Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People Draft Minutes from the Annual General Meeting Held on Thursday 6 December 2020 At the St Thomas Centre, Ardwick Green, Manchester 1. Members present Present: Tony Baldwinson, Muriel Bell, Mike Bennett, Huda Bishara, Caron Blake, Derek Broadbent, Rick Burgess, Patrick Cooper, Heather Davidson, Maureen Day, Kim Doolan, Chris Dwyer, Susan Fisher, Steve Graby, Miriam Graute, Maggie Griffiths, Heather Davidson, Kim Doolan, Stephen Kingsberry, Daniel Lawless, Mike Lynberry, Linda Marsh, Peter Marshall, Nicola McDonagh, Peador O’Dea, Inga Reichelt, Hannah Ross, Phil Samphire, Brett Savage, Shirley Sheldon, Harry Sherwood, Nigel Smith, Audrey Stanton, Mathias Warrington, Joe Whittaker. Apologies: Wadiha Ahmed, Dennis Cashman, Wayne Davidson, Ron Goulden, Brian Hilton, Sam Portnoy, Dennis Queen Teller: Kim Doolan. 2. Minutes of previous Annual General Meeting and matters arising Matters arising - it was agreed by the membership that Executive Council Members would be elected individually at this AGM rather than a block vote. This new procedure will be explained when we get to the relevant agenda item. No amendments to the minutes were suggested. Vote to accept the minutes as a true record. Proposed by Rick Burgess, seconded by Maggie Griffiths. In favour 17; against 0; abstentions 0. 3. To receive, consider and approve The Annual Report and Audited Accounts (a) The Annual Report for 2017-2018 No questions or comments were raised about the Annual Report. Vote to accept the 2017-2018 Annual Report Proposed by Pete Marshall, seconded by Steve Graby. In favour 17; against 0; abstentions 0. (b) The Audited Accounts Mathias Warrington, Treasurer for the previous year, gave a financial summary: Accounts presented to members show that during the financial period 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018 we had an income of £217,659 and expenditure of £217,701. This means we had a surplus in the year of £491.88. We would like to note our thanks to Manchester City Council for their continued support for our Manchester Disabled People’s Project and Self Developed Project. Although funding streams for these projects ended on 31 March 2018, we are pleased to report that we have secured additional project funding. From 1 April 2018 we have secured: Three years’ funding from Manchester Voluntary Community Sector Fund for the Manchester Disabled People’s Project. Two years funding from Young Manchester for our Young Disabled People’s Project. Thanks to careful management, we have been able to maintain our reserves. At the end of March 2018 we had £142,189 reserves remaining. Vote to accept the GMCDP Accounts for 2017-2018. Proposed by Rick Burgess, seconded by Inga Reichelt. In favour 16; against 0; abstention 1. 4. Appointment of Auditors GMCDP Executive Council would like to propose the re-appointment of Slade & Cooper for another year. No questions or comments. Vote to maintain Slade and Cooper as GMCDP’s auditors. Proposed by Inga Reichelt, seconded by Audrey Stanton. In favour 17; against 0; abstentions 0. We will re-appoint Slade and Cooper as auditors for next year. 5. Election of Executive Council Members The new voting system was explained, combining voting before and at the AGM. Previous Exec members re-standing were: Wadiha Ahmed, Ken Audin, Rick Burgess, Richard Currie, Heather Davidson, Paul Doyle, Mohammed Egeh, Steve Graby, Stephen Kingsberry, Audrey Stanton, Anne Tober, Mathias Warrington and Joe Whittaker New nominees were: Maggie Griffiths and Dennis Queen. Sue Fisher asked why we were not voting for everyone as a block, as in previous years. Caron Blake (Manager) explained that at last year’s Annual General meeting it was requested that each person is voted for individually. Inga Reichelt commented that for future years it would be better to do the paper vote after the speeches as some people would prefer to see/hear from who they are voting for. Wadiha Ahmed, Mohammed Egeh were not present but had statements prepared that they had asked for people to read out. Richard Currie and Paul Doyle were not present and did not have statements to read out. Dennis Queen was not present but sent a video that was played of her reading her statement. Total votes (including those in room and those already cast by paper vote): Ken Audin - Yes 19, No 6, Abstention 5 Rick Burgess – Yes 28, No 0, Abstentions 3 Richard Currie - Yes 11, No 4, Abstention 13 Heather Davidson - Yes 27, No 1, Abstention 3 Paul Doyle – Yes 15, No 2, Abstention 9, Mohammed Egeh - Yes 18, No 2, Abstention 7 Steve Graby -Yes 30, No 0, Abstention 3 Stephen Kingsberry – Yes 17, No 8, Abstention 8 AudreyStanton - Yes 29, No 0, Abstention 2 Anne Tober – Yes 22, No 3, Abstention 5 Mathias Warrington - Yes 29, No 1, Abstention 2 Joe Whittaker – Yes 29, No 2, Abstention 1 Maggie Griffiths - Yes 28, No 0, Abstention 3 Dennis Queen - Yes 27, No 1, Abstention 1 Wadiha Ahmed – Yes 21, No 1, Abstention 4 Everyone has been elected onto the GMCDP Executive Council. Brian Hilton was thanked for having been our co-opted digital campaigns officer. The next executive council meeting was agreed to be on Tuesday 11th December 2pm to 4:30pm at the Windrush Centre. 6. Open floor - comments and questions from members Hungry for Change campaign: Disabled people are 2 to 3 more times likely to use a food bank. Hopefully in the New Year we will talk to councils, charities, get a summit, and get action to reduce the need for food banks. We have talked to GM Poverty Alliance and may work with them on this. We are the 5th richest country and there are 1.2 million people using food banks in the UK, around half of whom are disabled people. It is an obscenity. There is a need for concrete action to make that better. We will be asking all, to contact elected representatives and other interested parties in your local area to work something out to make things better. Miriam Graute: I have just moved to Manchester and joined GMCDP, was in Brussels working for ENIL (European Network on Independent Living). Has GMCDP has ever thought of becoming a member of the ENIL, which is the only disabled people-led organisation at European level. Agreed to discuss this at the next Exec meeting. Peadar O’Dea: Representing Leeds Disabled Peoples Organisation which is a new organisation in Leeds which started in January. Hope we can work together more in the future. Maybe good if more Disabled Peoples Organisations got together in the future. We are all victims of austerity policies. It would be a good idea to have a conference, maybe a few years down the line. Heather Davidson: The ‘Nothing about us without us’ exhibition is at the People’s History Museum. This is a small exhibition which opens tomorrow; there will be a bigger exhibition in April. Inga Reichelt: It is good to see people at the meeting and being able to vote anonymously at the meeting too. I would also like to hear about future project ideas. Steve Graby: It would make more sense, to combine all the votes together could hand in form before the AGM or have it here then put in box and count at end but with a break while counting (though there may be issues for people with visual impairments and PAs). Maggie Griffiths: I am concerned that people may have looked at the attendance list and voted on whether or not people are attending Exec meetings. That doesn’t reflect whether people are not going because they are ill or have impairment issues or are just not bothering. Concerned that people are only looking at attendance and vote on that basis. Inga Reichelt: Maybe Exec could review how the information is sent out as heard from some people they didn’t receive their electronic information. Ken Audin thanked Caron and the rest of the staff for all their hard work and dedication and for all the good work the Coalition has done. Meeting closed at 8:45.