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STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL
FOR USE OF NATIONAL EXECUTIVE COUNCIL OFFICERS ONLY
NATIONAL FEDERATION OF SUB-POSTMASTERS
REPORT OF THE
MEETING OF THE
NATIONAL EXECUTIVE COUNCIL
held on
30th & 31st July 2001
at
THE GRIMSTOCK COUNTRY HOUSE HOTEL
WARWICKSHIRE
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Report of a Meeting of the
National Executive Council
Held on 30th, 31st July 2001
at The Grimstock Country House Hotel, Warwickshire
Present Mr A Butlin - National President and Chairman
Mr M Baker Mr D Milner
Mrs I Bethell Mr J Morris
Mr M Challinor Mr J Peberdy
Mr M Darvilt Mrs S Reeves
Mr J Jannetta Mr M Roger
Mrs P M Jenkins Mr J Willshaw
Mr C Jones
Mr M Jones
Mrs J Kendall
In Attendance: Mr C Baker General Secretary
Mr K Davis Assistant General Secretary I
Mrs K Davis Assistant General Secretary {
THE PRESIDENT opened the meeting and hoped that everyone had had a
pleasant trip in the heatwave. He apologised for the fact that they would not
use the air conditioning because it was too noisy.
THE GENERAL SECRETARY reported that upon his arrival at the meeting,
he had received apologies from the newly elected Executive Officer for
Northern Ireland, Norman Ferguson, who was not able to attend the meeting .
THE PRESIDENT then asked for a minute’s silence to pay respects to the
passing of Jim Elder.
A/1 REPORTS AND RESOLUTIONS OF PREVIOUS MEETINGS
Special Executive Council Meeting held on 13th May 2001
Post Conference Meeting held on 16th May 2001
Executive Council Meeting held on the 4th and 5th June 2001
Resolutions passed at the Executive Council Meeting held on 8th and 9th January 2001
Resolutions passed at the Executive Council Meeting held on 18th, 19th and 20th March 2001
Resolutions passed at the Special Meeting of the National Executive Council held on 13th May 2001
Resolutions passed at the Post Conference Meeting held on 16th May 2001
Resolutions passed at the Executive Council Meeting held on 4th and Sth June 2001
« The Minutes of these meetings had been circulated and were approved.
EXECUTIVE COUNCIL MEETING - JULY 2001 PAGE 4
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Al2 MATTERS ARISING FROM THE REPORTS
MR PEBERDY suggested it might be useful information to the Council that in
a) the Resolutions, and b) the Minutes of the Post Conference Executive -
Council Meeting held on the 16th May 2001, under Item 8 a ~ Appointment of
National Representatives to the Board Of Benevolence, he did not believe
that anyone in that meeting actually proposed, seconded or agreed that MR
JANNETTA should be elected as Scottish Representative. Officially, each
region, at its AGM, elected the member of the Council to the Board of
Benevolence, so officially the Council did not make the proposition of the
appointment of a person to the Board of Benevolence. This had arisen
because Mr. Jannetta made the point that he did not seem to get listed as the
appointed delegate for the Scottish Region because he held the role of
National Treasurer.
THE CHAIRMAN then continued as follows:-
1. POST OFFICE GROUP PO PC
1. (a) Post Office Limited Blueprint PO PC 03
Work was currently taking place to create the company that was going to be
called Post Office Counters Ltd. There had been a number of recent
announcements, in particular that Stuart Sweetman would not be heading up
Post Office Limited and that there was a vacancy. THE CHAIRMAN thought
this would be good for the Federation in dealings with the Post Office, as they
had returned to something similar to Post Office Counters Ltd instead of
sixteen segments of the Business. He felt that as the work progressed, each
of the people there, mainly Basil Larkins and Dave Miller currently, were
people that the Federation would be very much involved with in the future
shape of the Post Office Counters Network.
EXECUTIVE COUNCIL MEETING - JULY 2001 PAGE 2
MR CYRIL JONES said that the plan indicated the intention to deliver £700
million of new revenue streams. If this was compared to the money that was
going to be lost, how did the new plan impinge on plans for network re-
organisation and compensation.
