Minutes September 2020



Minutes of the committee meeting held via Zoom.

Wednesday 23rd September 2020. The meeting started at 7.30 pm.



  1. Welcome and apologies for absence:


PRESENT: David Atkins (chairman) DA, Tom Winn (vice chairman) TW, Jacqui Knight (secretary) JK, Peter Fry PF, Barbara Fry BF, Claire Axten Cl.A, Trevor Skinner TS, Francis Knight, Gabbie Butler, Catherine Atkins, Sally Wood


APOLOGIES: Marina Richards, Paul Badman and Kay Strain


  1. Minutes of the meeting held on 26th August 2020:


DA checked that everyone had read the minutes from the previous meeting and it was agreed that they are a true record. Signing of the minutes will take place at a later date.


  1. Matters Arising not on Agenda:


DA will continue to look at, along with other members of the committee, guidelines for event organisation.


  1. Chairman’s Report: Nothing to report


  1. Secretary’s Report:


JK reported that she wrote to Cllr. Goater and had a very positive response about the request for a road in Street to be named Isny. Cllr. Goater had put the request forward to the retail/business park developer. He said they aren’t against the idea but the issue is that most of the proposed next phase of the development would be in Walton not Street. It is still going through the planning process and so we will wait and see. If the business park cannot do it then there is a possibility of a proposed new housing estate in Street which may or may not go ahead and so this could possibly be an option.

It was asked if we had twinning members living in Walton but at this present time we don’t.

Committee members had no opposition to the road being in Walton but it would be preferable to be in Street. It was agreed to leave it in the Parish Councils hands and JK will reply to Cllr. Goater’s email accordingly.


  1. Treasurer’s Report:


Please see the financial report at the end of the minutes.

In Marina’s absence JK reported that she had received an email from the Assistant Clerk stating that Street Parish Council has agreed to award Street Twinning a grant of £1000 which will be paid in April 2021. This is great news for the association and DA has sent an email to thank them.

Current account balance £YYYY.YY

Deposit account balance £XXXX.XX



  1. Membership & Member’s Welfare:


DA proposed that we hold off contacting schools about organising a meeting with head teachers for the promotion of Street Twinning. It was agreed that in the current climate it was not appropriate to contact schools and this will be put on hold.


  1. Update on visits 2021:


BF has spoken with Isny and they have discussed a possible Zoom meeting between Street and Isny to take place late October around the time of the cancelled visit. This was thought as a good idea by the committee but could be a bit difficult to plan and would possibly need to be an extended Zoom meeting. It would be lovely to see faces from both sides. BF and PF will contact Veronica and see if they can set this up, TS is happy to organise the Zoom.

It was suggested that cards are sent to the Isny families that would have hosted in October. DA is happy for the Street Twinning cards to be used for this purpose.

It was decided that it was too soon to make a decision as to whether to go ahead with the visit to Isny in 2021. It was agreed to leave the date pencilled in. Next year a decision will need to be made as to how long they can leave it before booking any travel and to be aware of any cancellation fees that may incur. At this point members of both sides would be contacted to see who are happy to travel and host.


DA has been informed by Sharon that Gravenchon Twinning are having their committee meeting next week and they are emailing their members to see who would be interested in hosting in 2021. They will get back to us ASAP. DA suggested that we keep to the same travel company of Bakers coaches as they were very good and helpful to us when we had to cancel earlier this year.


  1. Future Fundraising and Events:


DA contacted Street Market organisers with the proposed dates of 26th Nov and 3rd Dec for Street Twinning to hold a Bric a Brac stall. No response has been received as yet. It was agreed to hold off on any organising until a date is set.


  1. Annual General Meeting:


DA has checked the recent government rules on gatherings and we are still able to hold an AGM in suitable conditions. For the moment it is still planned to go ahead. It was agreed that there will need to be a trial run of the AGM from Crispin Hall to make sure that Zoom works effectively. Any problems can then be smoothed out before the day. Crispin Hall are relaxed about us doing a dummy run and DA,TS, PF and JK offered to help once a date is arranged for this.

DA stated that he will be proposing an amendment to the constitution for discretionary payments and to state that a debit card is held by the treasurer for the association.

It will be proposed that membership will remain at £15 and this will form part of the treasurer’s report.

DA stated that he would be happy to continue as Chairman if voted in and the same for JK as secretary, Marina wasn’t present at the meeting to comment.

TW would like to give notice that he would like to stand down from Vice Chairman. TW has now indicated that he is willing to stand for vice chairman unless anyone else comes forward and providing it is not for long.

PF has drafted the notices to go out to members.


  1. Website & Facebook : Nothing to report




  1. Publicity:


Cl.A reported that Dean at the BASIS contacted her to ask for any reports of local events. She proposed that a report is submitted as to how Street Twinning is dealing with the current situation and about our upcoming AGM. This could include how we have not been able to host or visit our twin towns but that we are still keeping in touch with France and Germany and our fellow Twinners, sending cards and also using Zoom to enable committee meetings to go ahead. This would go into the Nov/Dec BASIS and DA is happy to write a report.


  1. Lottery:


Congratulations to the winners of the September lottery draw. The numbers were drawn by Kay Winn and read out by TW during the zoom meeting.


1st Prize no.66 Peter Fry

2nd Prize no.26 Cameron Richards

3rd Prize no.18 David Brunt


  1. AOB:


TS is on the committee that supports Oxfam and stated that they are trying to find ways to raise money. They will be holding quizzes with cash prizes. It was agreed that their flyer could be included in the minutes, please see below.


  1. Chairman’s Closing Remarks: DA thanked everyone for attending the meeting and TS or arranging Zoom.



Meeting Closed at 8.20pm

Date of next meeting: The AGM on Saturday 31st October at 2.30pm

To be held at: Crispin Hall and via Zoom.