Transition Montpelier

Here are the minutes and actions from our core team meeting from Wednesday 3rd March:

Minutes:  3-March-2010 (Jess’ house, 127 York Rd.)

Present: Ed, Shiona, Dan, Jess, Caroline, Jane, Sally Ciaran, Bron, Richard, Jon Gulson (Simon quick visit at beginning with apols)

REPORTS:

TransMont. Open Meeting (Dan) – very good , positive responses from many people.  The “sub-group” plan seemed to work well.

Energy group (Dan) – next meeting Wednesday ??10-March??.  Loads of newcomers from all over Bristol.

Green Spaces and Food Groups (Shiona and Sally): both went well with committed, enthusiastic residents.  Significant overlap between groups means they have joined forces, and held first meeting on 25th Feb. Next meeting 25 March at Fairfield School (Dan to confirm) to discuss outcome from Mapping Day on Sunday 21 March. Montpelier Park Group AGM on night of Open Meeting went smoothly, achieved elections and approved constitution.”
The community support officer (Sustainability officer at Bristol City Council) for groups like ours, is Mark Leach.

PAST EVENTS – accounts reconciliation:

Winter Fayre (Sally) – We made a profit of £303 (acc’t from Simon).

Bean Feast (September) (Sally) – We made a profit of +/- £455, if all income is received.   There is about £40 wine still in Sally’s house.

• ACTION: Sally to chase Thali for £75.
• ACTION: Sally to chase Simon to chase Mella for £35.
• ACTION: Sally and Shiona to chase £100 invoice to Bristol City Council.
• ACTION: Dan to chase Jameel+Herberts for £120.

The marquee dilemma (Sally) – a full report was made about all the different viewpoints, Sally presenting Simon’s opinions. On voting, all but Jane agreed to accept Simon’s compromise proposal, as stated by Sally, which was to purchase the marquee from Richard, providing the hire fee of £80 was waived. Jane felt a reduced price was needed. The group agreed to buy the marquee at full cost of £400, which is serviceable for future community events.

• ACTION:  Sally and Simon to write a cheque to “Radford Mill” for the cost of the marquee (£406?), as soon as possible.  Richard will waive the marquee hire charge.
• ACTION: Sally and Simon to write a cheque to Simon for (£190?) for Christmas Fayre expenses.

MISCELLANEOUS ANNOUNCEMENTS AND ACTIONS:

• ACTION: ??Ed “Fallen Fruit” – point to the food group??
• ACTION: Ed will arrange dates for the next video evening.  “Yes Men” is looking likely
• ACTION: Dan will introduce “Chris” (the new bookkeeper) to Richard.
• ACTION: Ciaran will draw up a “mission statement” for the Constitution.
• ACTION: Ciaran and Bron and Jess are now a sub-committee to work on the constitution.
• ACTION: Sally will email Bean Feast constitution to Ciaran.
• ACTION: Sally will circulate “Power of Communities”.
• ACTION: Sally will contribute to the Montpelier Arts Trail (24-25-April), and do an “Art-swap” and a “Seedling-swap” stall.
• ACTION:  Richard will assist in setting up “Transition” display boards and taking them down.
• ACTION: Richard to produce template for events bookkeeping, and a suggested scheme for simple annual accounts.

DECISIONS:
“Other” campaigns – may be aired on our website if three core group members agree, and there are at least two “yes” votes more than “no” votes. But we will not use the mailing list to campaign for others as it goes into people’s inboxes and is intrusive. But we will include them in newsletters.

• ACTION: Ed will change the admin of the mailing list, and will inform others.  Non-urgent issues can be presented via a blog post.
• ACTION: Richard will write a statement about why Trans.Mont. should support the anti-Tesco campaign.

Neighbourhood Partnerships (NP) – the first meeting was a bit of a shambles: poor venue, poor acoustics, inadequate supply of agenda notes, inadequate preparation of information, poor or no criteria for taking decisions, etc.  But this was their first event, the organiser was unwell and all suspected that she was fully aware of the predicament. This is worth sticking with, and provides all with an opportunity to influence some local spending, and to present ideas for future agendas.  The next meeting is 30-June.
NEXT MEETING: core group – 17-March, Sally’s house 7pm to eat, 8->10pm for talk.

• Next meeting agenda:  discuss suggestions for NP agenda items.
• Next meeting agenda: we will fix a date for our AGM (needs 21 days’ notice).
• Next meeting agenda:  Ed and Dan to devise a “Year-plan”.