Author Archives: Sarah Moroz

Summary Minutes of the Meeting of 12th July 2022

Venue

The Avenue Methodist Church, Rutland Avenue

Those present

Lesley Hatton
Sarah Moroz
Mike King
Steve Morton
Sheena King
Tony Thornby
Angus Massie

Apologies

Ed McKeon
Tim Nolan
Jhon Munoz

Topics discussed

  • Treasurer’s report
  • Wycombe FOE/Environmental Issues
    • New environmental show on Wycombe Sound on Wednesdays 1-4pm
    • New Scrap Store (‘Refresh’) every Saturday 10.30 -12.30 in Chiltern Shopping Centre – craft items available
    • Repair Cafe at All Saints church 2nd Saturday of the month 10am – 1pm
  • Costa Rican Partnership
    • Meeting with Wycombe’s new Mayor and Deputy on 14/06/22
    • Upcoming Zoom meeting with Costa Rican counterparts on 03/08/22
    • Potential small batch of coffee branded with partnership details to be sourced from Coope Victoria
  • Church issues
    • St Andrews gained FT status in Set ’21
    • All Saints and Downley Methodist are in the process of gaining it
  • Future plans
    • Have been asked to provide refreshments at Mayor’s Carol concert on 11/12/22
    • Possible stall at Pann Mill on 11/09/22
    • Suggested joint FT day with Grecia/Coope Victoria with video links and activities

Next meeting

Tuesday 1st November – Avenue Methodist Church at 8pm

Summary Minutes of the Meeting of 8th June 2022

Venue

The Avenue Methodist Church, Rutland Avenue

Those present

Lesley Hatton
Ed McKeon
Mike King
Sarah Moroz
Sheena King
Tim Nolan
Angus Massie
Tony Thornby

Apologies:

Andrea Baughan
Steve Morton
Jhon Munoz

Topics discussed

  • Treasurer’s report
  • Schools link
    • 4 joint teaching sessions held
    • MK/SK visited the school in Grecia on their recent trip and were very impressed
  • Other matters
    • MK has finished interviews for 2nd article in Journal of Fair Trade
    • Renewal date for Fairtrade Town status is now 01/08/23
    • Meeting with new Mayor and Deputy Mayor has been arranged
    • Discussion re: if we should change to using single word ‘Fairtrade’ in our group’s name
  • Coope Victoria coffee
    • Discussion re: possibility of marketing a coffee from Coope Victoria to advertise the link between Wycombe and Grecia and involving students at Highcrest in designing the packaging
  • Social media issues
    • We need to produce more content to engage the people in Wycombe
    • Other ways to reach people e.g. Wycombe Sound, local magazines
  • Costa Rica trip
    • MK/SK had a brilliant time in Costa Rica and were made extremely welcome
    • Visits included the Colegio school linked with Highcrest, a coffee and sugar cane farm, Coope Victoria, a water company, a farmers market, an alcohol production plant, planting trees with local school children and meeting the Mayor and Deputy Mayor

Next meeting

Tuesday 12th July at The Avenue Church – at 8pm

Summary Minutes of the Meeting of 29th March 2022

Summary of meeting: 29th March 2022
The Avenue Methodist Church, Rutland Avenue

Those Present

Lesley Hatton
Angus Massie
Mike King
Sarah Moroz
Sheena King
Tony Thornby

Apologies

Ed McKeon
Ivan Cicin-Sain

Topics discussed

  • Treasurer’s report
  • Social Media issues – the possibility of setting up a LinkedIn account
  • The article/follow-up article in the Journal of Fairtrade
  • Highcrest link – pen-pal e-mail links have been initiated
  • Costa Rica trip. Donations for this, gifts to be taken to Grecia
  • Fairtrade Churches Day 05/03/22. Feedback on this event. The talks were very good and donations of Fairtrade goods were received from local supermarkets.
  • Public Liability Insurance in place until November 2022
  • Traidcraft Big Brew event 23/02/22. Feedback on this event. Nearly £300 was raised for Traidcraft. A Fairtrade/Climate Change quiz was held

Next meeting

Wednesday 8th June at The Avenue Church 8pm

Minutes of the Meeting of 22nd January 2022

Those present

Lesley Hatton
Sarah Moroz
Mike King
Jhon Munoz
Sheena King
Tony Thornby

Apologies

Angus Massie,
Ivan Cicin-Sain

Minutes

MK – Ed McKeon was not available for this meeting; Charley Hickey
may join later

MK – re: minutes of last meeting – no changes

MK – updates since then – there have been some brilliant things
happening.

Treasurer’s report

SK – good news – on 13th Dec Christ the Servant King church let us
know that they have given us a donation of £500. This is very welcome and encouraging and not expected. Heather said that she suggested it as SK/MK are members of CSK and she was aware that we keep them updated with our activities and that we have not been able to hold any stalls etc recently due to the pandemic.

SK sent e-mail of thanks but will also send a more formal card of
thanks.

