Hi to all our supporters,
I’m including the minutes from the last meeting on 16th April at the bottom of this post, and we have set a date for the next meeting, so please peruse the minutes (kindly taken by Philip) and do put the date for next meeting in your diary..
Tuesday 21st May 7pm BeGreen office
west port
Dunbar
We have not yet had a volunteer to chair the group, so please get in touch if anyone is interested in fulfilling this role for a while. We have agreed to try sharing both chairing and note-taking but ideally there would be one person to each role even if it rotated say 6 monthly or so, as an example.
The next meeting is a key meeting as the group needs to plan its aims, and goals and how it’ll implement them in order to fill out the renewal application forms for further Fairtrade status, so the more people and input the better! Be great to see you there.
Dunbar Fairtrade Town Notes from meeting on Tuesday 16th April 2013
Present: Jo Gibson, Liz Curtis, Mike Shaw, Lesley McPheat, Philip Revell, Mark James (popped in at the end) Apologies: Barbara Richerby, Rachel Murray, Jacqui Leslie.
1. No volunteer has as yet come forward to take on the role of Convenor of the group from Jo Gibson. Jo reiterated that due to personal and work commitments she would be unable to extend her chairing role beyond April.
2. The role of the Convenor is to chair meetings, act as a point of contact for the group and to ensure implementation of the action plan for maintaining Fairtrade Town status. 3. The possibility of having a rotating Chair was discussed, at least as an interim measure. The job of keeping notes of meetings could also be rotated. Philip is happy to continue to administer the group’s funds, using Sustaining Dunbar’s bank account for the time being. 4. It was agreed to proceed with creating an Action Plan to submit to the Fairtrade Foundation in June. This is required to maintain our Fairtrade Town status, as we will have been an official Fairtrade Town for one year in August. The Action Plan will cover the next two years and will guide the agenda for future meetings.
5. The next meeting will be on Tuesday 21st May at 7pm in the office above the BeGreen shop. Philip agreed to chair this meeting (but wishes to emphasise that he will be stepping back from involvement with the group thereafter).
6. Liz agreed to take notes at the next meeting.
7. All steering group members agreed to seek to ensure a good attendance at the action-planning meeting by publicising through their personal contacts and channels. Liz will create a press release to send to East Lothian Courier and East Lothian News.
8. Philip to put a link to the Dunbar Fairtrade website on the Sustain Dunbar website.
9. The Fairtrade resources are now being stored at the BeGreen office and can be used and borrowed from this central point. The box contains leaflets, posters, stickers and info pamphlets as well as the Fairtrade banner and inflatable banana!
10. Jo will copy documents about the requirements of the Action Plan, and an exemplar plan, prior to the meeting and make them available to collect at the Crunchy carrot.
11. It was noted that Rachel Murray will be organising a follow-up audit of local shops, cafes etc. with children from the Primary School in the next couple of weeks to assess changes since the original audit and to ask what help and support may be needed to encourage more outlets to stock Fair Trade goods.
12. Crunchy carrot will put up a display of Fairtrade items and info on sat 15th June, for civic week. Liz suggested marching in the civic parade on same day, possibly carrying the inflatable banana. Lesley felt sure the primary would also have some Fairtrade input during civic week at the school.
13. Dunbar Primary School was congratulated on achieving Fair Trade School status. Well done! A wonderful achievement.
