Civic Voice Live - Thursday 14 October 2010 12-30-1.30  Our third live discussion with Tony Burton and civic volunteers will be held here for an hour on Thursday 14 October at 12.30.  This will be an open discussion, especially for those unable to attend our first AGM and Convention in Peterborough last weekend.  You may want to discuss what Civic Voice can do to help your group or how civic societies can best learn from each other.  Or maybe you want to flag up some campaign priorities or feedback thoughts on Civic Day and how to make it a success?  Or do you have ideas on how we can grow the membership of Civic Voice and attract more civic societies?  The floor is yours…....

I did not attend the AGM but I heard from a colleague that it was an excellent two days. However, as a group, we do have reservations about going forward. We want to be a part of Civic voice and the movement, but we must ask the question - how long is it possible to only have 250 members - what will happen if the other civic societies who are finding reason not to join (some of whom I know!!!) do not join.

Question from John Horncastle, Timperley

Is Civic Day going to be promoted instead of HODs. Unfortunately, at the moment, we do not have the resources to do both (HODs is a lot of work - but worth it) so if we needed to pick, I think we will go with Civic Day as it allows us more projects and ideas. However, if we are the only group thinking this, you are sure others will be as well. I am sure HODs will not be happy if all civic societies give up HODs and do Civic Day! Less a question - more a comment/observation.

Keep up the good work, the eric pickles stuff was great!

have you considered doing a video recording talking about Civic Day that civic societies can have in their own meetings to play to the committee? I say this as a large proportion of our committee are not on email, but listening to the people on Saturday convinced me it is something to get involved in and I am sre ti would other. You could maybe let people download this from the website or copy to a CD for people to watch. You could even do this for a talk instead of needing to go and meet every society.

Welcome to Civic Voice Live - we hope this is a good chance to catch up and discuss issues around the civic movement and what we are doing at Civic Voice following our first AGM.  There are some issues raised already:

Civic Day - Do have a look at our “Frequently Asked Questions” on Civic Day and let us know if there are issues not addressed there.  http://www.civicvoice.org.uk/uploads/files/Civic_Day_FAQs_1.pdf  We see Civic Day and Heritage Open Days as entirely distinct - the latter involves a wide range of organisations and is about opening up heritage places not normally accessible to the public.  Civic Day is about the showcasing the work of civic societies and encouraging people to htink and get involved in the place where they live - it is focused on the civic movement and goes much wider than “heritage”.  We appreciate different groups will have different capacity to get involved in things but hopefully there won’t be too many hard choices.  Civic Day will be as big or small as you want it to be - the real benefit is we all do something on the same day and show the benefits of being part of something bigger.  It should also be a good way of attracting new volunteers to support youin all the other work you do

Membership - We are delighted that 258 civic societies have joined in the first six months, with over 68,000 individual members, and our partners are hugely improssed by this achievement.  Of course we want more civic societies to join and we can all play our part.  Why not get in touch with the civic society nearest to you and tell them what you are getting from Civic Voice.  “We’re all in this together” is a popular phrase at the moment but it applies very well to the civic movement - we will be as strong an dinfluential as we want to be.  We are confident the membership will grow if you can help us do what works best for civic societies everywhere

We love the idea of doing a video to share what civic societies are up to - and with ideas for Civic Day.  It is something we explored for the launch but couldn’t afford it.  There are lots of volunteer film makers out there and student courses too - maybe you know somebody who could work with us and make it happen.  And if you are interested in what videos could do for your civic society then do look at our briefing, with examples from Leicester Civic Society and others http://www.civicvoice.org.uk/uploads/files/Briefing_-_making_your_own_videos.pdf and http://www.civicvoice.org.uk/resources/films-and-clips/

I didn’t attend the aGM because we want to wait to see what happens with Civic Voice. We lost £200 with the Civic trust and we don’t want that to happen again. Your finances seem safe for this year, but how are we not to know that you will not do what the Civic Trust did and leave us short. The perception we have is that they knew what was happening and still banked the money.

I do understand why we should join but not all of the committee can see the same way - we need to be convinced you will not just disappear!

Charlotte - we do understand the worries that many people had about the closure of the Civic Trust.  We weren’t involved so we can’t really explain, defend or complain about it.  What we have done is create an organisation which is set up very differently - run by people elected by civic societies so you are in control and you know what is going on.  The success of the civic movement will come from our growing confidence in what we can achieve and by sharing success among civic societies across the country.  After 6 months of “waiting” we hope you can “see” what we’re about and what we’ve achieved - and the more who join the more succesful we will be.

Will you be doing any workshops in Hampshire? Will they cover local listings? If not, can I suggest you organise workshops on this subject and in Hampshire! The Street clutter campaign workshop in Winchester was great so I will definetly come along to anymore you do - if close by!

on the street clutter - how did you manage to persuade Eric Picles to include you in a press story?

Thanks dantheman - we’re pleased you enjoyed the Street Pride event.  The new workshop programme announced at the AGM can be found here http://www.civicvoice.org.uk/uploads/files/Workshop_programme_1.pdf  There is nothing in Hampshire (yet) but maybe a Hampshire Civic Society could put something on for everyone.  We would be happy to help and a number of groups are running events - such as Marple Civic Society on October 23.  You might find your local Architecture Centre or Planning Aid will support events as well.  We are keen to run more events in the south and are working on it

Eric Pickles is keen on what we are doing - the civic movement is well placed to take advantage of the growing political commitment to communities taking more charge about what happens in their area.  He came to us - not the other way round.  And I had a one to one meeting with him a fortnight ago where it was clear he is very impressed by what civic societies are doing to promote civic pride.  I believe we are the only charity to have met with him one to one since the Election so Civic Voice is doing what we can to meet the demand of civic societies last year to make a difference where it matters.

do you plan anything on local lists? will these be given any relevant legislation going forward with the localism bill

We believe local lists are a really important way of getting people involved in thinking about what they value in their area as well as identifying important buildings and structures in ways that can give them more planning protection.  We are in detailed discussion with English Heritage about making more of local lists and it was a topic of conversation at the recent AGM and convention in Peterborough.  We have been asked by English Heritage to comment on early drafts of guidance it is considering on local lists and would welcome civic society views - do get in touch if you would like a copy. 

The great thing about local lists is they don’t require legislation - there is already support for them in Planning Policy Statement 5 on the historic environment and they can be adopted by local councils as “supplementary planning guidance” which means they matter when planning decisions are made.

we are thinking for civic day that we will give out some building awards for good design (if any development is still happening!!!) - will you be organising workshops on specific subjects or will it be more general? I do applaud you for doing civic day - seems a simple idea that the Civic Trust should have done many years ago. Can societies who are not members get involved?

Email from Gillian Lee

Who have been your grant funders this year?