Agenda and draft minutes

Prior to the commencement of business, a minutes silence was held for Councillor Mrs Heames who had recently passed away.

There were no declarations of interest stated.

To consider the minutes of the previous meeting of this Panel held on 2 October, 2014

Resolved:-               That the minutes of the meeting held on 2 October, 2014 be agreed as a correct record.

To receive a verbal update on Members ICT

The Council’s ICT Operations and Development Manager updated Members on the current position.

Reference was made to the Cabinet report which was submitted to the meeting on 14 January, 2015.  The recommendations of this Panel from the October meeting were agreed.

In relation to recommendation one, it was reported that a report could be sent to group leaders advising of any Members who were not checking their emails regularly and when they had last logged on.  It was stressed that all Members must regularly check their emails.

Recommendation two referred to the printing off of emails.  There were still several Members for whom this was done.  However, this practice would cease in the near future.

The Chair stated that he would approach group leaders with a list of the Members not using their emails and try to resolve the issue. 

Recommendation three was to cease the courier service.  This would take effect after the May 2015 elections.  Members would then have to access their documents electronically or visit the Civic Offices at least once a week to collect their mail.

Recommendation four stated that, following this year’s elections, all newly elected Members would receive a tablet to receive all of their Council related documents and would receive no printed material. Recommendation five referred to the remaining 39 Members being given the option of a tablet rather than their printed material until the end of their current term, after which they would have to use a tablet.

The ICT Operations and Development Manager stated that he wanted to get all of the trial members together to discuss problems and improvements.  A suggestion was made to set up an Tablet User Group.

The Restricted items issue and the file storage would be looked at as would any requirement for storing important documents.

A suggestion was made that prior to the elections, an open event could be arranged to show the Members what the tablets were capable of.  Tablet trial members would be invited along to promote them.

Resolved:-              (i)       That the information be received.

(ii)       That a trial users session be arranged to discuss problems and any improvements.

(iii)      That the Chair meet with Group Leaders to disuss the email issues.

The Member Training and Development Officer advised Members of a few alterations to the Training and Development Strategy 2015-16. 

The changes had been made due to the requirement for all Members to check their emails daily and the imminent cessation of the courier service. 

The Strategy was also amended to reflect the issuing of tablet devices from May, 2015.

In addition, at the previous meeting, the Member Training and Development Officer had been requested to put together a training programme for the next Municipal year.   

Resolved:-              (i)       That the information be received.

                               (ii)       That the training programme be agreed.

Consideration was given to the Work Programme for the Panel.

Members stated that they were not happy with the Member’s Web-page.  They were advised that this was currently under review by IT with the intention of moving the information across to a more accessible area which would then become ‘owned’ by the Member Development Panel and could be updated by the Member Training and Development Officer. 

A request was made that the Council’s Head of Communications be invited to the next meeting to be advised what Members would like to see on the site.

Resolved:-             (i)       That the information be received.

                               (ii)       That the Head of Communications be invited to

attend the next meeting.

There was no urgent business.