Those present
- Mike King
- Jhon Munoz
- Sheena King
- Tony Thornby
- Sarah Moroz
- Ivan Cicin-Sain – Wycombe Friends of The Earth
Apologies
Angus, Bob
Minutes
MK – We haven’t had a meeting since mid-Feb (just before Fairtrade Fortnight). Re: today’s agenda – MK/SK + a few others went to 6 functions:
- Bucks New Uni for a FT breakfast – it was the first outing for our new display board. The event was very well organised – not many people though.
- Politicon – we made a good contact with Stella Neal, a teacher from the John Hampden school.
- Bath University FT Fortnight talks – on 2nd March, sponsored by FT Foundation, Bewleys UK, University of Bath and Bristol Link with Nicaragua (BLINC). The speakers were Gloria Gonzalez, a coffee producer from Nicaragua, Louise Whitaker from Bewleys + Barney Smyth from the FT Foundation (see MK’s e-mail of 10/03/20). Very well organised, well attended.
- MK/SK did a coffee boffin quiz at Christ the Servant King church – about 20-30 people there.
- Ran a FT stall at CSK church on Sunday 8th March – raised about £500.
- Churches FT Think Tank event at CSK on Sat 8th March. Very good speakers and the people there got a lot out of it. There
were people from 5 different churches in Wycombe but overall attendance not high. Angharad from the FT Foundation was very complimentary. CSK really supported it and would like to do something next FT Fortnight and would like to extend the FT products that they use at the church.
Due to lockdown it hasn’t been possible to follow up these leads yet and we have probably slipped down other people’s to-do lists.
I C-S – the audio on his Zoom connection not working properly. MK asked if he could send us an e-mail to update us on Wycombe Friends of the Earth and Population Matters
JM – re: Grecia/Co-op Vittoria. About 2 weeks ago, MK/JM had a Skype meeting with Maria and Mariella from Co-op Vittoria (Mariella is communications manager there) – discussed ideas of how we can celebrate World FT Day on-line – plan to do a Zoom meeting with Mariella on 1st June. JM will record it and put it on Facebook. Mariella will play sub-titles in English – they will talk about latest activities at Co-op Vittoria and Grecia (as a FT Town). MK/JM will give an update on our activities. On May 8th, a producer from Co-op Vittoria will talk about what they have achieved with FT premium money. MK has also invited a person from High Wycombe to talk about FT as a consumer. This will be a Zoom session and JM will put it onto Facebook. The Mayor of Grecia and Manager of Co-op Vittoria have signed the document re: setting up the relationship with High Wycombe. Matt and Maz will have signed by tomorrow and MK will scan and send to JM. After the coronavirus situation has calmed down then a future project is to have some coffee roasted and to set up contact between schools eg. letter-writing.
MK – over the last few weeks MK asked our group for opinions re: public liability insurance renewal. Everyone thought we should not renew at present time.
I C-S – Population Matters activities have been curtailed at the moment due to the coronavirus issue but they are helping with the ‘Finding Greta’ project – this will now be video presentation entries only.
I C-S left the meeting.
MK – we can’t do anything much physical at the moment. He is trying to get an interview on Wyc Sound on 8th May and he has updated the sound-bites that we did previously. Not sure whether the interview will be remotely or with social distancing in the studio.
TT – has received info from MK to put onto social media. Still needs content from SM re: Carol service.
SM – will write it up and send plus the photo.
TT – has found 6 articles re: the effects of coronavirus on FT. Has also set up a Google Alert to pick up any info on this. TT lives in Green Belt and there is a proposal for house building on fields nearby. Also another proposal pinned to a telegraph post. He followed this up and was diverted from Wycombe Council to the new Bucks Council. Also our website is hosted by the Wycombe Liberal Party and TT wonders if we may lose the hosting as the Wycombe District Council has all been re-arranged.
SK – Trevor Snaith would probably know. SK will contact him to see if he can put us in touch with Steve Guy.
JM – thought that the changes to Wycombe Council were going to be postponed due to coronavirus.
SK- the local council elections were postponed from 5th May.
MK – thinks that we still have the status quo re: Mayor and Charter Trustees at the moment.
TT – we should be able to transfer to another provider (at about £3 per month) if need be eg. Go Daddy. Thinks that Steve Guy has the skills to build a website and he may be able to move our site to another one if he wants to give up the space.
MK – re: AOB – revision of on-line objectives. Wyc Sound interview can be pursued. We could also try linking to World FT Organisation. On the WFTO website there is a link to the Global Living Wage Coalition – very informative site and has recently done a study on Costa Rica. There is a rural Costa Rican Living Wage Foundation link on there.
JM – yesterday was the 182th anniversary of the town of Grecia and there was an online celebration. From 1st May the new mayor of Grecia will be in office.
MK – the Costa Rican ambassador said that the all-party group for Central America has met. They have no immediate power but can make suggestions. Belize is the only country at the moment which has its own all-party group. Because of its unique situation, it would be good if Costa Rica could have its own one as well.
MK – Margaret Dykes held a stall recently at a school in Chalfont St Giles as part of an assembly. The school was trying to become an Eco-School.
MK – as JM mentioned recently, we could also investigate how we could become a CIC group as there would be potential financial benefits from this.
JM – yesterday was the 20th anniversary of Garstang (Lancashire) becoming the first FT Town.
Next meeting
Tuesday 26th May at 8pm.