221129-Minutes-V10

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY UGH­DAR­RAS PAIRC NAISEANTA Α’ MHON­AIDH RUAIDH

Cairngorms Equal­ity Advis­ory Panel

29^th Novem­ber 2022

5:00pm — 6:30pm — Held virtually

Minutes

Present Anita Howard Becca Mayo Bo Heath­er Earn­shaw Kev­in Hutchens Lili­ana Cor­ri­eri Lina Payne Linda Bam­ford Stu­art Hall Vanessa Altweck

Attend­ing Fiona McLean (Chair) Jenny Allen Kath­er­ine Will­ing Oliv­er Davies

Apo­lo­gies Peter Kennedy Kate Christie

1. Wel­come
2. 1. Fiona Wel­comed the pan­el to the meeting.
3. 1. The minutes from the pre­vi­ous meet­ing were agreed and the action log was reviewed.
4. 1. To help with time man­age­ment the sched­ule was changed, item 2 was dis­cussed first fol­lowed by item 1.

5. Item 2 EAP Face to Face Event

6. 1. Fiona asked the pan­el to feed­back one thing that they had taken away from the face- to-face event.
7. 1. The pan­el sug­ges­ted the following:
      • The depth and breadth of the know­ledge that the pan­el possesses.
      • It was more per­son­able to meet in-per­son, and this allowed pan­el mem­bers to get to know each oth­er better.
      • Meet­ing in the area that the pan­el wishes to make an impact on provided the pan­el mem­bers with a good sense of place.
      • The import­ance of meet­ing people inform­ally and hav­ing con­ver­sa­tions about oth­ers pro­fes­sion­al lives helped to really under­stand the skills that each pan­el mem­ber brings to discussions.
      • It was iden­ti­fied that it may be use­ful to look at altern­at­ive ways to com­mu­nic­ate out with meet­ings to encour­age those con­ver­sa­tions out­side of meet­ings. The pan­el sug­ges­ted a team’s chan­nel where people could share doc­u­ments and have chats in between meet­ings which did not rely on email.
      • The pan­el felt the activ­it­ies planned helped to under­stand the stake­hold­er engage­ment and how the park author­ity engages with stakeholders.
      • From see­ing the pro­jects there was an enhanced under­stand­ing that the work the park author­ity does and the park itself is not focused solely on nature, there are a range of pro­jects and focuses.
      • There was praise for the cater­ing in that it felt inclus­ive of a range of diet­ary requirements.
      • It was sug­ges­ted that if future face-to-face meet­ings were to take place that it maybe help­ful to fit less in as at times it felt rushed and did not always allow for time to reflect and enjoy in the moment. This was echoed by sev­er­al pan­el mem­bers as it may help those who exper­i­ence fatigue and help make the event more accessible.
      • The pan­el reflec­ted that not being restric­ted to an agenda had allowed for the iden­ti­fic­a­tion of aspir­a­tion­al goals and not just reac­tion­ary com­ments which had been helpful.
      • It was raised that it was help­ful for the pan­el to be able to meet the team and staff at the author­ity and for them to meet the panel.
      • It was raised that if there are future face to face meet­ings it would be good to hold it in a dif­fer­ent place for example Moray or Aberdeenshire.

8. Item I – Dis­cus­sion on How the Equal­ity Pan­el has done over the last 2 years

9. 1. Fiona opened the dis­cus­sion by explain­ing to the pan­el that this was an oppor­tun­ity to dis­cuss what had gone well, the effect­ive­ness of the pan­el and where there could be improvements.
10. 1. The pan­el dis­cussed the pro­file of the pan­el. It was sug­ges­ted that more could be done to raise the pro­file of the pan­el with­in the park, areas extern­al to the park and at CNPA board level. It was recom­men­ded that there should be more shar­ing of the work done by the pan­el. To raise the pro­file of the group it was sug­ges­ted that the pan­el should engage with:
       • loc­al com­munity groups
       • extern­al media sources such as the Press and Journ­al and Radio Scotland
       • Attend­ing more extern­al events as a mem­ber of the pan­el such as the SCVO conference.
       • Hav­ing an art­icle or sec­tion on the work of the pan­el in the new Cairn Magazine for park residents.
11. 1. The pan­el reflec­ted that it was use­ful to be presen­ted with a paper that dis­cussed the top­ics sug­ges­ted and where there was feed­back. It was sug­ges­ted that to improve, the pan­el may need a more sys­tem­at­ic way of eval­u­at­ing how the inform­a­tion provided by the pan­el has been used by those present­ing and that focuses on the action points that have been com­pleted. Action: Cre­ate a list of resources sug­ges­ted by the pan­el. Action: Cre­ate a guid­ance doc­u­ment for presenters and staff members.
12. 1. The pan­el also com­men­ted that it was import­ant to not become focused on reviews but to con­sider what should be pri­or­it­ised. The pan­el felt it would be use­ful to identi­fy what they do par­tic­u­larly well and seek out oppor­tun­it­ies to con­tin­ue this work. The pan­el felt it was import­ant to con­sider resources and set pri­or­it­ies for the com­ing year. This dis­cus­sion covered the pos­sib­il­ity of revis­it­ing the goals and the object­ives of the pan­el to ensure the pan­el is cov­er­ing the most appro­pri­ate top­ics. Action: Dis­cuss the revised draft of the Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 with Gav­in Miles to find out wheth­er there is any­thing that the Pan­el should be focus­ing on regard­ing this.
13. 1. There was a dis­cus­sion that to improve the mem­ber­ship of the pan­el needed to be more diverse as it was noted that there are some areas which are not cur­rently rep­res­en­ted at the meet­ings. It was sug­ges­ted to engage with eth­nic minor­ity groups, trav­el­lers with­in the park, Gael­ic speak­ers and poten­tially a youth representative.
14. 1. There was a dis­cus­sion as to wheth­er the pan­el were enga­ging with the right pro­jects and wheth­er this was rep­res­ent­at­ive of the work of the park as it is cur­rently self-selec­ted. It was sug­ges­ted that the work being presen­ted to the pan­el was self-selec­ted so there may be a risk some key pro­jects are being missed. It was agreed that the pan­el had com­men­ted and engaged on key pieces of work such as the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan and the Her­it­age Hori­zons pro­jects. There was also evid­ence that those who have atten­ded the meet­ings are shar­ing the inform­a­tion and resources with their teams.
15. 1. The pan­el sug­ges­ted that they were not involved in the cre­ation of the agenda and that this could restrict the com­ments or engage­ment. The pan­el also sug­ges­ted that there should be a review of goals and what the pan­el would like to be involved in. It was agreed mov­ing for­ward that there would be con­sulta­tion with the pan­el as to what should be on the agenda. Action: Revis­it the object­ives and goals of the pan­el and ensure there is a clear dis­tinc­tion as to which groups the pan­el focuses on.
16. 1. The pan­el were inter­ested in work­ing with oth­er pan­els or rel­ev­ant groups. The pan­el sug­ges­ted that in any con­sulta­tion on a new nation­al park in Scot­land the response should state that there should be a sim­il­ar pan­el set up. Action: Revis­it this dis­cus­sion at the Janu­ary 2023 meet­ing so any fur­ther ideas can be dis­cussed. Action: Set up meet­ing invites for 2023 meetings.

No AOBS Next Meet­ing 31^st Janu­ary 2023 End of Meeting