Steering Group meeting

PACT STEERING GROUP

Minutes of meeting held at Eden Mind's FIVE Cafe 7pm Wed 3rd August 2011

Present: Peter Clarke (PC); Chris Cant (CC); Geoff Rockliffe-King (GRK); Richard Wood (RW);Peter Dicken (PD); Christine Ellerton (CE); Nigel Jenkins (NJ); Peter Ward (PW); Maureen Ward (MW).

 

Apologies: Mike Hallam; John Bodger.

 

PW opened the meeting by thanking CC for organising the venue and asked that as this was free for this evening donations for tea and coffee were left.

Minutes of last meeting taken as read.

Matters Arising:

PW has written to Sir Martin Holdgate regarding next year's AGM.

PW still to write up ideas generated from this year's AGM

Derek has now moved out of the Bluebell.

 

PACT insurance has been renewed with no extra charge for product insurance which is now incorporated.

PW will circulate a draft paper before the next meeting on a different organisational structure for PACT in order to protect the members from potential claims.

It was agreed that the Nuclear Debate went well.

 

SEPTEMBER SG MEETING AND DEBATE 7th Sept 2011

Viv Lewis has confirmed that she is happy to lead the debate on Agriculture. CC has booked St Andrew's Rooms. Although Naomi from Newton Rigg has offered to take part it was agreed that the first debate should concentrate on conventional agriculture with further debates taking place later in the year on subjects such as permaculture. This is such a big subject that we could have two or three debates per year all covering different aspects. GRK suggested that this could be flagged as the first of a series of four debates and CE suggested that a flyer could be produced for Naomi to circulate to her colleagues by email.

There was discussion about how widely to advertise the evening as GRK pointed out that once numbers got above 18-20 the circle format ceases to be effective and a different structure to the debate needs to be found.

It was agreed that the "keep informed" mailing list is used (138) but it was acknowledged that take up from these kind of mailings is low and word of mouth is a better way to generate interest. RW suggested we all ask 3 or 4 friends.

It was agreed that the evening should be free with donations invited.

PD will email the Food Group specifically - the most active and largest group at the moment.

PC will compile a list of questions to stimulate discussion and circulate these before the meeting.

PW and MW will provide cold drinks for the evening as the kitchen will be unavailable.

PD will provide tray bakes.

RW agreed to review the evening for the Herald afterwards, and PW to ensure there is an advert in the Events page in the Herald the preceding week.

PW will get in touch with Naomi asking if she will lead next discussion in November and if it would be possible to hold it at Newton Rigg. This would potentially involve the students more and attract lecturers as well.

 

FILM NIGHT AT NEWTON RIGG

NJ has chosen the films for the event - the main one will be Power of Community with other short PACT films - probably the Freegle film, ovens, the intro to Pact and the Food for Thought film.

GRK suggested that we could use this film evening as an opportunity to challenge the students to start up their own transition group.

NJ said he would research if there are transition groups at other universities.

Action groups were asked to flag up activities that students could be involved in.

PW to ask Naomi if others can be invited to the film night - it may not be open to Pact

Members as it is part of Freshers Week. He will stress that PACT wants to forge links with Newton Rigg.

 

FINANCE ISSUES

PW raised the issue of the cost of hosting our website which CC has been doing free as well as regularly updating it. The cost of hosting for PACT is about £75 per year, without the work CC does to update the site almost daily. It was agreed that PACT should pay £100 per year for this. This does not come near to paying the going rate but marks appreciation for the enormous amount of work that CC does in presenting PACT to a wider audience. GRK' s suggestion of backing dating this to the beginning of the calendar year was agreed.

PW said we need to think about ways of raising cash to top up funds as PACT funds are dwindling. Of the approx £6000 in the account, only about £2000 is for PACT activities, the rest being grant funding for specific projects. This could be the topic of discussion for the next action groups meeting in two weeks' time.

 

CAR CLUB

Mike Hallam is intending to get a survey online shortly and hoping to do a street survey in August. He has had agreement to delay his report for the grant funding until the end of Sept. PW pointed out that the Energy Saving Trust is thinking of establishing a car club for the whole of Cumbria. It was felt that the marketing of the Car Club must be tightened up and it was agreed to alter the date of the next SG meeting to make sure that Mike Hallam can attend.

PW to contact Mike Hallam

 

GREEN BUILD EVENT

This will take place 10th-25th September 2011. The programme should be out within the next week. PW reported that although PACT offered to help if needed Diane says no help needed so far. PC 's house will be one of the venues for the GB fortnight and will showcase polytunnels,PVs and the newly constructed conservatory.

 

GREEN FESTIVAL

CAfS was going to organise an energy fair for this event which comes under the umbrella of Eden Arts. Lack of funding has meant that it now appears that CAfS have had to withdraw, and it is now possible that the whole event will not happen.

 

CREDIT UNION

This is close to happening now and the organisers are asking for volunteers for various tasks. PW said he would try to give some time to this and NJ said he could offer to do a promotional film for them to put online. PW has pledge forms for anyone who wants to pledge money. The potential Credit Union are also looking for people who need loans.

 

MAILING

There was discussion about how often/how much to mail out to the wider "keep informed" group. MW and CC will get together to look at the various mailing list categories - which at the moment are simply Steering Group and "keep informed". There may be one or two people who are not involved in the SG who nevertheless are more active than wider group and would like to be "kept in the loop" more than at present. It was agreed that a monthly prompt to visit the website for the wider group was adequate, with specific mailings for particular appropriate events. CC said he could arrange for an unsubscribe box for those who no longer wish to receive mail.

Ullswater Community College is having an afternoon/evening with the Vitality of Penrith Group on September 29th. CC will have a Freegle stall there. PACT could have a presence here.

PW to find out more.

 

The meeting closed at 9.10 pm

Date of next meeting to be advised after discussion with Mike Hallam

See website for forthcoming events.