Chair: Sue
Minute taker: Deborah
Attendees: Andrea, Deborah, Helen, Jules, Laura, Lynn, Rob, Sheelagh, Sue
Apologies: Bill, Suzanne
Minutes of last meeting: Approved
Actions from last meeting:
Sue to formally thank for gazebo: done.
Jules to confirm arrangements for Ethical finance mtg: done
Sue/Andrea to sign FoE charter before end of February: done
Bill to email Richard Dyer (FoE) re Co-op Banking: done (Sheelagh).
Sheelagh & Bill organise United for Warm Homes mtg: see below
Bill to put information about free insulation in Village Voice, and to ask Lynn to put it on our website: done.
Sheelagh speaker Hope Valley Renewables: see below
Deborah to forward recycling request emails to Rob: no further requests
All to consider Vacancies: secretary and CAG lead: see below
+ Andrea to book rooms for whole group mtgs & organise zoom for committee mtgs ~ Project group leads book their own rooms for project meetings and let Laura know.
Chair’s Report:
Sue expressed her wish that the group reach out to a wider audience, to get more people involved. Part of this could be through writing for Village Voice and posting on Facebook. There are 33 groups in Tideswell, and Sue suggested contacting them to see if there is anything we could do together, as we did with the church with the banner exhibition last year. She suggested making requests to all groups, perhaps via the Community Association and Village Voice, eg asking for old t-shirts for the Cycling group.
Action: Helen will put the t-shirt request on Facebook. Lynn offered to post any other requests on Facebook for Tideswell, Litton and Cressbrook.
Secretary‘s Report:
Deborah reported an increase in offensive emails to the group’s webmail. She was advised to let Pete H know of security breaches.
Action: Deborah/Lynn to contact Pete H.
Treasurer’s Report:
Laura reported that the money from Derbyshire County Council for Warm Spaces is now in the church bank account. We need to have some money back for leaflets: Laura will tell Sheelagh by next week how much TDEG is owed.
Laura asked where to put the Climate Pathfinders money, and it was agreed this would go under the Climate Action Group.
Switch to Co-op bank: the FoE charter gives us charity status, making it possible for us to have our bank account with the Co-op. Once Richard Dyer has signed our form, we will have proof of our charity status to use in our application.
Action: Laura to tell Sheelagh how much TDEG is owed for leaflets from the DCC grant.
Sheelagh will re-send link to the FoE form, that Laura will sign, and send to Richard Dyer.
Matters arising from Project groups
Cycling Group
Cycle parking ~ close to establishing sites in Tideswell & Litton using three old cycle stands from the school, which can each hold four bikes. Helen is applying for council grants for installation.
Climate Action Group
a) The need for a new CAG lead is urgent: Sheelagh will be standing down mid April. Lynn will put this in the next newsletter, and Andrea will send out an email to CAG members about this, along with a reminder of the next meeting.
b) CAG and United for Warm Homes mtg Tue 28 March Tideswell Community Hall (upper room).
c) Hope Valley Renewables Whole Group mtg Wed 26 April Fountain Square Church. There is no more information at present, as the presenter has been ill, but Sheelagh will get the information when it is available.
d) Request to avoid clash of dates of TDEG meetings with FoE meetings. The need for this was noted, and will be taken into account. Sheelagh said attending the FoE meetings is open to all TDEG members. FoE provide training (eg how to run a campaign successfully), an opportunity to share with and hear from other groups, eg how to maintain membership, and they give us a 10 minute slot for informal feedback. Sheelagh to give Lynn a few sentences about the FoE invitation, to go in the next newsletter.
e) School work: request input from TDEG groups – Sheelagh, Andrea see below: eco clubs
Action: Lynn to put CAG leader vacancy in next newsletter: Andrea to email CAG members re vacancy and next meeting.
Sheelagh to give Lynn a few sentences re the invitation to FoE meetings, to go in the next newsletter.
Ethical Consumer Group
Jules said that there is a healthy budget balance in the Repair Cafe account, with a surplus income each month. Rob said that there are large expenditure items coming up: two people are going to have PAT training, and a grinding wheel for knife sharpening is going to be purchased. These items would come out of the grants received. It was voted on and agreed that donations made each time the cafe is held could be deemed “unrestricted”, and so would be put with unrestricted general TDEG funds. Jules will take this back to the Repair Cafe organising group, and report back.
It was also agreed that decisions on the use of funds coming into any group would be made on a case by case basis.
Action: Jules to discuss with Repair Cafe organising group the use of donations as unrestricted TDEG funds.
Wildlife Group
Lynn said that the Village Voice date for the next meeting is wrong, and confirmed that it will be on Thursday 6th April. She is hoping that the group will want to get involved with Derbyshire Wildlife Trust’s ‘Wild Peak Initiative’.
Agenda items
1) Secretary post: Lynn will include this vacancy in the next newsletter, along with the other vacant posts.
2) Clothes Swap: Jules will discuss this at the next Ethical Consumer Group meeting, and see if there is anyone who could take on the organisation of it.
3) Sue reiterated the need to reach a larger audience. See Chair’s report. Andrea spoke about the recent work she, Sheelagh and Sue H have done in Tideswell and Litton schools, setting up an eco club and an eco council. The youngsters are very enthusiastic. The two schools are in different positions re how they can take this work forward. Helen said she would like to approach Tideswell school re support for cycling to school. Helen also felt working with the scouts might be feasible in the summer when the evenings are light, and the work could be linked to a badge.
4) Organiser for litter picks: no-one responded to the Facebook post. Lynn will include this in the newsletter as a vacant post. Andrea now has the litter pick grabbers at their house. Rob said that litter picking and the Repair Cafe provide good routes into TDEG for some people.
5) Proposed TDEG/CPYF Equal Opportunities Policy: this was discussed and amended as follows:
TDEG will admit people to the group regardless of race, religion, gender, sexuality, status or disability. Regarding age: · Climate Pathfinders Youth Forum is identified for the age limits in their constitution. · For TDEG, people are admitted regardless of age.
Any member acting in any discriminatory way will be subject to investigation. Appropriate discipline might be a written warning or disqualification from membership. In extreme cases the person’s behaviour may be alerted to appropriate authorities.
People who would investigate any discrimination would be: chair, project lead for the project group involved, plus an additional committee member, ideally from the project group involved
See the Climate Pathfinder’s Youth Forum safeguarding policy here
Action:
Lynn to put secretary, litter pick organiser along with CAG leader vacancies in newsletter.
Jules to see if there is anyone in ECG who could organise a clothes swap.
AOB
None.
Next meetings
26th April: whole group mtg 7:30 FSC ~ Hope Valley Renewables
7th June 7:30: Committee mtg, online
28th June/5th July: AGM and whole group mtg [NB since the meeting, 28th June has been confirmed for the AGM]
September: Committee mtg – date to be decided.
4th/11th October: whole group mtg. Topic: Rewilding (Ruth Pilbream), Travelling light. Helen will contact the possible Travelling Light speaker again, and let Lynn know if they are not available, for Lynn to then contact Ruth Pilbream.
