WYCOMBE FOR FAIRTRADE

Minutes of meeting: 17th April 2018 Avenue Methodist Church, Rutland Avenue

Those present:
Mike King, Sarah Moroz, Jhon Munoz, Tony Thornby, Bob Smith, Ivan Cicin-Sain – Wycombe Friends of the Earth, Angus Massie – Trinity URC,

Apologies from SK; welcome to Angus

BS – update re: data protection. BS showed examples of forms that have been produced by a local Anglican church and from the South

Oxfordshire Riding Club. It seems that we just have to produce a form that members sign to say that they are willing to receive communications via e-mail/telephone etc and the list of members has to be kept secure and only released to project leaders within the group.

IC-S – the Population Matters group hasn’t tackled this yet.

AM – his church has gone through a similar process. An article by the Civil Service Pensioners’ Association said that in their view they don’t need to do anything as they have already allowed their details to be used in the past. Angus advised that e-mails are always blind copied

TT – his e-mail address is his business one so it is already in the public domain.

AM – will send us the form that his church uses.

MK – re: the international FT towns conference in Madrid in October – MK, SK and JM are going. We have identified a couple of potential towns in Nicaragua and Chile that we may be able to liaise with. JM – has contacted the president of a brazil nut co-operative in Nicaragua and he has communicated with the president of CLAC (the Latin American and Caribbean network of Fair Trade small producers and workers). JM is expecting a contact back this week and hopes to have a skype call. The co-operative also supplies sesame oil to the Body Shop (the oil is FT and organic).

TT – everything that MK has sent to TT has now been put onto our re-vamped website. The latest minutes are updated on the front page of the website.

MK – re: the ‘Love Wycombe’ event on Sunday 20th May.

SM – has had e-mail contact with Richard Peters and he seems happy for us to have a presence.

MK – offered use of his laptop to show FT videos and our website TT – will check how to link to internet on the Rye

I C-S – if it is situated near the Lido, it may be possible to link into their Wi-Fi

MK – has e-mailed Windsor and Eton brewery and Rebellion to ask re: the possibility of a FT beer for next year’s FT Fortnight. The Windsor and Eton brewery contacted him back and sounded interested.

SM – there was another craft brewery which had a stall at Wycombe market on Saturday

MK – this was a company called Fishers. He will e-mail them as well.

SM – will follow up her letter to Highcrest school

MK – will contact Louise at Bewleys and send her SM’s e-mail address

MK – re: the communication he had from Barclays about tax – most of what they are asking about is irrelevant to us. MK is going to contact the FT Foundation for advice.

TT – we could contact the HMRC and ask them to send us a waiver. MK – has had conflicting advice from Barclays

AM – advises us to communicate in writing with HMRC rather than just phoning them

MK – on the last episode of ‘Songs of Praise’ there was a feature on FT in West Africa

JM – wondering if we could do another activity for World FT Day eg. have a feature on Wycombe Sound. JM could gather some info on the Nicaragua link and talk about that.

MK – suggests that MK and JM could go together

SM – could also find out if Ruby Moon source any of their goods from Latin America

JM – could also contact ‘The Works’ about this – the Manager and his wife have been on Wycombe Sound before.

TT – suggests that we could put info on our Facebook page regarding FT products from across the globe.

JM – could get info about this from where he works. JM has access to info from Flocert and could link this up with FT brands available in Wycombe.

AM – his church have had a FT stall once a month for a long time now.

I C-S – has a gazebo that he is willing to lend if needed

AM – would still like to be included on the e-mail list re: minutes etc

Next meeting: Tuesday 5th June – at The Avenue Methodist Church

WYCOMBE FOR FAIRTRADE
Notes of meeting:  20^th March 2018
Avenue Methodist Church, Rutland Avenue

Those present:
            Mike King                     Jhon Munoz
            Sheena King                 Bob Smith
            Sarah Moroz

SM – re: our renewal presentation event on 22th February – the councillors showed interest, picked up leaflets, stayed and chatted etc

MK – approx 25 councillors were present and seemed very positive about what was said

SM – Richard Peters was there. He had attended the council meeting and was trying to promote links between the council and community events and is organising the ‘Love Wycombe’ event this year. This is a joint-church event at Pentecost. Richard had spoken to Matt about Hills Cafe providing refreshments and hopefully we can be involved as well.

