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Meeting Our Requirements

The Organisation and Management Support workshop for 2010 produced an action to look at meeting rooms and facilities from the ‘Think Venue’ website. All of the conference facilities, meeting room and venues on this website are provided by charities, voluntary organisations, social enterprises and other not for profit groups.

Organisation and Management Support book several events over the year such as Managers Briefings and the Corporate Resources Platinum Awards. It is not always possible to book a room of the required size in the Council House so the team wanted to have a list of alternative venues that would be compliant with procurement requirements.

The BEST Leader for the team, Gillian Bourbage, compiled a list of venues from the website that seemed the most suitable in terms of location, cost etc. Each venue was then visited by two people from O&MS; it was a good opportunity for colleagues on different teams to work together. To ensure that the venues were assessed in the same way, the team decided that during the visit of the venues, a questionnaire would be designed. The questionnaire was compiled by members of the team to record information for each venue, including:

• location • ease of travel • cost • access • catering • equipment • cleanliness

The results were then placed on the shared drive for everyone to access. They used the information gathered from the visits when a venue was needed for the Corporate Resources Managers’ Briefing Session during July 2011. From the list of possible venues, the Birmingham Voluntary Services Centre (BVSC) in Digbeth was chosen, and the briefing was held on 26 July.

84% of the evaluation forms rated the venue as good, very good or excellent.

Through their BEST action, OMS feels it is contributing to the council’s commitment to working with the third sector.

For further information on third sector organisations meeting venues that cannot be delivered through existing Birmingham City Council venues, contact the Think Venue Website http://www.tvtts.coop/