The General Meeting
32 people attended the first meeting of the group which convened on the evening of the 24th July to try to decide the aims of the campaign, and how it should be structured, organised and financed. The two hour meeting made some real progress on both those topics and explored some ideas for the campaign itself.
Reports from the PACT Children’s and Animation Group, The BAFTA Kids Committee and the VLV all indicated support for what the campaign is trying to achieve. PACT reported that they had written to all MPs on the ad-ban issue, the VLV talked about their letter to Ofcom in response to the ad-funding consultation, and BAFTA Kids Committee have written to Ofcom on the same issue. Tony Collingwood let us know that BAFTA are planning to hold a large scale debate at 195 Piccadilly on the 13th September and are planning to invite high-profile guests.
There was some discussion as to whether fighting the high fat, salt and sugar foods ad-ban was the best way forward at this stage. It was agreed to go forward on the principal that while the advertising ban would make the situation suddenly much worse, that an erosion in revenue was already under way through the voluntary flight of advertisers and the fragmentation caused by the multiplicity of services and new platforms. It was felt more important that the campaign should broadly support the rights of UK kids to their own culture, while specifically seeking new sources of funding for British children’s media production to help maintain that. Meanwhile the group should do everything it could to prevent damaging decisions at Ofcom in relation to ITV’s PSB requirements and the speed at which ad-bans might be imposed.
Organisationally it was agreed that we needed a name for the campaign; that a mission statement should be prepared; and that for the time being activities should continue to be volunteer-based while we establish the organisation and its methods of working.
Four working parties were set up to pursue the specific tasks needed to progress:
- Press and Public relations (making the wider public aware and gaining their support)
- Influencing Policy (political and institutional lobbying; forming and maintaining alliances with other organisations and key supporters)
- Funding for Children’s Media (research and ideas generation to guarantee the continuance of funding for quality production in the UK)
- Structure, Organisation and Finance (the constitution, operation and funding of the group and its activities).
The meeting asked Anna Home to continue to chair the campaign.
A huge thank-you to Cary Bazalgette at the BFI for not only providing the venue but for the hospitality too!
