Minutes of the committee meeting held in The Mullions breakfast room.
Wednesday 26th June 2019. The meeting started at 7.50 pm.
- Welcome, introductions and apologies for absence:
PRESENT: David Brunt (chairman) DB, Tom Winn (vice chairman) TW, Marina Richards (treasurer) MR, Jacqui Knight (secretary) JK, Francis Knight FK, Paul Badman PB, Catherine Atkins Ca.A, Kay Strain KS, David Atkins DA, Rebecca Wells RW
APOLOGIES: Claire Axten, Barbara Fry, Peter Fry, Sally Wood, Trevor Skinner, Gabbie Butler, Katrina Dumontroty, Barbara Cowell.
- Minutes of the May meeting: DB checked that everyone had read the minutes from the previous meeting and signed them as a true record.
- Matters Arising: Everyone agreed The Mullions breakfast room is suitable and will be the venue for future committee meetings. JK will book the room for the 4th Wednesday of every month from 7.30pm; apart from in December when there is no committee meeting.
- Treasurers Report: Current account balance £3,685.48
Deposit account balance £8,042.13
MR reported that it has been clarified that the £1000 paid by BACS into the Street Twinning bank account was the grant from the Street Parish Council. DB will send a thank you to the Street Parish Council.
a) Bric a brac market stall – Thursday 23rd May. Joint stall with Meriman Park community group and proceeds were split in half giving Street Twinning a total of £55.35.
b) Parish Council grant application – MR has put in the application for 2020.
c) Elmhurst School donation – Back in Nov 2018 Street Twinning had been asked by Elmhurst School and the Gravenchon Twinning Association if it would be possible for us to help by paying for the French children’s meals when they visited Elmhurst School this year. It was agreed by a majority of committee members, through email, that Street Twinning would donate £150. The French children have recently been staying in Street and the £150 cheque has been paid to Elmhurst School.
MR informed the committee that in the Parish Council application it states we support local schools. In 2018 we donated £100 to Elmhurst School which helped fund a BBQ for the French children. On that occasion we attended the BBQ to promote Street Twinning and we hope to do this for other local schools in the future.
- Visit to Gravenchon 2020: Please find attached a spreadsheet from KD which shows various ferry crossing options. The committee discussed this and DB stated that overnight travel with an early arrival time is not favoured by our Gravenchon hosts. The Euro tunnel was ruled out due to the long coach trip. DA and Ca.A will check out the DFDS crossing and report back at the next committee meeting. DA also suggested that we could do one way and then travel back on a different service if it offered better options. It was stated that previously the twinning had travelled by coach to the port and then travelled as foot passengers on the ferry, there is no financial saving in doing this and so thought not a good idea.
MR has asked for new quotes from coach companies to compare with the ferry options. DB said that after a recent trip he felt that Aston coaches are not preferable. KS suggested Bakers in Yeovil (different from Baker Dolphin) and MR will contact them. MR stated that some coach companies offer package deals that include the ferry crossing and she will enquire.
DB has not yet approached the U3A reference joining us on the exchange to play a boule match. It was decided to wait until we had more of an idea on how many members are interested in next year’s trip to Gravenchon. Please remember to contact JK if you maybe interested in travelling to Gravenchon next year. She is compiling a show of interest list of members. Provisional dates are Wed 15th April to Sun 19th April 2020. This coincides with school holidays both in England and France.
- Visit to Isny 2019: Nothing more to report at this stage
- Publicity / recruitment of new members:
a) Mendip Times – JK sent an article about the visit from Gravenchon to Mendip Times and it was published in the June edition.
b) Letter to schools - JK, DA, FK and Ca.A had got together to discuss a membership drive at local schools. It would be best to wait until the autumn to contact the schools as they are now nearing the end of term. A letter to each school will be prepared with a view to arranging a meeting with the head.
c) Elmfest – Saturday 13th July at Elmhurst School. 2pm til 6pm, setting up at 1pm. It was agreed that having a stall at Elmfest would be a great opportunity for local parents to find out about twinning. It was agreed to have one stall with a few games for children to play and win prizes. On the stall will also be the usual photos and information plus the twinning flyers and forms for people to fill in if they are interested.
DB has a table and gazebo with weights that we can use. DA will lend us a couple games from The Lions. FK asked if the twinning would consider buying some tables to use on the various stalls. They need to be strong enough to hold the water and wine bottles. It was agreed that MR, FK and KS would source some. JK will contact members and arrange a rota of helpers on the day.
d) Updating flyer – RW is happy to source the printing of a new flyer.
e) Greeting card – KS showed the committee a sample of the twinning greeting card. Kay will print 50 and it can also be adapted to a Christmas card.
f) Updated membership pack – JK has updated this and sent to the new family. It consists of the twinning document, membership form and lottery information. At the AGM it was proposed that the membership fee should increase to £15 per adult effective from the 2019 AGM. This had received unanimous support at the time and in light of this it was agreed that no membership fees will be collected from new members until the AGM this year so as everyone pays the same yearly fee.
- Fundraising for 2019:
a) Baltonsborough Show – DB stated that the twinning used to have a stall at this event and it takes place in August. It was thought by all a good idea but to perhaps do this next year. A human fruit machine was a popular idea where twinning members would hold up a piece of fruit in a partitioned gap, or window, like a slot machine and people would win a prize for 3 in a row or a certain sequence.
b) Bric a brac stall – We have more stock and DA has contacted Val Appleby and a stall will be arranged in August.
c) Merriman Park Fun Day – Saturday 7th September. The pitch fee has been paid. DB asked if we could source some plastic boxes to store the wine. We need to be able to store and transport them easily as normal cardboard boxes aren’t strong enough and if a lot of bottles are in them they become very heavy. JK will email all members when sending out the minutes to start collecting the following items; wine boxes which are free from Supermarkets and screw top wine bottles, please fill with water. Donations of bottles of wine will be gratefully received. Please hold onto these items for now. DA is happy to bring back 48 bottles of wine from France. The twinning have 15 bottles is storage.
d) Choir – Nothing further to report.
e) Quiz – Fri 8th Nov at the Victoria Club. All booked and more details will follow nearer the time.
f) KS suggested a pizza fund raising evening. She knew of one that had taken place which was a good fundraiser. Carried forward to the next meeting.
- Website / Facebook / Twitter: All being kept up to date
- Lottery winners this month:
1st no.66 Trevor skinner
2nd no.73 Bobbie Lockyer
3rd no.7 David Mozley
11. AOB: JK has compiled a supporters email list and will forward an updated members list to MR.