We also received £50.87 from the Mayor’s carol concert donations
and this was made up to £61 with a few extra amounts.

Our account now stands at £762.75.

Membership subs are now due again: £15 waged, £10 concessions,
£5 students. Bank transfers are ok for payment of subs.

SK – suggests we can now pay for venue hire out of the Wycombe for
Fairtrade account

SK – is planning to hold a Traidcraft Big Brew event on Wednesday
23rd Feb 10am – 11.30am at CSK. In the past CSK said that takings
from the cafe could be given to Traidcraft Exchange. This time SK will
not ask for this due to the generous donation already given by CSK.
Suggests 10% of our account ie. £76 could be donated to Traidcraft
Exchange instead.

Mayor’s Carol Concert (12th Dec 2021)

SM – this seemed to go well and it was good to have the link up with
Lesley Clarke and Andrea Baughan. Matt and Maz were also there. A
few Covid-related arrangements were required but all went ok.

Wycombe Friends of the Earth/Population Matters/Wycombe
Environment

Update from Ivan (received after meeting): Wycombe Environment
group is promoting bee flowers and Wycombe FOE are looking into
insulation in low income homes.

IT issues

TT – re: e-mails – may need more e-mails as it is awkward for one
person to be using the group one on any particular project which
they are leading. Could have individual ones set up eg.
mike@fairtrade.co.uk etc. Could also be a group one as well.

MK – ok to keep using own private e-mails for inter-group contacts as
well. Can use the group one as a repository of documents if that is
useful. We did have a rota for the info@ address. We could go back
to this.

LH – as a church they get more contact from their Facebook page
than their website

SK – queried how to put things onto our Facebook page

LH – could do this via TT as he is one of the page admin people for
the page

TT – he could also add SK via the admin page

LH – Facebook is good for advertising events to local people (perhaps
for our generation, not so much for younger people)

JM – thinks the partnership with Grecia needs to be highlighted more
on our website. Currently it is to be found under ‘News’. Maybe if an
icon could be added so that this leads directly to anything about the
partnership.

SK – the partnership is now very active and important for our group

JM – would be good to have a separate meeting with TT/MK about
this

LH – there are links on the WFF home page but maybe the Grecia one
could be highlighted more

TT – some things on the website could be removed/updated. Need to
have more recent content from the group to put on the website

Other issues

MK – the Mayor’s carol concert was the first time the revised banner
was used and drew some favourable comments

MK – our Public Liability insurance has been confirmed by the FT
Foundation up to Nov 22

Schools link

MK – had a meeting in late Oct/early Nov with several teachers at
Highcrest and MK and SM had a more recent meeting (on 10/01/22)
with Colette Barker and several teachers. Year 8 are doing a project
on FT. CB has arranged for us to deliver assemblies in FT Fortnight.
They are also having Traidcraft stalls. MK has also been invited back
to give a talk to A-level students. CB has arranged for half the school
to visit Cadbury’s World. Highcrest have been very enthusiastic on
this project. Maria at Coope Victoria is delighted by this. When
MK/SK visit Costa Rica in May they will also be meeting with teachers
at the Liceo. A presentation that MK was going to give to the Liceo
before Christmas has been postponed due to his health issues –
hopefully this may happen in March.

JM – suggested it would be good to do a video meet-up with the
Mayor of Grecia, the Manager of Coope Victoria, Maria and others as
was done from the Mayor’s parlour in Wycombe previously.
MK – Highcrest want to put FT into the curriculum at the lower levels
and want to make Spanish the compulsory foreign language for all
the students

Fairtrade Fortnight

MK – will be delivering six 15-minute sessions for assemblies at
Highcrest plus there will be Traidcraft stalls at the school. MK sent
our FT directory to CB and she will send this out to every parent in
the school. MK will also be interviewed for a video to be put on the
school’s website and this will be available to parents.

MK – there will be a Big Brew at Christ the Servant King. Also a
churches event is being planned at The Avenue church on March 5th.
Darren is willing to be there.

SM – will try to see if there is anyone available from the FT Foundation to come on March 5th to explain the registration/reregistration process for churches.

LH – if not, she would be willing to say something about this. There
would also be a FT stall. Perhaps have a few short talks/videos etc.
10am – 1pm but people wouldn’t have to stay to whole morning. LH
has got ways to contact other churches to put out publicity. Could
put out some initial publicity this week. SK/SM and maybe Maggie to
help with this.

Link with Co-op

MK – this link was established originally by a Costa Rican lady who
works in the Community Shared Values Dept at the Co-op in
Bracknell. She went on holiday to Costa Rica and did the tour of
Coope Victoria and heard about the link with High Wycombe. She
also learnt about the article for the Journal of Fair Trade which has
now been accepted for publication. This led to a meeting between
MK/JM and various people at the Co-op. We have been invited to 4
Co-op events for FT. They were so impressed that they called our link
‘fabulous’ and have asked for another meeting. This is an amazing
opportunity. They have the same shared values as us. Darren said
that they are always on the look-out for new coffee varieties. The Coop
want to see a ripple effect going out to all the FT towns/cities and
they are willing to help.

