Cornish Language Partnership Date: 7 Sept 2006, 10am – 4pm Venue: Grenville Room, New County Hall, Truro AGENDA 1. Apologies 2. Declarations of interest 3. Minutes of the meeting of 7 July 4. Matters Arising 5. Manager’s report 6. Financial report 7. Applications for membership 8. Design work 9. Conference 10. Single written form process 11. Work programme 12. Date of next meeting Notes 1. The meeting will break for lunch at 1pm. The Cornish Language Development Project is part funded by the European Union, the Department for Communities and Local Government and Cornwall County Council. Cornish Language Partnership Minutes of the meeting held 8 September 2006 at New County Hall, Truro, 10am – 4pm. Present: Cllr. Eric Brooke, Cornwall County Council Cllr. Loveday Jenkin, Kerrier District Council George Ansell, Gorseth Kernow Jan Edmondson, Kowethas an Yeth Kernewek Maureen Pierce, Kesva an Taves Kernewek Cllr. Bert Biscoe, Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Economic Forum Mina Dresser, Cussel an Tavas Kernuack Ray Chubb, Agan Tavas Cllr. Patricia Sanderson, Penwith District Council Cllr. Roger Holmes, Cornwall Association of Local Councils Bernard Deacon, Institute of Cornish Studies Richard Gambier, CAPH Cllr Ron Overd, Caradon District Council Cllr. Shirley Polmounter, Restormel Borough Council Attending: John Sawle, Cornwall County Council Tony Steele, Government Office for the South West Jenefer Lowe (Development Manager) Elizabeth Stewart (Administrator) 1. Apologies: Mark Williams Learning Skills Council Laurence Rule, Kowethas an Yeth Kernewek (rep. by Jan Edmondson) Cllr John Chapman, North Cornwall District Council 2. Declarations of interest None. 3. Minutes The minutes of the meeting of 7 July were agreed as a true record. 4. Matters Arising It was suggested that information should be distributed to constituent members of partner organisations e.g. around 40 members of the Economic Forum, Parish Councils etc. 5, Manager’s Report The report was agreed. Matters arising: Interviews had been hold for the Administrator and the Panel had appointed Elizabeth Stewart, who would officially start on 25th September, but was attending the meeting to meet the Partnership. In addition to those listed, the Kowethas had signed the Partnership Agreement and the Gorseth had passed it subject to their solicitor checking it. EBLUL. Correspondence was read from the Cornish SubCommittee of the European Bureau for Lesser used Languages, suggesting that the Bureau would concentrate on European issues to complement the work of the Partnership. The meeting welcomed the proposal for co-operation, but it was noted that depending on the context the Partnership would wish to retain an interest in European matters. The status of the Bureau within the structure of the EU was discussed and it was suggested that communication with the Council of Europe was also necessary. The Bureau SubCommittee was re-focusing in the light of some inactivity within the UK Committee. The need to focus on the European dimension with a range of other organisations was discussed. Agreed: to arrange a joint meeting with the SubCommittee to discuss differences and similarities, functions and roles. Thereafter to arrange a wider meeting to look at the European perspective. JL noted that there was meeting in Brussels to discuss a proposal from Valle d’Aosta to establish a network of multilingual regions in order to share good practice and look at potential joint projects. A representative from the European office in Brussels was attending and would report back. Classes. A list of classes for the coming year had been drawn up. Classes had problems with the expense of premises and with the need for public liability insurance. It was agreed that JL would investigate the position on insurance. There was discussion over the possibility of using rooms in schools or libraries at reduced cost, though it was also felt that very often community venues were preferable. The possibility of the Partnership assisting classes in difficulty was discussed, but it was felt that the situation needed to be looked at in total first. JL intended undertaking a survey of classes in order to establish some statistics and understand where the difficulties lay. DfES. A representative would be coming to Cornwall shortly for discussions around the languages ladder work. British Irish Council. BIC are to hold a practitioners day on language transmission in the family. JL to find out further details for the Partnership to decide whether they wished to send a representative. A report from the day would be helpful at least. 6. Financial report No change noted, as the last two meetings had been within the three month Reporting period. 7. Applications for Membership Two applications for membership had been received. Agreed: 1) to offer membership to the Federation of Old Cornwall Societies, which fulfilled the criteria; 2) not to offer membership to the Bishop of Truro’s Ecumenical Group for Services in the Cornish Language as it fell outside the terms of reference but 3) to institute an associate category for such organisations not covered in the terms of reference, whereby they will be sent minutes and agendas of meetings, to which they may send observers if they so wish. This provision to be added to the terms of reference. 8. Design It was reported that the design contract for the initial graphic design and branding had been awarded to Gendalls, but that the implementation of the website would be a separate contract which would be decided subsequent to the design work. This contract would take the work as far as a style guide, logo etc. Gendalls had proposed two focus groups to look at brand values. The first of these would be based around the Partnership and the second would be wider. It was agreed that children, business, public sector and community needed to be involved. There was discussion around the brand values, the importance of typography and whether we were branding the Partnership or the language. The first focus group, for the Partnership, would provisionally take place at 10am on 19th September. JL to confirm. 9. Conference The conference programme for 30th September was discussed. The timetable was agreed as proposed, with the addition of short films during/after lunch. Questions for the breakout groups were discussed. It was agreed that JL would formulate three questions based on the discussion and send them to the Partnership for agreement. The title of the conference was amended and the logistical arrangements for the day were discussed. The day would be the first step in the process towards establishing a single written form for education and public life and it was important that the aim was clearly stated at the start of the day. 10. Single Written Form Process The proposed terms of reference for the Commission and for the Linguistic group were discussed and a number of changes made to each. It was suggested that the timetable should be that the Commission began work before the linguistic group and that the criteria for each should be unambiguous. The Chairs of the Commission, the Linguistic group and the Partnership should regularly review progress. A set of key skills for the members of each group was considered and suggested names for the Commission were also discussed and it was agreed to approach them. The Chairman invited Professor Ken MacKinnon, who was observing the meeting, to comment on this item. Prof. MacKinnon said that he felt that the Partnership was going in the right direction and that the names proposed were in his opinion suitable for the task. It was agreed that applications would be invited for the linguistic working group against a person specification which set out the key skills required. It would be conditional that intending applicants signed up to achieving the purpose. The Commission would be in charge of the process and responsible for the recommendations, but the linguistic group would autonomously review the corpus and look at convergence and divergence. Action: JL to amend the Terms of Reference for both groups and produce a person specification and application pack to be agreed by the Partnership. 11. Date of Next Meeting To be confirmed. Meeting closed 4pm. .