Academi Heddwch Cymru steering group Meeting - Feb 6th 2013 at 1.30pm Chapter Cardiff
Present
George Crabb, Anne Greagsby, Jane Harris, Kay
Holder, Max Wallis, Marie Walsh, Diana Marquand, Tony Young (TY) and Mustapha
Megrahi
Guest speaker: John Cox (JC), accompanied by Jill
Gough and her partner Jon Plumpton
Apologies Robin Gwyndaf,
Peter Polish
After a late start (1.45) people introduced
themselves.
Marie read out 'ground rules' she had circulated
previously and went through each one. MW
asked for one on limiting chair’s interventions. We moved into a private room
when available at 2.05
It was agreed to listen to a statement to the
committee from Robin Gwyndaf before proceeding, in which he hoped we world work
together.
John Cox agreed to speak for no more than 20
minutes on the history of the project from his perspective (he asked for 40
mins) adding to his 80 page summary circulated in advance. 30 minutes was agreed for the item, starting
at 2.10, but the chair allowed JC to overrun, with Q&A lasting till 3.15.
JC's first involvement was as a substitute for
Stephen Thomas on a trip to Brussels and the Flanders Peace Institute. They found this was govt-supported Institute,
established as a Coalition condition relating to rivalry with Wallonia, very
different political circumstances to ours in Wales.
CyW held meetings in Aberystwyth first on 14th
March 2009 – where very many organisations gave support to the concept - then a
'conference' 4th July 2009, which agreed to petition the Senedd (Petitions
Cttee). JC said the Steering group for the project was set up at the latter
event.
George read from 'summary notes' to clarify claims
of the July meeting having status as an initial conference electing a steering
group – it was called a ‘working group’ and 'project meeting/cyfarfod prosiect'
(in the 11 June invitation from Cynefin y Werin) and set up an “interim
steering group” (members Ben Gregory, Phil Steele, Stephen Thomas, John Cox,
Jill Gough, Robin Gwyndaf, Kelvin Mason, Linda Rogers). Max said Ben Gregory had written saying he
had not been contacted or involved in recent years.
The Petition was submitted in Sept. 2009 by 4
organisations (WCIA, Cwmdeithas y Cymod, CND Cymru and CyW). JC spoke of
difficulties because the First Minister opposed it by letter, based on
misinformation from civil servants.
Further difficulties as the Welsh Centre for International Affairs (WCIA) with Stephen Thomas named as 'lead petitioner', as a result of
Stephen leaving the WCIA
(AG objected to a slur on Stephen) and his Deputy (Martin Pollard) being
unsupportive. Also 3 of the 4 members of the Petitions C'ttee were in support
of an Academi/Institute.
After
the Assembly elections in 2011, the new Petitions Cttee held a public
consultation and issued their report in January 2012 - this referred the issue
to the all-party Human Rights Cttee which never met (and is not a formal Senedd
body). JC said he'd done nothing the
last year because Trident became the big issue for CND Cymru, through to the
October 15th demo.
In the discussion on the claim that the 2009
Steering group has precedence – despite not functioning and different
composition from the names JC claimed, not elected at a first Conference but
volunteers at the workshop for an interim group - Marie stated that nobody was
attempting to be over anyone else.
Other points – we were mistaken about work on the
Petition continuing, but it's unwise to argue over this – better to raise it as
a person matter
JC and GC were upset at people saying the Petition
for a peace institute had come to a “dead end” and “full stop”. MW quoted the Minutes “run into the sand”
from Stephen and DM thought 'in the long grass' may have been used and seems
appropriate.
The 2 meetings last October did not claim
ownership, but CyW invited interested people and groups to get momentum for a
new and separate initiative. AG pointed
out that a steering group had been agreed 9 Oct
with others added 16th Oct. 2012
DM was grateful for background, which gave her
hope we could still get politicians onside – we should look forward to
this. JH mentioned continuation in
concept – not something new – but it doesn’t matter that much. Maybe things
take time, but we are compromising with the title Academi Heddwch Cymru.
MarieW and TY supported using Academi Heddwch
Cymru, Robin's personal favourite, and this was agreed.
MW
circulated the proposed internet publicity that had been discussed at that
morning's Conference group, with Academi Heddwch Cymru prominent between the
'dove' symbol and Henry Richard statue. This would be used on conference
publicity and AG would send around amended versions.
JC agreed to this while asking to use the word
'institute' for meetings with AMs; no-one saw this as a problem.
At 3.15pm, Marie moved to the scheduled business
The word 'inaugural' conference gives
confusion. Discussion followed on the
need to be clear we are establishing a more formal body on 23 March. MW took up the proposal in the circulated
draft detailed programme for the Conference to elect an interim management
board, with remit to raise funds and prepare constitution for formally
establishing an Academi.
JC said it's a mistake to set up a Peace Inst now
– should learn to walk before we run - make sure we have wider support
first. To pre-empt things with a
particular format is a mistake. JH
thought time wasted raking up the past – we need to be as inclusive as
possible. MW said lots of work done and
a lot of people won to support the case to the Petitions Cttee. The new project
as Robin proposed was to use the 2014 WW1 Centenary to prepare to set up the
Institute as a commemorative project. We
need an interim body with terms of remit for this purpose. Robin reported back from the recent meeting
on the WW1 Centenary. It needs an embryonic
organisation empowered to apply for lottery funding and accountable to defined
membership.
MarieW said she's frustrated by the lack of
progress - Cor Cochion asks what progress would the Conference deliver? Can some other organisation (CyW, WCIA) apply
for funding on behalf of the Academi?
There's a big task to get papers etc. out and agree them. In response to Diana asking about a draft
constitution, MW distributed the draft remit that he and Tony had produced for
discussion at the conference. As there
was little time to read and discuss it, Max agreed to circulate an e-copy and
asked that members feed back their comments, to be finalised at the next
Steering group meeting.
KH added that everything is coloured by the WW1
Deadline. We might want to nominate
someone from this group to attend the event in Builth Wells on the 15th
March; Robin might be available (or
Stephen).
MarieW explained the three categories of Lottery
funding for WW1-Cent; sums of a few £1000, £100 000 or £millions with longer
time spans for larger amounts.
NEXT MEETING
21st Feb 11.30 at the Quaker meeting
house (Charles St, Cardiff) – venue to be confirmed.
JC asked if he could attend. MW commented JC had written he did not want
to contribute to organisational issues re Stephen’s “parallel” conference. Agreed he and Jill Gough could attend.
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