Next LGBT Forum meeting Jan 09
The next meeting will take place in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in a city centre location on 8 and 9 Jan 09.
The meeting will run from 0900 on 8 Jan and will finish at 1500 on 9 Jan. Attendees will be expected to travel on 7 Jan and stay overnight to start the meeting next morning.
Agenda
The proposed agenda will include:
- Northern Ireland LGBT issues
- regional meetings and Civil Service Rainbow Alliance update
- Pride 09
- Civil Service Diversity Strategy
- MOD review of diversity groups
- Stonewall and a:gender updates
- support and counselling
- Committee elections
- training and development
- challenges for the future.
There are plans for a group evening meal on the night of 8 Jan for those who want to participate.
Accommodation
Accommodation has been block booked for the meeting for the nights of 7 and 8 January. Due to security issues details of the accommodation will be provided nearer the time. Everyone will be staying in the same hotel
If you are planning to stay in Belfast on the Friday night (and for the weekend), this is not be classed as official business and cannot be claimed for on T&S
Transport
Everyone will be required to organise their own transport to Belfast etc. Information on travel to and from the hotel will be provided as part of the joining instructions.
Belfast City airport is most convenient as Belfast International is further out however I am aware that some airports only fly to Belfast International e.g. Bristol. The links to the airports are below:
Belfast City (George Best)
http://www.belfastcityairport.com/home.asp
Belfast International
http://www.belfastairport.com/en/
Costs
As this is official business, costs are claimable on T&S in the normal way
The cost of hotel accommodation for bed and breakfast is £70
As the meeting is being held at an external venue, there is a charge for the hire of the venue. This is approximately £35 per person per day (total £70). Again this is claimable on T&S.
However, due to the security situation, you will be unable to use GPC cards. With this in mind, you may wish to apply for an advance payment through HRMS to cover the costs
Registration
You are required to register your intention to attend the forum with Daryl Dickenson by 27 Nov 08 via email (click the Contacts link to the right, you will find a link there.)
DIN
A DIN will be published shortly. For a draft copy, please contact any of the Steering Committee members, again, links can be found on the Contacts page.
London Pride
Over to the right there is a link for a photo album from London Pride.
London Pride Update
It has been decided that all 3 services may wear uniform at this years London Pride parade. This is now being widely reported in the press and you can find a link to an article in Pink News over to the right in other links.
DIN for July Forum
The new DIN for the July Forum has now been issued, a copy can be found in Forum Registration Documents to the right. Please note that we are accepting new registrations until the 16th of June, not the 2nd as stated in the DIN.
July Forum
The registration form and calling notice for the July forum are now ready and can be found by clicking the link to the right.
Stonewall Equality Walk
Stonewall will be holding their annual Equality Walk in sunny Barcelona, if you would like to participate you can call Michaela on 020 7593 1874 or you can click the link to the right.
Note for Proud2Serve Members
All Proud2Serve members should have received an e-mail with a PDF document attached. Anyone who has not yet received this e-mail can e-mail the Proud2Serve admin for a copy, there is an e-mail link to the right for Contacts and you can find Proud2Serve there. You should also check that you have the correct e-mail address registered and check your junk mail filter to ensure it is allowing e-mails from Proud2Serve.
New Issue of Newsletter
Issue 6 of the newsletter is now available, just click the link to the right marked LGBT Newsletter,
Regional Event - North West Region
This is calling notice for all MoD personnel. The MoD LGBT Forum is holding an event in Liverpool on Saturday 31st May 2008. It will be a Quad Service event and all military and civilian personnel are welcome to attend.
Members of The MoD LGBT Steering Committee will be in attendance to offer advice and guidance.
If anyone requires any information regarding this event please contact Gail Riley, a link for Gail can be found to the right.
Summer Forum
This years summers pride event has been moved to the 5th of January, so the Forum event will now move to the 4th of July in London, so everyone make a note in your diary!
Newsletter
Issue 5 of the LGBT Newsletter is now available, just click the LGBT Newsletter link to the right
Steering Committee Minutes
You can now find the most recent minutes of the MoD LGBT Steering Committee to the right.
Pride Photos
Over to the right you can find a link to a photo gallery with pictures taken at Pride 07.
Mental Health Services and Older Lesbians, Gay Men and Bisexuals
An e-mail has been received from an organisation called Polari, here is the main body of the e-mail
"I am writing on behalf of Polari (www.polari.org). In case you haven’t heard of us, we are a small voluntary organisation which works towards better services of all kinds for older lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and trans people (LGBTs).
We would like to hear from lesbians, gay men and bisexuals 50 and over who have used mental health services in the Greater London area within the last five years. This includes voluntary and statutory services, inpatient and outpatient.
Individuals can take part
- by anonymously completing an online questionnaire at www.polarisurveys.org.uk (you can find a link in the useful links section to the right)
- by contacting me directly to be sent a hard copy questionnaire which they can fill out anonymously
- by getting in touch to arrange a convenient time for them to be interviewed face-to-face or over the phone.
They can reach me on 020 7255 4481 or by e-mail at mentalhealth@polari.org
The ultimate aim of the project is to allow older LGBs to communicate their views to Mental Health Trusts in the Greater London area, and, if this is what users need, to help Trusts to improve their services. Several mental health trusts have already expressed an interest in working with us. All we need now is to find out what the users think!"
