Minutes September 2021

Minutes of the committee meeting held via Zoom.

Wednesday 22nd September 2021. The meeting started at 4pm.


  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, Francis Knight FK, Catherine Atkins CA, Sally Wood SW, Kay Strain KS and Simon Carswell


APOLOGIES: Marina Richards and Paul Badman


  1. Minutes of the meeting held on 25th August 2021: DA checked that everyone had read the minutes from the previous meeting and by a show of hands 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: None


  1. Chairman’s Report: Welcome to parish councillor Simon Carswell.


Update from ND de Gravenchon re “Stars Plaque”: DA has spoken with Sharon in Gravenchon about the star plaque and she understands and is ok about it. She offered a replacement but DA thought that this was perhaps not the best idea as susceptible to vandalism if put outside the parish rooms and a bit too large to put inside. DA proposed to the committee that a framed picture of the plaque in France would be a nice and easier display for the parish council. PF and KS agreed and SW thought it would be a good representation of the plaque. DA will chat with Linda, the parish clerk, to discuss an appropriate size for a photo or print to be displayed inside.


  1. Secretary’s Report: Lots of interest at the Merriman Park Fun Day and JK has sent an email with all the relevant twinning information to a lady who filled in a show of interest form, not heard back as yet. Great news that a family of four will be joining both the Gravenchon and Isny twinning. JK will send the information about the family to Sharon in Gravenchon and BF will send it to Veronica so as families can be found to twin with them.


  1. Treasurer’s Report: Please see the financial report at the end of the minutes.


Current account balance £7653.95

Deposit account balance £8059.19


  1. Membership & Member’s Welfare: DA Welcomed TW back, he said he is doing well.


  1. Visits: It is still too soon for anyone to say yes or no to dates or visits


  1. Fundraising and Events: Please see FK’s Merriman Park Fun Day report at the end of the minutes

BF thanked FK for the amount of work he put into it. DA reported that many stalls ran out of stock and that is was the most successful Merriman Park Fun Day to date. He liked that once we had sold out of bottles the information board was re positioned at the front of the stall and this looked very good and still drew people to the stall. DA thanked David Brunt for taking on all the lions items for him. Simon Carswell said that it was such a fantastic day and the best one yet. The benefit it gives to so many organisation in street, not only the Merriman Park fund raiser group. BF said how lovely it was to meet up with people again. She said to Simon how important it is to have these events for the community spirit. Simon agreed and will feed that back to the parish council.

The date has been set for the 3rd sept for next year’s event. There will be no Christmas Cracker.

  1. Website & Facebook : PF reported that he has put the August Minutes onto the Website. JK has put on FB lots of photos from the Merriman Park Fun Day and some videos.


  1. Publicity: DA asked KS to contact her friend at the paper to get an idea of the size and amount of words for the article. Then DA and JK will put something together.


  1. Lottery: Congratulations to the winners of the September lottery draw. TW and Kay Winn drew the winning lottery numbers during the zoom meeting. TW and KS have got together and everything is set up for KS to take over when TW stands down from it


1st Prize no.5 Claire Axten

2nd Prize no.16 Helen Phillips

3rd Prize no.50 Kay Winn


13. Annual General Meeting – Wednesday 20th October 2021 at 7pm

The committee had been sent a link to a hybrid meeting that DA had attended so as they could see how it sounded on Zoom. Everyone agreed that it looked and sounded good and it was agreed to go ahead with the hybrid of both a physical and zoom meeting for our AGM. The Crispin Community Centre, 4 Leigh Rd, Street BA16 0HA has been booked from 6.15pm to give the committee time to set up and the meeting will start at 7pm. DA stated that they have a Wi-Fi which is efficient and easy to use. SW, KS and CA volunteered to do teas, coffees and biscuits.


Plans for 2022 is on the AGM agenda which will give members a chance to voice their opinions. JK asked if DA could prepare a diary like before of dates when schools here, in Gravenchon and Isny are on school holidays to give everyone an idea of when the visits could possibly take place. Isny have shown interest in visiting us in the first week of Aug. BF will contact Veronica to get an update and JK will contact Sharon to see how confident they are about us visiting them next year. We can then feed this information back to the members at the AGM.


DA stated that the financial report might not be ready in time to go out with the 2nd calling notice as stated in the constitution but will probably be sent separately. Members will be able to vote by email and on the night. TW stated that he wont be standing again for Vice Chairman.


14. AOB: SW asked about the bric a brac. DA stated that we need some new items if we are

going to hold another one. If anyone has any bric a brac donations please let a committee member know. As the weather changes we can let people know on the day if necessary through WhatsApp if a stall won’t be going ahead. SW is happy to bring this up at the AGM in AOB as she thought it would be a nice idea to do one around Christmas time.


DA asked for feeling about meeting up for the November committee meeting. TW said things are very uncertain at the moment and DA suggested that perhaps a hybrid meeting would be suitable but we would need to think about an appropriate venue and this can be discussed nearer the time.


15. Chairman’s Closing Remarks: DA thanked everyone for attending the meeting. Special

thanks to Simon for attending and both Simon and Andy Leafe, our contacts for the Parish Council, have been invited to the AGM.


Meeting Closed at 4.45pm

Date of next committee meeting: Wednesday 24th November at 7.30pm

VENUE TO BE ARRANGED