THE CHAIRMAN replied that the Business, before Post Office Limited was
conceived, had put forward a 5 year business plan to steer the business back
from its negative future to some form of profit by the end of year five. The
Plan was confidential. THE GENERAL SECRETARY had seen it but had
never been able to have a final copy of it. He would raise it at the next
Strategic Involvement Meeting because, at this stage, they did not appear to
have any firm plans, although they talked about bridging the £400 million loss
gap of ACT, figures of 60% being recoverable from Your Guide.
THE GENERAL SECRETARY reported that creating POL in principle had to
be the right thing, because the focus was back from under Consignia. They
still had their own management team and hoped for something more
professional. He read from page 22 of the booklet on how it was going to be
delivered but which was totally unclear. He also said that the loss of £400
million was the nightmare scenario. There were other things like the
Manchester Bus Pass Scheme and the Smart Card, but there was no
substance at the moment. He was hoping that Allan Leighton might be able
to clarify where he thought they were going.
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2. GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS PO PZ
2. (a) Cabinet Reshuffle PO PZ
THE CHAIRMAN reported that information had been circulated to the Council.
After the General Election the Government had started off with a new team.
The Government was the main shareholder in the Post Office. Patricia Hewitt
was now head of the DTI. She has a Treasury background, and was formerly
an e-commerce Minister, technology versed. Alan Johnson, whilst remaining
in the DTI, was no longer responsible for the Post Office. His replacement for
that position was Douglas Alexander.
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In response to MR CYRIL JONES' request for an insight into what contacts
had been made in the new regime and their attitude to the Federation, bearing
in mind their Treasury background, THE CHAIRMAN advised that this was
covered later in the meeting. However, some information had already been
circulated.
THE CHAIRMAN reported that THE GENERAL SECRETARY had written
letters to all 659 MPs and had received a response from Patricia Hewitt
suggesting a meeting in the autumn. He gave some background on Patricia
Hewitt, who happened to be the Leicester West MP with whom he had met on
several occasions. She was a good champion of post offices and THE
CHAIRMAN had met her previously over the campaign and the lobby. She
had had a lot to do with the department of National Savings, and was very
tuned. He was hopeful that she would take the battle forward, despite her
Treasury background.
2. (b) Report on Meeting with Douglas Alexander MP PO PZ
THE CHAIRMAN reported that THE GENERAL SECRETARY had written to
Douglas Alexander who had rapidly responded to arrange a meeting. THE
CHAIRMAN and THE GENERAL SECRETARY met him the previous
Wednesday afternoon for an hour and a half, He had delayed an appointment I
at a Buckingham Palace Garden Party especially to facilitate the meeting. I
Although he had only been five weeks in the job he had been briefed to an I
exceptionally high level. THE GENERAL SECRETARY opened up for the I
Federation to ask him to make a re-statement on where he was with Universal I
Bank. He did not pull any punches and they had a fairly good session on I
Universal Bank. THE GENERAL SECRETARY told him of the fears of the I
H
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Federation, the stories about capping ete and te-quoted statements made
previously. Mr Alexander's response was judged to be good. He was asked
to put the Government's commitment in writing, confirming they were not
platitudes, and that he was aware how important post offices were to the
country and to the Prime Minister. He was fairly robust. THE CHAIRMAN
suggested that this part of the Executive Council meeting discussed Universal
Bank, Your Guide and Network Reinvention in the same segments as had
been discussed with the Minister.
THE GENERAL SECRETARY said that he could not add much to what THE
CHAIRMAN had said other than Mr Alexander had begun by saying, “Your
Reputation Goes Before You", THE GENERAL SECRETARY assured him
that if things did not go right, the Federation would be back in Westminster en
masse with what had become known as “The Wat Tyler Syndrome”. The
Minister was very well briefed. He kept on stressing that his success would
be a successful network and that was what they were working towards. He
responded to all the "trick" questions by saying that they would not do
anything that would harm the network. His intention was to have a strong and
viable network. Although he had not expected to be THE GENERAL
SECRETARY was impressed.