MK – spoke to Karen Satterford (Chief Executive of Wycombe District Council) on 22^nd Feb and requested a meeting with the next leader of the council

SK – held a Traidcraft stall at Christ the Servant King on 4^th March and took more than £500.

MK – the event at Hills Cafe went well on 10^th March. Matt had done a lot of work.

We did have a message from Wycombe Sound to ask if we wanted to have a slot during Fairtrade Fortnight but we didn’t manage this.

JM – we could do a promotion on Wycombe Sound for any events that we hold to coincide with World Fair Trade Day in May.

SK – on our new website, it isn’t possible to access our Facebook site

MK – we need to speak to Tony about this

JM – has talked to Juan, the leader of a Co-operative in Nicaragua re: the possibility of setting up a link with us. They are also part of the CLAC group (the Latin American and Caribbean network of FT small producers and workers). His co-op mainly produces sesame seeds and their main customer is the Body Shop (for sesame oil). Juan also knows another co-op in the area which produces coffee and he will talk to his links with various towns in Nicaragua and recommend who we could connect with.

JM – has also had contact with a new person at CLAC (Linda Vera) and she is in charge of establishing FT Towns in Nicaragua

SK – the Meaningful Chocolate Co have said that their eggs are available in several supermarkets (Tescos, Morrisons, Asda etc) but not Sainsburys

SM – has now sent the letter to the Headteacher at Highcrest Academy, who will hopefully pass it on to the relevant teacher

SK / MK – are away on the date of the Love Wycombe event (Sunday 20^th May).

SM – will check on her e-mails to see if she has received one from Richard Peters and will contact him to ask if we can have a presence at the event eg. displaying our leaflets etc

MK – we could also use our banner

JM – re: the international FT Towns conference in Madrid in October. Apparently there will be a website for it opening in April

SK / MK – talked about their trip to Belgium a couple of weeks ago – FT products had a really visible presence. There was an Oxfam shop that had a lot of FT products.

SK – had an e-mail today from Adam Gardner requesting donations

MK – the FT Foundation have lost some of their funding

There was a discussion and it was decided that the WFF group wouldn’t send a donation to the FT Foundation appeal from the money that had been granted to us by the group at CSK church.

BS – has heard that organisations which hold lists of people will need to get annual permission from those people in order to keep their names on the list, due to new data protection legislation.

SK – Wycombe F of E are organising a Greenpeace talk on 4^th April re: Greenpeace’s approach to campaigning. This is at the Friends Meeting House, London Road at 7.30pm.

Next meeting:  17^th April 2018 at Avenue Methodist Church

 

WYCOMBE FOR FAIRTRADE

Minutes of meeting:  16^th January 2018

Avenue Methodist Church, Rutland Avenue

Those present:

Mike King                      Jhon Munoz

Sheena King                  Bob Smith

Sarah Moroz                 Tony Thornby

MK – Christ the Servant King church has awarded us another £250 grant from their Mission fund. The previous amount of £250 that they gave us was extremely useful. MK thinks we shouldn’t use it to buy provisions for the renewal presentation event.

MK – has sent e-mails to Wycombe Swan, Wycombe Wanderers and Bewleys. Has now heard back from Louise Whitaker (Sustainability Manager) at Bewleys – they are not planning to have any speakers who are producers but she is currently visiting coffee producers in Nicaragua and is willing to do a talk about it for us. MK has invited her to our presentation evening and asked her to speak for 5 mins (22^nd February).

MK – has also written to Mid-Counties Co-op to ask for a discount on FT wine.

