Venue

The Avenue Methodist Church, Rutland Avenue

Those Present

Lesley Hatton
Sarah Moroz
Mike King
Steve Morton
Sheena King
Jhon Munoz
Angus Massie
Tony Thornby

Topics Discussed

Treasurer’s report

Pann Mill Open Day 11/09/22:
Sales were not high (approx £30 worth of Traidcraft goods sold) but there was a steady number of people visiting and opportunities to talk to several. It helped to maintain our profile.

Meeting with Costa Rican ambassador 13/10/22

This was a very good meeting. MK showed the power point presentation of MK/SK’s visit to Costa Rica.

Ambassador Ortiz offered to come to events etc and also suggested inviting Costa Rican dancers who were at the Kew Gardens orchid festival. MK liaising with Highcrest Academy to arrange events

The Embassy will also be willing to help with the coffee promotion.
International Fair Trade Towns Conference 21/10 – 23/10/22

The talks in the main hall were recorded but not the plenary ones. MK/SK did a short video presentation which was shown during Maria Angela’s talk. We were also mentioned in the final summary session.

Next year’s IFTTC is in Switzerland
Partnership celebration coffee

2 kilos of beans have been sent from Coope Victoria and MK took them to a micro-roaster in Gerrards Cross who passed one kilo on to a second micro-roaster. They will both do sample roasts.

Discussion re: places to sell the celebration coffee eg. Eden Centre stall, churches, Highcrest etc. Could advertise on Wycombe Sound

Would be good to have a leaflet to be given to people who buy the coffee.

Social media

still not many visitors to our website from the UK (70 UK visitors in last 3 months). The most-visited pages are still the St Vincent page, plus the blog of the MK/SK visit to Grecia.

However there have been nearly 1000 visitors from outside the UK from 39 countries in last 3 months, including 315 from USA and 215 from Germany (but only 7 from Costa Rica). This may be due to all the networking done by MK – interviews with people around the world. TT has been thinking of doing some on-line advertising and trying to get some more local views.

Any Other Business

Journal of Fair Trade

Re: follow up article – MK aims to get 12 interviewees for the article. JM will also contribute.

Bucks Climate Action Group

The BCAG were appealing for funding for their website. WFF will give a £10 donation
Fairtrade Fortnight

Fairtrade Fortnight 2023

TT would like to put some info on our social media re: FT Fortnight

It would be good to have a stall in the Eden Centre for FT Fortnight. This may be free of charge as the FT Foundation are a charity

Coope Victoria diversification

The Research and Development person at Coope Victoria has been advising on diversification for FT farmers. Coope Victoria are thinking of producing hemp. This will need capital input

Next meeting

10th January 2023 at The Avenue Church at 8pm