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5. HORIZON PC NW06 01
THE CHAIRMAN reported that the Negotiating Committee had visited Dearne
Valley. It had been agreed that a sub committee would be formed to resolve
some of the major Horizon issues. Don Grey had suggested meeting once
every four months in either Dearne Valley or London, Attendees from Post
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Office Network were to be Don Grey, Mark Haynes, Julian White and Liz
Tuddenham and from the NFSP Colin Baker, John Peberdy and Jean
Kendall. The initial meeting is scheduled for October. They were continuing
to progress the eye test issue, which was in the Action Points under the
Overview of Meetings.
MRS BETHELL said that she had three items to raise under this section. The
first was a request for a progress report on bar-coded hand pouches, as a
number of pouches were still going missing. MR DAVIS replied that he had
not been advised when bar-coding of pouches was to start but he would
endeavour to find out. :
The second item was about the Benefit Agency linked to Horizon. MRS
BETHELL was receiving a number of complaints from subpostmasters who
were having letters from the Benefit Agency accusing them of paying out on
books, which had been impounded. Subpostmasters had acted on the
instructions on the system and the Benefits Agency did not believe them. It
was going on subpostmasters files that they were paying on impounded
books although it had been agreed back in week 5/2000 that there was a
problem with the system. This information would remain on Subpostmasters’
files despite requests that it be removed. It had been suggested that there
should be a print out when a book was impounded. It could then be proved
that the subpostmaster had done as the system instructed.
THE PRESIDENT asked whether records were kept of those books that had I
been returned to be impounded, to which MRS BETHELL replied that offices
did, but it was apparently not any proof that books were not impounded on the
system.
MRS KENDALL spoke about a print out from Ray Martin in Gateshead with
exactly the same problem. MR JANNETTA said that the problem was that the
books took forever to get back from the DSS. MR DARVILL did not see any
value in barcoding pouches.
MRS BETHELL continued with the third item. This was in respect of people
who, in the future, might be transferring their offices to other premises.
Apparently there was an eight-week run-in required by ICL Pathway to
transfer to another premises. Problems were arising because the eight weeks
did not commence until the new Subpostmaster had been appointed, even
though the existing Subpostmaster had given three months notice.
MRS KENDALL agreed that even if the subpostmaster wanted to stay in the
premises and refurbish, there was a eight week notification if he wanted to
make alterations, and a further eight week notification when ICL were required
to return.
THE CHAIRMAN responded by saying that he would take the losses point
and deal with it as soon as possible. He went on to say that the Negotiating
Committee went on a joint trip to see the Network Business Support Centre in
operation and were extremely impressed. The opportunity had been taken to
raise Horizon issues because Don Grey was still Head of Business Service
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Management. The centre were working extremely hard to reach their I
objectives. Mark Haynes is re-writing the training and looking after I
implementation. A lot of work was currently being put in place to re-train I
people and achieve solidarity, to establish stability of staff.
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(c) _ Training FM MS 04
MR CYRIL JONES said that the Federation had made a commitment to j
training some time ago. It had been decided to invest a considerable amount
of money to train MRS DAVIS to identify the training needs of the Federation
and to design courses to satisfy those needs, and to implement the required
courses at ail levels of the Federation. He reported that MRS DAVIS
completed her course some time ago and in doing so achieved extremely high
marks.
The Federation was now beginning to reap the fruits of MRS DAVIS' efforts.
The first course, which had been decided by the previous P&D Committee,
entitled "Reason to Urge Interviews" had been put together and tested in four
presentations to Branch Secretaries. At each presentation, revisions and
alterations had been made where necessary and the course could now be
tolled out nationally.
MR MARK BAKER commented that it had been an extremely well-presented
course, Everyone went away having gained knowledge and had benefited
from it. He believed that Branch Treasurers should be encouraged to make
the investment for their Branch Officials.