MK – showed a book by George Monbiot “How did we get into this Mess?” The author says that FT may well be needed as a necessary means to feed the world

JM – recently went to Bolivia and visited 3 Co-operatives, 2 of which he visited 3 years ago. He also visited a brazil nut factory. Last year, there was the lowest production of brazil nuts since the beginning of the last century. Seems to be due to climate change. There is insufficient rain, a lack of bees and deforestation. In the 18^th century rubber was a big product and was then superseded by artificial rubber. JM witnessed how the FT premium is being used – for improving houses and saving money to be used for improving healthcare. JM has written 2 blogs about this and will be putting it on our Facebook page. The management of co-operatives is not so well organised in Bolivia, so these may not be a good option for partnering with. Nicaragua would be better. They did have problems in the late 70s / 80s due to fighting involving the Sandinistas. JM knows the president of the co-operative in Nicaragua. JM is going to start working with Liberation at the end of Feb / beginning of March but is also doing some work helping out the Twin Partnership (coffee).

MK – thinks that Nicaragua does not currently have any FT towns

JM – Chile also has well-organised FT co-ops

MK – sent round a list of 12 FT Town websites before Christmas and showed a sheet with the different sections / sub-menus highlighted

MK – has updated our directory to add Highcrest Academy as having FairAware status and Godstowe as FT Registered status. Has also updated the date on the front to 2018 – 2019.

MK – asks us to send any comments re: the websites before his meeting with TT on 24/01/18.

BS – asked if we would be able to have a group e-mail address

TT – we can’t with the present set-up which is hosted by the Lib Dem site but it would be possible if we had our own stand-alone site. To do this, we would have to pay for it to be hosted elsewhere (about £3 per month).

MK – was very impressed with the St Andrew’s website

SM – if the Wycombe Tourist Info office has a website, we could ask them to put a link on it to our new website.

MK – re: FT Fortnight – we can’t attend or have any input to the council meeting in the council chamber on 22^nd Feb (an important meeting on council tax is taking place) but we can have refreshments in the committee room afterwards

JM – has some samples from Liberation which we could use on 22^nd Feb

MK – the meeting with Suzanne Brown didn’t come about in the end – perhaps later in the year.

SK – is going to get a resource pack from the FT Foundation

JM – it is also possible to get some resources from Twin / Liberation

MK – has suggested that we have some sort of exhibition in Hills Cafe during FT Fortnight. The community benefits of the cafe mirror the benefits of the FT premium to producer groups

SM – need to get a message out to all the councillors to invite them to the refreshments on 22^nd Feb

TT – offered to take some photos

JM – we could organise a talk by Louise Whitaker at one of the Wycombe schools

SM – maybe for World Fair Trade Day in May

MK – some other FT Towns offered an associate membership scheme (this would be another income stream).

There was a discussion re: organising various people to speak on Wycombe Sound during FT Fortnight eg. Louise from Bewleys, Matt Knight, a representative from the Co-op

SM – will contact Highcrest to see if they would like to speak on Wycombe Sound radio re: what they are doing on FT

SK – may be doing a FT stall on 4^th March

MK –there is a new FT retailer in Wycombe – The Hatch

JM – there is also The Works

Next meeting: Tuesday 6^th February

WYCOMBE FOR FAIRTRADE

Minutes of meeting:  28^th November 2017

Hills Cafe, Micklefield Road

Those present:

Mike King                        Jhon Munoz

Sheena King                    Bob Smith

Matt Knight                     Tony Thornby

Sarah Moroz

Ivan – High Wycombe Friends of the Earth

MK – we wrote a letter to the Manager of Sainsbury’s High Wycombe (as part of the day of action on 28^th October) but no reply as yet. Sainsbury’s have taken control of the premium money and this disempowers the farmers. Re: the use of the premium in Ghana – the buses were actually bought by the premium money – we need to correct the previous minutes.

Ivan – the Wycombe FoE group and Population Matters have been interviewed on Wycombe Sound. The station seems to be very ethically minded.

MKn – the Feb meeting of the District Council is on 22^nd Feb

MK – has e-mail’d Suzanne Brown and she said her PA will get back to us re: organising the renewal certificate presentation event.

MKn – will send an e-mail to prompt this and see if we can confirm the date. The meeting will start at 6.30pm with the chairman’s announcements and would be able to include the renewal presentation and an invitation to everyone to join us for the celebration afterwards.

MK – will try to get the High Commissioner of St Vincent and the Grenadines to present the certificate.

MK – We also need to have a meeting following this to discuss the link to producers in Latin America / FT Towns there.

