1

Attendees at this meeting: 19 out of 29 attended

Megan McIntyre, Cavan; Hugh Fitzgerald, Cork City; Brigid O’Sullivan, Cork County;

Megan Skinnader, Donegal; Oscar Despard, Dublin City; Kayla O’Hara, South Dublin; Kate

Lehane, Fingal; Hubert Matuszewski, Galway City; Niamh Bakker, Laois; Luke Casserly,

Longford; Katie McGuinness, Louth; Rebecca Kelly, Mayo; Tiernan Murray, Meath; Seán

McCleary, Monaghan; Denis Holton, Offaly; Emily Conlon, Roscommon; Emily Bollard,

Westmeath, Sophie O’Connor, Wexford, Ellen McGrath, Wicklow

Notes from 17th Meeting of

National Executive 2016-17

14th October 2017

2

Focus of the seventeenth meeting:

• Agreement on key messages for launch

• DVD: what story would we like it to tell?

• Roles and responsibilities at launch

• Travel and logistics in getting to launch

• MCs for Dáil na nÓg 2017

• Date for the Oireachtas Committee and the launch of the Hub

• Consultation on questions for the Dáil na nÓg placemats

• Focus group / evaluation session with Liz Harper

• Presentation of Certificates of Participation and hoodies

But first—ice-breakers!!!

NO

Page

3

NOTES FROM 17TH MEETING OF NATIONAL EXECUTIVE 2016 -17 Page 3

Agreement on three key messages from report for launch:

They split into three groups to make a final decision on what three overarching key messages from the survey report they want highlighted at the launch on 6th November—one from each section. They are as follows:

How young people experience teaching and learning in school:

• Maths is the subject most students want to improve the teaching of

Feelings about school:

• ‘Students need to have more impact on how they learn than an older person who passed through the education system under different circumstances’

Views on services and IT in schools:

• Less than half of students are satisfied with school support services

Update on the launch:

• The launch will take place on Monday 6th November in Firhouse Community College, Firhouse, Dublin 24

Google maps link: https://goo.gl/maps/PwWgsC2kx5r

• Registration starts at 11am with the launch kicking off at 11:30

• Group taxis will be organized for all National Exec members. Karyn will make arrangements.

• All National Exec members are invited back to DCYA after the launch where lunch will be provided.

• All members should wear their new National Executive hoodies to the launch

4

NOTES FROM 17TH MEETING OF NATIONAL EXECUTIVE 2016 -17 Page 4

DVD of the launch:

• It has been agreed that a DVD will be shot at the launch.

• The DVD will tell the story of the National Executive over the last two years, why their work is important, what was the process, what were the key messages from the survey etc...

• It will be shown at Dáil na nÓg 2017.

• Four National Executive members are required to be spokespersons on the video. The two ministers will also speak. It was also suggested that one of the four Exec members would take on the role of interviewer on the video, asking questions of the video spokespeople.

• The group were shown the video of the work of the previous National Executive on the Let’s Go Mental campaign to give them an idea of the tone and messaging of similar videos. You can watch that here: http://www.comhairlenanog.ie/national-executive/our-work-to-date/lets-go-mental/ Niamh and Emily C volunteered as spokespeople. Two others were recruited by email after the meeting: Craig and Barry. Barry had been proposed by other National Executive members as being a good candidate for interviewer. He has since agreed. Others will also be called on to give vox-pops, or sound-bites on the day.

• The prep session for those involved in the video will be Thursday 26th October in DCYA at 12:30—same date and time as the prep session for the speakers at the launch and the speakers at the Oireachtas Committee

Roles and responsibilities at the launch:

Speakers: Brigid O’Sullivan, Craig Smith, Ellen McGrath and Katie McGuinness

Ministerial meet & greet:

Luke Casserly: Minister Zappone Hugh Fitzgerald: Minister Bruton

Meet & Greeters: Megan Skinnader, Emily Bollard, Sean McCleary & Denis Holton

Video spokespersons and interviewers: Barry Sugrue, Niamh Bakker, Craig Smith & Emily Conlon

Registration: Rebecca Kelly, Sophie O’Connor, Kayla O’Hara & Megan McIntyre

5

NOTES FROM 17TH MEETING OF NATIONAL EXECUTIVE 2016 -17 Page 5

Travel / logistics for day of launch:

• Karyn will book all taxis in advance on account and will send details of pick-up and times to members.

• Group taxis will be booked, based on where people are arriving into, and coordinated with those arriving at a similar time.

• Taxis will also be booked for return journey. All members are invited back to DCYA after the launch (approx. 12:30pm) where lunch will be provided. We will be finished by 14:30.

• Expenses will be reimbursed as always.

