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)