Journal of Fair Trade

MK – is also doing some work with Tony B on a follow-up article and
has got interest from a lot of universities around the world. The
social justice and healthcare aspects which come from the premium
payments are very important. A town in South Africa is also looking
to link up with a UK FT Town

MK – is interviewing someone from CLAC tomorrow for the article.

TT – it would be good to put all these developments on our social
media. Would also be good to put the South African group in touch
with a different FT group in the UK

MK – was thinking of suggesting the Oxford group for this.

Next meeting

Tuesday 15th March – at The Avenue Church 8pm
Revised date: Tuesday 22nd March –

Minutes of the Meeting of 23rd November 2021

LOCATION

The Avenue Methodist Church, Rutland Avenue

THOSE PRESENT

Lesley Hatton
Sheena King
Mike King
Sarah Moroz

APOLOGIES

Ivan Cicin-Sain
Andrea Baughan
Ed McKeon
Jhon Munoz
Angus Massie

MINUTES

MK – no corrections/additions required to minutes of last meeting (19/10/21)

International Fair Trade Towns Conference

MK – all the sessions were recorded (including the feedback sessions). It was very well organised.

High Wycombe/Grecia/Coope Victoria link

MK – showed the revised banner. The website addresses are now included at the bottom of the banner and the flags of the 2 countries are not cut off at the sides.

Council flower bed

MK – Andrea raised this issue with Lesley Clarke who then contacted 2 people at Bucks Council but the next opportunity for having a FT- themed flower bed won’t be until 2023 as the Queen’s Platinum jubilee is happening in 2022.

Mayor’s carol concert

MK – SM/MK are meeting Lesley Clarke on 02/12/21 at the Front Room cafe to discuss catering arrangements for the carol concert (SK/LH/Maggie and Claudia are also able to help).

MK is also planning to ask LC re: procurement policies of Bucks Council (re: sustainability etc)

Wycombe Friends of the Earth/Population Matters etc

MK – Ivan reported that Population Matters, High Wycombe, are having their AGM on 28/11/21 at 3pm.

The Wycombe Environment group (part of the High Wycombe Community Board) currently run a ‘Repair Cafe’ on the 2nd Saturday of the month at All Saints parish church.

The Wycombe Environment Centre is now being run by Frances Alexander’s daughter. They are moving premises at the moment.

SM – will try to get in touch with Fay Ewing at Wycombe Environment group. (LC is Deputy Chair of the High Wycombe Community board).

MK – we should also be promoting local food producers.

MK – went to the last Bucks Climate Action Alliance meeting and some members of Wycombe FOE went to Glasgow for COP26. MK/SK attended the Wycombe FOE day of action – during which some members of the public were interviewed

Fairtrade Foundation webinar on 17/11/21

MK – joined this webinar – it was about the re-definition of the goals required to gain FT Town status. The webinar is being repeated on Thursday this week (25th Nov) and SM has signed up for this.

Schools link

MK – Colette has made contact with Laura in Grecia. A preliminary session was held with 6th – formers and then a first joint lesson.

Other meetings etc

MK – went to a meeting of the Environmental, Sustainability and FT committee at Bucks New Uni on 8th Nov.

MK – has also been in touch with Darren at Kingdom Coffee. Masteroast had their 40th anniversary and invited the High Commissioner of Costa Rica. Darren is going to suggest some dates in January to meet up – it would be good if JM could be there as well.

MK – Bruce Crowther was making the case for a northern FT mark.

MK – has been in contact with a lady involved with FT ‘golden berries’ from South America re: interviews for his 2nd article for the Journal of Fair Trade Plans for FT Fortnight

LH – is planning an event to take place for local churches on a Saturday morning on the theme of FT. Possibly 12th February (prior to FT Fortnight)

SM – will contact the FT Foundation to see if they have anyone who could come and give a talk on what is involved in registering/re-registering.

SK – maybe Darren would like to come as well.

Next meeting

January – date TBC at The Avenue Church or Zoom, as a back-up

Minutes of the Meeting of 19th October 2021

LOCATION

The Avenue Methodist Church, Rutland Avenue

PRESENT

Ivan Cicin-Sain
Jhon Munoz
Mike King
Tony Thornby
Sheena King
Lesley Hatton
Angus Massie
Steve Morton – Wycombe Friends of the Earth
Andrea Baughan – Mayor of High Wycombe

MINUTES OF LAST MEETING

MK – re: minutes of our last meeting – there is one correction ie. the cafe at Hughenden should be called The Village Store Coffee Shop (a community cafe) in order to distinguish it from the cafe at Hughenden Manor.

Bob’s Memorial Service

It was commented that there was a very warm feel to this service. Bob’s godson, Wesley, revealed that Bob had received an award from the UN for his work on the distribution of smallpox vaccines for children in Nepal/Bangladesh.

