Calderdale Forum 50 Plus held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Tuesday 5 April at The Shay Stadium in Halifax.
Forum Chair Malcolm Kielty welcomed committee members and visitors to the meeting and signed off the minutes of the last AGM, held in 2019 before the Covid pandemic.
Treasurer Colin Cryer circulated a financial report and highlighted the increased income in 2021 following two successful funding bids to Community Foundation for Calderdale and Yorkshire Water.
Communications Associate and committee member Julie Ingham presented a Communications report along with the results of a recent survey of Forum web visitors and newsletter subscribers. She highlighted:
“Visitors to the Forum’s website showed a healthy increase in 2021 to reach 13,873. This was 2,700 more than in the previous year. And in the first quarter of 2022, the website has already received 5,791 visitors.
“The “In Touch” online groups and activity directory launched in March 2021 was the most popular section of the website and other popular pages included:
- Renewing or applying for your senior travel pass
- Food bank locations in Calderdale
- Events & activities
- Brighouse Third Age Group.
- Why you should take a meter reading (energy).
“Social media followers and newsletter subscribers also continued to grow, helping to attract more people to the Forum’s website.
“New funding from Community Foundation for Calderdale and Calderdale Council will enable us to keep investing in high quality content, signposting older people to the information, advice and guidance they and their families need to help them through the later years. The Forum will also be working more closely with Calderdale Council as it develops an Ageing Well strategy for Calderdale.”
Several visitors attended the meeting including representatives from Calderdale Council, West Yorkshire Police, Age UK, the Staying Well Hub, Stonewater Housing. Richard Porter from the Calderdale Council Public Health team updated the meeting on the work of the Age Well Alliance Board and Dan Hayes from West Yorkshire Police described his work on incident prevention and protection of vulnerable people in the borough.
The Forum is looking for more people who live or work in Calderdale to join our Committee and ensure we keep representing the views of our older population to the Council and other public, private and third sector bodies.
The committee meets bi-monthly and our friendly, informal meetings allow us to consult on and discuss those issues which most affect older people and their families.
To find out more about a role on the committee, email info@calderdaleforum50plus.com
Read about our Committee Members.