JM – has followed this up with Marco since our last meeting. There are currently about 6 FT Towns in Latin America. Marco has offered something more informal to start with eg. sharing of knowledge about FT products available here, or sharing in celebratory events on World FT Day. We could then share the news of what is happening with other FT groups in the UK.

MK – has contacted Wycombe Wanderers Football Club to ask what teas/coffees they use for their catering.

TT – asked how much the FT producers in Latin America interface with local sellers versus the how much they sell internationally?

MK – FT bananas come from Ecuador, Columbia etc

SK – also Liberation Nuts

SM – asked JM if Marco could put us in direct touch with farmers and what would be the best communication method?

JM – yes, he could and social media could be used.

MK – we would also ask Suzanne Brown about how the twinning arrangements with European countries work.

SM – re: Mayor’s Carol concert. SM has spoken to Paul Deacon today and he is speaking to a committee on Thursday this week and will call SM back on Friday.

After a discussion, it was decided that there would be enough people to help with this event, if required.

MK – re: website update.

TT – if we use the Word Press option we would be starting from scratch again but the content could all be put in again – not too difficult. We would need to ask the FT Foundation if we could use images on their website.

Ivan – Wycombe FoE created their website and then put it onto Word Press. They do not use any images from the national FoE website.

MK – a lot of the FT towns in the south-west region use the same template and have links to other towns. The lay-out is good and navigation is quite easy. Some have recipe sections.

TT – we would need to get into the habit of doing write-ups and photos for each of our events. 80% of all websites in the world are Word Press.

SK – we need to have an easy way for people to contact us.

Ivan – has noticed that we can’t be contacted via our website. A lot of groups have a dedicated e-mail address.

MK – asks us all to look at the websites of other towns and say what we would like.

SM – talked about the idea of contacting Highcrest school and seeing if some pupils / teachers could be interviewed on Wycombe Sound.

SK – wondered if, in keeping with the theme of FT Fortnight next year, ‘Come in for Fairtrade’ we could help out at Hills Cafe and wear our FT T-shirts etc.

MK – will try to see if Bewleys could organise a producer farmer to give a talk etc

Ivan – at the moment, the Wycombe Environment Centre are negotiating with Bucks CC to get funding. Frances Alexander is still involved and there is a board of trustees.

Wycombe FoE meets once a month at the Friends Meeting House. They pick a campaign every couple of years or so. At the moment they are campaigning against air pollution in High Wycombe – they have pollution monitors in the town and are liaising with Wycombe DC who also monitor this.

For public liability insurance the national FoE group cover the local groups up to £5 million.

Ivan – also runs the Wycombe group for Population Matters. They received £250 from Lesley Clarke following a chat at the Pann Mill event. Lesley supports women’s rights and the Population Matters group promote these as a means to smaller families. PM are planning another event for next year, as are the FoE group.

SM – asked about membership of the groups

Ivan – they have a few stalwarts and are trying to get new and younger members.

MK – Witney FT group have folded.

SK – showed the article she had written in the Christ the Servant King newsletter. Their Traidcraft stall raised £675.20, using goods from Margaret Dykes.

BS – they are having a stall at 2 events at the Avenue church: a tea & cake afternoon on 13^th December and a Sunday service on 18^th Dec.

MK – will ask Bewleys re: a donation

SM – we could also ask them if they could donate tea/coffee/snacks for the renewal presentation event.

Next meeting:  16^th January 2018

WYCOMBE FOR FAIRTRADE

Minutes of meeting:   26^th October 2017

Avenue Methodist Church, Rutland Avenue

Those present:

Mike King                          Bob Smith

Sheena King                      Maggie Smith

Sarah Moroz                     Tony Thornby

Jhon Munoz

MK – re: Sainsbury’s ‘Fairly Traded’ tea – this dis-empowers the growers. This was talked about at the National Supporters Conference – Oxfam and the Co-op gave very good speeches against it. The FT Foundation has been moving away from the certification procedure and seem to be concentrating more on trade deals. They took more of a middle stance at the conference (Sainsbury’s are still a big seller of FT, even apart from the change with their tea). There is a day of action against Sainsbury’s on Saturday. MK suggests that we should write a letter to the manager at Sainsbury’s, High Wycombe.