Contribution from Mayor Andrea

AB – has been interested in Fairtrade for many years and has lived in High Wycombe for about 15 years – a fan of the Oxfam shop and Ruby Moon (who are very supportive of the mayoralty and charity events). The Mayor’s current charities are the Epilepsy Trust and Ducklings (Stoke Mandeville & Wycombe Hospitals’ children’s toys).

AB is interested in organising a tea party event to raise awareness of FT. There is due to be a table-top sale in the Spindle & Thread pub on 27th November and there may be a spare table if we wanted to make enquiries (recommends to contact them via Facebook). It is £10 to book a table and this money goes to the Wycombe Homeless Connection. There may also be other possible future dates.

There will also be the Mayor’s Carol Service in December in All Saints church and AB is happy for Wycombe FT to arrange the refreshments. AB and her deputy are both willing to attend events to lend their support.

Wycombe Friends of the Earth

St M – there is a Global Day of Action for COP26 on Nov 6th and Wycombe FOE are holding events in Wycombe town centre on this day. They will be asking people what they are doing to combat climate change and taking a video which will be sent to Glasgow. Other groups are also involved, including Solar Streets. There will be a market stall beneath the Guild Hall from 10.30am onwards.

TT – asked if there will be any web presence that we could point people to?

St M – yes, there will be.

Population Matters

I C-S – there will be a meeting of Population Matters in November which will be posted on Facebook – venue and date to be arranged. He is also involved with Wycombe Food Hub and Trevor Snaith will be giving a talk on food waste on 3rd Nov at 7.30pm at the Friends Meeting House. People need to notify them if they would like to go or it is possible to watch on Zoom.

IT issues

TT – 3 documents from MK have been uploaded to our website.

MK – the logos that he used in the documents were obtained from free sites.

TT – there has not been much traffic. It might be better to have news of upcoming events, rather than just reporting on past events.

Treasurer’s report

SK – there has been no change to our balance since last meeting (£201.75). Thanks to MK for paying the £10 fee to have our stall at the Pann Mill event at which £156 was raised for Traidcraft from the sale of goods.

Pann Mill event

MK – re: our stall at Pann Mill open day on 12th September – we made some good contacts at this event. Wycombe Sound were not there but there was a steady flow of people. We met Marion Lyons from St Andrews, Hatters Lane – they are trying to gain Eco Church status. We also met Fay Ewing who is on the Wycombe Community Board – she gave us her e-mail address and invited us to their next meeting.

AB – Fay is very pro-active and helpful. The Community Board is where different groups can put in funding requests.
e-mail: hwcb@buckinghamshire.gov.uk

SM – could send her an e-mail and perhaps attend a meeting

Grecia/Coope Victoria Partnership

MK – re: banner. Thanks to AM for revising the banner.
The design was approved by everyone in the meeting.

MK – JM sent an e-mail to congratulate Grecia on their 200th anniversary

JM – will also send our congratulations to Coope Victoria for their 78th anniversary. They held a celebration for their workers.

Schools link

MK – originally sent letters out to Wycombe High/Royal Grammar/John Hampden/William Ramsey/Highcrest but only received a response from Highcrest so far. However Highcrest have been very enthusiastic and MK had a meeting with 6 teachers there (2 other teachers sent apologies) on Friday 8th October. They want to make Spanish compulsory across all age groups and would like to use the Costa Rican link as a lever to do this.

MK – suggested that if a formal launch of the schools link is arranged, we could invite the High Commissioner of Costa Rica.

AB – would also be willing to attend

SK – Highcrest was the school that Bob went to

MK – Highcrest has invited him in to give talks to students

LH – this will also spread the information on FT to the parents. Highcrest has a good sixth form

MK – the school is eager to start on this project soon

JM – the linking of the schools was a target that was talked about with Maria at the Cardiff presentation.

MK – Colette from Highcrest and Laura from the Bilingue school in Grecia will now get in touch with each other to take this forward. Colette has promised to keep us updated.

LH – the best time for schools having a ‘time window’ is after the exams finish in the summer

SK – Fairtrade Fortnight might also be a possible time for the schools to do something

CHURCHES MINI-TEAM

MK – there has not been much response yet to the letters he sent out re: churches registering/re-registering their FT status with the FT Foundation.

LH – churches may be very busy at the moment

AB – there is a new Pastor at the Elim Church (off Buckingham drive) – Robin Fenner
St M – the vicar at All Saints is retiring soon

LH – she did get in touch with various people re: re-registering and they will be doing this. The wife of the Methodist minister at Marlow is a Traidcraft rep and will be holding a stall at The Avenue church soon (31st October) and it may be possible to hold a Churches Together event at some point, similar to the event at Christ the Servant King in March 2020. In the early summer, at a Climate Sunday service at The Avenue, they had a speaker from A Rocha UK who spoke about environmental issues.

