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Strathaven Fairtrade Group AGM – Minutes

 Avendale Old Parish Church – Dangavel Room – 8^th/May/2003

 1.   Paulo opened the meeting, introduced items in the agenda and announced that he was stepping down from the position as chairman of the group.  He stated that he will be involved with the Group and help whenever possible and explained that he will concentrate on helping Brazilian farmers register with Fairtrade in order to be able to export to Britain under the Fairtrade umbrella. He has already identified farmer co-operatives in Brazil and traced the Brazilian Fairtrade organisation (Comércio Justo).

 Paulo talked about how well-known Strathaven has become in the ethical trading movement and reported that he has been contacted by other towns and organisations to help them with their Fairtrade initiatives and events, the latest being a fair trade clothing company from England.

 Paulo gave a brief synopsis of the Group’s most important achievements in its first year:

• Strathaven achieving Scotland’s First Fairtrade Town status
• 20 organisations in Strathaven supporting Fairtrade (including businesses, schools and churches)
• 8 events during Fairtrade Fortnight including

Scottish Parliament’s recognition for Strathaven’s achievements in a 45-minute debate where MSPs of all parties joined in praise for the town’s Fairtrade initiative, the vision of South Lanarkshire Council and the group’s patron Linda Fabiani’s commitment to the project and for securing the debate. The full transcript of the debate is on the group’s and the Parliament’s websites

 The ‘Children Fairtrade Project’ exhibition involved all schools in Strathaven with nearly 200 children taking part with about 100 people visiting the exhibition.

The  Co-op and the Group had offered tasting of Fairtrade produce.  The Group’s shop saw some 300 people passing through the door and the Co-op has just given me a very detailed Fairtrade sales report showing that Fairtrade accounted for over 10% of their sales during the Fairtrade Fortnight. This represented an volume increase of 171% compared with the previous 2 weeks.

In total, some 1000 people came in direct contact with the Fairtrade message during the Fortnight and many more, indirectly, through newspapers, radio, the Group’s website and other publicity.

Extensive press coverage for Strathaven in the past 8 months involving the major papers in the region.

 2.  Paulo presented Strathaven’s Fairtrade Town certificate to Cllr Jim Malloy to be held by  the South Lanarkshire Council for the people of Strathaven.

Jim congratulated the Group for its achievements in such a short period of time and talked about his and the Council’s involvement with the Strathaven Fairtrade initiative.

 3.  Office bearers nominations for the next term:

It was unanimously agreed that Margaret Morton and Sandy Grant would remain as Secretary and Treasurer of the Group respectively.

There were no takers for the position of chairperson of the Group, which remained vacant.

Paulo suggested that the group could decide who the chairperson will be or what to do about the vacant position on their next meeting. Meanwhile, the Group will be run jointly by the office bearers and the committee.

Linda Fabiani queried the constitutionality of the situation.  The Group’s constitution was consulted and, as this situation was not explicitly covered, Jim Malloy suggested that the meeting passed Paulo’s solution to the situation and a common-sense approach be adopted in this instance.  Linda Fabiani also suggested that the constitution should be reviewed and updated as soon as possible.

The meeting agreed to pass the two points and the next meeting of the Group was decided for Tuesday, 17^th/June/2003, 6:30 pm, at the Avendale Old Parish Church.

 4.  Paulo stated that he will draw a document including a list of events and publicity ideas for the forthcoming year so that a funding forecast can be made.  This will then be used by the Group to assist their applications for grants and forward planning.

 5.  It was suggested that the Group participated in the next Strathaven Gala Day. 

End of meeting

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