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Council Minutes
June 2003
2nd June 2003
CRC Communications Committee Meeting
2 June 2003
Present: Damien McIlroy, Malachy O'Doherty, Michael Wardlow
In attendance: Ray Mullan, Maurna Crozier, Duncan Morrow
Apologies: Eamonn McCartan, Robin Wilson, Mark McCann
In the absence of Eamonn McCartan, Michael Wardlow chaired the meeting.
1. COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP
This was the inaugural meeting of the committee. The Council had agreed that it would contain four Council members and up to four co-opted members. The Council had also agreed that Eamonn McCartan would chair the committee. Two co-optees had been chosen and two further positions were still vacant. Attempts would be made to secure female representation through the two remaining positions. Several names were suggested.
The committee has 3 main and varied activities at its core and these should be kept in mind when considering selection.
2. INTRODUCTORY COMMENTS BY CHIEF EXECUTIVE
(Duncan was unable to stay for the duration of the meeting).
(A) The committee's area of responsibility was broad – with community relations incorporating cultural diversity
(B) Importantly, CRC's communications strategy needs developed.
This will mean looking at:
Our use of the media and publications grant schemes
The way we communicate- what are the most appropriate vehicles?
Whom should CRC target?
The CEO suggested that there are four core audiences for CRC.
Politicians
Networks of Public organisations
CR activists funded by CRC
General Public
Cutting across all of these groups is the academic audience.
Michael Wardlow then asked if Duncan felt that CRC already adequately targeted any of the groups?'
Duncan replied that CRC had done so sporadically. He said all CRC committees need to look at how they address the four audiences. However he did say that, compared to the early 90s, a lot of positive change has occurred.
(C ) (i) Duncan wants CRC publications to address the 'key quality of life questions in NI', to promote a plural and inter-related society and to enhance Equity/Diversity/Interdependence (this concept is dying under its own weight but we can't throw baby out with the bath water).
(ii) The communications committee should have a central role in and knowledge of CRC activities. All members collectively must be active in developing the working strategy.
3. TERMS OF REFERENCE
The rules and regulations for committee members and conduct of the committee are standard to all CRC committees.
With reference to the equality category reference on membership Damien objected to the use of the 'etc.' . Membership should be as inclusive as possible. It was argued that 'etc' was covered in the CRC's Section75 Equality scheme guidelines. However it was agreed that the issue should be flagged up and raised with the Council Chair.
4. BROAD AREAS OF WORK
(a) Communications strategy
Malachi asked 'what was to be communicated?'. Ray indicated Council was currently formulating its response to the Government's Shared Future consultation on improving relations, and would also be producing a new Strategic Plan this year. This would inform any CRC communications strategy. The committee agreed that it would be useful if Robin Wilson (who was also chair of the policy development committee) were to agree to produce some ideas on a communications strategy for the committee to discuss at its next meeting (Sept.)
It was suggested that the CRC should be a learning zone – at present CRC fund a lot of work but don't write up lessons from the projects. The best should be written up as models of good practice.
Damien pointed out that best practice should also be drawn from British and European sources. These would facilitate good comparative learning.
The new EU research role within CRC may help develop this aspect. Disseminating the learning from the research would be one of the Communications Programme's functions.
(b) media and publications grant scheme
The combined budget for the two schemes is £120,000 per year, although the borders between two are porous to allow transfer depending on need.
The Media grant scheme has been under-utilised. Indeed, it has recently been used as a support fund for other grant schemes.
Both schemes originated as cultural diversity schemes but were incorporated in the Community Programme two years ago, and have now been moved to the Communications and Learning Resources Programme
new outline for Publications Grant Scheme
(i) Michael asked if established publishers would be favoured? Ray answered that all would be treated equally, subject to their ability to demonstrate in their application that they can achieve distribution targets.
(ii) Damien noted his unease over the use of the term local cultural diversity. He wondered if it discouraged ethnic minorities from applying? Further, Damien feared the term might exclude cross-border issues which have a bearing on NI.
Malachi said the dominant problem here is the catholic/protestant division, therefore the focus should rightly be on this, but agreed that provision shouldn't preclude other minority groups getting funding if their issue has implications for NI. It was further pointed out that use of the term local hadn't discouraged ethnic and other minorities before.
It was suggested that the term 'local' be removed but there was concern that this might draw the focus away from Northern Ireland.
(iii) Malachi asked if the provision of Publications Grants was actually impeding dissemination of publications since publishers might have little incentive to promote the subsidised book ?'
The consensus was that this won't be problem as:
grants stipulate how many copies are to be funded;
even though there is a provision to re-coup money if sales of the publication make a significant profit, this has rarely arisen;
it is a condition of the grant that the publication is marketed and a report of sales furnished to CRC
(iv) Grants over £10,000 need to seek Council approval. Other awards can be decided by the committee with Council merely being informed.
Assessing Publication grant requests
The committee decided that decisions on Publications grant applications should be made by the full committee at its scheduled meetings. Staff recommendations and readers reports would be available to facilitate this. In dealing with the current backlog and any other future applications which could not be deferred to the next meeting, it was agreed that committee members could be approached individually for a decision. Likewise committee members might be approached to suggest the names of possible readers.
Readers were being asked to assess the value of the publication as well as whether it met the CRC criteria of the scheme. But committee members would have the final say on this.
Maurna stressed that works of fiction will not be considered. The committee agreed and it was stated that this needs to be written into the scheme criteria.
Scheme isn't about funding 'gaps' – it's about funding understanding.
Further, the committee don't have to fund every history book which touches upon NI – 'dying together' isn't enough.
CRC should be funding publications aimed at reducing sectarianism, not promoting separate single identity interests. But there was a value in publications which created greater understanding of and respect for diversity within Northern Ireland.
The committee suggested that the scheme should be advertised in local magazines. The scheme description and criteria needed to be first agreed at the September meeting.
Committee members must declare any interest they may have in a publication and can have no input in the discussion on it.
Publications currently under review
The committee considered the nine publications grant applications that had been received. These had not yet been sent for readers reports. It was decided to reject one of these as not having sufficient community relations relevance. Another was declared already published and thus ineligible.
It was agreed to request readers reports on the others and suggestions of names of readers were offered.
It was agreed that if reports and recommendations on these were available before the next meeting members could be approached by post for a decision.
Media grants scheme
Possible future uses of the media grant scheme were briefly discussed.
These included proactively commissioning material, engaging the broadcasters and targeting more informal media outlets.
In the meantime it was agreed that if any worthy media grant applications were received they could be considered.
5. IN CONCLUSION
It was felt that more elaboration was necessary of Duncan's introductory remarks. This should feed in to any future discussion of communications strategy. Also some indication of the Council's priorities and direction was essential to the development of a communications strategy.
Next meeting: First choice -2pm Tuesday 9 September
Second choice -2pm Wednesday 10 September.
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