Minute of Torry Matters Action Group Meeting held on Thursday 30th October 2008 in Tullos Community Centre

1. Present
Jimmy, June, Mary Cowie, Mary Cruickshank, Billie, Nick, Sasha, Sandra, Wendy, Clare.

Apologies
Betty, Chrissie, Hazel.

In Attendance
Kate Anderson, Anne Knight, Mandy Clarke.

2. a) Minute of previous meeting
Agreed by Annie and June.

Gala
Mandy had come along and asked to be taken first to explain where the Whitespace bid for the Gala had come from. It had arisen from discussion Mandy had had with local people (Annie) about getting back to the old fashioned type of gala and have a circus theme. Mandy had submitted the bid on the basis of costs she had got from professional circus company. Included costs for workshops prior to the event for local people so that there could be a performance on the day.

Everyone agreed that fun for kids was what the gala should be about.

b) Matters Arising
i) Drugs Worker
Nick said that fulltime post for Torry should be formally pursued. Kate raised the issue that there were Citywide services out there that people didn't know about for drug users e.g. Phoenix Plus and perhaps some sort of familiarisation exercise would be useful for people.

3. Fairer Scotland Bids and updates
All bids had to be in by Monday past. Torry bids come to more than is available for the whole of city. Fairer Scotland Board will meet to decide in last week of November. Torry Matters, Pensioners Playground Subgroup have submitted a bid. They have also met with Sandy Mathers (ACVO) so that they can be constituted are meeting with Jim Nicol (Design & Development Officer ACC) to look at location of the park and what support ACC might be able to offer. The group has also written letters to companies in the area asking for financial support.

4. Community Voices
Kate handed out sheet showing that September - December money £3002 has all been committed to Douneside as agreed by Torry Matters.

5. Torry Trumpet
Bob Gibb has said he will give half the next issue over to Torry Matters, Kate has given him some material already. Question of who's paying still unclear - Community Voices £900 still available for printing if required. Still have quite a lot of previous Torry Trumpet at Tullos, some people were not comfortable with front page and 'druggie' label. Writers proof read own material. Next edition to be produced very soon.

6. Housing Issues
June had asked for this to be put on the agenda as she felt Torry Matters had moved away from some of the issues she would like to see discussed. She would like to ask Gordon McIntosh or his representative about things like 'what is homelessness', 'how does the housing allocation system work in Aberdeen'. Agreed to have sub meeting the following Wednesday 5th at 11.30am in Torry Community Learning to devise questions, June and Mary Cruickshank agreed to attend.

7. Report back from TPAS Conference
Annie reported back. She gave out handout re the Government's perspective on Tenant Participation. She said Council's had a legal duty to support Tenants Associations and she was pursuing this with Carol and Sandy with regard to Torry. Had been good conference in terms of venue and networking with people from other areas.

 8. Date, Time and Place of next meeting
The next meeting will take place on Thursday 11th December 9.30am- 11.30am followed by snack lunch at Tullos Community Centre.