Do you feel passionate about our area and want to be part of changing it for the better? On 28th February 2019, we will be holding the Annual General Meeting – and this is your chance to stand or nominate someone to stand for the committee. The committee sets the agendas for the meetings, making sure we are pursuing the issues we and members of the group think are important, and maintains relationships and communications with all the agencies we work with such as the Council, the Universities, the Community Protection Team, the Police, the Student Unions, etc.
So if you feel you would like to positively influence our area and help solve some of the issues we face, please consider becoming a member of the committee – and here is some practical information to help you decide:

Becoming a committee member

How often does the committee meet?

We have met approximately 4-5 times in the last year; this tends to be to plan a residents’ meeting, and to plan strategy around the various issues happening, and to plan how to respond to events such as community trigger meetings, communications from partners such as the Police or the Council etc. We have met in the evening at the home of someone on the committee, but we can alter the timing and locations of meetings to suit everyone on the committee.

What posts are open?

You can stand for any post (you can view our constitution for the detail). However we particularly have a vacancy for a committee member for Planning and HMO Issues, and a Committee Member for Social Media.

Committee Member for Planning and HMO issues – a member of the committee who can keep up to date with current legislation regarding HMOs and Planning in our area, can work with the HMO & Planning sub-committee to build up a picture of information about our area; particularly where houses are not conforming to planning legislation in being unlicensed HMOs or having more tenants than they are licensed for; or carrying out extensions which are not monitored by Building Regulations or Planning (where the extension falls outside permitted development). This does not mean you have to do all the work yourself – we have people able and willing to help with this information collection.

Committee Member for Social Media – currently we have a Twitter account and Facebook public page which the current Chair and Secretary try to post on as often as we can, but we think we could raise our profile a bit more, especially if someone who is social media savvy was willing to take on the role and perhaps extend our reach to other social media platforms. We would especially like to raise our profile more with students in the area and be able to positively influence behaviour. We would want the Committee Member for Social Media to look after those accounts and help us in our communications with people in the area – both long and short-term residents – to build a sense of community.

How do I become a Committee Member?

You need to get a nomination form, state which post you would like to stand for, and get two other members of the association to propose and second you, then return the form preferably before the AGM but definitely at the AGM. There is a Word Document version of the form, if you want to fill it in electronically, or a PDF version if you don’t have Word and just want to print it out.

If more than one person stands for any post we would hold an election by show of hands at the AGM.