the network as appropriate.
Treasurer Roy Leeming was happy to continue in this role
Secretary Andy Pratt was happy to continue in this role
Communications; Greg Smith was happy to continue in this role, but would value assistance and apprenticeship by a potential successor.
Suely and Jacqui would jointly take the lead on events including the programme for refugee week 20120
All these posts were approved unanimously.
Continuing and new Core Group Members For 2020 the active members of the core group would be
Andrew Pratt (secretary), Roy Leeming (treasurer), Greg Smith (communications), Cllr. Nweeda Khan, Jackie Shurr, Lizzie Bell, Felicity Pryke , Suely Ludgero-Newlove, Dawn Judd, Mustafa Saleh and Abdirisak Abdilahi (Sharif)
Len Weir and Hardi Omer also volunteered and were duly co-opted.
Any Other Business
at 6pm we observed a minutes silence in memory of those killed and wounded in the recent attack on London Bridge. We also reminded people that Lizzie is collecting stories of the experiences of Asylum seekers to present in a letter to the Home Secretary.
Presentations by Sanctuary Seekers
Hardi spoke to us about the situation in Kurdistan.
Closing remarks and opportunity to network.
A vote of thanks was offered to Felicity for all her hard work in the role of chair.
Many thanks,
Greg Smith – on behalf of
Preston City of Sanctuary Team
https://preston.cityofsanctuary.org