JM – there is a template for a letter on the FT Found’n website. The change to the Sainsbury’s tea may be the ‘thin end of the wedge’ and other products may follow.

TT – asks whether the general public really understands the effect of Sainsbury’s action on the FT premium.

SM – suggests that we all look at the template letter before Saturday and e-mail to SM any suggested changes. Then anyone who can make it, meet at Sainsbury’s at 10am and hand the letter in to the manager there.

JM – Barbara Gwinnett, the chair of the NCC (National Campaigner Committee) was at the conference – she orchestrated the Change.org petition against Sainsbury’s. Also at the conference there was a talk about a FT producers’ group in Ghana where the premium has paid for the workers to be bussed in.

MK – was very impressed by the session led by Catherine Davison of the FT Found’n – Head of Innovation. There was talk of using social media and new technology. She went through the 9 sustainability goals

MK – the FT Found’n have been talking to Nespresso.

JM – FT gold was also discussed at the conference. There is an exhibition of photos that can be hired. The situation for miners is worse than that for farmers helped by FT.

JM – his contact in CLAC is moving to another co-operative in November but he has contacted JM to say that there are 3 or 4 FT towns being created in Latin America. It would also be good to have a link with our council.

MK – would need to have a meeting with Suzanne Brown (Chair of Wycombe DC) to discuss how our council could be involved.

SM – there are two possibilities – a link with a FT town in Latin America and a link with a producer group

MK – we could invite the High Commissioner of St Vincent to present our renewal certificate

JM – suggested the setting up of a ‘Twinning’ or ‘Partnership’ arrangement between FT towns

TT – we need to know what the aims or expectations of such a set-up would be. With the current twinning relationship between English and European towns, the geographical nearness means that exchange visits can take place.

MK – it would be interesting to know where Bewley’s coffee comes from.

JM – will share a link to an article on this ‘twinning’ idea from the International FT conference in Germany earlier this year and will also ask his contact, Marco, what ideas he has about the twinning arrangements

SM – perhaps we could give some thought to having an exhibition of the FT gold photographs etc

TT – Beaverbrooks may want to have some involvement

SK – she is on the Mission team at Christ the Servant King and has asked if we could have another grant of £250. Their Chairperson, Heather Searle, has asked to have copies of our minutes. SK has also done an article for the Booker issue of their church magazine.

SK –  will investigate the public liability insurance arrangement that has been set up by the FT Found’n with ‘Case Insurance’ for groups to get insurance

BS – had a look on the FT schools website and Highcrest School is listed as ‘impending’ for FT status.

SM – if we manage to arrange a talk from a producer, we could do this jointly with Highcrest

MK – for FT Fortnight next year, we could ask for a slot on Wycombe Sound’ again.

TT – re: producing and updating our website – we would need to sort out content.

Next meeting:   Monday 27^th Nov / Tuesday 28^th Nov   TBC

WYCOMBE FOR FAIRTRADE

Minutes of meeting: 26^th September 2017

Avenue Methodist Church, Rutland Avenue

Those present:

Mike King                         Jhon Munoz

Sheena King                     Bob Smith

Sarah Moroz

SM – will e-mail Claire Booth to see if she would still like to receive our minutes

MK – the Volunteer Co-ordinator and FT liaison at Bucks New Uni, Rebecca Haymer, sends her apologies

SM – the ‘Population Matters’ event went well for us and SK’s talk was extremely good

MK – the text of SK’s talk was sent to the FT Foundation as part of our renewal application. We are still waiting to hear back from the FT Foundation – should be soon.

JM – has been in contact with Marco Coscione, a member of the Latin American and Caribbean network of FT small-producers and workers (CLAC). Marco used to work for the FT Advocacy office in Brussels. JM has talked to Marco about us having contact with a producer group in the developing world

SK – we could maybe also involve the Chesham group in this contact, as we are quite small. We could share stories of our experience with retailers here and use social media to communicate.

MK – is going to the national supporters’ conference on October 7^th, together with JM. It is worrying re: the Sainsbury’s decision to change to their own ‘Fairly Traded’ tea. MK feels that the way to tackle it would be to support the other retailers who are sticking with FT – Waitrose, Co-op etc. It will be good to discuss this at the conference. There has been an advert on TV for Nescafe, saying that they look after the growers but without the FT certification.

