Minutes of the committee meeting held via Zoom.
Wednesday 25th August 2021. The meeting started at 7.30 pm.
Welcome and apologies for absence:
PRESENT: David Atkins (chairman) DA, Jacqui Knight (secretary) JK, Peter Fry PF, Barbara Fry BF, Francis Knight FK, Catherine Atkins CA, Sally Wood SW, Kay Strain KS
APOLOGIES: Tom Winn, Marina Richards, Paul Badman
Minutes of the meeting held on 28th July 2021: 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.
Matters Arising not on Agenda: None
Chairman’s Report:
The new plaque is in place by the twinning tree in Merriman Park. Thank you to the 7 members that attended plus Peter Cole who placed the stake. The tree is looking really good.
The twinning plaque from outside Grinters is now fixed to the wall outside the Parish Rooms, thank you to PF.
The plaque of stars from Gravenchon had been damaged during the refurbishment of the Parish rooms last year. We only found this out when The Parish Council were asked where the plaque was this year. They stated that the plaque had been damaged beyond repair and so they had disposed of it. There have been exchanges of emails and the Parish Council have sent a letter to the mayor of Gravenchon to apologise. DA had hoped to see the letter first and for it to be sent to Sharon and not the Mayor. DA has tried to contact Sharon, but she is currently away from home.
Secretary’s Report:
A lady from Catcott has contacted Street Twinning through email which she had obtained from our Website. Her son went on a school trip to Gravenchon with Catcott school in 2019 and became good friends with a French boy. Sadly, they had lost contact and so she asked if there was a way we could help her track him down. JK contacted Sharon who is now on the search for the French boy. The lady also showed interest in twinning, and they are a family of 4. JK has forwarded all the relevant twinning information to her.
Treasurer’s Report: David Mozely has kindly donated his lottery winnings to the association.
Please see the financial report at the end of the minutes.
Current account balance £7357.06
Deposit account balance £8059.12
Membership & Member’s Welfare: Tom Winn was admitted to hospital last week and is still there. He is in good spirits and will hopefully be home soon. DA will send a get will soon card from the association.
Update on visits 2021:
Isny Zoom: PF, BF and SW all reported that this event went very well. There was a good number of members from both Isny and Street that took part and it was lovely to see everyone.
Future Fundraising and Events:
Bric a Brac: PF said that it was a very good day, and they took more money than they had expected. BF said that it was a lovely sociable atmosphere and members had enjoyed helping on the stall. SW suggested that we do another one. DA reported that we do have some stock left but perhaps we need some more really good items for a stall.
b) Merriman Park Fun Day: DA confirmed that we have the extra space for another gazebo. There has been a good number of empties and full bottles of wine donated but more are still needed to make this event a success. FK, DA, CA and JK had got together to look at the bric a brac stock to decide whether it would be worth doing a tombola on the day. It was decided that we didn’t have the appropriate items for this to work. With the extra gazebo there will now be room to do a Play Your Cards Right game which will be kindly lent to us by the Lions Club. David Brunt has kindly offered to lend us his gazebo and we will be borrowing the Lions Club gazebo as well.
FK proposed to the Association to buy a display board so as we can have this along with information on a table next to Play Your Cards Right. We will be doing presentations at schools when the time is right and so a display board would be very good to have for future fundraisers and promotional events such as Discover Your Community. FK has looked for appropriately sized boards with 3 panels so as to display photos of places we have travelled to in Isny, France and England. Each panel is 90 x 60 and the total cost would be £115. FK sent a photo to the Committee WhatsApp group so as they could discuss it further. PF thought this would be a good idea. DA said it was a good idea and suggested the money could come from the Parish Council Grant as this was intended to use for the promotion of Street Twinning. FK proposed and it was carried by the rest of the Committee.
FK asked SW if she could go to the scrap store to obtain some wrapping paper for the bottles which she is happy to do. Wrapping will take place on Wed 1st Sept from 7.30pm at the Knights house. The water will be re-wrapped at the back of the gazebo as we go. FK would like a team each hour with at least one person with the Sum Up App so as people can pay contactless. Another email will go out asking for help. The weather is looking good for the event.
Website & Facebook: JK has posted about Merriman Park Fun Day and also posted photos of the Street plaque, Isny Zoom and Bric a Brac. PF has updated the coronavirus statement on the Website.
Publicity: KS has spoken with her friend who has a new local paper. He is happy to put in a report from the Twinning. SW said that she knows him and said he likes nostalgia and JK said that she has old photos which could be sent along with new ones. DA and JK will put something together.
Lottery: Congratulations to the winners of the August lottery draw. The numbers were drawn by Kay Winn and her neighbour as Tom is unwell.
1st Prize no.58 Tina Della Valle
2nd Prize no.24 Avril Berry
3rd Prize no.75 Sam Richards
Annual General Meeting:
DA proposed the fourth Wed in October for the AGM which is the 27th. It was traditionally held on a Wed but in recent times it has been on a Saturday. BF pointed out that this is half term and so a new date of Wed 20th October at 7.00pm was agreed by the Committee. There followed a discussion whether it should be face to face or by Zoom. SW and JK felt happy for an actual meeting. DA said that the meeting needs to be inclusive and so to physically meet would be preferable but to also enable people to join by Zoom if they are not yet ready for social interaction. DA will try to do a Zoom when he attends a meeting next week at the Crispin Community Centre. It was suggested to hold our AGM at either the Crispin Community Centre or the United Reform Church. FK pointed out that the fans at the Church are very noisy and this would be a problem if members were trying to hear a Zoom meeting. DA asked if the Community Centre is preferable rather than Crispin Hall and FK proposed the Community Centre and seconded by BF. FK stated that this is only 8 weeks away and there is a time scale to sending out emails. JK is happy to send out the appropriate emails in the time scale. BF stated that a lot of groups and events are starting again in September and so hopefully by October people will be happy to meet up again.
AOB: PF suggested Zoom for the September meeting and DA agreed. DA said that he can’t attend the 22nd Sept at 7.30pm and probably neither could Tom Winn. A new time of 4pm on the 22nd Sept was agreed by the Committee for the next meeting.
Chairman’s Closing Remarks: DA thanked everyone for attending the meeting.
Meeting Closed at 8.45pm
Date of next meeting: Wednesday 22nd September at 4pm
To be held via Zoom.