Inside Story - February 2010
Yes It's Official - we have a new Chair!
We're pleased to announce that after an open recruitment process the Board have appointed Ms Vanessa Augustus to the position of Chairperson of Arawak Walton. Vanessa who hails from Nottingham took up her post at the first Board meeting of the year on 27th January 2010.
She brings experience of chairing a number of smaller voluntary organisations in Nottingham. With a background in evaluation, research and procurement, Vanessa’s roots are in community work.
Vanessa says, “I know there is much to learn about the housing sector and my whole ethos is about giving something back to the community. This is what Arawak Walton is all about and I’m proud to be chosen to lead the Board in achieving its aims and objectives”
Staff and Board members would also like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to Ms Winsome Richbell-Brown who was acting Chair during the period following Andy Forbes’ resignation in March 2009 until the new Chairperson was appointed.
January 2010 Board Meeting
- At the January Board meeting, the Board approved the following:
- Budget including rent setting principles for 2010/11
- Development and stock acquisitions via in-house and partnership arrangements
- Our asset management strategy
- The programme for our 2010 staff and Board conference
During the meeting the Board agreed the management plan for 2010/11, the annual report timetable, new bank mandate requirements and our arrears policy following the completion of our continuous improvement review on income management.
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More Board News...
Shirley Whitley, tenant, joins the Board after attending three observer meetings. Shirley currently co-ordinates our tenants quality panel and works for the association on a voluntary basis.
Justin Freeman Housing Services Manager at City West Housing Trust joins us as a co-opted Board member. He is currently a member of our Audit Committee.
Tony Gordan, consultant in equality and diversity & HR, Chair of the North West branch of the Black Practitioners and Learners Network has joined the Board after completing his three observer meetings. We are pleased that he has accepted the position as our equality and diversity champion.
Ever wondered what Arawak means?
Ever wondered what Arawak means? When the Spanish colonised the West Indies after Columbus’s discovery of the new world the indigenous population was a blend of Amerindian people know as Caribs, Arawak and Taino.
These were almost totally wiped out by a combination of brutality by the invaders and European diseases, to which they had no immunity. Recent DNA studies, however, have identified a few thousand Arawak in South America and many Taino or Arawak descendants in Puerto Rico.
Around 3000 Caribs have also been identified in Dominica.
We've done it again - Charter Mark is ours!
Following the final surveillance visit under the old Charter Mark criteria, we are pleased to announce that we maintained the Standard and we are now down to one partial non-compliance from two non-compliances last year.
However, the criteria and assessment methodology changes from 2011 onwards. As a result, our assessor carried out a pre-assessment of the evidence we put forward for the new criteria. We decided to concentrate on getting it right for just one of the criterion, rather tackle all five. It was with some trepidation and then relief that we were informed that our evidence satisfied all criterion one, with only one exception. So we know we are on the right track!
We have also been informed that the newly re-titled Customer Excellence Standard is recognised as a valuable indicator of excellent customer service by the Audit Commission. So 2010 is going to be a busy year collating the evidence we need to meet the 5 new criteria to achieve the Standard. It’s good to know that we are already 1/5th of the way there!
The Green Team!
The Green Team is a Fantastic group for young people aged between 4-12 years. The aim of the group is to make Cheetham Hill a greener and happier place to live.
The children suggested ideas e.g: litter picks, bulb planting, pot planting for the elderly in the community.
The children were then rewarded with vouchers and trips out. We took a group of 30 children to watch Aladdin at the Manchester Palace Theatre on 23rd December 2009.
The children loved every minute and were even more excited to be Involved with the group.
Also The Green Team were short listed for an award at the Northern Regional final of the TPAS Awards 2010!
We invited tenants and children to the prestigious evening. It was a fantastic night with Mike Shaft hosting the evening.
Unfortunately The Green Team did not win the first prize, but we certainly enjoyed being featured at the Awards evening.
Future Jobs Fund!
To help young people gain some experience of work at this difficult time, the Government has launched the Future Jobs Fund. As a result Arawak Walton successfully bid for funding for two young people to work with us.
We are pleased to welcome Dean Preston under the scheme. He joined us in January as our customer profiling assistant. He is already busy collating key information about our tenants to help us ensure that our services are delivered to meet the needs of our diverse customer base.
Finally we welcome Laura Lemard who replaces Antony as our assistant receptionist. It turns out Laura is actually one of our tenants, so we were really pleased to be able to offer her an opportunity through the Future Jobs Fund project!
Arawak Walton Performance
As always we like to keep our residents informed about how we are performing. See for yourself below.
| Jan 10 | Dec 09 | Nov 09 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Voids % (no. of properties) |
0.35% (3) |
0.35% (3) |
0.71% (6) |
| Rent arrears (as a % of weekly rent receivable) |
6.33% |
6.55% |
7.23% |
| Repairs Completion Statistics | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Emergency | 99.37% |
98.8% |
100% |
| Urgent | 96.43% |
98.35% |
96.70% |
| Routine | 97.82% |
98.94% |
97.38% |
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