MK – did hear back from Beryl at Sunnybank Methodist Church in Downley and they are hoping to re-register

Other issues

AB – will contact people in the council re: organising a flower bed in the town on the theme of FT

COP26 is taking place October 30th – 13th November

St M – Amersham Town Council are planning an event for the end of COP26
The International FT Towns conference will be on-line from 18th – 20th November (organised by Swiss Fair Trade)

MK – it is possible to sign up for sessions – they are free of charge

Next meeting

Tuesday 23rd November

Minutes of meeting of 21st July 2021

LOCATION

The Avenue Methodist Church, Rutland Avenue

THOSE PRESENT

Mike King
Jhon Munoz
Sheena King
Tony Thornby
Angus Massie
Lesley Hatton
Sarah Moroz

APOLOGIES

Ivan Cicin-Sain
Andrea Baughan

MK – Andrea can’t come in the end due to a clash of meetings
Wycombe Friends of the Earth

EVENTS

MK – Wycombe Friends of the Earth are promoting a campaign called Solar Streets – re: getting solar panels for houses or businesses. Bucks Climate Action Alliance also supports this. The company putting them in are IDDA based in Westbury. There’s a Zoom presentation tomorrow evening. Wycombe Community fund are donating £50 per household or £100 for businesses.
Website/Social media

ACTIONS & DEVELOPMENTS

TT – brought new info – similar pattern to last month. The burst in activity due to the St Vincent reports has disappeared. In the last 30 days the website has had visits from 40 people. There has been a big drop in direct traffic.

MK – when he sent out letters to schools and churches he included his own e-mail address, rather than the group’s e-mail – the usage rate wasn’t good on the group e-mail.

SK – is willing to monitor the group’s e-mail

TT – there is a contact page on our website but very little traffic on it. There is also the group’s e-mail address on there. Many groups use WhatsApp now.

MK – has had a lot of communication with Barbara Hester recently (the South East regional rep for the National Campaigners Committee of the FT Foundation).
Grecia/Coope Victoria link/Pann Mill

JM – a bill board has been produced and placed on the road from the town of Grecia to Coope Victoria. JM received an invitation at short notice to join a ceremony for it including the CEO of Coope Victoria, the deputy Mayor of Grecia, a manager of Coope Victoria and a rep from CLAC (the Latin American and Caribbean network of Fair Trade small producers and workers).

MK – the bill board is at least 30-40 feet wide and designed to be visible to motorists. It has the FT logo on it, plus the logo of the WFTO and the symbol of Grecia town etc. MK joined in on his phone. There were various technical difficulties but it worked in the end on ‘Teams’.

MK – with thanks to Angus, a revised version of the banner has been prepared and sent to the printer – this time it should include the web addresses at the bottom. No reply has come back yet. Hopefully it will be possible to use the banner at the Pann Mill event.

SK – eventually found reference to the Pann Mill day (taking place on 12th Sept) on the Chiltern Heritage website. SK also sent an e-mail to the Wycombe Society site asking if the Pann Mill event is going ahead and if so, asking if we can have a stall. However it’s not on the Pann Mill website or the Wycombe Society site. The Costa Rican independence day is on 15th Sept.

MK – perhaps we can link up on-line with Grecia/Coope Victoria on that day. Wycombe Sound are usually at the Pann Mill event and Andrea may be there.

SCHOOLS LINK

MK – on 6th July, MK sent letters to the headteachers of Wycombe High/John Hampden/Royal Grammar/William Ramsey. He also sent letters to the named staff for Business Studies, Economics and Spanish. He will also be sending to Highcrest.

MK – we will need some contact details for the school in Grecia at some point.

JM – once we get that far, we would need to set up an introductory meeting between the schools and we could be included at the first meeting.

CHURCHES MINI-TEAM

MK – has sent out 10 e-mails to churches. Has only had a response from Lesley Hatton so far

LH – it may not be such a good time at the moment – some Ministers may be on holiday. May be better to send reminders out in Sept. LH may be able to provide some other contacts for churches as well.

GREAT GREEN WEEK

MK – this is looking at environment and climate change. There will be a webinar on 27th July which will include the SE regional NCC group (MK sent an e-mail round about this). MK/SK have signed up for the webinar.

OTHER MATTERS

MK – the Aldi store in central Wycombe (near the Lidl store) has chocolate bars M & R which use Ghanaian chocolate. The Village Store Coffee Shop (a community cafe) at Hughenden has FT sugar for sale.

AM – Lidl are also looking to open 2 new stores in Wycombe

MK – showed a document which he sent out by e-mail re: other product certification marks: WFTO, SPP, Naturland, Fair for Life. This can be confusing for consumers. MK has sent his document to Barbara Hester – she thought it was good and sent it to the NCC Chairman for comment.

JM – the products carrying these different certification marks are mostly sold in different markets. SPP is mainly in France, Italy Germany & Belgium. WFTO is not found much in the UK.

SM – the International FT Towns conferences use Fair Trade as 2 separate words.

JM – the World FT Day also uses Fair Trade as 2 separate words, as it is organised by the WFTO.

MK – Barbara sent a message saying that they will be discussing this issue at their next meeting.