MR CYRIL JONES said that was just the response. hoped for. There was a
questionnaire on the courses and the responses had been excellent. He said
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that the Federation had been an untrained organisation and a lot of Branch
Secretaries did not know what to do. He went on to say that at the last
Executive Council meeting the P&D Committee had promised to explain about I
training and what its role should be within the Federation. The training I
needed to be for Branch Secretaries and for Executive Officers and should be I
ongoing. I
MRS DAVIS then made a slide presentation to talk through in brief some of
the content of the Training Course that she had been on. This would give a
flavour of the current training environment, and she would then talk through
how that applied to the Federation and what happened with the first course.
The definition of training she was using was giving people the right skills, the
‘tight knowledge and the right behaviours to do the job. The training was to
make sure one met one's business objectives, look at the people and the
organisation. There were assumptions to be made about the organisation (
and assumptions about people. Training could be used in bringing about
organisational change. Training needs had to be identified. The next stage in
the cycle was training design and delivery. The final stage was evaluation.
In terms of the Branch Secretary training programme, the previous P&D
Committee had looked at training in more detail about what they wanted to
achieve. Then they looked at measures of effectiveness — what made Branch
Officials effective and what their key tasks were. Out of that they came up
with a number of training priorities. MRS DAVIS ran through the training
programme aim and objectives of the first course. In terms of delivery she
detailed the options. Finally she discussed evaluation. MRS DAVIS was
congratulated on her presentation.
MR CYRIL JONES said that a commitment to training had been made.
Money had been spent on getting a Training Officer who could design and
produce courses to ensure that everyone within the Federation could improve ,
on what they were already doing. The next step was how to keep it going. It {
was the future and it was essential to make sure that everyone was good at
their jobs.
He was proposing that they would implement the training programme. One
course had already been produced which was the Reason to Urge. The next
one would be Running a Successful Branch, which would be even more
important. Each course module would be written and tested initially by MRS
DAVIS, Then the courses would be rolled out to Branch Secretaries. That
would be implemented by those Executive Officers who would volunteer to be
Training Officers for their Region. There would be no compulsion on
Executive Officers to volunteer. Any Executive Officer who volunteered would
be trained by MRS DAVIS to present the course, which would involve learning
the course content and presentation. It would not include discussion of the
contents of the course. The course must be presented as it was written to
ensure standardisation. To ensure consistency of approach and appropriate
content, MRS DAVIS would periodically attend Branch Secretaries’ training
courses. Executive Officers would be contacted shortly to check if they
wished to volunteer.
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If the Post Office decided to do their RTUs in a different way in the future, the
RTU course would need to be amended. Similarly, how a Branch was run.
There were a lot of things that an Executive Officer did not know. He believed
that they should be the best trained.
It was proposed, seconded and agreed that the training programme as
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AE SPECIAL MATTERS
(A) FINANCE
1. Treasurer's Report FM AC 02 I
The Treasurer's Report had been previously circulated. MR JANNETTA
reported that there had been no substantial changes to the income of the
Federation since the last meeting because the new subscription rates had not
yet come in. He did have a concern about a drop in advertising income,
which appeared to be decreasing monthly. Since the beginning of the year
the Federation was £8,500 down comparable to last year. Over the year the
loss of advertising income to the Federation was expected to be £20,000. He
felt that it was time the contract with Beverley Wright was reviewed to decide
if she was the right person to be doing the work. The P&D Committee had I
mentioned Beverley Wright and her relationship with the Federation. He I
suggestion that THE GENERAL SECRETARY, in his capacity as Advertising
Manager, should review this sooner rather than later.
Turning to other income of the Federation, the commercial income seemed to
be coming in at the normal rate. He had reservations about the direction of
the management of the commercial income. As National Treasurer he had a
concern that the major commercial income came from advertising revenue of
the Subpostmaster and commercial income from Zurich/Eagle Star. He
mentioned that in Nadeam Butt's report on the commercial activities of the
Federation, the income from Eagle Star had been subsumed into the report.
He felt the whole of the report was speculative and he did not want to see the
existing income jeopardised by speculation.
THE CHAIRMAN thanked MR JANNETTA for the Treasurer's Report. It was
proposed, seconded and agreed that the Report be accepted.
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DIANA DENTON i R
MARIAN JONES
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