Conference Feedback
CCH - 10th Annual Conference
Citizens not consumers; Tenants not customers
21st - 23rd March 2003
Stoke Rochford Hall
Grantham, Lincolnshire
General and organisational
27 feedback forms were received back. 15 listed themselves as being "very satisfied" with the conference in general, and 12 as "satisfied". I have never been involved in a conference where no one has said they were "neither satisfied nor dissatisfied", "dissatisfied" or "very dissatisfied".
27 people also said they were happy with the organisation of the conference; 26 with the accommodation; 26 with the facilities; and 23 with the catering. 3 were not satisfied with the catering.
Several people said the venue was good and suggested using it again:
What can I say - it was superb. A hard act to follow. Please book this for next year & thanks to all at CCH for all the work that's gone in to make this memorable conference.
Good venue, value for money & good location ie. proximity to London & also rest of country. We should use it again.
Brilliant venue.
Excellent venue - staff friendly, helpful & polite - food excellent.
Well organised & a great venue.
Lovely setting - good food.
Can we come here again? - food and facilities much better than last year.
A couple of people wanted better food for children "need kid friendly food" "need to cater for childrens' food taste". One said "would have appreciated better accommodation for cost" and another was concerned as a female and the only delegate from her organisation that the walk to the bedrooms away from the main buildings was not safe.
The quiz was its usual popular self with 21 enjoying it, although 2 didn't. One said it was too long, another that it would be better to have it on Saturday and the disco on Friday and another that it was a "great idea for introductions - although forced splitting of teams would have been interesting."
21 thought the banquet was good (one thought it was a great networking opportunity and they met really interesting people), but 4 didn't (one asking for a better choice of food). 22 thought Tyrone was good ("fantastic - a real insight into how the only obstacles really faced are those set by oneselves - it gave me hope in the long run"), but one didn't. One delegate suggested asking Michael Mansfield to be an after dinner speaker next year.
Programme
In general, the programme was well received, although some were concerned that too much was packed into a short time. Another suggested that the packed programme meant that there was little time for networking. One found the plenaries a "bit boring", whilst another said that the "calibre and quality of plenary speakers was consistently excellent - best I've heard for a long while".
22 felt that the introductory session on the Friday night was useful although 1 did not. One expressed concern that the session ended earlier than the advertised time of 8.30.
22 felt that the opening plenary was useful (some expressing strong praise of it), whilst 3 did not. This dropped to 15 who thought the second plenary was useful and 4 who did not. One person specifically mentioned that the plenary was "not relevant to my co-op particularly Karen Doran and Sarah Webb - but both gave interesting and relevant speeches" and another said "the second plenary was like a badly composed church sermon. Could we have a translator?"
14 felt the AGM was useful and 1 did not. One person from a CCH member organisation highlighted that they "could not see the value of debate as we had had no paperwork. How do you expect delegates to vote without full information? I thought the chair came out of his chair and did not feel delegates were actively listened to."
14 thought that the CCH strategy presentation was useful, 11 that the Tenants Union presentation was useful (one did not) and 12 that the Law Commission presentation was useful (one did not).
One person suggested the workshops could have been longer. One expressed concern that the first set of workshops all sounded interesting, whilst the second set were not relevant to their co-op and requested that Margaret's housing co-op beginners workshop should be a stand alone session for all delegates and that there should be consultation with potential conference attendees to get a better split of workshops.
The workshop on the Balsall Heath CGA topped the charts of usefulness with 8 positive responses - although two people said that the workshop did not consider the role that co-ops could play in neighbourhoods. This was followed by the Redditch workshop with 7; keyworker housing co-ops with 6; timebanks with 5; budgets with 4; co-ops having difficulties with 4 (one commenting "very informative", but one didn't find the workshop useful!); neighbourhood renewal with 4 (one didn't find it useful); risk with 3; beginners, rent restructuring, single tenancy and diversity with 2 (one said the workshop on single tenancy was excellent); and TMOs with 1. No one commented on the "Taking Control in your Community" sub-plenary or the Housing Corporation's TP strategy.
Lindsay Nixon was concerned over the siting of the Trafford Hall stand and asked that information be put in the packs next time. Another asked that co-ops be identified regionally on the attendance list.
9 people said that they would talk to their co-ops about affiliating (although I suspect some already are) and a few final positive points:
Friendly conference, variety of people - very useful.
Very good, found it helpful as I've only been with the co-op for 6 months.
It looks like you are already incredibly active in various areas. Really pleased about Co-operatives UK and Housing Corporation developments. Must have taken some tenacity. I think that after the success of this conference it would be difficult for anyone to knock CCH. But no doubt someone will be canterkerous enough to do so. Would like to know about co-ops in other countries & learn from their experience."
And finally hats off to the person who thought that it was worth a 27p stamp after the event to send us this comment: "No bunch of left wing argumentative hippies - send 'em all to Iraq"