MK – ‘Fairtrade’ certification is the only one which guarantees the premium. Matt’s Cafe has now reopened

TT – thinks things are going in the direction of Fair Trade as 2 separate words.

MK – there is a cost to companies in acquiring the ‘Fairtrade’ certification.

TT – we can put MK’s document on the website for information.

TT – when economic times were hard in the past, sales of FT stayed steady but that of organic products dropped.

SK – there may be an increased interest in organic now that environmental issues are more forefront.

JOURNAL OF FAIR TRADE ARTICLES

MK – wrote to the editor to ask re: progress of the article. The 2nd reviewers have looked at it and it is back with the editor-in-chief now. The next issue is in January 2022 (it is a bi-annual). The plan is to have a second, follow-up article, getting input from producers in developing countries.

TT – there has been a drop recently in the number of articles on FT available to add to our social media.

Next meeting

TBA – possibly at Hills Cafe (SM to e-mail Matt)

Minutes of Meeting of 29th June 2021

Location

The Avenue Methodist Church, Rutland Avenue

Those Present

  • Mike King
  • Jhon Munoz
  • Sheena King
  • Tony Thornby
  • Angus Massie
  • Lesley Hatton
  • Sarah Moroz

Apologies

Ivan Cicin-Sain

Minutes of Last Meeting

No corrections were suggested to the minutes from 19/05/21

Wycombe Council

MK – following our last meeting, MK e-mailed Matt and asked if he could update us re: Wycombe Council situation. MK quoted Matt’s response ie: that a Wycombe Town Council is unlikely to be established in the near future and that the resolution originally passed by Wycombe Council supporting FT will still stand. He advised that for now, we will have to work within the existing systems of Wycombe Town Committee and the Mayor and Charter Trustees.

Population Matters/ Wycombe Friends of the Earth

Deferred – in Ivan’s absence

Website/Social media

TT – there hasn’t been much content added but TT shared the website’s traffic figures for June and which pages have been viewed. Numbers are up but this is mainly because we published some info on St Vincent. The figures showed 97 views of the St Vincent page and 57 of the home page.

MK – also there was the Wycombe Sound interview in which TT mentioned the St Vincent disaster appeal

AM –some people must have gone straight to the St Vincent page and not via the home page

JM – put a photo of MK and Andrea onto Facebook and it generated some traffic

Coope Victoria/Grecia link

MK – showed our banner that has been printed for the partnership – part of the bottom text which included the website addresses has been missed off. Cost was approx £40. Propose that we go back to Grecia and get them to work on the sizing. Also the Costa Rican and British flags were slightly chopped off.

AM – is willing to try adjusting this.

MK – some of the colours also did not come out. We need to go back to the printers and ask them to try again once we have adjusted it.

TT – we could ask if they could reprint it and us to re-use the rollers/stands for it.

MK – there might have been discrepancies caused by differences between Costa Rican and UK software systems

Treasurer’s report

SK – balance is still £201.75. Plan is to get signatories changed to SK and SM (MK to be taken off).

Meeting with Mayor

MK – Andrea is totally committed to our cause. Her consort is Nabeela Rana (another Wycombe Independent councillor) and her deputy is Lesley Clarke. Hence we have good support. MK had a 90 minute meeting with Andrea (on 14/06/21). She is willing for us to provide catering at the Mayor’s Carol concert and possibly on other occasions. She can’t bring much pressure to bear on what products the council uses but suggested a couple of people who we may be able to approach re: product procurement. Re: Road signage – she advised that we would have to approach Bucks Council about this. Andrea hopes to attend our next meeting on 21st July.

There was a group discussion re: Wycombe not having a District Council. If a District Council was set up, ownership of Council properties would have to revert to Wycombe from Bucks – this may be an issue.

TT – will put MK’s report of his meeting with Andrea onto our website.

MK – will provide summary for TT

MK – Andrea was also willing to take part in Zoom meetings with Grecia’s Mayor etc.
Links with other neighbouring groups

MK – Ivan suggested inviting people from neighbouring groups to our meeting and perhaps arrange joint events eg. a speaker event.

SM – the Fairtrade Foundation and other groups are putting together a package for schools available from September re: COP26. We could support Wycombe FOE if they wanted to approach schools with this.

We could also join with other local FT groups if we need to lobby Bucks Council about something.

TT – feels we should concentrate more on engaging with people within Wycombe and subjects relevant to them.

MK – our link with the mayor will help this.

MK – had an online meeting with Bucks New Uni. They did run a FT breakfast and had a FT wine and cheese event around World FT Day but won’t have a FT rep until autumn at earliest.

Grecia schools link

JM – e-mail went to Headteacher of Wycombe High but no reply yet. May have gone to junk or they have just been too busy. Perhaps we should just send letters out instead but also to other schools as well. Maria already has established contact at a school in Grecia and they are happy to have the link with schools here.

AM – problem with timing at the moment as it is nearly the end of term.

