New Members Benefits & Key Technology Investment!

Dear Colleagues

This week has been very exciting for the team and the BMKALC family.  Following the Executive Board meeting we were delighted to announce two new member benefits and a key technology investment.  We also met the potential CiLCA 2023 cohort and hope to see them all sign up for the Portfolio Training and subsequent Qualification as CiLCA clerks.

Member Benefit 1 is the provision of Planning Support delivered by Oneillhomer.  Neil is well known to many of our parishes who have worked on producing, and, maintaining neighbourhood plans.  He has also been front of house in many of our training sessions.  There is a whole lot more to Neil and his team than neighbourhood planning and Lorraine will be forwarding full details and then updating our website accordingly. To access this service you must use the member benefits form on our website.  This means we now how two excellent support lines for planning matters.

Member Benefit 2 is, that from June BMKALC will  be extending the Optima Employee Assistance Programme (EAP)to member council’s employees and contractors.  There is a small charge per supported employee which will be passed directly to Optima and you will receive full details of this service under separate cover.   Our Parish Meetings members whilst continuing to receive complimentary membership of BMKALC, may chose to sign up to this but will be subject to the same charge as other members.  We will be unable to offer membership of the EAP to non-members, however if you think this might be a good time to reconsider membership of BMKALC, please do get in touch.

The third bit of news is that we are investing in the Logitech technology in order to produce hybrid meetings and seminars.  Given that we use many different rooms, we’ve had to find the balance between adaptability and portability.  The system provided by Cloudy IT demonstrated how well it could work when they supplied the means to broadcast November 22’s AGM.  We might look to produce hybrid trainings too, but one brave step at a time!

Back on the ground, Buckinghamshire Clerks may recall the BC Parish Portal, this is now being replaced  by the less snazzily titled Highway information for town and parish councils | Buckinghamshire Council.  It is still being populated and I’d ask you to make a note now of the address and save it as a favourite destination.  If there is something that you believe would be of general value to your colleagues and it doesn’t appear in the next few weeks, please let us know and we’ll ask if there is a plan to include it. 

Attached you’ll find a note from Chris Moses regarding the treatment of bank holidays, given the state of May this year, you might find it useful!  Also thanks to Wolverton & Greenleys Town Council for bringing to my attention the Armed Forces Covenant initiative. Buckinghamshire says ‘Thank You’ to Armed Forces community | Buckinghamshire Council; Milton Keynes Armed Forces Covenant | Milton Keynes City Council (milton-keynes.gov.uk).  It might be something your council would like to consider so here is a link to both authorities.

Finally, keep an eye on the web site, great training subjects coming up including our new whole council trainings too.  For accessing member benefits use our website (remember you must be logged in) to fill out your request and get the ball rolling!

Have a wonderful weekend, we know it’s going to rain, it wouldn’t be a proper bank holiday without it!  We look forward to speaking to you soon.

Kind regards

Mel