Membership Details are Important
Registration with Leitrim PPN is free. Apart from access to the newsletter and access to and targeted updates on funding, consultations and events, registration means that each group has voting rights. When you register – either online or by paper form – you are asked for your contact details AND an alternate contact. Here are the reasons why…(images taken from the online registration at www.leitrimppn.ie/join-ppn/
Main Contact:
The first contact is taken to be the Main Contact. This person will be the first person contacted on behalf of your group. It is generally this person that receives updates, calls for nominations, etc. It is expected that this person will share the information with the rest of the group.
Alternate Contact:
This is the second port of call if we cannot contact the Main Contact. It will only be used if it is necessary to contact the group particularly.
Why it Matters:
When there is a vote, either the Main Contact or the Alternate Contact are the only people listed as having a right to a voting card. Members in attendance at the recent General Meeting were not given a voting card for their group unless they were one or the other of these contacts. This was strictly adhered to.
General Tips on Registration Details
Emails: The registration form asks for email contact details. Many registrations provide a personal email address. If that person changes role, leaves the group, moves on, or even changes email address we have no way of contacting the group other than the alternate contact. However, we won’t use that alternate contact unless we know that we’re not making contact with the group. Our advice would be to create an email address for your group that goes with the role, rather than the person, e.g. chairofcommunitygroupX@emailserver.com.
Postal Address: Many community groups don’t have a physical base so it makes sense that the postal address is provided. However, some groups don’t provide a postal address or the address is for an office and the mail is not forwarded to them. As Leitrim PPN has been working on mapping defibrillators with Leitrim Development Company and the National Ambulance Service, we encourage the use of Eircodes. As well as it being a good habit to know your Eircode, it helps us with mapping groups or if we are visiting for outreach and/or Awards judging. In the event of us needing to post you any item – voting, information, etc. – the Eircode helps us be a little surer that the post will reach you.
Alternate and Affiliate Contacts: the Alternate contact has voting rights in the absence of the Main Contact. Other people connected with groups that sign up for newsletters or want us to keep in touch, are listed as Affiliate Contacts. The details of affiliate contacts are issued to the Main Contact during re-registration. In order to clean up the database, we may ask affiliate contacts if they want to be part of the newsletter mailing list only and/or remain connected to their group.
Change of Contact Details and AGMs: Roles change and people move on. If your group Chairperson or Secretary or whoever is the Main Contact changes, please let us know. Perhaps you can include a change of information notice as an action associated with your Annual General Meeting: this would issue to all the bodies and agencies you deal with on a regular basis.
Pillar/Municipal District/Cause
All Public Participation Networks can break down membership into categories based on “Pillar” and “Municipal District”. This information is required so that your group is in the right category for voting and information. When Leitrim PPN is asked for a representative, the committee making the request may seek to have a person that represents a certain sector, e.g. Environment, OR they might have three places for PPN representation and want to spread them around the county by Municipal District. It’s really important that your group is registered in the correct Pillar and Municipal District or you won’t have the right representation or voting rights. The most common mix up is between Community & Voluntary groups and those in Social Inclusion. The Cause helps us refine what the group might be interested in if we get specific topic alerts.
Governance/Group Structure, etc.
A recent check of the Charities Register highlighted that 17 Leitrim PPN Members are charities. This is not clear from the registration information on file. On further investigation it seems that almost 50 member groups are limited by guarantee – again, not clear from registration. These details are not for nosiness but to help us help you. When funding or consultation alerts come in, they are sometimes very specific. Only last month, a fund opened only for social enterprises. If we don’t know how you’re set up, we can’t send critical information in a focussed way.
If you have other questions about registering with Leitrim PPN or you want to check what
details we have on the database for your group, get in touch by phone, email or post.
In most cases the information can be checked immediately.
Hope this helps.
Leitrim PPN Re-Registration in 2019
Groups registered with Leitrim PPN prior to 2019 were asked to re-register this year. The process involved responding to an email and/or letter asking the listed Main Contact to confirm registered details or provide a new contact. Efforts to get groups re-registered went on between July and November this year.
Outcome of Re-Registration
The majority of groups had the same contact person as at original registration with Leitrim PPN. However, a number of people we contacted were no longer connected to the group. Some had moved away and a small number of groups no longer exist – as is the way of organisations.
After seven or eight rounds of emails, innumerable phone calls, letters, texts and Facebook messages, Re-Registration closed at the end of October.
The result is current Leitrim PPN membership of 247 groups:
Social Inclusion Pillar 62
Community Pillar 177
Environment 8 of which one is an associate member
This is down from 295 in August 2019.
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