2.1.2 Council members participate and contribute from their perspective, highlight issues and problems experienced by disabled people, and offer constructive solutions.

2.1.3 Guest presenters can have a useful discussion with Council members, are respectfully heard, and get real perspectives of disabled people's experiences.

2.1.4 Guests leave the Council meeting feeling their discussion has been valuable and a good use of their time, and they take back a disability perspective that they can apply in their work and feel motivated to be more responsive to disability issues.

3. About the Council

3.1 The Disability Advisory Council has four meetings a year. They are all held in Wellington, and are face-to-face meetings.

3.2 The Council exists to bring together the different perspectives of disabled people and family carers, and provide advice to the Office for Disability Issues.

3.3 The Council meetings are also opportunities to provide this disability perspective to other government agencies, as one way to implement the New Zealand Disability Strategy.

3.4 Outside of the Council meeting, members should not give advice to any agency or person in the name of the Council.

3.5 Any discussion by a Council member outside of a meeting will be as an individual person.

4. Members bring a perspective

4.1 You are appointed as a Council member because of your knowledge, expertise, and networks that you have in the disability sector. You will have a perspective and experience in a particular area of disability.

4.2 You are expected to stay in contact with your appointing organisation as well as other disability organisations, let them know how the Council meetings are going, and keep in touch with current issues impacting on disabled people.

4.3 However, you do not represent your appointing organisation. You do not have to report back to them on what you do or say.

5. Talking with others about meetings

5.1 Information that is sent to you, or that is shared in Council meetings, will be identified as confidential (not to be shared with anyone else) or public (you can share this with others).

5.2 Items discussed at Council meetings may be draft or work in progress, or not yet released publicly. This means it is confidential, and you can not share this information with anyone else outside the meeting. We will mark this information as confidential.

5.3 There will be other kinds of information presented that is already public, or which is not confidential and can be shared with others.

5.4 If it is not clear at the meeting whether information is confidential or not, you should ask first to make sure.

5.5 The Office for Disability Issues produces a summary of each Council meeting which is released publicly. You can share this summary with organisations and anyone else that is interested in what the Council talks about at its meetings. These summaries are also published on the Office website, as well as other documents about the Council.

6. Supporting your participation

6.1 You need to tell the Office for Disability Issues if you need support to participate in Council meetings.

6.2 You should also let the Office know if your needs change.

6.3 The types of things that the Office needs to know include:
6.3.1 Travel - how and when you want to get to the meeting and back home?
6.3.2 Accommodation - do you need to stay in a hotel, and what type of room do you need?
6.3.3 Food - is there any food that you cannot eat or other special requirements?
6.3.4 Accessing information - what types of things make it easy for you to read and understand information?
6.3.5 Participating in meetings - what do you need in a meeting that will help you participate?
6.3.6 Getting to the venue - do you need any help to get to the meeting venue?
6.3.7 Moving about the venue - is there anything that you need to easily move in, out and about the meeting room, or the venue?

7. Travelling to the meeting

7.1 The Office for Disability Issues will arrange your travel and accommodation so you can attend the Council meetings.

7.2 A message will be emailed to Council members at least a month before each meeting, which asks you to confirm your travel arrangements.

7.3 You need to reply to the Office by the due date in the message.

7.4 After the due date has passed, we will go ahead and book your travel.

7.5 It is important that we hear from you so that we know you are coming to the meeting, and that the travel arrangements are ok.

7.6 Papers confirming your travel (such as airplane e-tickets) and taxi chits will be posted to you at the same time as papers for the Council meeting. This is usually at least 8 working days before the meeting.

Changes to travel

7.7 Once your travel is booked, the Office will not be able to make changes (unless extraordinary circumstances apply).

7.8 If you choose to make changes to your travel arrangements, after they have been booked, then you will need to pay the cost of making the change (unless extraordinary circumstances apply).

Staying somewhere else

7.9 It is expected that all members (from outside of the Wellington region) will stay together at accommodation arranged by the Office for Disability Issues.

7.10 Members need to talk with the Office ahead of time if you want to stay somewhere else to confirm arrangements.

7.11 If a member chooses to stay at a private residence, then that member is expected to use public transport to travel to and from the meeting venue.

8. Not able to attend meetings

8.1 If a Council member is not able to attend a meeting, you should tell the Office.

8.2 If you get sick before a meeting, and are not able to travel, then you need to tell the Office.

8.3 We need to know if you are not coming to a meeting so we can cancel any travel and accommodation bookings that have been made for you.

Missing several meetings in a row

8.4 The Council works best if all members are present and able to provide their perspective.

8.5 If you find that you are very busy with work or other commitments, and you find that you often do not have time to come to Council meetings, then you should talk with your appointing organisation.

8.6 It may be better for the appointing organisation to find someone else to take on the role of a Council member than for you to repeatedly miss meetings.

9. Preparing for the meeting

9.1 For your first meeting, you will need to bring along for the Office for Disability Issues:
9.1.1 a deposit form for the bank account into which you would like your membership fee paid
9.1.2 your Inland Revenue number.

9.2 About one or two months before each meeting, the Office for Disability Issues will prepare an agenda of what Council members will talk about.

9.3 The Office will develop the agenda using what was talked about at past meetings, and current issues impacting on disabled people.

9.4 Each item on the meeting agenda will usually have a supporting paper that goes with it. This paper will provide information on what is to be discussed, so that you will come to the meeting ready to contribute.

