October Meeting - Minutes

Notes of T3 meeting 20^th October 2011

Present :- Jeff, Carolyn, Jo Vos, Laura, Christine, Chris, Justin, Phill, Tom, Steve

Apologies :- Emma, Sue F., Niki Stewart

T3Tea was very succesful,and raised almost £200 for our funds. Some of that has already been spent (£25 to Folk Festival, ink cartridges etc.) but we now have a small fund to help future projects. The fair was well attended, although some vendors did better than others, but next time we will do it so it doesn't coincide with a big event such as Folk Festival. Thanks to everyone who took part, and we look forward to working with you all again in the future.

Highbury Hall. We need to organise a weeding day, and try to organise a delivery of woodchips (free) on the same day to use as a mulch. This would be best on a weekend. We also need to organise a day with Marie and the preschool children to plant daffodil bulbs. We should also arrange a bug hotel making session, and hang them at the garden and also around the town, ie in the churchyard.

Hike and Bike Wednesday continues to have a variable attendance. It is a useful chance to have a weekly mini-meeting, and we shall continue to promote the event.

Treasures of Tenterden project. Richard Parsons of the Lions let us have a copy of their town quiz to look at, to give us some inspiration for questions. We found it useful, although some of the questions were very cryptic. We will work on our questions asap. The Treasures of Tenterden walk is still slated to take place on Boxing Day.

Steve Hickmott is from Loch, Victoria, Australia, and gave us a very interesting and informative talk about the Community Development Association there. The presentation slides are available. 

Loch is a village in the 'shire' or county of South Gippsland, which has an area of approx. 3280 square km. To give you an idea of how large that is, Kent has an area slightly larger, 3736 square km. However, in contrast to Kent's almost 1.7 million population, South Gippsland has only 27,000 people. Sustainability appears to be a big thing in South Gippsland, from the Shire council to the individual towns. A Sustainability festival is held annually at Coal Creek, and there are three Transition Towns - Loch, Foster and Mirboo North. Loch is working on a Community Garden using a tract of waste land about the size of the Leisure Centre's pool. It was given to the Loch Community Development Association by the SGSC, who were happy to save the money they usually spent mowing it by letting the volunteers of the LCDA take over. The long-term plan is to build a walking track around the town that is wheelchair friendly and incorporates the Community Garden. More info is available on the Loch Community Development Association website at www.loch.org.au and via the South Gippsland Shire Council at www.southgippsland.vic.gov.au.

Lights Out Tenterden is our next project, where we are trying to encourage shops and businesses to turn all the lights off at night. We have composed a letter and questionnaire which we intend to start sending out this week.

Next meeting is 24^th November, 7PM, venue to be confirmed.

Thanks especially to Christopher Hickmott-Arnold for bringing along his laptop to view Steve's PowerPoint presentation.

I Did Not Know That

http://www.good.is/post/interactive-infographic-how-does-a-hybrid-car-work/

T3Tea, and Beyond

Hi Folks!

It's been a little while since I had anything of note to say on here but that's due to the fact that for the last few weeks we had been frenetically preparing for two T3 events that were only a week apart - first, CleanUp Tenterden Day, and then, T3Tea, which were both great successes!

T3Tea was... well, I'm just going to let the pictures speak for themselves.

This way!

Morghew Potatoes, Christopher, and Mark Sidders set up.

The girls from Morghew Potato Shop.

John Burnett from Quarter House Alpacas.

Deborah Good of Pretty Goods setting up.

The young man whose name I didn't catch from Silcocks, with his cheeses ready to be sampled.

Kench Hill Centre's selection of yummies.

The Funky Hen and Tenterden Makers

Nightingales Honey from Gibbet Oak were there too.

Punters! Enjoying their cakes and teas.

Kevin and Mandy Stewart came along and donated books for the book swap and home made jams and chutneys , and some nice home grown chillies. They also manned the stalls.

Sue Childs brought some home grown apples.

Sis busy selling raffle tickets and Jo Vos the Town Warden in the background poring over the book selection.

Tenterden Makers.

Nicki takes a break.

Kev Stewart - ready for anything.

Laura was an absolute trouper in the kitchen, brewing teas and slicing cake with  aplomb.

Sis taking the raffle money and keeping track of everything and  everyone.

Sandi from Kench Hill brought some nice strawberry plants for the plant swap.

Our display boards standing in the centre of the hall.

Mark's woodcarving stand next to Christopher's electric bike.

Silcocks and Nightingales in the background, Lucy Downer's upcycled fashion accessories in the foreground.

Pretty Goods.

Sue Childs manned the tea station for a while!

Big big thanks to all that helped. It was a fabulous day and we all enjoyed ourselves. It was a gorgeous hot sunny day which was perfect for the Folk Festival. Hope to see better crowds when we do it again next time, probably Easter time but who knows?

On to the next project, which we are calling Lights Out Tenterden. Our aim is to encourage those businesses in the High Street (and elsewhere, too) that leave lights on at night to switch them off, for a night, a week or whatever. We first need to identify exactly whose lights are left on at night and for how long, then canvas those businesses in order to ascertain the reasons why the lights are on. For some it may be an issue of security, but surely not for all. If we can tie-in the Lights Out Week with the same week of the switching on of the Tenterden Christmas Lights (which got switched in recent years from incandescent bulbs to LEDs, causing a significant drop in power bills), that would be fab! Watch this space.