BS – the buying of FT is still down to the consumer

SM – the FT Foundation hasn’t got the financial clout of the large companies to promote their goods

SK – the fight against Sainsbury’s has been taken up by WI, Oxfam etc as well

SM – longer-term aim of support for growers is to have more of the processing taking place in the country of origin

JM – there is a company based in Dublin who have developed the processing of their coffee in the country of origin ‘Proudly Made in Africa’

MK – re: the problems we have had with public liability insurance – this could be discussed at the supporters’ conference

SM – maybe we could have some future events in council-owned buildings and see if they would waive the public liability insurance

MK – re: funding in general – perhaps we should ask Bewleys to sponsor us in some way or maybe to sponsor a flower bed in the town

JM – will ask at the conference if it is possible to arrange a speaker from a producer country

SK – it would be good to have a meeting following the conference to enable MK and JM to report back

SK – we could approach Matt Knight to ask re: the possibility of holding our presentation event in a council building and ask if we would be covered for public liability insurance

MK – it would be good to get TT’s input re: improving the website and trying to get sponsors

Next meeting:    Thursday 19^th or 26^th October TBC

WYCOMBE FOR FAIRTRADE

Minutes of meeting: 26^th September 2017

Avenue Methodist Church, Rutland Avenue

Those present:

Mike King                         Jhon Munoz

Sheena King                     Bob Smith

Sarah Moroz

SM – will e-mail Claire Booth to see if she would still like to receive our minutes

MK – the Volunteer Co-ordinator and FT liaison at Bucks New Uni, Rebecca Haymer, sends her apologies

SM – the ‘Population Matters’ event went well for us and SK’s talk was extremely good

MK – the text of SK’s talk was sent to the FT Foundation as part of our renewal application. We are still waiting to hear back from the FT Foundation – should be soon.

JM – has been in contact with Marco Coscione, a member of the Latin American and Caribbean network of FT small-producers and workers (CLAC). Marco used to work for the FT Advocacy office in Brussels. JM has talked to Marco about us having contact with a producer group in the developing world

SK – we could maybe also involve the Chesham group in this contact, as we are quite small. We could share stories of our experience with retailers here and use social media to communicate.

MK – is going to the national supporters’ conference on October 7^th, together with JM. It is worrying re: the Sainsbury’s decision to change to their own ‘Fairly Traded’ tea. MK feels that the way to tackle it would be to support the other retailers who are sticking with FT – Waitrose, Co-op etc. It will be good to discuss this at the conference. There has been an advert on TV for Nescafe, saying that they look after the growers but without the FT certification.

BS – the buying of FT is still down to the consumer

SM – the FT Foundation hasn’t got the financial clout of the large companies to promote their goods

SK – the fight against Sainsbury’s has been taken up by WI, Oxfam etc as well

SM – longer-term aim of support for growers is to have more of the processing taking place in the country of origin

JM – there is a company based in Dublin who have developed the processing of their coffee in the country of origin ‘Proudly Made in Africa’

MK – re: the problems we have had with public liability insurance – this could be discussed at the supporters’ conference

SM – maybe we could have some future events in council-owned buildings and see if they would waive the public liability insurance

MK – re: funding in general – perhaps we should ask Bewleys to sponsor us in some way or maybe to sponsor a flower bed in the town

JM – will ask at the conference if it is possible to arrange a speaker from a producer country

SK – it would be good to have a meeting following the conference to enable MK and JM to report back

SK – we could approach Matt Knight to ask re: the possibility of holding our presentation event in a council building and ask if we would be covered for public liability insurance

MK – it would be good to get TT’s input re: improving the website and trying to get sponsors

Next meeting:    Thursday 19^th or 26^th October TBC

WYCOMBE FOR FAIRTRADE

Minutes of meeting: 11^th July 2017

Avenue Methodist Church, Rutland Avenue

Those present:

Mike King                           Jhon Munoz

Sheena King                       Bob Smith

Sarah Moroz

MK – the Chairman of Wycombe District Council, Suzanne Brown, was very supportive of us at the Art Competition presentation event and MK asked if we could have a meeting with her

MK – we have now only got a few pounds left in the group’s bank account. TT may have contacts who would be willing to sponsor us. MK will contact the person at Bewleys (Alize)

SM – will pursue the idea that Suzanne Brown put forward re: bidding to have our group added to the beneficiaries of the new Wycombe Lottery

SK – we have been invited to hold a stall at next year’s open garden event in Radnage. Also Wycombe Arts Society has asked if we could help source FT biscuits for their meetings. SK passed on local Traidcraft reps contact details.

