Avenue St Andrews URC. 7:00pm – 8:00pm
Attendance: 18. Apologies received from Angela (co-chair) and Nathan (treasurer). Meeting chaired by Mark Hancock
Business and Fun
We managed to mix business with pleasure, with Angela’s ‘Who’s that Poo?’ (animal variety!) quiz there was a bit of informative fun, as well as efficient (quick!) elections and quite a few short reports of very impressive work made in the last year, not to mention very nice vegan finger food to chat over.
Chair Report
This included mention of the successful series of talks, and projects. And numerous heart-felt thanks for the many contributors.
Treasurer’s Report
The accounts for the year ended April 2022 were offered for inspection (but projector malfunction meant it could not be presented). Headlines: Still solvent! Cash position end of year was £4,174 of which £834 is restricted. In Jan 2023 TS had £3110 but £1000 was spent on the talks. Income over expenditure £610 most income from grants, then the Repair café & donations.
Elections
The existing incumbents were re-elected as a block on a show of hands (thanks Lyn for officiating). That was because we did not get offers from the appeal for more people to join. I am sure that this was because so many of the attendees are already fully loaded on other related initiatives. We’d really like another co-chair, an assistant treasurer & more committee members. The latter need not attend every meeting generally held every 2 months and it is non-elected, open to anyone, though let co-chairs know at least a day before if you intend to turn up). It’d be a chance to help steer TS and the projects. (Next Committee meeting 7.30pm 28th March.). The elected positions were as follows:
Co-Chairs : Mark Hancock & Angela Cotton
Treasurer: Nathan Brown
Project Reports
It was really amazing to hear what has been achieved over the last year and even more ambitious plans for the next. Each of those reporting had catalysed some important projects which enhance the lives and health of Southampton:-
Repair cafés (Angela), Bitterne Park Growing Places (Rhia), Imagine Bitterne park (Simon), Polygon Growing Places (mentioned) Wildlife gardening/Composting (Kevin), Station Walks books (Clare) , SoCAN (Liz), Talks – energy, hydrogen, wind, wildlife (many of the above!), Retrofit Southampton (energy – Roger), XR actions (Ruth), FoE actions (Lyn Brayshaw)
Quiz
Was fun and informative. Animal Poo Identification, Climate knowledge, Southampton
Followed by more food (Thanks to Simon for organising) and plenty of networking time!
Reports
Chair Report (Angela)
Since our last AGM we have started several new projects, some funded by the Transition Network, which we will hear about later. We ran a successful series of talks on Energy at Highfield Church and now plan a series on Water, to cover water in the home, the garden, the landscape and in everything else! Thanks are due to the many individuals who have helped make these a success.
Charlotte for doing the newsletter
Rhia for keeping Bitterne Park Growing Places going
Liz for organising the local plan workshop
Si for managing our website and Imagine Bitterne Park
Nathan for treasurer/bookeepeing
Kevin for garden/waste projects
Kevin, Adrian, Mark & Roger for talks
Clare for publicising through OB, Growing Places projects and more
Ryan for Polygon growing places
Ellis, Liz and Mark for sitting on Climate Commission
Committee members
Treasurers Notes on Accounts
- This is for the year ended 5 April 2022.
- Income exceeded expenditure by £610 across the year.
- The bulk of income – nearly 2/3 was from grants (£2,405).
- Donations and fundraising will be mostly from Repair Cafe and small amount from meetings/talks.
- Cash position at the end of the year was £4,174 with £834 as restricted funding meaning that TS had free cash reserves to do with what it felt like of £3,340
As the AGM falls nearly 11 months after the year ended it is worth providing a current position update.
- The current cash position at end of January 2023 was £3,110 with restricted funding of £1046 meaning TS has free cash reserves of £2,064 before the costs of this AGM etc.
- This drop of over £1000 is explained by TS spending reserves on regular Transition Talks, Local Plan workshop etc and expenditure exceeding income.
- Income for 22-23 has been much lower than for 21-22 (£1688 to end Jan) due to very little grant income (only one of £500 from Transition Network for BPGP) and expenditure has exceeded income by £1,064.
Repair Cafe Report (Angela)
The hot news is we now have 2 repair cafes a month in four different locations!
First Sat of month: Freemantle Baptist Church will now be alternating with St James by the Park Parish Hall, Shirley (the first one will be on 4 March!) We are hoping this will increase customer numbers.
Third Sat of month: we have a new repair cafe at Imaculate Conception Church Hall, Portswood Rd running on the alternate months to St Denys.
Thanks are due to the many people who have helped make these a success, including the Freemantle cafe admin team, Mark for helping start up at St James, Claire for running St Denys, Eleanor for helping start up at Immaculate Conception, the social media team (they coud use some help, so please offer if you are au fait with facebook, instagram or twitter!) and of course all our lovely repairers!
Bitterne Park Growing Places
In 2022, Bitterne Park Growing Places repeated the successful outreach activities run in 2020 and 2021: the Big Seed Giveaway, the seed and plant trail, and the ‘Top of the Crops’ tent at Trifest community festival. We also built and planted 5 pallet planters to brighten up Bitterne Park Triangle.
We distributed 15,272 seeds, reached at least 191 homes, and welcomed 98 new Facebook group members.
We secured £500 seed funding from Transition Together to continue the project in 2023. The bulk of this funding has gone towards buying seeds for the Big Seed Giveaway. We took orders for the Giveaway earlier than usual in October 2022, to enable us to order seeds online at a discounted rate.
Two committee members, Rhia Weston and Simon James, are taking part in the Transition Thrive training to develop, grow and increase our impact.
SoCAN (Southampton Climate Action Network) (Liz Batten)
“Southampton Climate Action Network (SoCAN) has been formed to represent the environmental and sustainability interests in the area, loosely defined by the entries in the Southampton Sustainability Directory. SoCAN contributes to the newly-formed Southampton Climate Commission. SoCAN has obtained funds, in partnership with Dr Matt Ryan and colleagues at the University of Southampton, to begin setting itself up as a formal body. It will be hiring a Project Manager to help with this and will also be running a series of six workshops across the City on the subject of “Thriving and flourishing Southampton”. Details to follow soon. Sign up to the Sustainability Directory by clicking the link on the home page. It has a Calendar which shows a huge variety of upcoming related events in the City.”
Southampton Friends of the Earth (Lyn Brayshaw)
If anyone wants to actively campaign as part of the Warm This Winter coalition by talking to the public do join us. Greenpeace are going out every weekend to different parks, to ask people to sign QR code petition and /or write message to MP. On 1st April we’ll be asking MPs to show their support for the campaign with a photo-op or if an MP doesn’t engage there is a plan. Greenpeace local group also have a drink after campaigning and a monthly evening social.
Friends of the Earth Southampton go to all Full Council meetings, wearing the message Code Red. We make ourselves obvious from 1pm as the cllrs go to their pre-meetings, then we wait by the Council Chamber entrance as they enter. At 2pm we either leave or go to some of the meeting. The next two are Wed 15th March and Wed 17th May. Do join us!