Those present

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

Apologies

• Angus

Minutes

I C-S – re: Friends of the Earth/Population Matters – he has talked to Steve Morton and decided to continue with the ‘Finding Greta’ competition. It will now be just the video part of it (a 2 minute video to be submitted by the end of August). The poster is nearly done and then it will be promoted from the beginning of July onwards. It will be opened up to anyone (not just school children) and there may be a follow up event. The judges will be from Wycombe for Fairtrade, Wycombe FOE, the Marlow energy group, maybe Matt Knight and perhaps someone else from the council. Re: Population Matters – they will be sending out a questionnaire on Population Day 8th July.

JM – schools will be finishing on 17th July

I C-S – they will be promoting Finding Greta via parents and via social media

SK – re: ownership/maintenance of website. SK e-mailed Steve Guy and asked if it would be possible to have an enquiry e-mail facility within the website and if this would this incur extra costs. Also whether this could be set up as a new generic e-mail for WFF. SK also said that WFF would like to offer to pay for the hosting but Steve

kindly declined this and is willing to continue hosting it. He suggested a phone call to discuss the e-mail address/form. SK suggested it would be better for him to speak directly to Tony about this.

JM – re: on-line conference on 11th June with Coope Victoria, the new mayor of Grecia (Francisco Murillo) and the ambassador of Costa Rica, also Matt Knight, MK and JM. Coope Victoria organised it there were also some others eg. the cultural representative for Grecia. The idea was to inform the new mayor about all the FT happenings. The new friendship agreement between High Wycombe and Grecia/Coope Victoria was discussed. JM also did a presentation re: High Wycombe as a FT town and all the activities we are planning in combination with Grecia/Coope Victoria. The ambassador made some encouraging comments. He said they would put a copy of the agreement in the embassy in English as well as Spanish. There are various events being planned for next year to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Costa Rican independence – both in UK as well as in Costa Rica.

MK – the ambassador also invited us to visit Costa Rica.

MK – there is an orchid festival at Kew Gardens next year at end Feb/beginning March which features Costa Rica. We could attend this and it would help to promote the relationship with Grecia.

SK – this would be good timing for FT Fortnight. MK and SK saw Maggie and mentioned the Kew Gardens orchid festival to her – she would like to come to this.

MK – we can send the scanned document of the friendship agreement to the ambassador by e-mail.

MK – re: progress in obtaining the celebration coffee roasted. MK sent 5 or 6 e-mails to various roasters. He received 2 replies, one of which was from Kingdom Coffee who invited MK to a meeting last Friday which was very positive.

SM – the relationship with Coope Victoria could be ongoing.

MK – there could be a whole line celebrating Costa Rican independence and 250 bags which mention the link with High Wycombe.

SM – asked re: numbers of Costa Rican people in the UK?

MK – there are students at Oxford Uni. We can ask the ambassador about this as well.

MK – has become a member of the Fair Trade Society and now gets the Journal of Fair Trade as part of the subscription price (£10 per year). MK has shown it to a friend of his, Tony B and he will comment on it, as will MK. Tony wants to then send it to Maria in Costa Rica for comments from a producer. We could perhaps then have a joint article published in the Journal as a response to Pauline’s article.

JM – checked the feedback from Matt re: the CIC. Due to the workload required, JM feels we would be better to keep the set-up we have.

SK – that was also the advice from Helen Cracknell.

MK – this endorses the advice given by Matt. Matt obtained a form for us from Waitrose – we could get funding from their community fund. We could also look at regional companies and organisations for grants.

JM – we could also seek for other support eg. product donations from Bewleys

MK – has produced a draft constitution for us. We need this to apply for a grant from any organisation. MK asked us all to look at this and comment on it. We also need a Treasurer – suggested SK – and hold an AGM

SK – Angus reminded us that Kit Kat is changing from FT to Rainforest Alliance

SK – would rather go to Costa Rica next year, not this year, due to Coronavirus.

Next meeting

To be arranged