Regard Annual General Meeting (AGM)

Regard Annual General Meeting took place at Vicarage Lane Community Centre on Sunday December 10^th 2006. Exciting news about the Community Centre later in this Newsletter.

The Minutes of the meeting and notes of a discussion we had will be on our Website. The first part was the business part of the meeting. We read and accepted the minutes of the last AGM and talked about any updates from this AGM. The meeting accepted reports from the Officers of the Committee and elected the Executive Committee (EC) Officers. The Committee still needs new members. We then had a discussion about our Regard policies. These policies tell everyone how Regard works as an organisation and how things should be done. The notes were written up.

Everyone agreed that Regard was still able to offer support and advice to disabled LGBT people and campaign for equality and human rights for our community. We know that it is difficult without funding and with volunteers. However, the meeting recognised that we are doing a lot of positive things.

2. We need you and your skills to join our Executive Committee (EC)

There are still some jobs on the EC that need members to fill the role – members like you! To be an EC member you must be a Regard member and see yourself as having personal experience of the members or groups that you are working with. For example, if you think you would be good at keeping in touch and working with LGBT people with learning difficulties, then you must have a learning difficulty yourself. Other members of the EC and the Officers will give you advice and support. Some of the jobs Officers on the EC do are mentioned in the next section. If you want further information about what is involved in being on the EC and what needs doing, please get in touch with the Secretary.

3. Who are Regard Officers and what do they do?

This is a quick guide to the most important roles for Regard Officers. It does not represent the full duties of each role.

The job of Chairperson is shared. Female co-chairs are Ju Gosling and Karen Shook. Male co-chairs are James Haskins and Phil Reynolds. The job of co-chair includes representing Regard and its members and to make sure that the organisation runs well and according to our legal responsibilities.

Phil Gosling is Regards’ Company Secretary. Phil G deals with our many administrative duties and also makes sure that Regards’ legal responsibilities are up to date, meetings are publicised and notes taken.

Regards’ Treasurer is Julie Newman. She is in charge of the financial side of running Regard.

Regard’ Membership Database expert Phil Reynolds and David Tyler take care of Regard’s electronic information, send out membership information, deal with mail outs.

4. News

Commission for Social Care Inspection

Our Co Chair Ju Gosling, and our Secretary Phil Gosling (confusingly, they are not related!) have joined a committee run by the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI). The committee looks at equality and diversity issues affecting people who receive social care. This could be in a residential home, or provided by an agency in your own home.

The committee brings together disabled people from minority groups who receive social care, including Black and Minority Ethnic and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) disabled people. It tells CSCI what issues affect disabled people in social care, and what CSCI can do to make sure that social care is provided to a high standard.

In January CSCI published its annual report on the state of social care. It concluded that most disabled people who need social care are no longer having this provided by their councils. If people are unable to pay for social care themselves, then they have to go without it. This made front-page news in the papers and was covered by all the television and radio news programmes too.

At the launch of the report, which was held in Westminster, Ju Gosling spoke about the issues affecting LGBT disabled people. She also pointed out that, when the law changes later this year, LGBT disabled people would have a right to equal treatment. The people there agreed that making sure LGBT disabled people receive equal and appropriate services must be a priority in the future.

British Sign Language Interpreters at meetings

Regard will provide BSL Interpreters for those who need them to access Executive Committee meetings and our Annual General Meetings. Interpreters are booked for the next year of meetings

If you are Deaf, use BSL and are on the Committee, you must tell us two weeks before the meeting if you are not able to come. We can then cancel the Interpreters. It is ok if you cannot come at short notice, but please tell us as soon as you can. Interpreters cost lots of money and two are booked for each meeting.

Feminist Audio Books is back!

After a temporary closure, FAB is once again an audiotape postal library service offering around 200 feminist, lesbian and woman-focused books, and 90 minutes of Diva magazine each month. Any woman who does not find it easy to read print, for whatever reason, can use FAB. Membership costs £3, then 0p to £1.50 to borrow a book.

To find out more, contact Linda by phone on: 0161 273 8038 or by post on tape, in Braille or print at: FAB, c/o The Pankhurst Centre, 60 – 62 Nelson Street, Manchester. M13 9WP

Regard Divas in Sex Issue!

Two Regard Officers (Ju and Karen) were featured in a great article about the lives of disabled lesbians and bi women in Diva magazines’ May ‘Sex Issue’ The article was very well written and positive and included the experiences of women with different impairments. The article can be seen in the archive section of Diva on line
http://www.divamag.co.uk/diva/features.asp?AID=2526&s=1

Something for nothing!

There is free stuff and great savings to be made if you go to: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ouch/closeup/freestuff.shtml

Action to improve access at Vicarage Lane Community Centre

The place where Regard meets is to get improvements to its access. We have been concerned about the Centre not meeting our access needs. We have been in touch with Newham Borough with our worries and given them access advice. Access improvements for the Centre have been included in Newhams’ list of works over the next year. This includes better soundproofing, induction loop and improvements to the accessible toilet.

5. Gadget Corner

Do you have a useful gadget that you could not live without? Share it with us. Just tell us what it is, how much it costs and where to get one.

The Magnetic Pick Up Tool. This a very useful little tool for those who have trouble picking things up from the floor. Perfect for dropped keys. It will pick up quite big metal objects weighing several pounds. Pen sized and easy to carry the Pick-Up is telescopic and its full length is 63cm. The handle could be padded out to make gripping easier. It costs £3.99 and can be bought from ‘Essentials by Post’ Website: www.essentialsbypost.co.uk Telephone: 08701 266611. The product number is 2514. This company sells lots of useful and unusual gadgets, things you never knew you needed!

6. Latest News:

London Pride 2007

The main London Pride event was on Saturday 30^th June. Regard had not been asked to advise on access for disabled LGBT Pride goers. Many of the meetings were not accessible. We think that there were some access arrangements in place.

Did you go to London Pride? What did you think of the access? Did you have any problems? If you have any comments or complaints about the Access on the day, please let us know how you got on.

We can let Pride Organisation know about any access problems. We will also be contacting the Sponsors of the London Pride event to let them know about any access problems Regarders have. Regard has found that regional Pride events are often more accessible than the London event. We may focus on making access better at these festivals in the future. If you live outside London and would like advice about improving access at your event, please get in touch with Regard.

Regard Annual General Meeting 2007

This years meeting will be on Saturday 8^th September at Vicarage Lane Community Centre. We hope to have a social get together as well as the AGM. We will be able to provide limited accessible transport to pick people up from main line or tube stations. More information soon.

Calling all organisations that support Regard!

Could you help us? Regard has little funding. We do not have an office or staff. Maybe your organisation can help us with any of these:

· Printing and sending out the Newsletter or mail outs for Annual General Meetings

· Working on our website

Late news! This years Liberty Arts Festival will be on Saturday 1^st September in Trafalgar Square. Contact: liberty@london.gov.uk or ‘phone: 0207 983 4100 for information.

Next issue:

· What was London Pride like for disabled festival-goers?

· Useful websites

· AGM report

Get in touch with us:

    REGARD
    BM Regard
    London WC1N 3XX

Website: www.regard.org.uk

E-mail: secretary@regard.org.uk