Minutes of the cpd25 Steering Group
15^th July 2008, 10.30am, University of Westminster

Present: Mary Nixon (Chair), David Gee, Janet Smith, Judith Cattermole, Suzy Ball (Administrator)

In attendance: Caroline Fletcher (for the Pperations Management Task Group)

1. Apologies: Carole Pickaver, Michelle Wake

2. Minutes of previous meeting: Accepted as an accurate record.

3. Financial Update: Suzy issued a written report to the group outlining the events, subscriptions and overall balance of the cpd25 account. The turnover of the account was discussed and it was felt that the surplus funds needed to remain in the account in order to allow cpd25 to continue to finance the events as at present. Event overheads are frequently paid for in advance of the fees being received.
The issue of suspending the acceptance of bookings from institutions with high levels of outstanding debts to the consortium was discussed and the administrator will contact the institution in this position.

4. Task group reports: [Written summaries were submitted by Michelle, David and Janet prior to the meeting]

David reported that the Career Development Group will hold ten events during 08/09 as part of a professional qualifications support programme. ACLIP and chartership candidates are the intended audience for the series but one off bookings from those not seeking qualifications will also be encouraged. A career progression day for library assistants and a mini-series of discussion forums for staff development officers are also being planned.

Caroline gave an update on the activities of the Operations Management Group. It was suggested that an event intended to focus on customer services in the retail and business sector be extended to cover the methods of customer research and feedback employed.  During Caroline’s report the group generated the idea of a staging a change management conference during 2009-10. The event could aim to cover all the elements involved with change and run over two days to allow time for breakout sessions.

Judith explained that the remit of the Personal Effectiveness and Management Group is to be redrafted. The group members had recently discussed their audience and feel that the majority of library roles are catered for by the events staged during the year. In order to cover costs the fees for the new manager’s series will be increased along with the coping at the counter events.

Janet informed the group that the User Resources and Services Group now had ten members and the latest member to join will help the group address the systems side of their remit more thoroughly. The group are aiming to hold a conference on the future of academic libraries in April 2009 and up to six people will share the planning involved.

5. Chairs Update:

Mary reported to the M25 Steering Group that whilst the average attendance for each event has increased during 2007-8 the actual number of events and attendees is less than last year. John Gilby and Dave Puplett are currently working on the consortiums websites in order to replace the cpd25 events calendar, add an online diary of meeting dates on the M25 site and produce usage statistics for all of the consortium’s sites.

Suzy and Mary are to meet Frances Norton, of the M25 Marketing and Communications Working Group, in order to discuss the branding of cpd25.

In order to feed into the planning process of the cpd25 task groups the M25 Steering Group will hold their planning day before that held annually by cpd25. Mary suggested that the members of the consortiums two steering groups should meet informally in the near future in order to move towards a more collaborative way of working.

6. Event Ideas:

Mary suggested that there is a need for events covering disaster management, job rotation and action learning sets. Judith agreed to work with Mary and three M25 working group members on designing a series of events for senior managers.

7. Exchange Scheme:

Mary reported that the scheme may be revived for Autumn 2009 in a new guise. The task group chairs are to approach their groups in order to look for a volunteer to manage the new placement scheme. The M25 Steering group members have been asked to provide places for potential placements but an area on the website and a ‘virtual’ contact will be needed.

8. Travel Prize:

Sarah Arkle, University of Bedfordshire, will be attending the 2008 IFLA conference in Quebec. Mary will contact Sarah to arrange her attendance at the M25 Steering Group winter meeting and the cpd25 review event.

9. AOB

Suzy informed the group that Dave Puplett has added an RSS feed button to the website.

Next meeting: 2.30pm, 17^th October 2008, Room TBC University of Westminster.