JM – may be more difficult at the beginning of a term though. Perhaps if we sent them now they would then have the information ready for the autumn

MK – we could send letters to teachers in various departments – Geography, Business Studies, Spanish etc

Places of Worship mini-team

MK – we are being hampered by GDPR

LH – will be able to provide some contact names and details within the Methodist churches. She could put it on the agenda for their church council next week

SM – thinks we should just ask people to e-mail the faiths e-mail address provided by Chrysi rather than give all the other more complicated details in the proposed church letter.

LH – could put a link in the letter to the relevant section on the FT Foundation website
Pann Mill Open Day

MK – September date should be going ahead at Pann Mill

SK – willing to arrange Traidcraft stall at this.

MK – costs £10 for a stall all day including a gazebo.

Next meeting

Wednesday 21st July – Place to be confirmed –
possibly Micklefield Library

Minutes of Zoom Meeting of 19th May 2021

Those present

  • Mike King
  • Sarah Moroz
  • Sheena King
  • Tony Thornby

Jhon Munoz and Ivan Cicin-Sain – hope to join later in meeting

No corrections were suggested to the minutes from 21/04/21

Bucks Climate Action Alliance

MK – 113 Conservative councillors were elected out of 147 as a result of local elections. MK went to post-election Zoom meeting. The BCAA issues were got out there and BCAA will continue – the long-term aim is to educate the public and councillors on climate change and the urgency regarding it. A number of independent candidates also got in. In MK’s ward 2 Labour candidates and a Conservative got in. Matt Knight and Steve Guy were both elected. MK/SK found out today that the new mayor of Wycombe is Andrea Baughan. She is very pro-environment and FT. MK suggests that we send a message of congratulations from the steering group and say that we look forward to working with her.

SM – agreed

MK – BCAA decided that they will need to work with all the councillors

Website/Social Media

TT – recently has been trying to keep content going – but we do have a challenge because since beginning of year the highest view was 11 views for the post re: WFF joining the BCAA. We have a lot of followers on our Facebook page but not views on the website

SM – wondering if we should advertise our next meeting date

TT – there has been an upgrade to WordPress and it has affected some of the navigation of web pages on our website. TT will try to fix it

Wycombe Council

MK – someone suggested to him that Bucks Council don’t want Wycombe to have a Town Council because of all the properties they own.

SM – perhaps we should invite Matt to our next meeting to fill us in on current situation at Bucks Council and Wycombe

MK – we could perhaps meet physically next time – either at Matt’s Cafe, Micklefield Library or Avenue church.

TT – has just Googled – there is still a town committee for Wycombe – they have a meeting on 26th May.

Treasurer’s report


SK – we had £251.75 in our account at our last meeting date. It was agreed then to give a £50 donation to the St Vincent appeal. MK paid this from his account and then we reimbursed MK from the WFF account. Hence the balance will now be £201.75.

Wycombe Sound

MK – MK and TT went on Wycombe Sound on 7th May.

SK – Claudia (their Spanish teacher) listened to it and was full of praise for this (she has done radio interviews herself)

MK – they were on for 35 mins

Wycombe Friends of the Earth

I C-S – Wycombe FOE are active in the Wycombe Environment group – a sub-group of the Wycombe Community board which is part of the council. It is led by Penelope Tollett – an ex-council officer – they have done a lot of work on a Bee Day.

Other local Fairtrade groups

I C-S – has researched most local FT groups – Windsor & Maidenhead, Henley and Chesham – perhaps we could invite their co-ordinators to part or whole of one of our meetings

SK – maybe we could have ‘guest speakers’ at some of our meetings

MK – we have had contact with Chesham, Witney and Oxford groups in the past. Oxford group are also developing international contacts.

MK – for our next meeting perhaps we could invite Matt. Thereafter invite someone from one of the other local groups.

TT – there is an environmental action group in Marlow – being led by same person who is leader of the Town Council

MK – Bucks New Uni are having problems engaging students on FT issues at the moment. Tuition has been largely on-line for last 2 terms. They don’t have a rep specifically for FT. MK has asked if such a person could be part of our steering group once they are appointed.

Places of Worship mini-team

MK – re: the e-mail from Chrysi since last meeting – there are 5 places of worship in and around Wycombe which have responded to the Fairtrade Foundation’s enquiries – but she is not able to tell us which ones as they haven’t given their permission for their data to be given out. Perhaps we need a mini-group meeting to decide our way ahead.

SM – need some clarity from Chrysi on use of portal etc

SK – noticed that St Mary and St George wasn’t on Angus’s list. Their website is Smgchurch.co.uk but there is no e-mail address. SK/MK’s neighbour, Lesley Hatton, who is a lay Methodist preacher would be able to pass information round the Methodist circuit.

MK – will contact Chrysi and try to clarify method of communication for Places of Worship who want to register/re-register.

