Those present
Lesley Hatton
Sarah Moroz
Mike King
Jhon Munoz
Sheena King
Tony Thornby
Apologies
Angus Massie,
Ivan Cicin-Sain
Minutes
MK – Ed McKeon was not available for this meeting; Charley Hickey
may join later
MK – re: minutes of last meeting – no changes
MK – updates since then – there have been some brilliant things
happening.
Treasurer’s report
SK – good news – on 13th Dec Christ the Servant King church let us
know that they have given us a donation of £500. This is very welcome and encouraging and not expected. Heather said that she suggested it as SK/MK are members of CSK and she was aware that we keep them updated with our activities and that we have not been able to hold any stalls etc recently due to the pandemic.
SK sent e-mail of thanks but will also send a more formal card of
thanks.
We also received £50.87 from the Mayor’s carol concert donations
and this was made up to £61 with a few extra amounts.
Our account now stands at £762.75.
Membership subs are now due again: £15 waged, £10 concessions,
£5 students. Bank transfers are ok for payment of subs.
SK – suggests we can now pay for venue hire out of the Wycombe for
Fairtrade account
SK – is planning to hold a Traidcraft Big Brew event on Wednesday
23rd Feb 10am – 11.30am at CSK. In the past CSK said that takings
from the cafe could be given to Traidcraft Exchange. This time SK will
not ask for this due to the generous donation already given by CSK.
Suggests 10% of our account ie. £76 could be donated to Traidcraft
Exchange instead.
Mayor’s Carol Concert (12th Dec 2021)
SM – this seemed to go well and it was good to have the link up with
Lesley Clarke and Andrea Baughan. Matt and Maz were also there. A
few Covid-related arrangements were required but all went ok.
Wycombe Friends of the Earth/Population Matters/Wycombe
Environment
Update from Ivan (received after meeting): Wycombe Environment
group is promoting bee flowers and Wycombe FOE are looking into
insulation in low income homes.
IT issues
TT – re: e-mails – may need more e-mails as it is awkward for one
person to be using the group one on any particular project which
they are leading. Could have individual ones set up eg.
mike@fairtrade.co.uk etc. Could also be a group one as well.
MK – ok to keep using own private e-mails for inter-group contacts as
well. Can use the group one as a repository of documents if that is
useful. We did have a rota for the info@ address. We could go back
to this.
LH – as a church they get more contact from their Facebook page
than their website
SK – queried how to put things onto our Facebook page
LH – could do this via TT as he is one of the page admin people for
the page
TT – he could also add SK via the admin page
LH – Facebook is good for advertising events to local people (perhaps
for our generation, not so much for younger people)
JM – thinks the partnership with Grecia needs to be highlighted more
on our website. Currently it is to be found under ‘News’. Maybe if an
icon could be added so that this leads directly to anything about the
partnership.
SK – the partnership is now very active and important for our group
JM – would be good to have a separate meeting with TT/MK about
this
LH – there are links on the WFF home page but maybe the Grecia one
could be highlighted more
TT – some things on the website could be removed/updated. Need to
have more recent content from the group to put on the website
Other issues
MK – the Mayor’s carol concert was the first time the revised banner
was used and drew some favourable comments
MK – our Public Liability insurance has been confirmed by the FT
Foundation up to Nov 22
Schools link
MK – had a meeting in late Oct/early Nov with several teachers at
Highcrest and MK and SM had a more recent meeting (on 10/01/22)
with Colette Barker and several teachers. Year 8 are doing a project
on FT. CB has arranged for us to deliver assemblies in FT Fortnight.
They are also having Traidcraft stalls. MK has also been invited back
to give a talk to A-level students. CB has arranged for half the school
to visit Cadbury’s World. Highcrest have been very enthusiastic on
this project. Maria at Coope Victoria is delighted by this. When
MK/SK visit Costa Rica in May they will also be meeting with teachers
at the Liceo. A presentation that MK was going to give to the Liceo
before Christmas has been postponed due to his health issues –
hopefully this may happen in March.
JM – suggested it would be good to do a video meet-up with the
Mayor of Grecia, the Manager of Coope Victoria, Maria and others as
was done from the Mayor’s parlour in Wycombe previously.
MK – Highcrest want to put FT into the curriculum at the lower levels
and want to make Spanish the compulsory foreign language for all
the students
Fairtrade Fortnight
MK – will be delivering six 15-minute sessions for assemblies at
Highcrest plus there will be Traidcraft stalls at the school. MK sent
our FT directory to CB and she will send this out to every parent in
the school. MK will also be interviewed for a video to be put on the
school’s website and this will be available to parents.
MK – there will be a Big Brew at Christ the Servant King. Also a
churches event is being planned at The Avenue church on March 5th.
Darren is willing to be there.
SM – will try to see if there is anyone available from the FT Foundation to come on March 5th to explain the registration/reregistration process for churches.
LH – if not, she would be willing to say something about this. There
would also be a FT stall. Perhaps have a few short talks/videos etc.
10am – 1pm but people wouldn’t have to stay to whole morning. LH
has got ways to contact other churches to put out publicity. Could
put out some initial publicity this week. SK/SM and maybe Maggie to
help with this.
Link with Co-op
MK – this link was established originally by a Costa Rican lady who
works in the Community Shared Values Dept at the Co-op in
Bracknell. She went on holiday to Costa Rica and did the tour of
Coope Victoria and heard about the link with High Wycombe. She
also learnt about the article for the Journal of Fair Trade which has
now been accepted for publication. This led to a meeting between
MK/JM and various people at the Co-op. We have been invited to 4
Co-op events for FT. They were so impressed that they called our link
‘fabulous’ and have asked for another meeting. This is an amazing
opportunity. They have the same shared values as us. Darren said
that they are always on the look-out for new coffee varieties. The Coop
want to see a ripple effect going out to all the FT towns/cities and
they are willing to help.
Journal of Fair Trade
MK – is also doing some work with Tony B on a follow-up article and
has got interest from a lot of universities around the world. The
social justice and healthcare aspects which come from the premium
payments are very important. A town in South Africa is also looking
to link up with a UK FT Town
MK – is interviewing someone from CLAC tomorrow for the article.
TT – it would be good to put all these developments on our social
media. Would also be good to put the South African group in touch
with a different FT group in the UK
MK – was thinking of suggesting the Oxford group for this.
Next meeting
Tuesday 15th March – at The Avenue Church 8pm
Revised date: Tuesday 22nd March –