Minutes TWiG meeting 21/4/15 at Blaydon Burn Farm
Transition West Gateshead
Meeting notes 21st April 2015 Blaydon Burn Farm
Present: Nick Ball Di Cadman Lesley Mountain Mick Marston David B David S Steph and Ike Brandon
Apologies: Rachel Kitchen Garry Jenkins Sarah Hopgarden Gueno Capp
Notes of the meeting 11th March 2015: were accepted as an accurate record.
Matters arising:
Group decided to wait to discuss the car share scheme proposed by Gweno until he is present.
Di confirmed she will be making a presentation to the Environment group on Tuesday 26th May with Gwen or Gueno as they are Greenside village residents. The same presentation will be offered to the Greenside WI on 6th July and later in the year for RG WI at a date to be agreed. Di will be asking for a volunteer to share in these events. 6Th of July with Lesley.
Lesley has bid for a £1000 Green Grass Root fund (LEAF) before May 1st. Bigger funds are available.
Agenda Items
1 Summer ‘Local Foods’ event at the Blaydon Burn Farm
We visited the space between the ball room and grass bank. There is enough space for 150 people. And some gazebos and tables/chairs/BBQ would be available as long as we set up ahead of event time ourselves. We can have a fire although only Gwen got excited about this in July (!)
Music from Steph and Ike’s bands could be available on the provisional date chosen: July 18th ACTION Steph and Ike to liaise with their music bands.
ACTION all: find a catchy title for our event, keeping in mind Gwen has to cut out letters from tape to get it all on a banner. Focus on Local, food, celebration, music, fun.
Invited people would have a stall with local food/drinks to be eaten, bought for BBQ or to take home.
ACTION Laura to use her mailing list for prospective stall holders, Nick to contact Bar stall holder (high Spen brewery mentioned), Lesley to find a veggie option (?)
In terms of admin and legalities, payments would be by donations, stall holders could contribute a prize to have a stall there, licensing is only necessary for alcohol sales. To find out whether stall holders can attend, Laura proposed we draft a mini questionnaire to check for insurance/hygiene. ACTION Steph/Ike to check what their own insurance covers. ACTION Mick/Steph: gazebo/rain protection planning.
Stall ideas: Meat from the farm, veg from the paddock, Wylam bakery/ oven pizza Bee keepers ACTION all to find out if a local bee keeper could attend. Dairy ACTION Laura asks Blagdon, Gwen asks Wheelbirks. Jams and Chutneys (who?). Woodcraft/Coppicing/Hedging/charcoal ACTION Steph and Ike to ask a couple they know. ACTION all: think of anyone else who might enjoy a stall.
Activity ideas: Woodland walk ACTION Mick to organise (?). Treasure hunt ACTION Gwen to work with Steph to organise. Quiz ACTION Nick to draft (?) An extra stall with kids/recycling/upcycling activities? ACTION all to think about TWG stall ideas.
Misc: create flyers to advertise, Nick wants to invite Jonathan Wallace, avoid direct competition between stalls, think about getting info out to stall holders about what they need to bring (everything!)
2 Other events
Di updated on the Crawcrook fair, Aug 1st
We can have a stall for £10 and rota through people who can help on the day to man our stall
Ideas for the day: leaflets, demos
Need to check whether we have liability ACTION volunteer please
Lesley asked whether we’d have an autumn event
3Solar Array Update:
Group members seen happy overall to support a feasibility study
Mick expressed reservations: there is a strong feeling that the study should include comprehensive public consultations and not mainly technicalities.
If a group member is interested, they could become involved in the survey or at least we should have a say in who is contracted as a consultant to carry out community surveys
ACTION Nick to give our consent in a letter
4 Bank:
All paperwork has been provided but the COOP bank is busy. We have to wait.
5 Blogging/Networking news
Our FB is set up
Gueno is proposing a blog rather than a website, based on the idea that multiple people will want to contribute. This seems to be favoured in the group. ACTION Gueno to send emails of ‘green’ options for blogs
LOGO!!! We still need a little picture/LOGO/icon to represent the group. People who have looked this up have not found any specific image that calls WG to mind so let’s do something else. ACTION all interested to doodle away LOGO ideas
6 Any other business:
David B mentioned the 1st of June will see yet another edition of the big lunch. There are a few in our area. ACTION check big lunch website and register if interested, it’s a good networking opportunity
Mick talked about the interest in expending the car sharing scheme and getting more e-bikes. This is still a bit far from us (Derwent)
Lesley mentioned a Leader Funding Event in RG. Is this more that we can manage?
Question: should we make contact with green candidates? Yes probably. Could discuss how at next meeting. Maybe think of a letter?
5 Next meeting:
Blaydon Burn Farm was so lovely we’ll be meeting there again on Tuesday 19th of May