SACH
SACH AGM 2009
Minute of Annual General Meeting held on 23rd September 2009 at 7pm
at the Beardmore Hotel Clydebank
Present Rosemary Bayne, Derek Brown, Helen Christie, Margery Collin, Stanley Cook, Fred Coutts, Bob Devenney, Sue Duncan, James Falconer, Kevin Franz, Andrew Graham, Allan Grant, Margaret Hill-Tout, Debbie Hodge, Mohammad Ishaq, Russell Jones, Muriel Knox, Sarah Lawson, Anne MacDonald, Lynne MacMurchie, Ivor McClure, Marian McElhinney, John McMahon, Anne Mulligan, Gillian Munro, Lorna Murray, Timothy Njuguna, Ken Russell, Keith Saunders, T.K. Shadakshari, Jim Simpson
Apologies Sandra Bell, May Cairns, Cameron Langlands, Ian Macdonald, Robert Macleod, Iain Telfer, John Thomson
Minutes Minute of AGM held on 16th September 2008 was approved – proposed by Jim Simpson, seconded by Helen Christie
Matters Arising To be covered in the agenda
President’s Report The President highlighted ongoing changes and developments in healthcare chaplaincy. A copy of the report is attached to this minute.
Statistical Report Fred Coutts intimated the following figures for 2009:
members 131 - whole time 48; part time 58; associate 25
Fred was thanked for his work as web master.
Treasurer’s Report The General Fund stands at £3789.80 and the Training and Development Fund at £3829.06. Income had dropped as there are fewer members this year and fees remain unaltered. The main expenditure was in fees paid to UKBHC.
Fred Coutts asked for clarification re legal status. The Treasurer confirmed that as SACH is not a charity there was no need to involve OSCR.
The report had been accepted by the auditors and was adopted by the meeting – proposed by Stan Cook, seconded by Allan Grant.
Election of Office Bearers Office bearers for the coming year were elected as follows:
President - Derek Brown - proposed by Anne Mulligan, seconded by Rosemary Bayne
Secretary - Margery Collin - proposed by Gillian Munro, seconded by James Falconer
Treasurer - Andrew Graham - proposed by Stan Cook, seconded by John McMahon
Committee members:
Sarah Lawson – proposed by Gillian Munro, seconded by Rosemary Bayne
Allan Grant – proposed by Anne MacDonald, seconded by Muriel Knox
Retiring members Evelyn Cairns and Ken Russell were thanked for their services over the years.
AOCB
Church of Scotland it was noted that as the Church of Scotland Ministries Council had been instructed to review chaplaincy arrangements in NHS Boards it is the intention of the Council to consult/meet with chaplains to obtain views on current and future arrangements
SACH Soundings in response to a query from Fred Coutts as to the required frequency of Soundings, it was agreed unanimously to continue producing 4 per year as this helps members to keep in touch with events. Members were then encouraged to share more news to be included in the newsletter.
Close The president thanked Ewan Kelly for arranging the AGM as part of the annual conference. There being no other business the meeting was closed.
President's Report
I thought I’d set myself a challenge for this report and see if I could introduce each section with the title of a Beatles song. There’s no particular reason for this other than to spice up what can be a trifle tedious.
So only in the order in which I could think of a suitable track here goes:
Hello Goodbye: During the year the Executive said a fond farewell to Chris Levison and a hearty hello to his successor, Ewan Kelly. We invited Chris to a lunch after one of our meetings and presented him with a small memento on behalf of SACH in recognition of his sterling work on behalf of chaplaincy over his 7 year tenure asa training and development officer.
Ewan was kind enough to take time out of his new appointment to speak to the Executive and outline some of the issues that he would be dealing with such as education, audit and research and the government’s penchant for the softer side of healthcare such as patient experience and palliative care.
The Long and Winding Road: Yes, this is to do with registration! The UK Board of Healthcare Chaplaincy was formally established by the four professional associations last year. All members would have been sent information about what this development means for chaplains, initially and most importantly, registering with the Board.
The Executive has been monitoring progress on this and it has been a rather painful process at times as the website on which the process depends has not been up to scratch. One of the developments of this is that the period for signing up to the register without further training has been extended for some months. It really is important to ensure that any of our members not currently registered or in the process of doing so should take this opportunity.
We were also a little perturbed to find that the HCC in England were planning to duplicate much of what had been put in place by the Board and negotiations are under way to resolve this difference of approach.
Help!: Following some discussions about how SACH could support its members more effectively the Executive considered how this might be done in practice outside of line management and team structures. We didn’t think that creating more meetings would really meet the concerns raised and we wondered if technology might be an answer and create an e-forum of some kind where chaplains could discuss issues of concern or share good practice. We’ve yet to have a discussion with the webmaster, however!
Piggies: The Beatles truly do have a song for the discussions we had on, you’ve guessed it, swine flu! We even had the Sunday Times calling for a quote about it last weekend. Margery fooled them by saying the I couldn’t answer because I was in hospital. The reporter obviously believed here and didn’t call back!
You’ve got to hide your love away: We spent some time discussing an issue which comes up from time to times without having a satisfactory answer. It is about being in good standing with a faith community and arose from the debate held at this year’s General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. One answer is to change denominations, as does happen in the US, but is that really the answer?
Paperback Writer: The Journal goes on from strength to strength with plenty of copy and a research edition lined up for next spring. We are most grateful to the joint editors, Iain and Janet, and to all who help behind the scenes getting it to members. However it has to be said that neither of the editors currently work as a chaplain: Iain is on secondment and Janet is moving to a parish, and this is something which the editorial board is addressing.
Getting Better: We spent some time discussing the CEL, at the SCDC and at the Executive. This document you’ll remember came out at the end of last year and re-iterated the groundbreaking HDL and impressed on Health Boards the importance of continuing to support spiritual care
I’ll follow the Sun: I was in Orlando in February conducting a workshop on palliative care standards during the Spiritual Care Collaborative (6 Pastoral care organisations in US/Canada). It wasn’t an official SACH visit but highlights the impressive work we have pioneered here and the high regard chaplaincy in Scotland is held.
Margery was in Belgium attending the ECPCC in August and SACH assisted with her travel.
I should have known better: Only true Beatles fans will remember this one! It relates to my agreeing to write a critique of the APC standards for the journal Chaplaincy Today and being interviewed for a medical ethics journal.
Why don’t we do it in the road? No, that’s just gratuitous.