Visitors by Sea Project

Apologies

No apologies received

Update regarding Project Officer

Morag Shaw has now left MCDC, having taken up a post at short notice back in Aberdeenshire.

In the interim, Julia Whitaker (Support at the Edge) has taken on some of the activity leaving the directors free to recruit a new Project Officer. Julia was previously the Initiative at the Edge Development Officer for Ardnamurchan & had worked on a varied selection community development projects over the past 2 years.

Malcolm McNeill has now been recruited and starts on 11^th April. Martin stated that the calibre of applicants was excellent & that the interview panel & independent panel member (Lesley Benfield) from People in Focus had done a great job. Lesley Benfield commented on the high standard of applicants & for the recruitment process that MCDC had gone through.

There will be a hand over period in April with Malcolm & Julia which will also encompass some more grant finding to ensure that the present Project Officer Post can continue.

Project Activity

Visitors by Sea Project

Land and location identified – plans held in community office
Survey and Feasibility Completed – David Graham
Indicative Costs obtained – Approx £60K pontoons and £100K site works

Possible work in kind from Tilcon for some of the site works. This will be pursued.

Path usage needs to be established & confirmed to planning (Susan Poole)
Club have had copies of plans drawn up for harbour development & welcome gateway. There will be an AGM in the next month, where this will be discussed
Awaiting feedback from club committee

Alasdair felt that the amount of money that was required for this project could never be repaid bt collecting fees. He also felt that honesty boxes did not work and would not yield the required return for the maintenance and insurance costs of the pontoon. Julia and Martin pointed out that the initial funding bid could include factoring in these maintenance costs and that some lateral thinking could ensure that more fees were collected, by using the businesses that would benefit. These ideas need to be investigated and put in place.

Kiel Land Purchase Project

Big Lottery Application almost there, with just a few more adjustments & then the checklists & supporting documentation.
The deadline was for 9^th April, but Community Land Unit has applied a 1 month extension just to make sure that the last bit is not rushed.
CLU need MCDC to confirm their contribution of 5% of project value. Discussion was had over this point, with some members feeling that to ask locally would be difficult. (See later in report)
Community Land Unit will fund 15% of Land Value (if approved)
GCA will fund remaining 80% (if approved)
CLU coming to visit Morvern 6^th April 11am
CLU are looking to see what collaborative working there will be between MCDC & MCW.
There was some discussion regarding site contamination and its implications. It was agreed to note this and discuss once funding is in place.

Project Officer Funding

Lottery Funding is difficult to apply for just now, as the Animateur money and Leader money is committed to Kiel project and until the Kiel project is approved, you cannot apply for further funding as a group.

The Scottish Centre for Regeneration have a new funding stream that may help with Project Officer funding and will need work before the end of April as this is the deadline for expressions of interest.

There is also the CERS fund which would seem applicable here with the mine. A meeting is to be arranged as soon as possible (poss 13/04/07), with Malcolm, Julia and 1 or more directors and a representative from this fund. Again, there is a deadline of 25^th April for applications and will need to be worked on quickly.

Both of these new funds will need careful applications in order to maximise their impact and potential.

MCDC contribution towards the Kiel site is 5% which is approximately £2500. This needs to be raised in the community. Various ideas were discussed including: -

Diaspora Support (ex Scots and their descendants supporting their homeland)
Website development and active use to promote support
Woodland ceilidh / event. This should be at a time to attract visitors
Website Sponsorship and Advertising

Following the comment that it was difficult to ask local people for money (especially where there are so many local groups doing the same), Julia also pointed out that if there isn’t a chance to give locally, there is no chance to promote ‘local ownership’. Also if it is perceived that money will always be found from the public purse, there will be no chance of local support to pay for courses and activities that may be put on for local participants.

There was a small discussion over whether there was any merit on more than 1 person being employed. Martin thought that there would be enough opportunity and that it may improve the productivity and professionalism. Malcolm felt that he could manage it all and that MCDC shoud wait and see. Julia felt that the funding streams open at the moment needed to be tapped now and that the allowance should be there, to act either as admin support or specific project activity and a away of getting a job done sooner rather than later. There is also help available from HIE Lochaber once Malcolm is in post.

MCDC Overview

One of the tasks that Julia had been given was to provide a brief overview MCDC and its operation.

Collaborative Working

There does not seem to be much joined up thinking in Morvern with individual groups doing their own thing and little working together.

There appears to be: -

For a small community – that’s a lot of groups, let alone play group, youth club etc.

There is a golden opportunity, for all groups to utilise the skills and time that is there from the Project Officer, from MCDC. These groups could also then contribute to the time cost of the Project Officer, by factoring this into grant applications. This would help each group; provide a dedicated and experienced resource that is available to the whole community, which also ties in with MCDC’s aspirations. When applying for funding, if there is collaborative working, this will be viewed positively by funders.

Morvern Community Development Company

Julia felt that the Directors need to engage a little more with the Project Officer and weekly activity. This only needs to be reflecting on a weekly report, any comments or answering any specific questions. As projects grow and move, the directors will need to be up to speed with the activity. The onus is on the directors although the PO carries out most of the work.

The Big lottery (and other funders) are extremely keen to see that groups do not employ PO’s and then leave all the work to them, they like to see plenty of engagement with PO and also community and public engagement.

A discussion was held regarding line management aspects of the Project Officer post and the meeting agreed that the PO should have 1 line manager of the employee, but the projects should have a board approach.

Open Floor for Questions

Golf Course

Discussion was held over the recent visit by Mr Widget(??) who was interested in taking on the golf course. Angus had met and taken him on a tour and there was a definite interest. The clubs business plan, with volunteer labour to maintain the greens, the number of rounds needed for the club to beak even was 1500. Mr Widget said he would need 2000 to make it viable. Malcolm and Julia both commented that this was still a small income of £20K at £10 per round. Peter said that course membership and club fees would increase that somewhat. Malcolm will investigate funding when started in April and then there will be a Golf Club meeting to discuss the next steps.

Meeting Notices

More notices were requested for future meetings, to encourage more contribution and numbers at the meeting. Notices should be displayed at: -