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

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