Grecia/Coope Victoria link

MK – JM can’t make it tonight due to a work commitment. JM wanted to say re: World FT Day, that, in addition to the Wycombe Sound radio interview, JM went into various shops in Wycombe which sell FT goods and did videos for Grecia/Coope Victoria for World FT Day. On 15th May, MK, JM and SK attended an on-line meeting (in Spanish) with Grecia/Coope Victoria during which some videos were shown that Grecia/Coope Victoria have produced promoting and explaining FT. Today, MK has sent off the banner to be printed.

SK – thought the meeting was very professional. JM had sent Powerpoint presentations beforehand so they were able to go through it.

MK – they are also promoting the ‘Coope Victoria experience’, where members of the public can go to them and learn about what they do.

Schools

MK – JM’s wife has sent the e-mail to the Headteacher at Wycombe High. Waiting to hear back.

A.O.B.

SK – mentioned that it is Bob’s anniversary today. Thinking of Maggie and rest of family.

Next meeting

To be arranged

Minutes of Zoom Meeting of 21st April 2021

Those present

  • Mike King
  • Sarah Moroz
  • Sheena King
  • Ivan Cicin-Sain – Wycombe Friends of the Earth

Apologies

Jhon Munoz and Ivan Cicin-Sain hope to join for 2nd half of meeting

Gold Cup award for Coope Victoria coffee

MK –sent out the news re: Coope Victoria’s Gold Cup award to the company we are hoping will produce the Costa Rican anniversary coffee. Maria sent details of the award and MK sent these to Tony to put onto our website. MK wrote an introduction to go with it.

Social media

SM – asked re: contact section of website – what happens to any comments/messages put on there by people going onto the website?

MK – need to ask Tony. Also need to sort out rota for looking at our new public e-mail address

Costa Rican trip

MK – MK/SK planning to go to Costa Rica in October – this will coincide with the 78th anniversary of Coope Victoria becoming a co-operative.

Fairtrade Fortnight events

SM – hasn’t yet sent links round to the steering group for the 2 webinars that she attended in Fairtrade Fortnight (Bruce Crowther interview and the one organised by the Tunbridge Wells group re: the challenges of climate change for food producers) – but will do so.

Bucks Climate Action Alliance/May 6th elections

MK – Bucks Climate Action Alliance now has many members – such as the Chiltern Society (who have done a good presentation re: lowering of the water table). BCAA has encouraged people to vote on May 6th for candidates who have signed the climate pledge.

MK – wrote to 11 councillors re: climate pledge. MK has delivered BCAA leaflets to 250 households re: May 6th election. This was targeted to Amersham Common and Little Chalfont (Martin Tett’s ward). MK has also delivered 200 leaflets for the independent candidates.

SK – re: hustings on 19th April – organised by BCAA – Steve Guy (Independent) was there, also candidates for the Green Party and the Labour Party – the Conservatives were not represented but Martin Tett sent a letter outlining their position.

MK – attended a BCAA follow-up meeting last night. All the parties were wanting to collaborate. The issues are national as well as local. MK will also be helping to deliver some further leaflets. MK will send SM the link showing details of the leaflet and BCAA

Treasurer’s report

SK – Nothing has changed in our balance since last meeting (£251.75). Tony has highlighted that we should perhaps be supporting St Vincent re: the volcano eruption disaster appeal.

Perhaps we could make a donation to the St Vincent Second Generation group (SV2G) which is organising a collection. SK suggested that we could make a donation of £50 via the Just Giving page.

MK – St Vincent are very dependent on their banana crop and this has been wiped out.

MK – we haven’t had to spend anything on insurance this year, so we could perhaps make this donation. Sebert Graham is also organising some aid.

MK – although it would be good to have a link with a banana-producer country, it may be better to make contact with the Dominican Republic for this.

Banners for Grecia/Coope Victoria link

MK – has a meeting tomorrow with Maria and JM. Maria has a completed version of the 2 banners (English and Spanish). MK will send these round to the group. They look eye-catching. Tony also sent a link to a company which could produce the banner for us – could cost about £40.

I C-S joined the meeting.

Other matters/World Fairtrade Day

MK – Tony has been working on updates to the website.

IC-S – agreed with £50 donation to St Vincent fund.

MK – re: ideas for World FT Day, May 8th. Maria sent a pdf of the Gold cup event and some photos; banner is done. MK has written a report re: Kate Raworth’s webinar on circular economics.

SM – Rapanui is a clothing company which uses the circular model

MK – this system puts people and planet first. It can be used on national level as well.

SM – it would be good to have a history of our link with Grecia/Coope Victoria on our website and highlight it for World FT Day.

MK – there is a bilingual school in Grecia which may want to form links with a school in Wycombe

SM – there is info on MK’s e-mail on 27/10/20 re: the history of our link with Grecia/Coope Victoria

SK – SK/SM could put some paragraphs together on this for the website.

Churches mini-team

MK – has had an e-mail from Chrysi Dimaki giving an update on how far the FT Foundation has got with their campaign to contact churches. She will be sending any info they have on churches in HP12 and HP13, as requested by MK. Angus has had problems with Data Protection for sending out our e-mail letter to churches so it may take longer to compile details for churches in the town.

Next meeting

To be arranged