Minutes of Steering Group Meeting 15.01.20

Notes of meeting held in St Catherine’s Chapel at 2pm on Wednesday 15 January 2020

Present: Ali Morley, Sylvia Beardsmore, Mary Jackson, Fiona Jepson, Helen Bradstock, Andrew Bradstock

  1. Apologies were received from Rose Gillett and Jane Dauncey
  2. The minutes of the last meeting were taken as read.
  3. Matters arising
  • Eco Church Gold Award: We successfully attained our Gold Eco Church award in December. Ali is ordering two wooden plaques from A Rocha to display at church. We will have a visit from Neil Pugmire, from the Diocesan Magazine, before Eco Church on the 26th to take photos and talk to people. Ali will give him a file of Eco church photos for possible publication.
  • Ali raised the possibility of the Haven Benefice hosting public meetings, involving key stakeholders, about important environmental topics for the Island, e.g., Power generation/ land use/ plastics. This was met with enthusiasm and will be discussed at a future meeting.
  • Refill project update: Some of the group have found it useful to have the refill station accessible in the chapel. Interest in the refill station at coffee mornings has been low through December and the Christmas period. We discussed ways to promote the refill station and the problem of ordering supplies, in the event of high demand, was raised. Our current system is slow and inflexible. Ali is also concerned about the plastic waste from the containers we buy. She mentioned a new product range, called Fill which provides glass containers including a pick up and refill service. We will look into their costs for Island delivery. Ali has ordered some samples of their products to try. We also discussed rebranding the St Helen’s coffee mornings as “Saturday café” to attract more people, raising awareness of our refill station through contact with the school and, in the long term, running the refill station in Brading. A new design for a poster was requested and Ali and Liz will work on this. We decided it would be better if people only had to staff the stall once a month and if Sylvia at St Peters, and Mary at St Helens could be available to help. Helen will staff the stall on the second Saturday (St Helens), Fiona will cover St Peters every third Saturday and Ali will cover St Helens on the last Saturday of every month. Other volunteers would be welcome.
  • Craft workshop: The craft workshop in December was a great success. The next craft workshop will be on Feb 29th in the community centre. The St Helens coffee morning will move to the 22nd Feb, to avoid having both on the same day. We will start with lunch – details TBA. We are looking for eco-crafty ideas for stalls and stall-holders.
  • Walking group: Seven of us took part in a walk in the West Wight in November, and a walk from Brading to Bembridge to St Helens is organised for Thursday 16th Jan. (This proved a great success although exceedingly muddy. There were seven of us and two dogs.) The next walk is Thurs 20th February.
  • Grounds update: The faculty for the pond was submitted and has been returned. It is now approved subject to community consultation. The Wildlife trust Tree pack will arrive between 28 Feb – 13 March.
  • Next Eco Church gathering: This will be 26th January. We will meet at 2.30pm so that Neil Pugmire can take photos and interview us for an article in the Diocesan Magazine. We will begin our meeting after he has finished. Liz has planned the worship around the theme of “Darkness to Light”. We will conduct the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch as part of the afternoon. Food will be provided as follows: cake- Fiona, bread- Rose, cheese- Liz, savoury muffins- Helen, butter- Ali, salad- Sylvia.

4. Brading Eco church Projects: The PCC of St Mary’s Church Brading have decided to register as an Eco church. The first project is the creation of a community garden in the space outside the church hall. This was started on Sunday 12th January. Anyone can join in with this. Volunteers are meeting on Friday mornings.  There is also a long-term plan for a community market garden on the land owned by St Mary’s Church, behind the car park.

5. Schools Work: Ali has arranged to go into St Helens school to take assemblies on 27 Jan, 23 March, 11 May and 22 June. She will talk about trees in the January assembly and invite children and families to come to the Mothering Sunday service on 22nd March, to help plant our Wildlife Trust tree pack and look at the seedlings they have planted.

6. A.O.B:

  • Fresh Expressions survey: Our Eco Church gathering is registered as a Fresh Expression of church. We are being asked to complete a survey about it as part of the C. of E.’s research on its Fresh Expressions. We will do this at our gathering on 26 Jan. Please get a form from Ali if you are not going to be at the Eco Church gathering.
  • IOW Recycling: Helen will find out whether we can have a talk or a visit about the recycling processes on the Island.

7. The date and time of the next meeting: Monday 17 February, at 2pm, in the chapel.

Location The Vicarage Eddington Road Phone 07500007437 E-mail revamorley@gmail.com
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