Reporting on our year
09/03/09
At the South East region's Annual General Meeting in Brighton on 3 March 2009, outgoing Chair Graham Maunders reported to members on the developments of the last year.
'We live in challenging times. After the excitement of housing never having had it so good - being prioritised by government and backed by the largest funding allocation in a generation - we now have the massive challenge of delivering in a recession. This is a time when, increasingly, people will struggle to get and retain housing to meet their needs.
'It is a time when it's more and more important that CIH plays a dynamic role in helping to develop and sustain communities. For our part within the region, we have continued to strive to develop our role. To do this successfully, we need our members to be actively involved.
'For those of you who have not previously been involved in our work, I would urge you to consider getting more involved - no matter how small your contribution, we will very much welcome you.
'Those of you who have played a role in the past, maybe you could do so again? Over the coming year we will be setting up local liaison groups, hoping to involve more members.
'CIH South East has made a number of strides forward over the past year:
- We now have a dedicated events organiser - Verity Fifer. This post is unique to the South East region, enabling us to hold events throughout the year and across the region.
- This year we have again held several very successful conferences and events:
- Our annual regional conference moved to Brighton's Metropole Hotel, enabling us to arrange the entire programme under one roof for the first time. And financially, it has allowed us to fund a range of other events throughout the year.
- Over 100 people attended our House of Commons event in January, providing another opportunity to highlight key housing issues and generally promote the work of CIH.
- We've organised two very successful, focused conferences - the Older Persons and Home Ownership conferences.
- And we've made a start to reintroducing more events for frontline staff - our Customer Insight seminars have been a great success.
- The CIH South East ezine has replaced our old newsletter, responding to members' requests for additional information in a more user-friendly format.
- We continue to influence policy through our work with the Regional Housing Forum and key agencies including the Housing Corporation, Homes and Communities Agency, Tenant Services Authority, National Housing Federation, Shelter and SEEDA.
- Our International Study group goes from strength to strength having organised trips to South Africa, Denmark and Sweden during the last year.
- At our 2009 conference, we published our CIH South East Corporate Objectives. The culmination of a number of months of work, it sets out our key objectives and activities, showing how these relate to the overall CIH national objectives.
'I am delighted to be able to advise that, during my two years as Chair, CIH South East has raised £37,247 for my nominated charity Crime Reduction Initiatives. It's proposed that the money raised will be invested in a project in Hastings - full details will be featured in our next ezine. I would like to thank everyone for all their efforts in contributing to this charity - a fantastic achievement!
'In closing, I would like to thank everyone involved for all their continued help, support and efforts. I would particularly like to thank our Support Officer, Kelly Seenundun, for all her help.'
Graham Maunders
Chair, CIH South East
March 2009