 To reflect on the previous year and plan for a productive and organised year ahead

 This section asks us to reflect on areas such as regular meetings, increase in number of activists/ members attending, successful fund raising, successful conference and study days, involvement in lobby or campaigning.  Monthly meetings were held;  Introduction of tea, coffee biscuit at meetings;  You will hear in a moment reports form representatives how extremely busy and hard they have worked this past year dealing with outcomes of organisational change due to the financial situation ;  The increased number of volume of cases each representative has managed;

 Reduced number of members/activist at Branch Meetings;  Challenges with organisation and communication;  Recruitment;  Need more representatives  Poor attendance to branch by members and activits some meeting were not quorate (held anyway)

 Staff, RCN members, activists generally low motivation at present due to current financial climate and organisational change;  Better communication systems.

 The RCN strategic plan for 2008 to 2013, Forward Together, was launched at Congress on Monday 28 April  The strategic plan defines what is important to the RCN; setting out the organisation's aims and aspirations.  The strategic plan continues to support the RCN's overall mission to represent nurses and nursing, promote excellence in practice and shape health policy

 Building an organisation which values both the professional and trade union functions;  Engaging members and staff and their clinical and workforce talents and experience;  Strengthening the RCN as the leading authority on nursing on health and social care;  Embracing the wider nursing family and furthering strategic activities in our membership, our networks and with employers;  Campaigning for nursing, health care and patients;

 Strengthening accountability in our governance structure;  Maximising the RCN's contributing to improving the health and wellbeing of the national, EU and international population;  Enabling structures and processes to value diversity;  Building the RCN as a business;  Communicating the responsibilities the RCN has given its current charitable status and consider how this should develop in the future.

 Run a member campaign  Run a representative recruitment campaign  Contact local forum groups and develop joint activities  Arrange a study or branch conference  Network with adjacent branches and plan joint events  Identify a local issue and focus on this  Promote branch to any independent sector  Develop a branch newsletter  Working with Learning Reps to Organise study days / study event at a branch meeting  Presentations by RCN reps regarding a committee that that sit on  Attending Congress and submitting a resolution

 Frontline First