WYCOMBE FOR FAIRTRADE
Notes of meeting: 20th March 2018
Avenue Methodist Church, Rutland Avenue
Those present:
Mike King Jhon Munoz
Sheena King Bob Smith
Sarah Moroz
SM – re: our renewal presentation event on 22th February – the councillors showed interest, picked up leaflets, stayed and chatted etc
MK – approx 25 councillors were present and seemed very positive about what was said
SM – Richard Peters was there. He had attended the council meeting and was trying to promote links between the council and community events and is organising the ‘Love Wycombe’ event this year. This is a joint-church event at Pentecost. Richard had spoken to Matt about Hills Cafe providing refreshments and hopefully we can be involved as well.
MK – spoke to Karen Satterford (Chief Executive of Wycombe District Council) on 22nd Feb and requested a meeting with the next leader of the council
SK – held a Traidcraft stall at Christ the Servant King on 4th March and took more than £500.
MK – the event at Hills Cafe went well on 10th March. Matt had done a lot of work.
We did have a message from Wycombe Sound to ask if we wanted to have a slot during Fairtrade Fortnight but we didn’t manage this.
JM – we could do a promotion on Wycombe Sound for any events that we hold to coincide with World Fair Trade Day in May.
SK – on our new website, it isn’t possible to access our Facebook site
MK – we need to speak to Tony about this
JM – has talked to Juan, the leader of a Co-operative in Nicaragua re: the possibility of setting up a link with us. They are also part of the CLAC group (the Latin American and Caribbean network of FT small producers and workers). His co-op mainly produces sesame seeds and their main customer is the Body Shop (for sesame oil). Juan also knows another co-op in the area which produces coffee and he will talk to his links with various towns in Nicaragua and recommend who we could connect with.
JM – has also had contact with a new person at CLAC (Linda Vera) and she is in charge of establishing FT Towns in Nicaragua
SK – the Meaningful Chocolate Co have said that their eggs are available in several supermarkets (Tescos, Morrisons, Asda etc) but not Sainsburys
SM – has now sent the letter to the Headteacher at Highcrest Academy, who will hopefully pass it on to the relevant teacher
SK / MK – are away on the date of the Love Wycombe event (Sunday 20th May).
SM – will check on her e-mails to see if she has received one from Richard Peters and will contact him to ask if we can have a presence at the event eg. displaying our leaflets etc
MK – we could also use our banner
JM – re: the international FT Towns conference in Madrid in October. Apparently there will be a website for it opening in April
SK / MK – talked about their trip to Belgium a couple of weeks ago – FT products had a really visible presence. There was an Oxfam shop that had a lot of FT products.
SK – had an e-mail today from Adam Gardner requesting donations
MK – the FT Foundation have lost some of their funding
There was a discussion and it was decided that the WFF group wouldn’t send a donation to the FT Foundation appeal from the money that had been granted to us by the group at CSK church.
BS – has heard that organisations which hold lists of people will need to get annual permission from those people in order to keep their names on the list, due to new data protection legislation.
SK – Wycombe F of E are organising a Greenpeace talk on 4th April re: Greenpeace’s approach to campaigning. This is at the Friends Meeting House, London Road at 7.30pm.
Next meeting: 17th April 2018 at Avenue Methodist Church