Forest Hill Ward Assembly Coordinating Group

The Forest Hill Coordinating Group is meeting tomorrow (Tuesday 15 November) at 7.15pm at the cafe area of Forest Hill Pools. The Group is open for any local residents to join. If you recall I posted previously about how little information and transparency there was about this group. So, thought I’d let you all know when we are meeting and the remit of the group. If you can’t make it please feel free to reply to this message or send me a PM with specific thoughts on any of the below.

Roles and responsibilities of coordinating group

Meeting planning

• Plan the agenda for each assembly meeting.
• Provide advice on how to make assembly agendas relevant to the different communities in your ward and make sure meetings are planned to make them accessible and enjoyable.
• Assist, where possible, in the practical delivery of assembly meetings.

Engagement and publicity

• Advise on engagement / involvement strategies and publicity to get as many people taking part in assemblies as possible (both at meetings and contributing via other methods such as the web and focus groups).
• Promote the assembly through neighbours and friends, blogs, local community groups and the local media including local notice boards.
• Help produce written materials for the assembly and advise on / help with distribution to raise awareness and maximise the impact of the assembly
• Consider how to reach groups that do not traditionally get involved e.g. young professionals, Black and Minority Ethnic communities, young people, migrant communities and refugees - this may often involve thinking of ways to involve people other than coming to assembly meetings
• Reach out and connect with other local networks e.g. the Safer Neighbourhood Panel, trader groups, tenants and residents associations, health providers, young people’s clubs, friends of parks groups, pensioners clubs etc.
  Help to ensure the meetings are representative of the ward both in terms of people joining in from all parts of the ward and making sure participants reflect of the ward’s diversity. Use the assembly’s performance data and ward profiles to assist with this.

Action planning and funding

• Advise on providing information to assemblies that assist them making choices about their priorities, so that they are relevant to as many different communities as possible and in as many different parts of the ward.
• Consider approaches to be used by the assembly in recommending the allocation of the Assembly Fund, including voting methods.
• Where relevant, help to sift funding applications to ensure they meet the assembly’s criteria.

Hi. I really dont know anything about your group. Who are you? Private individuals? Council led? You mention the Assembly? What’s that?

Sorry if my questions are basic but just wondering what this group is and how it fits into the community.

See this thread for more info Jason xx

Hi Starman, Sorry I should have been more clear. This is a group that coordinates the Forest Hill Assembly. It is organised by the council. I don’t know too much about it, I only posted as I’ve not found much information online and been quite critical of how it all works. This will be my first meeting and I’m hoping others who are interested may come along too.

Thanks. I get what the coordinating group is. I’m still not clear what or who the Assembly is.

Lewisham Assembly meetings are quarterly & open to all, they discuss community goings on.

Personally I don’t have a problem with how Assembly funding works & certainly won’t attend any coordinating meetings as I do sometimes apply for funding for community events, so think it would be unfair for me to share an opinion.

See this page from the borough website.

Thanks for posting this Robin, I must also make all aware that @MayaOnyett regularly sends updates to our FHTA Google group which also includes our local Cllr’s & police, about goings on in Forest Hill Assembly Ward.

Most is generally related to peeps in our Google group (and would probably be boring to most on here) & I have shared on here what I’ve thought might be of interest to the wider community.

Please let me know if anyone wants anything in particular shared & I will share. But I don’t think most would be of any interest to most

Hi Pauline, the upcoming coordinating group meeting isn’t discussing funding. These meetings would only follow when there are bids. I agree I don’t think its appropriate to attend if you’re applying but from my understanding (though I could be wrong) the group is primarily about raising awareness and thinking through how best to engage the local community in the assemblies. Please feel free to come along if you’ve got ideas about this. I’m hopefully going to ensure these meetings are more transparent.

Nice to meet you yesterday @Diana_Hawk. I hope you found the meeting useful and interesting.

Hi @Michael nice to meet you as well last week. Looking forward to the assembly meeting and hoping that more people will get involved!

Perhaps the name of this group should be retitled as the Forest Hill Assembly Coordinating Group to make its purpose more obvious?

Reminds me of…

Excuse me, are you the Judean People’s Front?

F**k off! We’re the People’s Front of Judea

Splitta!

(Search YouTube for Life of Brian - The People’s Front of Judea)

Just a note that the Coordinating group are meeting today at 7.15pm in the FH Library. All are welcome!