TRANSITION WILLESDEN CORE GROUP MEETING: 19 NOVEMBER 2012

[Viv Stein]

Present: Viv, Sarah, Urmi, Marjory

Matters Arising from Previous Minutes

TRANSITION NEWSPAPER

We are unable to buy the numbers required so will not be participating. We agreed only a small number of copies would be sold at meetings/events and we have no identified local shops who could sell on our behalf.

TRANSITION LONDON HUB

Takes place on the third Thursday of the month at the Festival Hall

LOCALLY SOURCED MEAL

No action on this

AGENDA

FINANCE

We have a balance of £235.00. Urmi has taken on the role of Treasurer. Agreed best practice if we all become signatories for the account. We agreed that Viv should have £20.00 for administration expenses incurred since the group commenced.

CORE GROUP AND MEMBERSHIP

Viv has updated the membership and we currently have approximately 130 names on the list. Unfortunately some emails are not accurate and bounce back. The membership list will be made available to the core group so we can also send out mailings. We hope to set up a Google account in the next month or so. It was a general view that the best place to attract new members is through workshops and events.

PUBLICITY

The draft leaflet is on hold.

PUBLIC MEETING DEBRIEF

It was unfortunate that the equipment was unable to display the full screen format of the film making the subtitles not visible. Agreed we need to fully check equipment before screenings. We were also unable to show the slide show of our events of the year. We agreed that the slide show can be uploaded to the KTK site. We made approximately £27.00 from the sale of refreshments and preserves. Two new names were added to the mailing list. The discussion following the film was fruitful. Issues raised were as follows: celebrating small local businesses/community walk/mapping of significant places, making bee boxes, wildlife area in Gladstone Park neglected by council.

CHUTNEY MAKING WORKSHOP

The event went well but was a long day for the organisers. Eight participants including one St Mungo’s resident made 50 jars of chutney. We also had a shared lunch which people seemed to enjoy. We asked for a £5.00 donation from each person to cover the cost of ingredients. We had £5.00 over following this which was donated into the T. Willesden fund. Marjory will ask Ashika for the photos she took of the day

FOOD GROWING

We had a long discussion around how we can start local food growing. Although we had lots of ideas ie Permaculture workshop, space on social housing sites we agreed we are unable to proceed until we have sufficient people who have the energy/time/commitment to lead such projects. We agreed to come back to this issue. Sarah will email Brent about their Allotment/Food Growing policy. Urmi suggested using a Google map to identify potential growing spaces.

EVENTS

BRENT FOE AND BRENT CAMPAIGN AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE PUBLIC MEETING

Viv will attend the meeting and may run a stall.

BELSIZE REPAIR WORKSHOP

There will be another repair workshop in December

WASSAIL

The Wassail will be on 20 January. There will be space at the end of the Wassail for us to promote fruit harvesting

POSSIBLE FUTURE EVENTS

Joint event/meeting with the Willesden History Society?

WILDFLOWER PLANTING IN PUBLIC SPACES

Sarah raised the idea of planting wild/native flowers in public spaces ie islands in the middle and side of roads which are often neglected spaces. We agreed this was an idea that we would like to become involved/promote. Sarah will contact Brent and sound out their views. Spring is the best time for planting.

TRADE SCHOOL

Marjory was approached by the Library Lab for us to become involved in a workshop. We were unsure what Trade School involved. Marjory agreed to investigate.

GREEN ENERGY

Urmi will contact Elliot who came to the last public meeting about running a small event around green energy

COMMUNAL MEAL

Marjory and Ashika are organizing a communal meal where participants will prepare, cook and eat as a group a simple meal made with seasonal fruit and vegetables grown in the UK on 2 December at St Mungo’s. Four people have booked. There is space for two more people. There will be space for two residents of St Mungo’s to attend.

FRUIT HARVESTING GROUP

The meeting on 26 November was cancelled. There will be a review meeting on 3 December. Mapesbury group are organizing a teaching session on pruning in January.

NEXT MEETING

Agreed to have a meal out in the High Road on 10 December