MK – has written to Rebellion Brewery to suggest the idea of a FT beer. They sent back a supportive e-mail. MK has asked them if we could put their logo on our material.

MK – it is disappointing re: Sainsburys bringing out its own version of Fairtrade tea/coffee. However, Waitrose, Lidl & Co-op have continued supporting FT.

BS – we could contact Sainsbury’s and ask them to give an account of how the ‘premium’ money has been spent.

JM – we could contact local companies and ask if they would be willing to sponsor us and we could offer to put their logos on our material

MK – his niece worked for Windsor & Eton brewery and they are very community-minded. They supply the Royal Standard in Forty Green. She is going to ask if they would be willing to sponsor us. There was a company in Kent that brewed Fairtrade beer.

SM – we could ask Bewleys if they would be willing to donate £100(?) per year to us.

JM – suggests we could set up a meeting with the managing director of Bewleys, who is based locally

MK – it would be good to get a re-statement of Wycombe DC’s support at some point.

The possibility of a market stall could be investigated again.

BS – thinks that the market is organised by a private company.

SK – the Wycombe Harvest event that we had a stall at, was organised by BidsCo

MK – re: the retailers in Wycombe – he has found out that the Red Squirrel Co does not use FT tea or coffee. There are various hotels and B & B’s in Wycombe but it is difficult to get to know if they use FT at all.

SM – we could ask Bewleys if they supply stock to any hotel vending machines in Wycombe.

MK – if JM’s friend from Sweden comes over we could use him to help us establish a link with Adam’s Park.

MK – we need to ensure that WFF is represented at as many local events as possible

SM – Suzanne Brown seemed to indicate she may be willing to donate some money towards helping us with public liability insurance

SK – maybe we could hold our presentation event next year in council offices

JM – has been updating our Facebook page with our latest news.

SM – re: local press – it may be a good idea to try Bucks Advertiser/Examiner next time, instead of Bucks Free Press

MK – re: establishing a link with producers in the developing world

JM – still has a link with a manager at Liberation Nuts who may be able to act as a link with producer groups

JM – re: the next FT Towns conference – it will be in Europe in September and he hopes to attend.

JM – in our evidence for applying for FT Town status renewal, we can say that we have supported the petitions against Sainsburys

SK – re: next Tuesday’s event – set-up is 6-6.45pm and doors open at 7pm. There will be a FT stall (stock from David Sparks). Ivan thinks that about 30 people will be coming.

BS – will be leading the worship at the Avenue and will be talking about the FT footballs and showing a video about it.

Next meeting: provisional date of 31/07/17 – to be confirmed by Mike

WYCOMBE FOR FAIRTRADE

Minutes of meeting: 23^rd May 2017

Avenue Methodist Church, Rutland Avenue

Those present:

Claire Booth             Sarah Moroz

Mike King                  Bob Smith

Sheena King

SM – gave update on the schools art competition

MK – re: review of the Aims and Objectives 2015 -2017

Still need to find out if the council serve Fairtrade tea and coffee etc. Perhaps ask Matt or speak to Wycombe District Council procurement officer

Wycombe BidsCo are coming up for renewal – it may not survive?

Also one of their major donors is Bucks New Uni which has financial problems

SM – perhaps we could get posters/info put in the community/council notice boards

CB – we could ask if Bewleys would be willing to sponsor a roundabout sign. CB used to work at the Newlands site of BNU and they had links with the Chiltern Chamber of Commerce.

CB – has asked Bewleys for a raffle prize but they haven’t got back to her yet.

