MEMBERS PRESENT
JEAN FISHPOOL CHAIRMAN
SHIRLEY BALDWIN VICE CHAIRPERSON
MARGARET VALLELEY SECRETARY
MOLLY HODGES, TREASURER
ROY ADAMS
DIANE HOWLS
MRS BARNFIELD
SALLY ANN SMITH
BETTY MARCHANT
JO ANSCOMBE
NANCY EVANS
LILLIAN JONES
MENAI ROBERTS
PEGGY CAVANAGH
LESLIE BEEKS
GORDON CARTWRIGHT
DOUGLAS GREEN
TINA WALSH
JOAN ROBBINS
MARTIN SMITH HEREFORDSHIRE HOUSING

1. Welcome and apologies
Jean opened the meeting and welcomed all members present. She welcomed Sally Ann Smith - a new member to the group. Jean told members that Jack Halfpenny would not be able to attend the meetings for a while as his wife was not well. Apologies were from: Mary West, Jack Halfpenny, Mary Cartwright, Greta Ashford, June Bates, Eddie Clark and Jim Russell.

2. Minutes from the last meeting
All members had received a copy of the minutes and they were accepted as a true record of the proceedings.

3. Matters arising from the last meeting
Tony Jaques had said at the last meeting that lifts would be installed on some schemes within months. Hopefully we will have a break- down of the service charge soon.

4. Guest Speaker
Jean welcomed this month's guest speaker - Martin Smith Director of Communication to the meeting.
Martin told the group that Herefordshire Housing seek to develop customer involvement through a small team. The Customer Involvement Team is made up of Helen Greenway, (Manager) Sarah , James, (Customer Involvement Officer) Jennifer Preedy, (Communications Officer) and Susana Piohtee, (Community Liaison officer). There are four themes to our strategy for involving our customers.

a) Understanding our residents.

b) Communicating effectively with our residents.

c) Developing and maintaining effective channels for involvement

d) Ensuring that the company responds to the views of our residents;

The Customer Involvement Team responds to the tenants' individual comments. They also work with established resident groups. Each group have representatives on the Federation.
Herefordshire Housing has an annual survey, open days, tenant testers, focus groups and mystery shoppers.

A successful tenant consultation day was held recently and Herefordshire Housing gained a lot of feed-back from that day. Service review groups have also been set up. These cover: anti- social behaviour, repairs and the improvement programme.

Communication between Herefordshire Housing and our tenants is very important to the company. Members said that they felt there was still some lack of communication between tenants and their landlord.

Lifts and showers were still a big issue with the elderly and disabled. With the lack of care homes and people living longer these services are becoming more important.

Jean thanked Martin for a very interesting presentation.

5.Treasurers Report .
After paying for our Easter lunch we now have £192: 07p in the bank.

6. Tenant Liaison Meetings
Innesfield was cancelled.

Penyard Gardens had a good turn out.

Members expressed their concern over the amount of cancelled liaison meetings.

7. Any Other Business
Ballinger Court: We still have no news about a communal kitchen.
Tony Jaques promised to get back - but still no answer.
Susana Piohtee had come along to explain to the group about travel expenses. If you use your own car to attend meetings you are able to claim 40p a mile for petrol.

Claim forms can be got from Susana or any member of Herefordshlre Housing Staff.

Funding for the gardening competition. Susana said the group, needed to update its constitution so that she could
apply for funding. She needed a vote from members to allow the alteration. The vote was unanimous.

Members thanked Pam Haskell for the prizes she donated to the group.

8. Guest Sneaker for the next meeting
Members decided to invite Gordon Shirley and Alan Farrington as guest speakers to the next meeting.

9. Date and Venue for the next meetine:
The next meeting will be held at Ballinger Court on Thursday 1st June at 10:30am.

Jean thanked Martin Smith again for coming and she then closed the meeting.