Travel arrangements to date: (Karyn will follow up with all of those not at Saturday’s meeting in relation to times and pick-ups)

Pick-up from Connolly Station

10:10: Aoibhinn and Luke

Pick-up from Heuston Station:

09:15: Craig and Barry

10:15: Niamh, Hubert, Regan and Emily C

Pick-up from O’Connell St area (exact pick-up TBC)

10:15 x 2 taxis:

• Tiernan, Ellen and Brigid

• Megan S, Sean, Hugh and Denis

Pick up from UCD:

10:00: (exact pick-up TBC) Emily B, Rebecca and Megan M

Making their own way: (Karyn to circulate Google map and bus info)

Katie, Kayla, Sophie, Oscar, Kate Lehane

6

NOTES FROM 17TH MEETING OF NATIONAL EXECUTIVE 2016 -17 Page 6

DVD: Brainstorming session

How would we like the DVD to look? What tone? What visuals? What should be included?

Split into three groups. Here is a synopsis of the ideas and suggestions

• Not too much talking.

• Snappy sentence about who we are

• Introduce the survey—young people talking about it

• Focus only on the results, not the process

• Better version of a flippagram / infographic animations

• Colourful / bright graphics

• Pie charts and graphs to highlight statistics

• Interview young people and ministers—different types of interviews, maybe young people from the school / outside on street. Show ministers reviewing results

• Upbeat but serious tone

• Purpose: to showcase our survey. To inspire people to join the National Executive

• Ministers pictured sitting at a desk in classroom. Young people teaching ministers what we want. Getting served ‘info’ in a canteen.

• Use a Vlog-style

• Try for celebrities to come on board for the video

• Good upbeat music

• Show our camaraderie (sentimental)

7

NOTES FROM 17TH MEETING OF NATIONAL EXECUTIVE 2016 -17 Page 7

DVD: Brainstorming session

• Inquisitive tone—think Crimewatch but better

• Accessible version of survey results

• Include stills of us working on the survey—photos from meetings

• Talk about how we got to the survey and look at our experiences & the results (how they reflect that)

• Use the least number of under 25s as possible on the video

Date and members for the Oireachtas Committee:

Tuesday 21st November at 4pm, Leinster House

Speakers:

• Hugh Fitzgerald

• Kate Lehane

• Hubert Matuszewski

• Aoibhinn Callaghan

• Niamh Bakker

• Kate Lancaster-Ryan

Due to the late start time, speakers need to ensure that there is a transport op-tion for them to get home. Realistically this would need to be 18:15/30 or after to allow for rush-hour traffic.

8

NOTES FROM 17TH MEETING OF NATIONAL EXECUTIVE 2016 -17 Page 8

Youth Participation Hub update:

• Based on the fantastic ideas from the last meeting, the decision was made to go with Hub na nÓg as the name of the new Youth Participation Hub.

• The launch of the Hub will take place in Iveagh House on St Stephen’s Green on Monday 13th November at 10:30

• The format will be round table discussions—members of the National Executive have been invited to sit in and participate in discussions

• 4 x volunteers: Kate Lehane, Kayla, Brigid and Niamh

• Members were shown three options on the designs for the Hub website and were asked for their views on branding. They voted on the overall design they preferred, in addition to the colours and font.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Consultation re: questions on the Dáil na nÓg placemats:

The suggested questions on the placemat:

- What are the equality issues in this place?

- What needs to be done to improve equality in this place?

Young people were asked if they could come up with a better word than ‘issues’ as it immediately has a negative connotation. Here are their suggestions:

Inequalities

Concerns

Topics

Hurdles

Obstacles

Problems

Dilemmas

Objectives

9

NOTES FROM 17TH MEETING OF NATIONAL EXECUTIVE 2016 -17 Page 9

Selection of MCs for Dáil na nÓg:

All the names of the National Executive members were put into a box and two were drawn by private ballot. They are:

Luke Casserly, Longford, and Megan Skinnader, Donegal

Both are required to stay in Dublin the night before for a prep session and if under 18 will need to be accompanied by an adult. The room will be organized by Karyn and paid for by DCYA. More info to follow.

Facilitators at Dáil na nÓg:

21 facilitators are required for Dáil na nÓg—one to be Irish-speaking. To date, 18 members have volunteered to facilitate a table. MCs are not eligible to facilitate. We really need to recruit more young people. If you are interested, you also need to be available to attend the facilitator training in Croke Park on 11th November.

An email will follow from Karyn.

Current list of facilitators: if anyone else is interested, please contact Karyn

Gráinne Hickey

Sophie O’Connor

Regan Maher

Seán McCleary—Irish table

Niamh Bakker

Kate Lehane

Oscar Despard

Aoibhinn O’Callaghan

Katie McGuinness

Rebecca Kelly

Bethany Hanrahan

12. Emily Bollard

13. Brigid O’Sullivan

14. Hugh Fitzgerald

15. Tiernan Murray

16. Denis Holton

17. Kayla O’Hara

18. Emily Conlon

10

NOTES FROM 17TH MEETING OF NATIONAL EXECUTIVE 2016 -17 Page 10

End-of-term celebrations:

This meeting was the 17th and final full group meeting of the current National Executive. In keeping with tradition, each member was presented with a Certificate of Participation and a branded hoodie. They were also shown a celebratory photomontage of the highlights of their term.