WDCO is pulling its socks up

The WDCO Regeneration cycle

A bit like Dr Who, WDCO regenerates itself every so often. The cycle is very predictable, it lasts for three years, and the latest cycle has just completed, with its finale at the AGM on September 19th 2024 . If only estate regenerations could move as fast.

The board is made up of elected representatives, members appointed by residents’ associations, and co-optees. You can see a complete list of the names of our recently appointed board members, how they come to be members, and what roles they fulfil on the board, on our “Contacts” page.

If you want to get in touch with any of them just fill in your name and email address at the foot of the page, select a name from the dropdown list and fill in your message.

The Independent Tenant and Leaseholder’s Association (ITLA)

The ITLA ably assists WDCO by providing administrative support. WDCO is very heavily dependent on ITLA for the preparation of agendas, the production of minutes and the management of issues between meetings.

ITLA also provides a very high level of support for tenants in social housing in its twice weekly advice surgeries every Tuesday and Thursday between 2pm and 6pm at:

Vice Chair Responsibilities

It has been a long standing requirement of the WDCO constitution that its Vice Chairs take on responsibility for specific policy areas, a requirement hitherto honoured entirely in the breach. But this year it will also be observed.

The WDCO board is now a very large entity. Check out our Contacts page to see all 32 members.

WDCO has a structure which includes an Executive committee made up of the chair and eight vice chairs, who include a treasurer, vice-treasurer, a vice chair with responsibility for communications and four other vice chairs.

It was at a meeting of the board in the summer that it was agreed that the 4 areas of policy would be:

• Individual Case 
• Ground Floor Strategy 
• Residents Association Liaison
• Constitution Reform 

The allocation of names to roles has not yet been carried out but will be on the agenda for the November Board Meeting on 21st.

There will be more to come on the nature of these roles.

WDCO Minutes, Meetings and Agendas

WDCO is a public body made up of residents of Woodberry Down and of people who work here. It’s nature is such that, with just a very few exceptions, all its proceedings and meetings are public.

If you would like to come to a WDCO meeting just come along to the Redmond Centre on the third Thursday of every month (except, generally) August at 7:15 pm. Feel free to come along to a WDCO meeting, where you can experience the thrill of local governance live at the Redmond Centre! Think of it as community theatre, but with real-life impact.

If you’d like to receive a reminder of when the other meetings take place and an agenda setting out what the meeting will cover just get in touch with roda.hassan@publicvoice.london of ITLA who provides secretarial support for the board, and she will add you to the circulation list.

Generally, non-board members attending a board meeting do not speak, though the Chair will consider requests from the floor.

If you’d like to see topics WDCO has tackled in the past the last two years of minutes are on the website, alongside other key documents such as presentations that have been made to the board. The Document library has been designed with a view to its being easy to navigate. Do please let the Vice-Chair of Communications know if you think this can be improved.

Partnership Communications

The other members of the partnership have collaborated to produce a revised communications strategy. This has been presented to WDCO and is now being implemented.

Its major component is a shift from reliance on a quarterly printed newsletter to much more modern, often electronic means of communication, including social media. We’re moving into the 21st century! Think Twitter over telegrams, WhatsApp over whistles. But don’t worry—if digital isn’t your thing, our beloved quarterly newsletter will be here to stay (paper cuts and all).

There will remain a need for printed materials, as many on the estate are not well equipped to receive social media postings, so the quarterly quarterly will survive, supplemented by interim printed flyers for urgent bulletins, if needed.

This blog is WDCO’s first contribution to the revised regime .