Ahead of the AGMs that will decide the fate of their organisations’ merger proposals, the leaders of Community Matters and Navca met with Niki May Young to explain how a merger would affect their membership, and why they won't be fighting to take the lead.

 

How did discussions for merger arise – was this from back in Kevin Curley’s day?

Joe Irvin, (chief executive, Navca from January 2012) - “There had been some discussions before I came on board but I suppose we had the first formal discussions in January just as I started.

“That was then plans crystallised. We spent quite a lot of time - we set up a sort of informal steering group, both organisations, and we used facilitators. IVAR (the Institute for Voluntary Action Research) were really helpful in making sure the whole thing was facilitated properly, that everyone was involved properly, that we dealt with all the issues. That engagement between our trustee board and Community Matters’ national executive culminated in an awayday with everybody in our senior management teams. We went through everything and everybody decided, ‘yeah, it seems like we should give the green light’.”