Micklefield Library, Micklefield Road
Those present:
Mike King Sarah Moroz
Sheena King Bob Smith
MK – re: Fairtrade Town status renewal document – MK got a lot of help from Hull’s submission document. Proposed a vote of thanks to SK for all her work in putting the folder of evidence together.
SK – the process of doing this made her realise all that we had done last year.
MK – tonight wants to prioritise what we want to do. Need to think about how achievable things are and if any activity would need extra manpower. Need to consider Fairtrade Fortnight.
MK – attended the Chesham Fairtrade Town 10th anniversary celebrations and Colin Cartwright has invited any of us to their meeting on 10th November. There were 2 bands at the celebration event. It was held in the market square in Chesham and they had a town crier. An area was cordoned off for children’s activities re: Fairtrade. They had a lady in costume being their local famous abolition of slavery heroine, Lydia Hardy, who was also involved in boycotting sugar from the West Indies (‘one of Chesham’s first Fairtrade campaigners’). MK also met a lady on Chesham’s steering group who runs her own dress-making business and uses Fairtrade fabrics.
MK – The Fairtrade Foundation have now said that we can give an award to our flagship employer ie. Peros
MK – sent round an e-mail to our various contacts (BidCo etc) to tell them about our renewal status and BidCo sent a supportive e-mail back and would be in favour of us having signage. Bucks New Uni is also in our favour. Possibly Peros may be willing to contribute. Peros may also be willing to help us produce a leaflet showing where Fairtrade is available in the Town. Will try to arrange a meeting with James Roberts (vice CEO) at Peros.
SK – discussed the possibility of getting us and/or Peros to do an article for the ‘Link’ magazine – next edition is in March (good timing for Fairtrade Fortnight).
MK – will be going to the Bucks New Uni steering committee for Fairtrade in a couple of week’s time.
MK – Chesham had a good banner about 6ft high which cost about £55 – unrolls and hooks vertically.
SM – will e-mail Chesham group to find out which company they used for their banners and then ask the company what they would need from us.
SK – wording for banner – ‘Wycombe is a Fairtrade Town’?
MK – could also have the Fairtrade logo and perhaps the Wycombe swan symbol.
BS – Wycombe Council seemed to be open to having different flower designs for their flower beds. BS will try to find out how we achieve this with the council.
MK – BidCo were enthusiastic about the flower bed idea.
SK and SM – attended the WI meeting in Hazlemere on 1st October. They are not currently using Fairtrade for their refreshments, so SK mentioned to them that Oxfam now sell Fairtrade tea bags/coffee again.
MK – is willing to switch his area of coverage for the steering group to hotels/health centres/Wycombe Swan. There is a hotel near Ibstone which serves Fairtrade tea/coffee and also uses local produce.
MK – Fairtrade gold/silver seems to be mainly supplied online or in London.
SM – a speaker at the Bristol conference said that he thought one of the criteria for becoming a FT Town should be to have a FT gold stockist in the town.
SM – would like to organise an art competition for schools for next FT Fortnight. We could have the entries on display at an event.
MK – it would be good to have an event where we could ask someone to present our renewal certificate (High Commissioner of St Vincent?) to the Council Chairman/mayor? Venue of this could be Bucks New Uni (Beats Refectory or Board Room).
MK – need more people on the steering group or just to help out at events – people from Peros or students from Bucks New Uni could be among these. BNU are resubmitting for FT status in April/May next year.
SK – it would be good to have an event involving a speaker who is a producer. SK will ask David Sparks how the Tooky talk was organised.
SM – would be good to show a film at some point in the future – maybe the one that Chesham group showed several years ago at the Elgiva.
SK – has done an article for the Nov edition of her church magazine (Christ the Servant King) re: our renewal status etc
MK – Ivan from Wycombe Friends of the Earth said that they may be interested in becoming ‘associate’ friends of our group.
MK – we need to get our contact details on our website
Next meeting: Tuesday 17th or Tuesday 24th November