9.5 Each paper will have a cover sheet, on coloured paper, which tells you who is presenting, a brief summary of the item, and suggests what you should think about.

9.6 Council members are asked to suggest solutions to issues being discussed, as well as to highlight problems experienced by disabled people.

9.7 We tell presenters that they are not allowed to make audio-visual presentations to the meeting, or give out papers at the meeting.

9.8 However, they can use a handout as the basis of their discussion so long as they send it to the Office before hand. This will allow us to send this information to all members.

9.9 We will make sure this information is accessible as much as we can, such as putting all information into text (including graphics) and keeping the language in plain English.

9.10 Council members are asked to bring your knowledge, and the experiences and knowledge of your networks and organisations, to the meeting discussions.

9.11 We will try to send papers for each Council meeting to you at least 8 working days before the meeting (this is about 2 weeks).

9.12 We will email to you all the papers, if this is possible. Sometimes, we only have hard copies.

9.13 We will also post to you hard copies of all the papers. Included with these papers will be your travel itinerary (such as plane e-ticket) and taxi chits (where these are needed).

9.14 Papers will be copied at the same time to any support people that the Office has organised or knows.

10. Emerging issues

10.1 Council members are expected to keep a look out for emerging issues that impact on disabled people.

10.2 You can talk about these issues at the meeting, or you can send them directly to the Office.

10.3 We will add the issues to the Issues Register. This is a list of issues that Council members have talked about at meetings in the past.

10.4 The Office will work through each issue. We will note whether current work by government agencies will resolve the issue, or connect with a government agency that would be responsible for taking action on the issue.

10.5 At each meeting, there will be an update of progress with the issues.

11. At the meeting

11.1 All Council members should be able to fully participate in the meetings.

11.2 Meetings are run in a way that will allow all members to participate and contribute.

11.3 You need to keep in mind the different abilities and needs of other Council members.

11.4 Some things to think about are:
11.4.1 You should raise your hand, or otherwise let the Chair know you wish to speak, before speaking. The Chair will decide the order of who speaks, and tell you when you can speak.
11.4.2 Only one person should speak at a time, and you should not speak over the top of anyone else.
11.4.3 Some people may take a little time to talk about something they want to say, and you should be patient in allowing time for all members to contribute.
11.4.4 Plain English in writing and talking is important at all times. You should avoid using jargon or abbreviations, as other people may not know what you are talking about.
11.4.5 Deaf people need to wait for the New Zealand Sign Language interpreter to translate the spoken English into New Zealand Sign Language. This means a Deaf member may ask questions or talk to items later on in a discussion than other members.
11.4.6 People with learning/intellectual disability appreciate having information presented in simple and direct ways. Plain English is essential in all communications.
11.4.7 There will be breaks about every hour, of at least 5 minutes. This allows both Council members and support people to have a rest, and be better able to sustain their participation.

12. After the meeting

12.1 The Office for Disability Issues will try and send to all Council members the draft record of the meeting within three weeks of the meeting.

12.2 If you have any issues with this record, you should tell the Office, or raise it at the next meeting.

13. Your pay

13.1 Council members are paid a meeting fee of $200 per day.

13.2 If you attend a Council meeting that goes for half a day, then you will be paid $100.

13.3 The Council Chair is paid a meeting fee of $275 per day, which reflects the additional work they have to do.

13.4 If the Council Chair is not able to be at a meeting, then the Council member who acts as the Chair will be paid $275 per day.

13.5 All Council members are paid directly by the Ministry of Social Development, which usually happens within two weeks of the meeting.

14. Your expenses

14.1 Council members should not usually have expenses to claim that are not already covered by arrangements made by the Office.

14.2 Your accommodation will be organised and paid by the Office directly.

14.3 This will include the cost of a continental breakfast.

14.4 Lunch will be provided during the Council meetings.

14.5 Dinner will be provided at the hotel. There will usually be a set menu ordered by the Office.

What you need to pay

14.6 If you choose to order more food for breakfast (such as a cooked meal), and this costs more than the continental breakfast, then you will need to pay the extra cost directly to the hotel when you check out. The hotel will expect this payment.

14.7 You have to pay for any drinks (alcohol or non-alcoholic) that you order.

14.8 You also need to pay for any room service that you order, or any food or drink that you take from the minibar or fridge in the hotel room.

Other expenses that the Office will pay to you

14.9 There may be other kind of things that are needed to get you to the Council meeting that need to be paid for.

14.10 You must talk with the Office for Disability Issues to get agreement about these other expenses.

14.11 You may need to pay for these yourself, and then claim back the cost, if the Office agrees to pay for them.

14.12 Any expense claimed must be reasonable and actual. Receipts need to be provided, where possible.

14.13 Other expenses that the Office is likely to pay back to you are:
14.13.1 If you need to drive your car to and from the airport
14.13.2 If you care for someone, and in your absence there will be costs to substitute the care you provide
14.13.3 If you need support to participate in the meeting and you need to pay for this support.

14.14 The Office is not likely to pay for things like long distance travel by car if there are other less costly ways for you to travel, such as using a rental car.

14.15 It is important that you talk with the Office well ahead of time about these types of other expenses.

Making an expense claim

14.16 On the first day of the Council meeting, you need to tell the Office about the expenses you want to claim.

14.17 The Office will put these expenses on a claim form, which you will be asked to sign.

14.18 You will be paid directly by the Ministry of Social Development usually within two weeks of the meeting.

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