MK – there are not so many manufacturing companies in Wycombe now

BS – there are a few furniture companies still in the town

CB – will ask her contacts in the High Wycombe Rotary group to see if they know any local companies who use or want to use FT goods in their staff canteens etc

SK – there is an article on Ruby Moon in the latest BidCo magazine

MK – is going to a meeting with the BNU FT group at the end of June. Amy Howe is no longer there. There is a lady who has replaced her but we don’t have e-mail contact with her yet. BNU did the FT volleyball event again in this year’s FT Fortnight plus a swap shop/stall. They sell a lot of FT wine in their bar and their sports shirts are FT cotton.

There is also a new Co-op on the site of the old Squirrel pub in Downley

Re: lists of B&Bs, hostels, hotels etc – not been successful with these so far but we have increased our liaison with other local groups such as Wycombe Friends of the Earth

SK – re: F of E film evening on 18^th July – asked CB if the Rotary group would like to have some leaflets etc on the Women in Coffee campaign or if CB would like to say a few words on the evening. The film is about empowering women

MK – is planning to re-design our website, together with JM and TT

CB – suggests maybe having a social event to raise awareness of FT or perhaps get new members

MK – someone suggested that we could approach the Rebellion brewery to have a special FT beer (containing FT sugar/honey/vanilla)

SK – wondering if we could get JM’s picture in the local press, having run the Edinburgh marathon for the FT cashew nut project

CB – will try to investigate the rationale behind the FT Foundation website saying that the public liability insurance is up to the local groups

Next meeting:   Tuesday 11^th July

WYCOMBE FOR FAIRTRADE

Minutes of meeting: 27^th April 2017

Avenue Methodist Church, Rutland Avenue

Those present:

Claire Booth (Volunteering Officer for FT Foundation + International Chair of Maidenhead Bridge Rotary Club)

Mike King                          Jhon Munoz

Sarah Moroz                     Bob Smith

Apologies: Tony Thornby + Sheena King

MK – welcome to CB + discussed some of our past activities

SM – gave an update on the FT t-shirt art competition for schools

CB – there are about 100 staff in the FT Foundation office and about 20/30  volunteers who are mainly new graduates trying to get experience or people who are changing jobs/careers. Usually they volunteer for 1-3 days per week eg. in the media, finance, IT or commercial departments. CB looks after these volunteers and works on recruitment, induction etc

MK – asked about the National Conference which was mentioned on the FT Foundation website but has now been changed to a Regional Supporters Conferences

CB – will get an update for us if possible. There has just been a restructure at Head Office. Chrissy Demacki has temporarily taken on Rachael Sweet’s job (looking after towns) + Joe Harrison is looking after schools. Adam Gardner is Chrissy D’s manager

MK – has the FT goodies from Peros/Bewleys

JM- has a contact at Divine – may be able to get some donations of chocolate for prizes

SM – discussed venues for the art competition presentation ceremony. Has looked at a function room in the library and at the Guild Hall. Recommends the Guild Hall.

MK – re: our problem with public liability insurance and how it had prevented us having a stall at Pann Mill

CB – re: the Rotary club quiz on June 10^th – half the proceeds will be going to the FT Growing Women in Coffee project and half towards the polio eradication campaign

JM – his contact from Sweden hasn’t got a date yet for his visit to the UK

MK – as part of our next set of objectives we can try to get FT catering at Wycombe Wanderers + the Swan Theatre

MK – discussed the problems we have had with getting road signs stating Wycombe is a Fairtrade town

BS – talked about how he has been trying to get the flower bed outside the Town Hall to be FT themed

MK – SK has been contacted by Ivan at Wycombe Friends of the Earth. They are showing a film on Tuesday 18^th July at Arts4Everyone. Also there is the Hamilton Fair. We may be able to have a stall at either of these.

SM – asked the group to e-mail to SM re: numbers for the quiz night on June 10^th and then SM will contact CB to let her know.

JM – re: date for art competition presentation – probably best to avoid half-term week (Sat 27^th May and Saturday 3^rd June). Also on June 17^th it is ‘Downley Day’ and probably best to avoid this also.

SM – suggest that we aim for the presentation taking place on June 24^th.

Next meeting: Tuesday 23^rd May