Members of the PB Network’s Steering Group met at the Manchester office of Church Action on Poverty in late June 2014, to discuss strengthening the structure and widening the impact of the Network. As an unfunded body we rely on input from members and supporters.
Our Steering Group is guiding those who have been carrying the workload of running the Network since it was formed in September 2012. Much of our secretarial support, including news on this site and our e-bulletin is provided by PB Partners and their parent social enterprise Shared Future CIC.
Made up of leading practitioners and experts in the field of community participation from across the country, they agreed to be part of the future of the network following our last big gathering in January 2014.
As well as receiving reports on the early results from our 2014 PB survey (still open if you wish to contribute), the group looked at practical issues, such as improving our internal governance and processes. We embarked on a number of initiatives, such as a communications plan, and looked at options for becoming an incorporated body. Ideas that will be brought back to future meetings of the wider network for deeper consideration.
One popular idea we will try and explore is using forms of PB to spend our own resources. So that everyone can contribute to our development. We tried this in a very small way with our PB survey. We donated a small amount of the money we’ve raised to a well known charity or campaign, as an small inducement to contribute to the survey.
We are pleased to report that a popular charity from the responses received to date (1st August 2014) is MacMillan Cancercare. But there are many other worthy causes you can back if you complete the survey. Finally, we’ll be sending a special bulletin out later this month with more details of our next gathering, likely to be in mid October.
- The Survey is still open, so you can still have your say