Those present:- Bertil, Caroline, Janet, Jason, Julian, Ken, Martha, Mo and Sarah.
Apologies from:- Emily and Sue.
Caroline Harding was introduced to the group.
The previous minutes were read and all on going items were addressed in detail during this meeting.
Treasurer’s Report
Main Account stands at: £2696.05
Potato Day 2023 (cash to bank after final query dealt with): £152.65 (plus £81.40 paid directly into a/c from Transition Chesterfield)
Cashbox: £187.01 (will bank £100 of this after account book updated) – This includes £170 handed over from Fearon Hall on 10/3/2023 that was kept in their safe from 2019/2020 plant sales etc.
Ins and outs
Main incomes over last 18 months have been potato days (2022 and 2023), various plant sales, several apple pressings and a Charnwood B.C. grant for carbon literacy course provision.
Main outgoings have been allotment rent, bits for the new shed e.g. water butts etc. (shed itself was donated), carbon literacy course 3rd party provision (Caroline), room hire (meetings + repair cafés), public liability insurance.
Expenditure already agreed: manual /electric pump for allotment (£100-200), replacement water butt for old shed
* Changes since last AGM, 21st October 2021 – a gain of around £600 in monies held by the group
Janet questioned whether we should be raising our public liability insurance from £2,000,000 to £5,000,000. Any event run by the council requires the latter amount. Jason to discuss with insurer on renewal.
Food and Gardening
Incredible Edible – Julian reported on the progress of Incredible Edible since the overwhelming interest shown at the launch evening. The gardening courses are underway and making good use of the greenhouse at the back of Fearon Hall. Jerry’s shelving is making all the difference. The corner garden ended up being set up by just Martha and Julian but many locals have pitched in by watering when needed. It is proving useful as an example of what can be done. There is an interest in setting up small growing plots around the town. Julian would like these interest groups to be in contact with each other for support.
Further discussion continued regarding Transition’s ongoing partnership with I. E. A hard consensus was not formed but it was felt that we are two bodies with similar aims which could at some point come together under one umbrella organisation, Julian did state he felt I.E. was part of Transition Loughborough but the group at the A.G.M. were keen for I.E. to maintain its individual identity although still working closely with them.
It is early days, but it has been suggested that we could join forces and become a Community Interest Company (C.I.C.) or a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (C.I.O.) to help with grants etc. It was suggested that we see how Transition Chesterfield is set up and that we could learn about charitable status from the Rectory Wild Life Garden. At the moment, I.E. has its own insurance but it could come under our banner in time. It was agreed to review the situation over the next year. Jason will meet with Julian to further discuss any moves forward on this.
Potato Day – Janet reported that the event went well again this year and told us:
‘‘57 customers placed an order last Autumn. 7 more than last year. It was good to see some new names appearing on our data base.
We raised over £200 on orders, just under £200 on Potato Day and £75 from after sales. £482.71 in total. Expenditure, which included stock to sell, printing and room hire came to £248.65.
The final profit was £234.06.
Running the event from John Storer House was a good move. More effort will be made to encourage the customers who bought on the day to order in advance next time.
We will be packing our orders in L’boro from now on. Keith, Sarah, Nick and myself did the collecting from Chesterfield this time. We have a problem with the quality of the paper bags and are following up one suggestion. Any help locating strong bags would be appreciated.*
We had a lot of tubers left over, not because we had over ordered, more because we bring the stock here in bulk and there were more in the sacks than expected. As well as the after sales, we gave tubers to 5 Allotment groups. J S House asked if they could give some away in their Your Store shop. This led to us making up ‘growing kits’ at Transitions expense with a few tubers, compost, a container and instructions. We plan to make more available on next year’s Potato Day. Please save any spare containers, pots or sacks for this project.
Going forward, we always need help with publicity esp in local publications.
Thanks go to the team of Keith & Sarah Hillier, Mo, Suella, Sarah and Jon. Also, to the shopping bag makers as we needed more than usual this time.
We look forward to working on our 10th event later this year.’’
* Mo offered to talk to the Zero Waste shop on Baxter Gate as their bags seem stronger.
Sarah raised the issue of using Mail Chimp to keep in touch with our customers and stressed the advantages of using this system of communication. All agreed that this should be done.
Sarah will contact Jon on this to work out if any changes to the current set-up are needed.
Allotment – Martha reported that the 3 plots are in good order with a recent top up of horse manure etc. More helpers are needed to share the work load. It is hoped that some of those interested in I E will join in, either on Wed evenings from 4pm and/or on the occasional Saturday working party. Plans are in hand to buy a small pump to make obtaining water from the ajoining stream easier and safer. Ken is installing water butts around both sheds as last summer’s hot weather showed that we need to harvest as much water as possible during wet weather. The donated poly tunnel will be in situ shortly and Ken is looking to place more slabs around the site. There are plans to add more storage shelves to the new shed now that most of the equipment has been moved there. A small gas burner would be useful when it comes to offering refreshments to helpers – Martha to relook at old stove and request a new one if that is beyond repair.
Apple Press -Janet reported that all the equipment has been overhauled, some is stored in the allotment shed and some in Julian’s wife’s garage for easy access. It will be available to attend events in the Autumn and a team of helpers will be needed. The requests for pressing sessions usually go through Jon and the website. It was felt that someone from Transition should be with the equipment at all times. The hire cost was mentioned. Bertil pointed out that groups that use it and make no charge at the event could be put off by the hire cost esp. if we raise it from the present £15. Events that charge an entrance fee should be charged more. No decision was made and further discussion is needed. At one time a deposit was charged. Janet is to speak to Jon for the background on this.
Other Events
Repair Cafe – The next one has been booked for Sat 20th May from 9.30 – 12noon at Fearon Hall.
We need more general, electronic and elecrical repairers. Jason to approach Leicester Fixers and see if B-Buddies will attend again. It was suggested that we ask Gemma if any of the Woodhouse Eaves repairs would be able to help. We will be paying for someone to run the cafe.
Now is the time to start advertising, poster, website etc. Janet to run off a basic flyer to be available at the Seed Share. We hope to run 2 more repair events this year. Jason to get dates from Dawn/Meg at Fearon Hall.
As yet, we have no other events planned for the summer months. Eco social? Ideas welcome.
A O B
Janet wanted to acknowledged the suggestions that had been made via the google group since the last meeting. There have been many good ideas that would help boost our appeal and get more people involved. Much as we would like to follow some of them up, there is a need for volunteers to process them. Please don’t stop them coming owing to lack of response.
The date of the next meeting was not discussed. The meeting ended at 9.15pm.
Transition Loughborough 