Agenda item

The Chairman of each of the Working Groups to report on the work of their group since the last meeting:-

(A)  Communications        -     Nigel Pullman (Report attached, pages x - x)

(B)  Livery Companies       -    John Spanner (Report attached, pages x - x)

(A) COMMUNICATIONS

The Chairman of the Livery Communications Working Group reported that the Group had met last week to review the format and content of the Courses and Briefings for which the Livery Committee were responsible. He reported that the Working Group had now agreed to drop the video from future City Briefings as it was felt that this was now too dated and ‘out of touch’. Members were informed that the Chairman of the Working Group and Mr Seaton were now working up a brief presentation on the ‘livery movement’ to fill this slot.

The Chairman of the Working Group went on to encourage members of the Committee to continue to promote City Briefings to their respective Livery Companies and also to attend for themselves where possible as this was an important networking opportunity and would also help to more effectively ‘showcase’ the Livery Committee and support those hosting the events.

Members were reminded that this year’s Wardens’ and Court Assistants’ City Course would be held on Monday 24^th September with the next Clerk’s Briefing scheduled for Tuesday 27^th November 2012. The Chairman of the Working Group reported that the agenda for the Clerks Briefing changed each year to reflect current key issues and that it was therefore advisable for Clerks to attend on more than one occasion.

In response to a question, the Chairman of the Working Group stated that City Briefings were open to non-Liverymen and reported that HAC and Christ’s Hospital Representatives had recently attended.

(B) LIVERY COMPANIES

The Chairman of the Livery Companies Group highlighted that Livery Company allocations under the Livery Liaison Scheme had now changed to include new members of the Livery Committee. He asked that all Members make contact with their allocated companies by the end of this week if they had not already done so.

With regards to comments previously received about the process by which members were appointed to this Committee by the Fellowship of Clerks, the Chairman of the Working Group reported that he was still awaiting the deliberations of the Fellowship. Once a response from the Fellowship had been received, it was intended that a full report on the matter be brought to the next meeting of the Livery Committee in February 2013.

Finally, Members were reminded that the it had been agreed that a note produced by the ‘mother company’ of the current non-aldermanic Sheriff would be circulated at this meeting with a view to this Committee ‘adopting’ the document and arranging to have it included in the information pack sent out to future applicants to the Shrievalty.

The Chairman asked that the penultimate sentence within the paragraph headed ‘Sheriff’s chain of office’ be deleted and that the final sentence within the section headed ‘A float in the Lord Mayor’s Show’ be amended to read ‘participation’ as opposed to ‘anticipation’.

The City Marshal asked that the Private Secretary and the Swordbearer be asked to review and comment on the document ahead of its inclusion in future information packs.

The Chairman of the Livery Companies Working Group underlined that the document was simply intended as an informative/helpful aide to those who found themselves in this position in the future and was not to be circulated to all 108 Livery Companies as a Guide of any sort. He added that he also envisaged that the document would be a ‘living document’ and would be amended and expanded on by future mother Livery Companies as necessary.

The City Marshal also suggested that, in future, a similar document might be produced for the mother Livery of the Aldermanic Sheriff.

RESOLVED - That, the Livery Committee agree to adopt informally the document produced for the attention of the Mother Company of a Non-Aldermanic Sheriff subject to any comments/amendments Members and Officers might have - and subject to the agreement of the document’s author.